Almost Home: The Inside View

Here is the inside. 

The front door is not on the house yet.  Our contractor waits until the last minute so that the subs don't ding it up.  

View of kitchen and dining room.

View of the living room.  Appliances were delivered yesterday so some are in the still in the living room.

The wood stove with slate.

 Heading up the stairs looking down at the office.

 Wren's Room

 Dakota's Room

Master Bedroom:  Our bed will be centered under these windows.

And our master bathroom.  This is the shower.

 This is the shower floor.  We are particularly proud of this.  All the stones were gathered from the rock bars on the Salmon River over the course of a number of family and work trips.

And then when we went to pick out the counter tops, we found this amazing  piece of stone.  So this is it for now.  I don't think I will post again until we have moved and maybe not until after Christmas.
 

Almost Home: The Outside View

It's been busy around here.  I realize I have not posted since September...


So here is a set of photos of the outside of the house.  It is essentially done.  Our plan is to be sleeping in our beds in the new house by the 15th of December.

Welcome to our home.  This is the front walk up to the house. In the winter you can actually see the front of the house so it was a good day to take a picture.

This is the south side.  The awning is designed to block the sun in the summer but let all the sun in during the winter months.  It is working so far.

This is our north side porch.  A place where we plan to spend many meals in the spring, summer and fall. 

This is the back stoop that faces east out of the kitchen to the linden tree.

This is the view of our "complex" from the south.  The carport has the solar panels. The house has the solar hot water heater.  We hope to paint the carport at some point to match the house which will make the whole place look better.  (A project for later.)

The Big Reveal: Exterior Paint Color

So now you get to see the colors we chose for the house.  Here they are!
We are quite happy with their combination. 

 

This is the back porch.  The painting was not quite finished in this picture but you get to see the idea of the porch.  We are so looking forward to eating many meals here.

 

And the drywallers have been busy on the inside while the painting was happening on the outside.  They have not started mudding but I think the hanging is complete.

 We have a couple places where these corbels brace a detail.  They are made of cedar so we sealed them instead of painting.  We love the way they look.

Rock Collecting

We need some rocks to build a small retaining wall.  So ever in search of a good deal, I heard that if you call the rock quarry in Milton Freewater, they will let you come on Fridays at 1:30 and hand pick your rocks for $26.00/ton.  So off Dakota and I went.  He took the pictures while I loaded .75 tons of rock.    Needless to say that my back was tired after .75 tons and it sure looked like a lot in the back of the truck.  But when I unloaded it...I assessed that I will need at least 2 more loads that size.  I think I will take Stuart with me next time.


He also got to watch a hydrolic hammer break apart rocks and a big rock loader putting big rocks into a big truck. 

Dakota always gets the most interesting perspectives of the world. 

 Here you can see me loading rocks in the mirror.

And here is the treasured big tractors working.

"Best Day Ever!"

After the first day of school.  I asked Dakota how he liked it.  "Best Day Ever!" So we went to get an ice cream!

First Day of Kindergarten

You know your child is ready for Kindergarten when on the first day of school he jumps out of bed, gets dressed, reads a chapter in Magic Tree house, eats a good breakfast, gets his shoes on, goes and gets his sweater, asks where his backpack is so that he can get it ready and is waiting at the door to head to school.   And all this without a single episode of whining.   Here is our wonderful boy ready for the world.

Dakota will travel to school with Stuart each morning on the Tag-a-long until we move over to our property on Statesman where he can ride his own bike.  Right now there are too many busy streets to cross between here and his school.  

Insulation

So all the wiring and plumbing is finished.  And then comes the insulation.  We are using a blow-in-blanket method.  Just before the insulation we made sure that all the possible air penetrations were sealed with either caulking or spray foam. 

Here I am finishing up the caulking. Photo credit: Dakota.

And here is the blow in blanket.  The put a spider web mesh over all the walls and then use a blower to fill it all up.  The house went from being loud to being quiet. 

Fun with Boys

After the Outdoor Program Picnic, the boys wanted to play on the rock sculpture.  So Wren climbed up on top of this one.  Just after I snapped this picture, he asked for a bit of a spot.  "You got it," I said.  "No mom, I don't got it," he said.  But in the end he did make it up and was pleased.

