finally...pictures

OK now I have had a second harassing this time for actual pictures so these are from earlier this week:

This is what the basement looks like now--kitchen:

school room: and dining room:

They aren't pretty but much warmer.

Now for more pretty things. This my favorite view of the house--across the pond.

Real Grass. We have a little.

This is the reddest tree that still has any leaves
The Mast Bath. Todd and I spent way too many hours working on this. I was up past midnight at least 4 nights this week. Now it is done. When the picture was taken I still had a few tile to put in and grout.
The kitchen with all the cabinet set. Does that satisfy for a bit?

Almost an update

I have been harassed by the blog police (my dad) to get this updated but have been too busy with tile to do much else.

We have about 3 weeks to go. This week we have been told we will have indoor plumbing. To get that we have some work to do--complete the tile shower and tub surround in the master bath and set the kids bath vanity. SO I have been up past midnight 3 days in a row to get the tile in. I was planning to grout tonight but as I was cleaning up 2 tiles fell off the wall and had to be reset. So I will grout tomorrow. In the process I missed my 20 year high school reunion. I knew wouldn't be able to go, but frustrating tiling made it more disappointing. I am hoping there will be lots of pictures and accounts of the party from my facebook connections.

We are getting tired of living in a barn and a basement, but are excited about how things look. I will try to get pics posted soon.

10/01

Yesterday was like Christmas...my bathtub came, the cabinets came and the hard wood floors were completed.

My dad came back to help--what a glutton for punishment. Actually he has been amazingly helpful and we appreciate it more than we can express, especially at his birthday and Father's Day. The children were disappointed when he had to leave. I am sure he will be back before he realizes or really wants to because he misses us so much--hahahahahaha. He does have a homework assignment, but the deadline he was given wasn't until Christmas

Anyhow he and Todd spent Saturday through Tuesday laying the hardwood floor in the house. the best way to see the magnitude for the project would be a picture of the family room, but before I got that taken the kitchen and bathroom cabinets were delivered and took over. So you can't see the floor as well.

Dad measured...only 2.5 square feet of wood flooring left.

So the hardwood is laid and will be finished last so it doesn't get messed up. The tile inside the garage door is laid and will be sealed and grouted later. Ryan also got the granite for the hearth laid and the granite around the fireplace done today. We have all of the first floor painted with a first coat. Touch ups will be needed along with the topcoat that will be a faux finish in the hall and bathrooms.

Living room colors. I will top coat the dark brown with a lighter brown glaze.

T is standing in the shower. You can kind of see the light green walls behind and to the left. Our bed room is a darker shade of the same color.

J started painting her room, but got over zealous and has a bit of touching up to do along with a second coat. The hall upstairs also is ready for its topcoat. I have the other bedrooms marked and ready to paint this weekend before carpet next week.

9-26 update

This is actually a few days old, but new to the blog. I can't keep up with what is going on on the inside of the house--I hope to have pictures tomorrow after laundry.

A new lawn, maybe someday

The children and I started to get rid of roots in the yard to plant grass. We started with the flower bed under my bedroom window. we cleared it then planted over 100 daffodil and hyacinth bulbs. It didn't change the appearance much but it will be beautiful in the spring. Everyone helped, J found that she doesn't have a passion for growing things. She was helpful though in helping the littles get their bulbs right side up. Then we planted the herbs I brought from the other house. They haven't thrived this summer, but didn't die either. I hope they like their new home. I hope to add to my collection and line the walk with pretty smells.


The roots from the front bed.

Herbs from door to drive: lavender (I have 2 kinds but don't remember which is which), sage, lemon balm, and oregano (the last 2 are in pots as containment measures so they don't take over.)

We were also able to clear the front, garage and family room yards to plant grass. Then my back really hurt. I wish fun things didn't cause my back to hurt. Any how we still need to cover the seed with straw and pray for rain.

Swimming

Then the children had the last swim. They got warm working, but the swim didn't last long as the water is already pretty cold. They did get the little ladder out of the water--it has been floating around for a month.

Fall colors

Things are getting colorful in the house and out....

Early October is usually the peek of color, but we have a good start now.

9-20 Update

Last week we got the driveway and the top soil distributed. This week we got a garage door, the siding completed (Todd put the last piece on Friday night), gutters, outlets and temporary lights, attic insulation, the last exterior door and the furnace hooked up to the well and the electricity. I didn't get a ton done but the progress on the house was great.

