For lunch, several in the group descended to Mürren to eat at the Hotel Alpenruh Restaurant. The food was excellent. I had a small bowl of lentil soup with goat cheese for 12 American dollars. The food in Switzerland is expensive; on the mountain, it is even more expensive. One person in the group ordered more food than she could eat and shared her hearty traditionally Swiss meal with those of us who had only ordered soup.

This restaurant does not take credit cards; if you go, bring Swiss Francs with you.

The purpose of my trip to Switzerland was to visit many hotels and ski areas in Grindelwald, Wengen, and Interlaken to propose to Austin Skiers a ski trip for the 2012-2013 ski season. Holidaze sponsored the familiarity (FAM) trip.

The third week we had the house under contract, the builder asked that I pick out a stain color. I have strong opinions about stain colors. I do not like orange or red undertone stains. I like a yellow undertone medium brown.

I went to Sherwin-Williams and looked at color samples. An extremely nice young man offered to take the fence post out of my car and apply the stain for me. I was expecting to apply the stain myself, but he insisted. He applied two coats of each stain, rubbing off the excess stain with a rag between coats. After he applied the stain and it dried, he put the fence post back in my car.

I love the Hawthorne stain. In other remodels, the builder used a darker brown stain. Yet, the builder loves the medium brown that I selected.

During my time in Switzerland, I saw many majestic mountains. On top of the Schilthorn, I was cold. The view was spectacular and peaceful. I have learned that starring at beautiful scenery is calming.

I appreciate the escape from the hustle and bustle of the 21st century. I know this is why I like to find remote areas at ski resorts to ski. Alan and I find ski runs where we are the only people: nature surrounds us. I imagine skiing in Switzerland would have a lot of that type of skiing. There is so much to ski.

The purpose of my trip to Switzerland was to visit many hotels and ski areas in Grindelwald, Wengen, and Interlaken to propose to Austin Skiers a ski trip for the 2012-2013 ski season. Holidaze sponsored the familiarity (FAM) trip.

One day during the 3rd week under contract, when I showed up at the house, I saw a tall pole in the front yard and I was concerned. I asked the builder what it was for. He said it was temporary electrical until permanent electrical got approved. The house did not pass the city electrical inspection the first time because the underground cable from our house to the builder’s house was in a shallow trench. Subsequently, the builder had an 18 inch trench dug and after the cable was added, he had it filled with cement.

Another concern I had during the building process was the front planter. We had just had our suburbia house inspected and the inspector did not like that we had constructed flower beds close to the house; he said they are a termite risk. This remodel has an additional issue: the front planter is higher than the floor inside the house. Thus, we asked the builder what he was going to do to mitigate the risk that water would get inside the house.

The builder did several things: (1) He used a water repellent material under the siding and where the outside wall meets the planter and (2) He lined the inside of the planter with mortar.

We have not put anything in the front planter yet. Our inspector suggested drought tolerant plants which do not need much water.

In 1969 George Lazenby played James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; it was his only appearance as James Bond. Scenes from the film were shot at The Schilthorn. The original restaurant was deliberately blown up during movie shooting and the explosion is captured in the film. The new restaurant was constructed shortly thereafter.

Our group saw a short film that showed scenes from the original movie. I enjoyed the high speed skiing scenes the best.

The purpose of my trip to Switzerland was to visit many hotels and ski areas in Grindelwald, Wengen, and Interlaken to propose to Austin Skiers a ski trip for the 2012-2013 ski season. Holidaze sponsored the familiarity (FAM) trip.

Painting, my favorite part. I did most of the painting in our suburbia house. I painted and repainted with Alan’s help. Eventually, we hired painters. After we hired painters, we stopped changing the wall colors. Instead, I picked colors I knew I could live with for a while.

The Sherwin-Williams Crushed Ice wall color and Sherwin-Williams Snowbound Trim color are colors I will not feel the need to change. They are neutral colors and soothing.

As soon as I saw the taping, I wanted to see the finished look.

The fourth and final cable car. We made it to Schilthorn. When there is more snow, people can ski from the top.

The purpose of my trip to Switzerland was to visit many hotels and ski areas in Grindelwald, Wengen, and Interlaken to propose to Austin Skiers a ski trip for the 2012-2013 ski season. Holidaze sponsored the familiarity (FAM) trip.

The laundry room is really a small closet, but I still call it a laundry room more often than not. I am happy that it is a small space for a stackable washer and dryer. At our suburbia house, I felt like space was wasted with a larger laundry room. Laundry is a quick, no fuss duty in our house. The small laundry closet is perfect.

The builder put tile and a drain in the laundry room in case there is a leak in the washer. The baseboards are MDF. The drain drains underneath the house. When our inspector came over he would have preferred that the builder create (1) a tile baseboard and (2) hook up a plumbing pipe to drain outside the foundation.

We did not ask the builder to change the baseboard from MDF to tile. However, we did ask the builder to have a plumbing pipe hooked up to drain outside the foundation.

Now it started looking like a James Bond movie. I thought about skiing and how fun it would be to ski this area. I felt calm. The cable car did not sway. I realized I am not afraid of heights when I am inside a container high in the sky. I do not like being on the edge of a ski lift chair, however.

The purpose of my trip to Switzerland was to visit many hotels and ski areas in Grindelwald, Wengen, and Interlaken to propose to Austin Skiers a ski trip for the 2012-2013 ski season. Holidaze sponsored the familiarity (FAM) trip.

The builder asked Alan to buy the dog doors so that his carpenter could install them. How wonderful is that? We had expected that we would need to have them installed after we closed on the house. This helped us out tremendously.

The builder has a dog himself. I imagine that if the deal fell through and he decided to live in the house, he would be able to move right in. Thank goodness the builder is a dog person.

The dog doors fit dogs 50 pounds or less. Joey was 49 pounds when we moved into the house. He has gained a little weight, but he can still fit through the door. Overall, his height is more of an issue than his width. He is fur more than gut. Phoebe is around 44 pounds and her legs are shorter. She has more ease fitting through the dog doors. The doors are perfect for her.