Sunrise EP11 - Blood Mountain

On June 15, we decided to take a break. Ducky drove us to the Blood Mountain. On the way there, he also turned into Horseshoe Bend Road where he, Kevin and Amber used to live. It was like living in the wood with sloping one lane road wrapping around the mountain. Ducky recalled the moment when his car lost control and hit a tree during the icy black road in 2009. That must be an unforgettable moment. 

On the way up the Blood Mountain, Ducky had a chance to use performance mode with his car. I was a bit scared as I normally did not get to ride with performance mode. 😅 My car was so simple and my way of driving kind of matches my car.  I could imagine driving my car to Blood Mountain. I might get to push the accelerator all the way through. 

We parked at Walasi close to Neel Gap. We were about 3,126 feet above the sea level! We got to hike for about a mile.  From time to time, we could feel the cool breeze, very nice, and it was not that hot at all. There were 2 kinds of flowers found along the path; Viburnum Lentago (the nannyberry, sheepberry, or sweet viburnum) and Rhododendron  Cumberlandense (Cumberland Azalea). The bees really enjoyed the Sweet Viburnum. There were also residues of campfires for 3-4 spots. The green leaves of summer formed the dense woods. This seemed to be my first short hike of the year and my first hike with Ducky!  I enjoyed it!  Mua Mua 😍Ducky!

We stopped by the Riverside Tavern at Turners Corner, the local restaurant next to the Turner Campsites there. We ordered a burger and a trout with coleslaw and Brunswick stew. As its name, the restaurant sat next to the Chestatee River. NICE! The food was yummy for hungry tummy. 

After that, we headed back to Home Depot to hunt for Colors for our Sunrise home.  

3,126 feet Bench Mark

A Bee was enjoying Sweet Viburnum

Cumberland Azalea and Sweet Viburnum

Ducky and Sugar Bear

These are the tokens of accomplishment!

Sunrise EP10 - Vanity just Vanity and not Vanity Fair

Every time when I heard the word "Vanity", I kept thinking about "Vanity Fair".  😂  

Well, I used to shop at Kohl's quite a lot and always saw Vanity Fair at lingerie section. I might have bought some of their bras and panties as well.  This time, I needed to shop again but LoL not for lingerie but a VANITY.  A real VANITY and not Vanity Fair. 

Ducky started the search for Vanity through Wayfair. After 1,000+ results, eventually with filters to narrow the search result, it came down to couple hundreds, and later, we both could make the list came down to just about fifty something, and finally, with our "yea" and "nay", then, we got our 5 finalists!  Phew!

Ta Da....

Guess which one we (actually I) picked then.  😊

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/wade-logan-boesch-1969-free-standing-single-bathroom-vanity-with-ceramic-top-w110158520.html?piid=922928548

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/urban-furnishings-20-w-x-1675-d-x-34-h-single-bathroom-vanity-vlhv1073.html?piid=69758707

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/willa-arlo-interiors-cheriton-20-single-bathroom-vanity-with-ceramic-top-w100782001.html?piid=1107021467

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/everly-quinn-reynaldo-20-single-bathroom-vanity-set-w003257570.html?piid=1637012637

Sunrise EP9 - Memorial Day Weekend Orders arrived

My shopping list over Memorial Day weekend was 4 cute and colorful giant Geckos from At Home store. Ducky found them a good home (trees) at our Sunrise house. I need to take pictures of them and paste here. Yuki and the green frog now have more friends!  Soon, Gian Panda and its baby will be moving there too. Oh, the green frog also has a new friend from Thailand. It makes an awesome froggie sound as well. Oh, and I have many more animals to move with me actually.  😁

Well, let's come back to talk about our orders from Memorial Day weekend. Ducky ordered 2 kitchen sinks, kitchen vent, kitchen range, smart toilet, um, anything else? 

By the time he came back on June 10, most of the stuff ordered arrived. But I guess, all the workers and delivery men must have been so tired with Memorial Day weekend orders. We could measure from these:

Kitchen Sink
"They sent the wrong sink and I had to call 2 agents until they understood it was the wrong sink blah blah....  The new order would arrive on June 17.  They gave me 25% discount."
"I got the new sink but they sent me the wrong one again.... Now I got $225 discount and the full price was $363"  (62% discount now!)  "The new sink would arrive by June 26" 
(At this point, I just did not want to think if we would end up getting it for free or not.)

Smart Toilet
"Ron helped me open and he saw it was damaged from shipping."  
(I was happy Ducky went to buy just a Dumb toilet at Home Depot and installed it in no time in the powder room. It gave him a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes, being Dumb is not so bad.)

Kitchen Vent
"F..k y.. "   Well, at this point, I did not have to say anything much.
Um, I did not ask if he returned and replaced the vent or not. All I could guess was he "VENT"ed. 😆

merriam-webster.com
Vent
..an opening for the escape of a gas or liquid or for the relief of pressure
..to give often vigorous or emotional expression to

After all, good or bad, it has been exciting, fun and memorable experiences building our Sunrise home with Duckie!

https://youtu.be/jevGL7i1BVQ?si=XCuCjHthm3H5xupB

Sunrise EP8 - Curtain Fun

And now it is time to learn about curtain!  Well, I have been living in my Marietta house for 21 years and I only know the wooden curtains and some sheer and cloth curtains. So, to learn about Sheer Shade from Ducky was something new for me. 

