All About the kids V

“I see your lips moving but I don't hear anything.

Seriously, I need to start checking on this. The only issue I see is the Smokies thing we've talked about 2 weeks prior. I think I'd have to choose the kids trip over that one.

I'll wait until after our house goes on the market to start the in home negotiations for this one.”

“Same boat here John. I am choosing this one.”

“I think I'd have to choose the kids trip over that one.

Ditto.”

“I may get to take the kids to the Smokies in late June. My wife's ladies beach trip is then and I'm keeping the 3 kiddos. If I can find a way for childcare for Addie then I could take the 2 big kids hiking in the Smokies. My issue though, is that my brother in law is getting married the following weekend so my mother in law is out. My sis and sister in law will be at the beach on the ladies trip so they're out, and my mom is probably not physically able to take care of a baby. She's not in the best of health. That leaves the trip as probably another one of my pipe dreams.

Speaking of pipe dreams, a buddy of mine from HS is moving from Portland to Anchorage this weekend. He'll be there 5 years. Non stop out of ATL is $550. I see a Denali trip for summer 08 or 09 in my future.”

“Hey Sass or Birch,

Do you guys need a head count of the family members attending? If yes, we will be 3, maybe 4 if we bring our neice. She would love this.”

“I don't think so. Closer to the time we'll count up kids just so I can get enough glowsticks.


Birch and Abby and I were talking last night and have decided it's going to be a good time to try cowboy camping on the beach, at least one night. I hope the clouds cooperate so we can watch the meteors!!”

“I caved and brought this up at lunch. We didn't dig into details, just maybes. We'll see. The big thing is finding out when school starts. That's awfully close to school and also our 13th anniv is a the previous weekend. I don't think that'll come into play though.”

“It's $195 out of BHM and $217 out of ATL.”

“Dayhiker, this trip is close to both Laurel's 5th birthday (the 27th) and out 10th anniversary (the 16th.) We firgure we'd bring the stuff to make one of HPM's dutch oven dump cakes and maybe something for us (the big people) too.”

“I think the start of Emma's kindergarten is going to be my biggest issue....well that, and if I haven't blown my budget. Were yall able to stay on budget with your house? Some of these different products are tempting. I just about screwed the whole thing up on the front door. I finally decided it was stupid for the splurge item to be purchased before a single stick of lumber had a nail in it.”

“Same here, for Laurel's start of kindergarten too. WE went a little over, but not too bad. Just get the correct dimensions for the door you really, really want so you can go back and get it at a later date if possible.”

“I can just see so many things down the road we want to tweak. It'll mainly be finish issues. Suprisingly (not) I have a bit more stringent view of how concrete and structural items should be built.”

“My bro-in-law is building a new house now as well. Price started in the low 300's. With modifications, add-ons, the price is well over 400 now.

The fridge and stove are viking products (fridge alone costs $6500)

EDIT: take that back, add about 1000 to that...
http://www.us-appliance.com/vcvi48wisire.html
last edited: 5/17/07 2:32:51 PM”

“Hole cow, that's a pricey fridge. For that price it better mix your drinks for you.”

“We have a 3k allowance for all appliances. I'm sure we'll go a bit over, but not too much I hope. Actually, our allowance is now moot. I took it out of the contract. I'm buying at a Lowe's or Home Depot so that I can put it on my card and no % for 6 months. Why put a dishwasher in your mortgage and pay for it for 30 years when it'll last 5-6 years tops?”

“I'll be more in this range, tops: http://www.us-appliance.com/lslg26cusire3.html”

“Right! The stove is even more. Nice things, if you plan on using them. The area is in an exclusive area that used to be a 36 hole golf course and banquet center. The owner was tired of running the place so he sold the land for a truck load of money.

The lot they paid for cost more that we paid for our house.

I am all about having a nice place to live, but I want nothing to do with the kind of mortage they will have. They are actually saving money on a month to month basis because they are moving in from Illinois. The taxes they pay per year is enough to give you a heart attack!”

“The fancy kitchens are the thing for sure, but we're spending ours on frivilous things like, flashing behind the brick, and hold down clips on the rafters, and lintels that won't sag so much that they crack the brick, and floors that won't bounce......

That said, there will be some granite countertops but we're not popping for the high end colors. We're doing lots of hardwoods. I've micromanaged the window and door selection to the point there's not another penny to squeeze, but it's all the low E/Argon fill glass. The one exception is the pretty window over the tub in the bath. I had to give in on that. My mortaged amount goes up by 2.5x but the interest rate means my payment only bumps about $800/month. We've been in the current house 9 years so that amount of payment bump is pretty much a cost of living increase from what we were first paying. My big savings was staying the heck away from the lake. You can forget paying under $125k for a water lot here. I paid $40 for a wooded lot with private back yard. When we get through you'll barely be able to see the neighbor on either side from the back yard and only woods to the rear.”

“Seeing the trouble they have been going through, I will never build a home.

We will be buying her parents home in about 4 years. He pumped about 80K worth of work into it over the past 5 years. New everything!


