More Photos

The view of my kitchen from the bedroom/loft.
Soapstone hearth stone. This piece has not been oiled so it isn't as dark at the countertops.
Walk-in shower.
Shower bench.
My sweet stove.

Day One Hundred Forty-five - Soapstone, Shower Stairs, & Stone

The Soapstone countertops were installed yesterday. This obviously is the bathroom vanity.
This wonderful vein of some mineral (I do plan to find out what) is in my kitchen.
The travertine tile is on the shower walls. Nic came up with this nifty design.
The stairs have railing and balustrades.
Some (actually one and a half of 23) of the column bases have stone.

Day One Hundred Ninety-three - Siding, Stain, Strairs, Shower, Stove

I am writing this post from in front of the fireplace in the new house. Nic is busy installing tile on the shower walls and Tony and I are enjoying the fire.

It has been a busy couple of week. The siding crew should finish up tomorrow or the next day. I think the siding really makes the house look different. Since I took this picture yesterday the walls of the bedroom balcony have been covered with shingles to match the dormer.

The mason and his crew have been hit hard by the flu bug. They were suppose to be here on Tuesday and haven't been able to get here yet but promised to make it tomorrow.

Nic and his friend, Jim worked on the stairs.
The painter stained the doors, windows, woodwork, etc.
Nic started on the tile in the shower. The tile is travertine and actually doesn't have as much color variation as the photo would make you think.
And the appliances were delivered. I won't bore you with photos of large cardboard boxes.

Day One Hundred Seventy-Eight - Cabinets

Yesterday the cabinets were installed.This is the kitchen. The sink cabinet is cut out for the apron sink and the opening to the left of the sink is for the dishwasher. I am so looking forward to a working dishwasher.
This is another view of the kitchen. There are more cabinets to go on this wall but they can't be installed until the countertop is installed. There is an appliance garage on top of each corner unit.
This is in my studio. These desk are for two sewing machines.
This is the built-in china cabinet in the dining room.
Last but not least, the bathroom. Tomorrow the countertop guys come to measure and draw a template for the soapstone.

Day One Hundred Seventy-Six - Hardwood Floors

The hardwood floors are done and aren't they pretty? This is the view from the front door looking straight into the kitchen. The cabinets will be installed tomorrow so watch for more pictures. It doesn't look too much like a kitchen at this point but I think by tomorrow evening it will.
This is the view from the back door (but the door people may think is the front door) looking into my studio. This corner spot is reserved for a very special piece of furniture.
This is that piece of furniture. I have been watching this old school science lab table at an antique mall for several months. The owner removed it from the antique mall and put it on Craig's List (and reduced the price, again.) It pays to be patient. Try to visualize a sewing machine on the opposite right hand corners.

Day One Hundred Fifty-Two - Paint and Hardwood

Last week the painter did his thing.

This is our bedroom in Pommery Mustard, whatever that means. Under the black plastic is the hardwood floor Nic has started installing. Sorry you can't see it, maybe next week.
The lower walls are painted Timeless Terra Cotta. I've always been a sucker for clay pots. When Nic trims out the windows and doors the header will run all the way around the room, not just on top of the windows and doors. By the way, there are NO polka dots in my house; apparently my camera lens is spotted.
I don't think I have posted any photos of the bathroom yet, so here is one. I was standing in the doorway at the foot of the stairs, just inside the front door. The door to the far right of the photo goes into the laundry room. The opening straight ahead is my HUGE walk in shower.
This cute kid is practicing opening the front door to guest. We hope you plan to come see us when we get the house done.

90th Birthday and Youth Deer Hunt

This past weekend Nic, Alex and I traveled to Carrollton to help my Mama celebrate her 90th birthday. We took the opportunity to get a photo of Mama and Daddy and their "girls".

In the front row is Mama and Daddy, of course. In the back row from the left is June Owen Newman, Jeanne Owen Holmes, Kay Owen Wood, and Ruth Lam Owen. The party did not degenerate to the point that Ruth wore a high fixture as a hat, I promise.

While in Carroll County, Nic and Alex participated in the youth deer season. They didn't see anything on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon they saw four deer but they were too far off to shoot. So Sunday morning, after exterminating the wasp and nest from the deer blind, Alex shot this nice young buck. Yum yum, good eatin'. Now I ask you, who do you think looks happier, dad or daughter?

Josephina, an American Girl

Rylee decided that for Haloween she wanted to dress up as Josephina from the American Girl doll/book series.

I think we did pretty good.

Rylee's Chickens

I look at our chickens and know that they have grown but it is kind of hard to tell when you see them every day so I decided to compare a photo from the day we got them....

To a photo from a couple of weeks ago....
Tony planted wheat seed as nurse crop for grass. The chickens were very appreciative.

This guy looks like the rooster on the wallpaper border in the rental house kitchen. I think he is a very fine specimen.

Day One Hundred Forty Seven - Sheet rock, etc

A lot has happened during the past 44 days since I last posted. The plumbing and electrical rough was completed and passed inspection. The dry wall has been hung and taped, mudded, sanded, etc.

Now I will take you on a tour of the house.

I'll start with what may be my favorite room in the house, my sewing/weaving studio. This was taken from the laundry room door. The outside door is to the left and the kitchen is to the right.

The great room taken from the dining area. There will be stained glass inserts in the two high fireplace wall windows. The door you see is the front door and faces east. Out of view on the right is the staircase and on the left is a set of doors to the porch on the north side of the house.

