A winter wonderland greeted me as I peeked in on the work at the new home. Today the workers had applied a top finish to the basement's stained concrete floor ... next step is a nice polishing ... looking good! We have part of the siding up ... the entire back side is done ... now they're working around to the front.

Photos top to bottom: Front with partial siding up ... taken a few days ago; dining room, new garage doors; evening time; neighbor's cabin (across the street from me).

This past week all of the drywall was installed and the litter strewn floors were cleaned. No more peeking through the wall studs :) Both garage doors were also installed. Dh's "barn"(garage) is nearly complete! Next week work begins on the outside with the installation of our siding; ceiling insullation is to be "blown" in the attic; carpet and other flooring materials are to be measured; rock for the hearth ordered; tile for the masterbath shower and kitchen backsplash ordered; drywall to be taped ... bullnose corners installed ... and skip troweling the texture on the wall and ceiling surface; and the interior doors and hardware need to be ordered. It will be a busy week to say the least.

Photos (top to bottom) Bonus room (guest/office) above garage; storage area (with tub) in basement; sunny day; basement family room showing fireplace; Ann's bedroom bay window with newly installed cedar shingles.

Yesterday, DH and I popped on over to the new home. It was an exciting day as quite a bit of the dry-wall had been put up on the walls. Now the interior is taking shape and the rooms are being defined. Hubby has dubbed his garage, The Barn, as it's about the size of one (1150 sq feet) with a 13 foot ceiling. He really liked the surprise of finding a gas heater/fireplace down in the basement. This was his Christmas present from me to him. Tomorrow, we're off to select the exterior rock trim and rock for behind the great room stove and the front of basement fireplace. What am I doing?? Posting and my daughter is getting married in two more hours???? Better run.

I actually found a few moments to drive out to our new home. The wall insullation is in and the latest round of county inspections has been completed. Next ... the front door and interior French doors need to be stained and finished along with installing the drywall. Dh will be here to help select the stain colors which will be a big help. Another week closer to our move-in countdown. Things are really coming along. I'm so glad we got the driveway gravel down before all of the snow! The Lord is opening little windows and slots of time to get work done in and around the weather He dishes out. Oh, how thrilled dh is to finally be up and inspecting the progress. He has not seen or walked through the house yet.

Over the past two weeks most of the interior electrical work has been done. We have wires here, there, and everywhere! Before the workers begin sheetrocking, I 'd like to take photos of the walls just in case we ever need to make a repair or remember what's behind the drywall. Now the exterior doors are installed, including the trimwork. Our circle drive has been graded again and has a nice layer of gravel ... this will help hold it together during the winter; with all the rain we've had, things were getting pretty soupy. With the electritcal workers we have another mess of wood shavings, etc. Monday I met with the builder and the lighting supplier to place the final order. Dh will hopefully be pleased with the choices and locations of outlets. He's coming up in a few more weeks and should see a gigantic change as we had just barely poured the concrete footings on his last visit.

I ordered two of the foreground chandeliers for our foyer.

With the exception of the front steps leading to the porch, the framers are finished ... they even cleaned up their MESS inside. There were empty pop and coffee containers everywhere, along with tons of sawdust (no, not the pooch)! The piece of machinery in front of the garage windows is being used to build a basalt rock retaining wall for the porch step landing. There will be the same rocks used in the back for a low... but rather long retaining wall. The interior walls are marked for the whole-house vacuum system. Thursday and Friday the actual electric and gas meters were installed on the outside garage wall. ... I guess this coming week more electrical and duct work will be done and probably the beginning of sheet rocking the inside walls. This picture was taken Thursday when we had a light dusting of snow. Since then, the temps have warmed up and our snow has turned to rain. We've dubbed our home the Mangy Moose Lodge!

My Sunday drive found some more work done at the new home. Window trim, soffits, copper roof, front porch floor and support beam are done. This coming week the framers should finish up with the stairs leading up to the porch and a few other minor items. My daughter, Ann's, baywindow bedroom has a deeper than normal closet to later accomodate a mainfloor laundry room ... it's now had the plumbing roughed-in. Everything is moving right along. We had snow flurries and sleet today ... with some snow showers expected tonight.

