In the Field: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

But I will say this, it was odd the first time I walked in there, after the builders were gone and mom and dad had broken it in just a little bit. Coming from an 1,100-square-foot apartment that I've lived in for the last five years into the house, I just walked in and said, 'Wow -- I need a lot more furniture than I thought.' You know, the house is not complete until the furniture is all in it.

We had gone to the High Point Market and got a bunch of cool stuff, but walking in there I had to say it still needs a lot more furniture. That was the first thing I thought of, like, 'Holy cow, what next?'

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I noticed that all of the artwork and decorations that we picked out -- that had me shaking my head a bit as I was doing it -- look great in the house. I can now understand how some of those interior designers make the money that they do, because they can picture things a whole lot better than I can. I was looking at some of that stuff and wrinkling up and saying, 'I'm not sure ...' And now I see it in the house and I'm like, 'Wow! OK -- that's what that's supposed to look like.'

And my electronics guy -- a buddy of mine, Jay -- did a great job, because I'm really into music and I've got to have a lot of speakers and surround sound and all that. I have the most up-to-date sound system available, along with several plasma TVs. Jay even figured out a cool way for us to watch TV from the pool!

In every house I've had, or every car I've owned, I've had to do something with the speakers -- because I've been racing for so long, I probably can't hear the best in the world. So I've got to have everything pumped up a little bit -- so that was the first thing I checked out when I got in there. I tried different radio channels and adjusted all the TV stuff to get it working, got it all pumped up and jamming out and it was awesome.

So with all that in place, and all that we still have to do, I'm thinking, 'Finally, my dream house that I've been thinking about my whole life and that I just spent the last two years working on ...' After all the planning and fixing and picking out and changing and all the hard work -- it's finally almost done. I can't wait to spend a lot more time there and get it to where it's not just a house anymore -- it's home.

And that brings up the juggling match that I've always got going on. The dogs aren't going to be relocating. They stay full time in Virginia, no matter what. They've got a beautiful house there already, kennel and all, and that's where they hang out at.

I don't really see that much changing about where I am. In the summertime, I'm mostly in the Charlotte area, and in the winter, I'm mostly in Virginia.

During the racing season I try to stay in the Charlotte area so I can spend time at the shop, and to be around that area. In the wintertime, I like to spend a lot more time with my family and friends and to go deer hunting and stuff like that. So the way it breaks out is about eight months in the Charlotte area and four months a year up in Virginia.

A housewarming, you say? It's way too nice to have parties at, or anything like that, right now. I do want to get all my friends and have them over for a get-together one night, but I told them it would be about a month or so. Let me work out the bugs and make sure that everything's working -- cook on the grill a few times so I can learn about it and things like that -- and then we'll go from there.

But I'm definitely going to have a housewarming gathering there one night, and we'll see how it works out.

Elliott Sadler, now in his ninth full season in the Cup Series, shares weekly with NASCAR.COM readers life on the road through staff writer Dave Rodman.