Sheer Shades - Fabric Window Blinds | SelectBlinds.com

Ducky started to order samples first and we learned that what he ordered were "Filtering Sheer Shades" as when we tested them through the light over the office window, we still could feel lots of light. I then ordered 14 more samples, now with feature calling "Room Darkening Sheer Shades". I mainly focused on colors and ensured to cover size 2", 2 1/2" and 3".  I brought along the samples to Sunrise house and Ducky and I eventually picked the colors we liked. 

BUT, big BUT

BUT when Ducky was trying to order them, after he went to select window size and all other features, it actually did not have the colors we liked for the window size and all that. 

Did we need to take Ordering Sheer Shade Curtain 101 class or what? 😂

Darn...We ended up ordering samples from Home Depot instead. And just today (June 19, 2024), I just got a Shipping confirmation. Can't wait to see samples from HD.

I did not want to give up on SelectBlinds just yet. I just now started to select 3" Room Darkening Sheer Shades, selected the size of both small and big windows and well, they seemed to let me order after trying to pick 2-3 colors. So, again I ordered 14 samples, all with 3" from SelectBlinds.

Hopefully, when Ducky comes back on July 3, the samples from HD and from SelectBlinds would be ready and one of these two companies should work for us. 🙏🙏🙏

Sunrise EP7 - Countertops and Backsplash - Final Pick!

Ducky came back from Tennessee on Monday June 10.  We went to Exotic Stone Imports in Jasper to find more stone selections on June 11. It was so fun to see lots of beautiful stone slabs. They even had some new materials called "Porcelain" that I had not seen the use for countertops before. We listed maybe about 10 of our favorite quartzite colors and 1 of the only blue marble. After that we drove to MC Granite for the estimates of what we liked. Believe it or not, that only blue marble costed the most reasonable price with $65 per sqft while other quartzite colors costed from $85 to $125 per sqft. Courtney Enix is our Sales rep. She was fun to work with and she also asked the worker to pull the blue marble out so we could better see how the color looked like.  

Wow! this only bright blue marble was so stunning as well as its name "Emperor Blue". 

And here is our Final Pick!  Ta Da....

Please scroll down.

scroll down a bit more.

.....

Oops! sorry, the Emperor Blue stone was below. 
P.S. the stone looked much more beautiful and shinier in real than in the picture.

               
                
Natural Stone Countertop Supplier & Importer in Atlanta, GA (exoticstoneimports.com)
Granite Countertops Atlanta- Discount Granite Counters (mcgranitecountertops.com)

Sunrise EP6 - HOA meeting 2024

HOA meeting at Sunrise this year was held on Saturday June 1, 2024 4:00 p.m. at the pavilion over the tennis court. I joined the meeting on behalf of Ducky as he was still working in Nashville, TN. There were about 35-40 people at the meeting. Several were couple.  Burbank, who was in the HOA board started the meeting. He introduced me as a new member from Ducky's house. He mentioned total of 37 houses, if I remember correctly. He summarized the financial report and mentioned the maintenance expenses were higher due to the services and labor cost these days. So, the annual membership fee needed to be raised from $300 to $400. 

The neighbors are nice. As always, I am the only Asian. 😄 And I also noticed that all neighbors are Caucasian.  And during the overture (how to correctly call it?), Burbank asked a neighbor to say the prayers (?) and everyone said Amen. I did not remember Woodbine Station HOA did the same or not. So, I am not living in San Fransisco or LA after all. 😉

Melanie and Burbank (50-60?)

Elaine and Rob (70+) - They planned to go Savannah for 4 days leaving June 5. Rob just had a back surgery not long ago. Elaine told Irene they just went to Casa Nuova Italian Restaurant, and it was so good. Irene said yes, they used to be there too. 

John (70+) - He might be the only guy for 2024 HOA board - He bought his lot in 1991 when it was just a piece of land. He praised his late wife for her right decision.

Irene and Johnny (70+) - This is their vacation home. They bought it around 2001. She has been working as a real estate agent for 40 years and still doing that. They live in Atlanta. Irene recommended a book, The River of Doubt to ladies in Ladies Book Club. 

Jennifer (30-40?) - She is nice. She invited me to have a drink at ?? house after the meeting.

Joanna? (30-40?) - She lives in the blue house across our house. She said she just wrote a big check for the new driveway. She was about to travel for 10 days for her business trip if I heard correctly.

Kelly - HOA Board member

Cal? and ?? - (60-70?) - They used to live in Marietta for 30 years and moved to Sunrise house 10 years ago. I am happy to know someone were also from Marietta at Sunrise house. They love tennis and they used to play ULTA over Marietta and now USTA over Dawsonville. I admire how they stay active and very much in good shape. Oh, Cal might be from Wisconsin. I learned about Cheese Hat Packers from him.  😁 

Bill (50-60?) and his son, Tommy (20+) - Bill told me the meeting would not be long, but the food was so good.

Indeed, the barbeque was so good. I had yummy in my tummy, barbeque, beans, coleslaw (that I also love), banana pudding, and tea.  

Original Cheesehead Hat – Green Bay Stuff
Home - Casa Nuova (casanuovarestaurant.com
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard | Goodreads