Beginning Finish and Getting Stoned

I thought it might be kind of fun to look back at where

we were one year ago , so

click here

if you want to see how far we've come.

This was the demolition of the old house.

We worked hard in the July heat and went to bed every night exhausted, 

but not before we took cool showers to wash away 

all the dirt, grime, old insulation, and sweat.

We cringe when we think about how 

ITCHY

that was.

And hard.

We marvel at ourselves for having torn down a house together

BY HAND.

Earlier today I told Dean that I feel like I 

need to condense my blog posts.

He just smirked and said brevity doesn't come easily to me.

He's right.

I usually go around the block a few times

before getting to the point of anything.

So, how 'bout we just get to the point of this post...

Here's the rundown of what's been up:

Remember these stairs...

that were replaced with temporary treads and risers?

We got the permanent treads, risers and skirting put in...

and Dean has suggested more than once that we replicate the 

yellow, green and red stairs from the original house.

The thing is, I don't think he's teasing.

Sorry, dear, it ain't happenin'.

Dean built stairs and a porch for the door into the house from the garage...

but they're not quite finished yet.

The insulation company showed up on July 3rd without any notice...

to blow insulation into our attic...

Their timing was bad because I was trying to get the basement primed

and I ended up constantly picking bits of insulation out of the wet, rolled on primer,

which made me grumble, grumble, grumble.

Speaking of primer...

I've been agonizing over what color paint to choose for our walls.

Neither of these four samples made the cut.

I think I've got it narrowed down to 

Benjamin Moore's "Greenmount Silk"

or

Pratt & Lambert's "Mission"

Seriously, there are more important issues to agonized over, I know.

We got all the upstairs doors hung, but I don't have a photo.

I finally decided on trim for the interior doors.

I've got a box-full of trim samples and a catalog from the door shop

at Wheelwright, but I just didn't find what I wanted.

When I came home with the truck bed full of materials to piece together

custom headers instead of lengths of ready made header material

I thought Dean was just gonna walk off into the sunset.

I defended my choice by reminding him that we aren't building an

"off the shelf" house.

He really was okay with building them from scratch, 

he just wasn't expecting it.

We built a 'prototype' header for the little door in the utility room

that goes to the storage under the stairs...

 It'll be modified a little for upstairs because the ceilings are taller,

 but this is what we came up with.

The windows will be trimmed in the same fashion.

He got the basement windows boxed in 

(we didn't have them sheetrocked)

and I've been going around with the nail set, setting nails that 

didn't sink all the way, spackling nail holes, sanding, etc.

But what's REALLY fantastic is...

our stone mason is almost done!

We chose natural stone over cast stone and we love it!

Bubba, our mason, is such a nice man and a very hard worker.

I've enjoyed getting to know him.

He should be done by Monday or Tuesday,

so I'll post more pictures next week.

But here's one more before I close...

So, was that condensed enough?

Thanks for stopping by.

We do appreciate all your encouragement;

it helps cuz we do get tired and we even get 

a little discourage every once in a while.

Good night and God bless.