New stone-crete drive, we have still had a couple people get stuck, but not to the point of needed pushed or pulled out This is where Todd has spent his evenings this week. The three older girls and I have helped when we could. Todd just came in to tell me that the ceilings in the main floor have real ceiling paint on them. We need one more gallon of primer for upstairs, then the color starts! Yeah! This is the lane back to the barn. The stone-crete isn't as deep, but makes the path drivable. It winds around the septic field and ends outside the barn.
We still have retaining walls to build, but painting takes priority so other things can get done.
Another bonus, this afternoon Fred (an old neighbor and fishing buddy) dropped off a Kerosene heater for us to barrow so crawling out from under the covers when it is 55 degrees in the barn won't be so painful.

warm fuzzy

I was hoping to have pictures up, but....

It has been slow going for me since I spent a long weekend watching it rain and dealing with little ones. T hasn't been sleeping well, it rained 4 inches while Todd was Salmon fishing on the other side of the state, and my back has been sore. We spent the weekend watching TV in the basement of the house. I did get my appliances picked out. We were all covered with drywall dust. If you have experience with this dust you know how it gets into everything. M's hair felt like it had glue in it because of the dust. Anyhow, we stayed mostly dry and ate out to warm up.

We were cleared to start painting Friday--but since Todd was away it started Monday night. Now that is our evening entertainment: paint between wondering what the younger children are up to. The first couple of nights they watched DVDs, but I told them no more movies until the basement was clean--it may be a while until we watch TV again.

Today we spent running errands. It always is exhausting to me. We did accomplish quite a bit: bought paint for all of the downstairs (6 colors that had to be custom mixed, plus some glaze for texture, ceiling paint and more primer=21 gallons and 1 quart) and brushes; made final carpet decisions; picked up a tile sample; and bought $150 in groceries.

So after this exhausting day and dinner and washing all the pots and pans because of mouse infestation in the camper and cutting in corners for Todd as he painted, supervising J as she learned to cut in corners and use a roller. As this was going on G had the littles quite entertained. I heard something about cookies and cream. I should have worried. First I thought they had gotten into the ice cream we bought today. No not so easy--Gabbi found an almost empty tub of drywall mud added water and dirt and "It looks just like cookies and cream ice cream!" It was all over T and M.

While we were at G's first riding lesson with a new teacher and horse the electric guys put in some lights in the basement and answered some questions.

So onto the warm fuzzy. I was getting things ready for bed and walked by the drive from the camper to the house and all the main level and basement windows had warm yellow light glowing from them. It looked like the house was coming alive, becoming a home!

9/9 progress

My dad wanted an update--rather he wanted to harass me about my lack of updates-- so here is where we are today.

The end is in sight and getting closer and closer. It is exciting but also means more and more work for us to do. I am going to get to do more soon than talk to the workers and be a mommy (as if that weren't enough to wear me out). We will do all the painting and master bath tiling. Todd is going to be helping put in the wood flooring also. That will be a big job. The children particularly J are making plans for their rooms and I am consulting my friends who have a knack for decor to make color choices soon.

The siding is done except for one piece above the garage door. Todd was short that one piece, so it will be finished when he gets that one piece.

This is the septic field. You can see the tanks in the bottom left of the picture below. They base tank and field size by number of bedrooms. I guess 5 bedrooms requires a big one--we have 2 tanks to total 2250 Gallons and 600 linear feet of drain tile. I have thought about how to use the space that can't be use for much, (this was the site I had originally planned for my big vegetable garden), I hope I can get a wildflower meadow to grow here.
Tomorrow the electricity is going to be hooked up to the house and then before the weekend the excavators will do the drive way (so you don't have to be afraid of getting stuck in the sand when you come to visit) and the final grading of the topsoil (or more accurately sand). So here are some before pictures.

The pond level continues to rise slowly. I don't think there will be anymore swimming this fall though.
I will not be sorry to see these dirt piles go. Then I will get a better vision for my landscaping and gardening.

I hope to get some rye planted soon to help the soil. Then in the spring we can see what kind of lawn or lawn alternative we can get to grow. I also have one flower bed already scoped out. The one under the master bed and bath windows. My mom has some lily of the Valley she is going to thin and share. If you have any thinnings I would love whatever you can spare.

Last week and this week the only thing that has been going on is drywall. They hung it all in about two days. They said that they will put on 3 coats of mud then sand and be finished by the end of the week. The children enjoy watching the guys walk on stilts--if we are lucky we can catch them singing along with the blaring radio and dancing on the stilts also.

walking into the house from the garage

view toward the back of the house from the front door

family room from the front door

From the front of the family room into the kitchen
looking out the front window. There will eventually be book shelves around the window with a window seat in front of the window. We hope to use wood from a couple of the trees we had to cut down to make these--or have dad help make these
View from dining room doors into kitchen

Our Builder had salvaged this mantle from a remodel he did. He let us have it the price couldn't have been better. It is about 82 inches wide and up to my collar bone, BIG. The tile in the picture is some granite I found on clearance that we will use for the hearth and around the opening of the fireplace.