The dining area taken from in front of the fireplace. The kitchen is on the left on the other side of the half wall. There will be a built-in china cabinet on the dining room side of the half wall.

The loft/bedroom. The doorway on the upper left is the half bath. The French doors upstairs open onto a small balcony. The lower French doors and double windows are in the studio.

The house really does have a kitchen. In the above photo you are actually looking across the kitchen to the loft and studio.

I wanted to include one photo of the fall color. The foliage really looked much better than it does in this photo.

New Granddaughter

Tony and I have a new granddaughter, number four for us; number one child for Sus and Bryce.

Meet Miss Maisy Lucia, born August 30. Seven pounds 14 ounces; 19.5 inches long.

Doesn't she (Susie) look incredibly happy? She did good!!

Day One Hundred Three - I Found My Camera

O.K. so here's the deal... I lost my camera, several days (maybe weeks) ago. After several gentle nudges about updating my blog I made an all out effort to locate the camera. For about a week, I looked everywhere I could think of, most place several times. This afternoon I spied my Pendleton plaid backpack in a large stone jar behind my computer chair. I can't remember the last time I actually used that backpack and hadn't checked it for the camera. But even though I knew the camera was't in the backpack, I looked anyway. Well low and behold, there was my camera! So I downloaded the pictures that were on it.

This is the half bath in our bedroom. Does anyone find it amusing that it looks like a privy? Or an I the only person who sees that?

Let's see, since I last posted I have ordered the windows; the bathroom plumbing; and the range hood. I have looked at lots and lots of paint chips; floor tiles; countertop materials; and lighting fixtures. I have met with the HVAC guy and tomorrow I will meet with the stone mason and the hardwood guy. It is pretty exciting to be able to tell these guys when we will need them.

I will take the camera up to the house tomorrow and take new pictures. Nic has done a lot of plumbing and electrical stuff that doesn't change the way the house looks. But we did get the concrete porch floor poured and Nic got the last porch roof built. It is the porch that is most noticeable as you drive up to the house so having it built really changed the look of the house. That porch roof also forms the small deck off our bedroom, its fun to see what the view is going to be from that deck, but it is kind of scary without a rail.

Day Eighty-one - Bedroom Walls

Yesterday was day 81 and Nic worked in the loft bedroom. I know these photos may not be too exciting to you but they excite me. By county code any attic space enclosed by a wall greater than three feet tall has to have an access door. So since our walls are five feet tall they have to have a door into the attic. The attic space also has to be sheet rocked. I think I may miss rubbing up against pink fiberglass insulation in the attic.

This is the west wall of our bedroom. The small opening on the left is the attic access. Nic offset it to the side so we could place our bed in the center of the wall. To help you visualize the space better, out of camera range to the left will be the french doors out onto our small deck that will overlook the driveway and the barn and vineyard. To the right will be a railing and the living room below.

This is the east wall of our bedroom. The bathroom (actually more of a powder room) will be in the corner to the far left of the photo. Again the opening is access into the attic area. On the far left of this photo, behind the stud wall, is the staircase coming up from the living room.

When we first bought the property we cleaned up several old "farm" junk piles and hauled away tons of scrap metal. We found this cute little corner sink in one of the junk piles. I have the phone number of a guy who reglazes old bathroom fixtures. I hope we can have this sink redone at a reasonable cost so we can use it in the loft bathroom. It is about 14 inches on each side.

Day Eighty - Grapes; Bedroom Door; and Vineyard Visitors

I started my day by harvesting my Edelweiss grapes. I got at least 1.5 gallon of berries which isn't too bad for vines that shouldn't have produced any grapes this year. They are very sweet and already had a faint alcohol taste. I had to fight the wasp and bees for them. Currently they are starting the fermentation process on the back porch and it smells divine. They will make a Riesling style wine.

Nic got most of the rest of the roof shingled. All he lacks is the roof over the south porch. Hopefully Jeff will be able to get that porch poured this week so Nic can get that roof built and shingled. Nic started working on framing the door out of our bedroom onto the upper deck. (Which isn't there, yet, as it will be over the south porch.) We also talked about where we wanted the bedroom walls and the bathroom. We settled on 5' walls. It was fun watching Tony and Nic figure out how much "head" room there would be if the back of the toilet was up against a five foot wall. They they discussed how much "head" room a guy needs. I "sat" that discussion out, since it didn't really concern me.

I'm in the market for a headboard and now I know, it can't be over five foot tall. Our bedroom on Hoover Avenue had sloped ceilings and a wall much shorter than 5 feet. We had to turn our bed around and put the foot against the wall and the head out toward the middle of the room.

After Tony got off work he went up to help Nic. I'm not sure what he did besides pick up trash and hold down this pile of lumber. Somebody's got to do it. I mean is there anything worse than run away lumber? (Nice legs, Sweetie!)

We had our regular, nightly visitors in the vineyard. This poor guy just with through his annual molt and doesn't have any tail feathers.

The peacocks (there are four of them) belong to the neighbor from whom we purchased the farm. They like the vineyard because it is a smorgasbord of bugs. Apparently, after they molt, they also become less amorous. At least they have gotten a lot quieter.

Days Seventy-two through Seventy-nine - Shingles and Chimney

Nic with occasional help from Tony has been shingling the roof. He does nice work, doesn't he? I am pleased with my shingle color selection.

Nic also constructed the chimney. I know it is larger than it looks from the ground but I am a little concerned about Santa Clause getting stuck.

To quote Tony, "That's hard work for an old, fat man." To quote Rylee, "Grandpa, you're not fat."