Building of a House - April 1, 2003

Kathy and Tim will soon be moving into a new house which is now being built. The final stages of construction are under way giving them cause to be on pins and needles awaiting word on their exact move in date. The house is in a new development another ten minutes south of where they are living now.

The house is two stories with a great room i.e., a kitchen, dining and family room all open on to each other. There are three bedrooms, one of which they opted to change one into an office. The living room, a separate area near the front of the house,will most likely be used as both a formal living room and as an office for client meetings.

Kathy and Tim have had fun picking out carpeting, kitchen and bathroom cabinet colors and styles. They have made choices on granite counters and hardwood floors. They had wiring decisions to make, adding more switches and overhead lights than what was in the base package.

Right now they are tenants in the townhouse Kathy bought five years ago. In February, Kathy put the townhouse on the market and within days got two simultaneous offers. She decided to take the offer with the shortest escrow period. Right away, she negotiated a rent back until their new house is ready. Escrow was supposed to close the end of February and when it didn't, there was nail biting. Thoughts of how awful it would be to put the townhouse back on the market surfaced. Fortunately, after some ups and downs with the buyer's loan package, the sale closed in March, the day the war with Iraq began.

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Wedding Plans - April 1, 2003

After becoming engaged last fall, this summer, in August, Kathy and Tim will be wed at a Napa Valley winery. After looking at a good fifty wedding sites, they were convinced their perfect place of marriage was to be a winery.

Once the site was selected, there were numerous vendors to line up like a photographer, DJ, officiant and caterer. In early March when Kathy came up she secured a florist, the cake maker and a coordinator.

Also, she found her wedding dress plus dresses for her four bridesmaids.

Now there all the details to think about like colors and types of flowers, who gets them, where do they need to be placed? Should there be flowers in the rest rooms? What kind of corsages and boutonnières for the parents and the grandparents? Or, what type of cake frosting, filling and how many servings? Where should the table for the place cards be set up? Should there be a guest book? How many votives to set out?

This is only a tip of the iceberg. I know Kathy's head is swimming with even more details. This is an exciting event and she is determined to make it a memorable one, not just for her and Tim but also for her family and friends.

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In Memory of Chelsea - April 1, 2003

Early January, we lost Chelsea to a fatal heart disease, DCM or Dilated Cardiomyopathy. It was very sudden. Early in December, when she was diagnosed, we were told she had two months to live. She lasted five weeks. We learned this disease affects one out of ten dogs. Dobermans are on the top of the list for getting it.

The loss for us was immense. Before this happened, we would never have dreamed we could be so emotional about a dog. Chelsea was different. In her almost eleven years with us she had so much personality, so much energy and was so intelligent. She had a vocabulary of over 100 words she knew.

She meant so much to us that, who would have ever thought, we had a special grave marker made for her. We found a place up in Yountville, Domain Home and Garden at Vintage 1870, that does laser engraving on rocks. Along with her full name, Chelsea Sha Sahdon, her birth date and date of death, we had the following engraved: "Running circles around angels."

Robert is going to make a concrete pedestal to mount the rock and place on her grave. I am going to plant Iris flowers around it.

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A Warm Environment - April 1, 2003

Chris has been at Warm Floors for over a year now. He must be happy. He hasn't talked about looking for another job in quite awhile. It helps he has become a real asset to the company and has been able to negotiate a really good deal with management. Next time you see him, be sure to ask him about it.

He continues to wow everyone with his ability to keep all the computers running smoothly and writing programs for sales staff and installers to make their jobs easier.

So does so well and works so fast, he always has extra time. This has given him the opportunity to become more involved with the execution of pipe plans for clients where, again, he has written special programs to mathematically and quickly calculate pipe runs for the warm floor systems installed in client's homes.

To find out a little more about his company, click here to read an article about Warm Floors.

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