We have windows!! (a nice surprise today)

ROOF IS UP ... I'm so happy, so very happy ! Last week it rained inside my new home ... the roof was not completely covering the top of the house. There was water everywhere ... but by the following day, it was 90% dried out ... Now it can rain all it wants, as long as the wind doesn't blow rain sideways through the window openings. The color is called mission brown ... so is my basement floor color (um). Two bathtubs have been "installed", the rough-in plumbing for the entire house is about completed, and the bonus room above the garage now has a framed end wall, flooring, stairs, and the bathroom. Here's a few pictures I took today.

Walls, roof trusses, stairs ... beginning to take shape. Tomorrow (Friday) I'm off to pick out bathroom and kitchen tile and countertops.

Photos: 10/12/06 of new home under construction ... furry friend ?? Just a visitor that my kids thought I should have brought home!

This past week interior walls, doors, windows and one of two stairways were framed. Plus 80% of the exterior walls were covered over, and they started building the front porch. Ann's closet was expanded a bit to eventually convert to a main floor laundry room, and I gave up a corner cabinet of the kitchen to put in another very convenient doorway (before, there was just one way in and one way out). Next week we should start on the second floor above the garage and the roof trusses. Progress is sweet.

Photo: Ann standing near the storageroom door near walkout basement, 10/6/06

Photos: Showing framing today ... including the garage.

Thursday: This week has gone well (so far) with the framing company. They are doing an excellent job ... and I'm sure to tell them whenever I catch the foreman on site. This evening I managed to "drag" Nathan and the dog Holly, both on tethers (big smile) up to the property. This alone is quite a fete as they both seem to want to go in different directions (at once)! As you can see from the photos, Nathan found his room and posed by his "window" opening. There was a small measurement problem ... probably a miscommunication with the draftsman. I told him my dining room needs to be 12'x12' (I'm thinking all along inside measurements) ... he made it that size from the outside measurements ... thus, giving me an 11'x 11-1/2' room; making the width a bit too tight with my buffet cabinet. My (wonderful) builder was able to fix the problem by making a slight adjustment to the pantry and adding a "bump-out along affected wall. I'd much rather have the bigger dining room and lose a foot of pantry space!
Photos: Framing progress this week, Nathan standing in his new room, nightfall tonight barely showing main floor and basement walls.

End of Week Three: We have water, septic tank connection, and basement plumbing stubbed. Monday, weather permitting, we should have the garage and basement floors poured. Things are moving right along. This week I've been a "mad woman" trying to put together the appointments for the masterbath. It should be a combination craftsman and a country look. Clawfoot tub, craftsman vanity and mirror. It pays to do a little comparison shopping. The siding quote this week came in two to three thousand $'s less than the first quote we got ... for the same brand and color, plus I've had two friends use this particular company and were very happy with them. They install roofs too ... so we may be using them ... and they have a partial roll of the coppertone metal roof for the "eyebrow" roofline along the front portion of the home. Said I could get a good deal on it since it's leftover from another job. We found similar savings in windows by shopping!

Photos 9/15/06: Basement plumbing stubbed out, and a little wooded knoll we had graded for a picnic table and lodgepole lawn swing. From this vantage point there's a filtered lakeview.

Just happenstance ... but we now have a circle drive! When the earth dozer first arrived at our property a few weeks ago to do its thing, in order to get to the lot, the driver chose the lowest spot from the shared easement driveway (shared with two other homes) to enter property. By doing so, he opened up a perfect path for our intended driveway to circle on around, making it a circle drive. When DH asked the builder about keeping it, our builder wasn't sure because it wasn't in the plans approved by the county ... but today, he informed us that the county said we could incorporate it into the plans. DH was smiling ear to ear over that little prize!

Top photo: Basement walls

Middle photo: Driveway leading to garage ... and curving around to circle

Bottom photo: Curved driveway from different approach.

We have crawlspace and basement walls. Things are progressing quickly now.

Photos: DH checking out his new turf, Forms supporting concrete walls

Building progress ... Week One: We have the foundation footings up. A light scattered shower passed through on Wednesday ... just enough moisture to lessen the dust. By friday the foundation footings had been framed and poured with cement. The kids, dog, and I had an al fresco lunch in newly established backyard area.

Artistic sketch of our home (colorized sketch by Mrs. Mac) 9/3/06