Welcome to my life...Homepage of Kim DeSantis

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Hello cyberspace friends....welcome to my home page!   I'm so glad you decided to browse my site.  You can find out what I've been doing, both professionally and personally, as you surf my site.

What's available in my site?

My professional background

My resume

My personal interests

My log home

My friends

My German Shepherds

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"My professional background"

I was born and raised in Butler, Pennsylvania.  Butler is a small community approximately 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.  After graduating from Butler Sr. High School, I had big hopes and dreams of making it in the Big Apple.  So, I packed up "stuff" and moved to New York!  I attended Pace University in Westchester County, where I graduated with a BS in Computer Science.

After graduation, I obtained a computer programmer position.  I advanced to a senior programmer/analyst, developing applications in IBM mainframe environments.  I remained a New York resident for 8 years, and then decided it was time to return home to Butler.  My career in the IT industry has been very rewarding.  I am currently a software consultant specializing in SAP ALE & EDI technologies.  Take a look at my resume.

My consulting career has brought me various opportunites to travel all around the globe...including Australia!  But, with the popularity of web applications I am very passionate about persuing a career redirection in the application development area.  I have been working on web development skills such as HTML, Java and C++.  This web presentation is my first Internet application development experience!  How am I doing?

When I'm not working on an SAP implementation or sharpening my web application development skills, you can find me working on my log home building project with my boyfriend Joe , or playing with my dogs, Levi & Nikita, or hanging with my friends!  Building a house takes up so much time, especially when you're acting as your own general contractor.  Since I've started this project I've put aside traveling, sporting events, concerts, boating, skiing, rollerblading....well, actually, most of my activities were brought to an abrupt halt when I had my BIG skiing accident January 2, 1998!  Yep, broke my lower left leg in 5 places and torn my ACL.  After 3 surgeries, I'm recovering quite well.  Haven't gone skiing since then, but there's always next year!

My home building dream became a reality back in March, 1998.  At that time I purchased 8.36 acres of wooded land ..... the perfect spot for a log home!  Joe worked so hard preparing the land during the summer of '98 and the '98/'99 winter.  He put in a 650' driveway, cleared the trees where the house sits, installed a septic system and dug out the foundation.  In April, 1999, the foundation was started.  It took all summer to complete due to the stone masonry work.  Each stone on the foundation was hand chiseled and set on the block foundation!  We're talkin' major money eater for the masonry labor!

The log structure arrived at the building site on August 30, 1999.  It took all of 3 days to re-erect the structure.  I say re-erect because the Maple Island Log Homes crew that built the home by hand erected it at the Michigan log yard.  The logs arrived in three truckloads, one per day!  When each truck was empty the work day was done!  Since the beginning of September the roof has gone on the house, the chimney has been built, the windows and doors have been installed and the interior framed walls have been put in place.  Currently, we are working on plumbing, heating and electrical rough ins!

Click on the log home to view the construction photo show.