 Here you see the boys both pleased to be hanging on the rocks.

Then we played our new favorite game.  Museum.  One person is the night watchman, while the others try to be statues.  The watchman walks around through looking this way and that, trying to catch the sculptures moving.  It is a great non-competitive game that we all just love.  After that a quick game of "toilet tag."  And then home. 

School starts next week.  Wren starts 7th grade and Dakota starts Kindergarten.  Yahoo!!! They are both excited.

Porch and Siding

Stuart and I worked this weekend to build our porch.  We both agreed that this was the best, most sturdy porch that we had ever been a part of building.  We took direction very well from our builder.
So the crew framed the roof and placed the posts.  And this weekend we did all the deck framing.  We will wait until after the drywall and painting to put down the deck boards.

Today they finished siding the east facing side of house.  It is really shaping up and looking good.

Windows and Siding

Now come the details on the outside that really make it look like our house.  Windows and Siding.

So the windows arrived on a truck.  Triple Glaze super windows.  As the crew unloaded the windows we all got excited.

The big windows took 2 guys to move.

Something about filling the holes in the walls develops the character... and makes it feel real.

The boys were very excited for the windows.

And the the true character development.  The siding began...

We like the extra sill detail on our window trim... well worth the $5 per window... (These are the decisions we must make and happy to do it.)

This morning when I arrived, one side of the house was completely covered with siding.  Yipee!  It looks like a house.  Now we wait for the siding to finish and then to paint which I think comes near the end when they will paint outside and inside all at the same time.

Details begin to Emerge

After the big framing push, the details begin to fill in.  It is a bit like painting a big canvas.  Taking the big idea, blocking it out, then adding the details a little bit at a time. 

Here are some of the details as they begin to emerge. 

On the south side of the house we have these two wonderfully big windows.  To keep the sun out in the summer time, we designed an awning to shade the windows.  I love how our builder put these together.  They just look wonderful.  

 Another view of the awning.

The front porch is beginning to take shape.

 And here is the back porch roof.  Stuart and I will build the decking part... I guess we can do that pretty much any time...  this picture shows the roof shingles which are light in color to reflect heat away from the house.

 The stairs are masterfully crafted.  Our builder is great and he takes his time and really gets things right.  A joy to work with so far.  I have kept the under the stairs space open but have yet to decide completely what is going to happen there.  Maybe the printer as it is right behind my desk space or maybe a sweet little reading nook with bean bags.....the second ideas definitely sounds better to the boys....

The master bath shower just got framed in so now I know what I will be tiling.

I have really been loving seeing our ideas become reality.  And I forgot between the last house and this house, how many decisions there are to be made at this stage.... Like how wide should the shower door be??? Will it fit and swing open with the size toilet that we are getting.... Little things that do make a big difference....  But loving it. 

Our current big question has been picking out colors for the exterior of the house.  Finally after trying to match our ideas and the reality, I knocked on the door of a house down the street.  It is a house we keep going past and saying, "Yeah, something like that..."  Well after multiple tries at "something like that," I just knocked on the door and asked what colors they used on their house.  They happily explained that they had done the same thing in order to get the colors they used. They headed to the basement and brought out the paint buckets with all the numbers and codes.  So today I went to the paint store and had them mix up 3 quarts of paint so I could test them on a bigger surface.  I love the colors.  But.... I think that paint colors are a bit like sharing the name of your baby before it is born...If we share we might get some opinions that we are not interested in hearing so you will all have to wait and be surprised.    :  )

The Roof Trusses

So the roof trusses arrived on a BIG truck.  The truck had it's own crane.  Before the roof could go on, the bathtub insert for the upstairs got flown in a placed in the bathroom.

Then came the roof trusses.  Here are the back porch trusses.

 And here are the house trusses coming in.

After the trusses were flown in and had landed the crew spent the rest of the day setting the trusses.

 By the end of the day the trusses were all set.

 And then a day later we had all the roof sheeting on.

It all move so quickly at this stage.  And each day is full of many little decisions.  And reminders of decisions that have to be made.