I may make a few improvements after we move in. The kitchen is nice, however I can tear out a wall and double the size of it. We would give up a formal dinning room, but it is hardly ever used now.

Trying to get my home paid off before then. Bought it for $115 9 years ago - 15 year morgage. I have been making larger payments for the past 2 years. House is now worth 170.”

“Nice thread hijack.”

“I was think that too.

Sorry, how about...
Can you buy wood for campfires nearby or do you have to burn what you find there?

Coolers?”

“Yep, sorry about that.

Nice on the almost 0 mortgage, btw.”

“I imagine burning coolers would be frowned upon.”

“Now burning a cooler full of sterno might be interesting.”

“There is plenty of firewood on site, it'd be a bear to haul it in 1.5 miles. I have dragged my winter gear sled in the last two years but its a really hard, I wont do it this year. I hauled gear and a huge cooler full of ice, food and beer. Its doable for sure, I have a sled to lone to any traveler who wants it.

BTW VERY cool that so many new folks are making it up this year, gonna be a blast. I just hope we have hot weather and warm water.”

“What's considered warm water in Lake Michigan?

Us southern wimps call anything under 80° cold. The Smokies is downright shrink-a-riffic.”

“Warm lake temps always depend on hot the summer gets. I wanna say 70 is about the warmest I have ever seen it.”

“Didn't Jim find a short cut in to the site last year? I want to say I remember him saying something about this.”

“A friend from HS lives in Portland. He met and married a lady out there that was originally from Wisconsin. She's spent her whole life really far north. Summer before last they came down for the 4th and his uncle lives on a lake about an hour north of Birmingham. He said it was the first time she'd ever been in a warm lake. The water was probably 85°. It's about a 20,000acre lake that averages maybe 100' deep. No lake Michigan, but still deep enough to take a while to warm up.

I can see Reece's little blue lips in 70° water.

I really, really, hope this comes together for me. RRG was the furthest I've ever traveled for a TT trip.”

“Yep, there is a short cut WK. I'll show ya.

DH, you gotta make it man, its sooooo worth it. The kids wont care about the water they'll be too busy swimming to notice.
last edited: 5/17/07 6:00:47 PM”

“*addendum

The short cut has far less flat ground making a pull harder (I did it once, ugh)”

“I definetely want to go. If I make a decision by the end of June then I should be still early enough to order tickets. At that point the brick, sheetrock, and roof are in place and most of the big decisions have been made and materials ordered. I'll know by then if I'll be broke in August or not.”

“WK, one year we had the warmest water one day, sooooo good. Then pow, overnight the lake "flipped" and all the cold bottom water ended up on top...totally icewater. The air temps were still in the mid 80's though. It was crazy. Some scuba diver explained it all to us. Still not sure if he was telling the truth.

Dayhiker, if you can't manage it this year there's always next year. Lake Michigan isn't going anywhere and the dunes just keep getting bigger. =)”

“The dunes are yet another reason to try for it. We're not getting a beach trip this year.”

“Crap, just checked the school calendar. Last year the first day of school was on a Thur, 8/8. This year, that Thur is 8/9. I'll watch the website to see when school starts this year, but I think that answers the question.”

“"I have dragged my winter gear sled in the last two years but its a really hard. -Birch"


Maybe if you told all Sass to get off of it while you were pulling it might have been easier. ;)”

“Sass, bodies of water like lakes and ponds do flip like that. It's a good thing for the lake, but can lead to fish killoffs and weird water chemistry too. Not to mention freezing cold swims.”

“and shrinkage...”

“Maybe if you told all Sass to get off of it while you were pulling it might have been easier. ;)”
Ruby
8:41:13 AM

Or maybe if he left the thirty pack of beer and the pudding cups at home he wouldn't NEED to pull a cooler. ;) You missed the great cooler spill of 2006, Ruby. It was excellent, the whole thing rolled down a hill. Thank goodness for bungie cords or the pudding cups may have been lost! I believe an f-bomb escaped, but only our kid was around and C!B!. It was classic.”

“We will be coming up on Saturday. I cannot get off on Friday.

I will re-supply the beverages for Saturday evening.”

“I cannot get off on Friday.

Wounded Knee
2:47:50 PM
5/18/07

Is she limiting you to once a week?”

“he he he he”

“Hello all ~

Sunshine told me all about this crazy group that actually likes to vacation WITH their kids... what's even crazier is that I can't wait to join 'em! We can't quite commit just yet, but me and my three are hoping to make this one our first of many weekend hiking trips to come. We'll let you know as soon as it's a sure thing.”

“Very cool twilight! The more the merrier.”

“You're right about this crazy group! lol But my niece and nephew are already asking when are we going again. Welcome.”

“Hi Twilight, welcome! Hope you and your family can make it.”

“Welcome, it's us Hoosiers you need to worry about.”

“I wish the Mid-Atlantic had something like this... (I wouldn't rule out driving to Michigan with Laurel but I think her mom would, especially just getting back from Minnesota the middle of the week before :< )”

“it's us Hoosiers you need to worry about.”

That's soo true! lol”

“Naw, you guys are just fine. =)”