Toko is evaluating assorted napping places.
Our lack of activity on the blog this week triggered some sort of emergency warning system today.
In short — “yes, we’re OK.” Especially if a week of cleaning, schlepping, packing, unpacking and desperately trying to stay awake past 7:00pm counts as your definition of “OK.”
Here’s the low down :
* Flying Point Road closed without a hitch. Dash Landing has been an amazing ride, but leaving Flying Point Road wasn’t without its share of sadness. Great house in an even greater neighborhood. We’re convinced that the new owners will fit right in.
* Our punch list is down to just a couple of items. One of the benefits of great crews is that they all want to make sure things are left “right.” It’s been like Grand Central Station here on most days with the various trades coming and going.
Driveway crew.
* We’ve decided to replace the bi-fold doors in front of the laundry area with another barn slider. Like a lot of us, washers & dryers have grown a bit “chubbier” over the years — especially with the invention of front-loading washers. We were “OK” with the doors just barely closing, but when we went to do our first load of laundry, we realized that we couldn’t open the detergent drawer in the washer — it was jammed right up next to the door. John took measurements today and we’ll install new barn doors in the next couple of weeks.
* The driveway is now paved. Definitely not on our “to do” list for this year, but it was increasingly apparent that the driveway wasn’t going to have a good winter. And given the hill, we decided to bite the bullet — just one more time — and move up the schedule. 2″ compacted base coat now and a 1″ finish coat next summer.
* We’ve been contacted by Comcast about this week’s blog post. Apparently, those new cable boxes are reserved for new and high value customers. The good news is that the Comcast folks who confirmed that we’re older and less valuable than expected were much nicer about it…
But even with all that activity, we wake up every morning amazed by this new place. Not only does Dash Landing exceed our hopes, but — even after eighteen months of visits — the site is far more spectacular than we ever imagined. The beauty of the sun rising over one end of the field in the morning is rivaled only by its setting on the other side.
A House In A Field 
You two seem to be lovers of nature and the beauty it creates. So I’m curious as to why you would choose to develop a piece of once undisturbed land that was home an abundance of wildlife, including many of the trees you chopped down. Brave to the house, for it looks utterly fabulous, but was it really necessary to dig up such a natural treasure?
Fair question. For what it’s worth, we were bidding for the property against a developer who planned to break the field into a number of 2 1/2 acre lots. Our scenario might not be “perfect,” but we believe it’s better than the alternative of multiple homes across the property.
As to trees — I’d estimate that at least half, maybe three-quarters of those removed for the driveway were already dead. Not sure if it was bark beetles or blister rust or something else. In fact, the only reason we didn’t take out more is that we ran out of money. More will need to come down before the rest of the pines get infected.