Siding!

 Days 51 through 54 were yet more plumbing and heating and piping and whatnot...zzzzzzzzzz.  But on day 53 the siding was delivered, and on day 54 the builder began to side the house.  

I'm loving the color, and I'm glad I went with Dutchlap over clapboard.  I wish it came in a wider board like the original siding on Mom's house, but I'm happy with how this looks.  The builder also put up the header for an eventual deck.  

On Friday temperatures took a tumble to single digits and outside work was put on hold until it warms up a little. 

Week Wrap Up

 Days 45 through 50 were more tubes and wires and whatnots.  The heater for the garage went in, and you can see by all the wiring spaghetti that there's quite a bit of electrical stuff going on.

The new on-demand hot water heater is in, too.  

 

Boy, it's so tiny compared to the old electric tank heaters I'm used to!  They put together the new utility sink, too.  I'm not sure if that's where it's going, but I'm just psyched to have it.  Coming in from the barn with icky buckets or pooped-on hay nets, I'll be able to go into the garage and directly into the utility room to clean them, instead of taking them upstairs to my fancy new tub.

Oh yeah, my fancy new tub arrived.

Yes, it's an old lady walk-in tub.  BUT...heated.  With whirlpool jets.  Yaaasssssss.  My back is going to love me for this.  Apparently there's also a betting pool on whether or not I'm going to be able to fit my rotund frame into it.  

Outside the builder has been prepping for siding, which should be here soon.  He's using this giant  tool to bend and shape metal flashing for corners and whatnot.  It's pretty cool.

Ooooooo, ahhhhhhhh...bent aluminum!

Here it is on the corner of the house...ooooo, ahhhhhhh, so beautiful.

So, that's it in a nutshell.  OH!  We're having some hellacious winds this weekend and when it hits the back side of my house it sounds like a banshee wailing.  Very cool.  😈

Something Old, Something New

 Day 44 was boring electric work again. What's a girl to do for excitement while waiting?  Floor shopping!

Mom and I headed out to Marden's in Maine yesterday to see what they had for overstock vinyl flooring.  Soooo many options.  Mom was looking for flooring for the middle room and I was looking for something for the media room/den. I wanted to go with a more natural wood color in that room, but  something that looked like weathered grey wood for the rest of the house.  Mom found a grey wood for the middle room, and I liked it so much that I've decided to use the same throughout the upstairs and the mudroom.  For the media room I went with a slightly wider plank honey colored wood.

Marden's is a great resource for flooring, carpets, and furniture.  These options are LVP flooring and light commercial quality, 100% waterproof, and only $2.29/sq. foot.  Considering my flooring budget was $5/sq. foot, I'm glad I bought it...when I saw it...at Marrrrrrrden's!  (Locals who have seen their commercials will now have that jingle stuck in their heads for the rest of the day.  You're welcome.)

Then it was a trip to West Newfields, Maine today to look at some timbers.  My builder came up with a great idea for the half wall at the stairwell; he suggested an upright beam at the end of the half wall, a smaller one on the opposite side of the stairwell, and a matching piece of board to cap the wall.  I found an antique timber dealer close by and Mom and Neil headed over with me to choose my lumber.  I ended up with these beauties:

They are just gorgeous.  Every mark is a little piece of history.  The beams were pulled from an 1800's barn that was located in Cambridge, Maine.  It was dismantled in 1850 and moved to a different site in the same town.  The board, 15+ feet long and just over 11" wide, was from a 1774 cape located in Barnstead, New Hampshire.  I mean, how cool is that?  Right now they don't look all that great because they're wet from being outside. Once they dry, they'll be amazing.

The Catching Up (again) Post

 Things haven't slowed down, but the work that's being done now is hard to see.  Little things structurally, and the plumber, heating man, and electrician have all been here in the past week working away.  Lots of wires and tubes and pipes have sprung up everywhere.  It's not that exciting or noticeable, so days 37 through 43 are combined together.

The biggest thing has been...drumroll please...stairs!

 

No more going outside and all the way around to get into the basement.  It's a magical thing.

And the wires and tubes and such...

It's the unglamorous phase of the construction, but the most important.  My plans for gas heat in the form of a woodstove-like appliance were nixed as there wasn't enough room between the floors to place a vent.  Instead we've gone back to the 4 head mini-split, which is rated to work efficiently to -13*F.  There will be one head in my bedroom, one in the corner of the diningroom, one in the livingroom, and one downstairs in the den.  The money I was going to sink into a gas stove will go toward a generator; if we lose power, I lose heat since the mini-split is electric.  The electrician is wiring for an ample sized manual start generator which will handle the mini-split, the water pump, the refrigerator, and a few outlets.

After seeing what the electrician has set up, I have more outlets than I know what to do with.  Love that!  

Last weekend Mom and Neil were able to burn one of the brush piles, too.  I hate burning brush, so I just watched.

Just a dark spot in the pasture, now.  That makes me very happy!  Mom tried to get the other pile burned, but it just wouldn't catch.  That one may be there for a while.

In the meantime, more rain.  The way the leach field is raised up, it's turned a normally small damp area into a rather large area that collects and keeps water.

I hope to bring in some material to fill in the drop between the leach field and the pasture to make it a little less drastic.  I may take advantage of this wet area and create a large water garden in this spot. 

Yuck.  There's just ice everywhere now.  Spring can't come soon enough.

frame on

 Day 36 was mostly framing, mostly in the basement.  

This first shot is of the garage proper.  That cubby toward the back is the space under the middle room, where electric lines and water piping will live.  Of course, I look at that and think "root cellar!", so my builder is going to appease me and build a small door on the wall so I have a place to store my onions.  I feel like I've just won the lottery...a root cellar.  I'm weeping tears of joy.

This shot is standing in what will be the mudroom, looking into the media room.  Or "Uncle John's Room" as we now call it, since the first thing my uncle asked when he stopped in to see the progress was, "So where's my room?".

And this shot is standing at the back of the media room looking toward the garage.  The door frame to the right will be for a utility room to house all the unattractive but necessary whoosie whatsits that are utilitarian.

This is a hole in my floor.  Someday it will house a set of stairs, but for now, it's just something for me to try not to fall into.

And we now have temporary front stairs, huzzah!  No more crawling up ladders for this lardy lady.

Things are moving so quickly, it seems like it'll be done before you know it.

Catching Up

 There's been a lot going on the past few days, so let's get caught up.  Day 32 saw the return of the concrete crew, who prepped the basement for pouring the floor.  Day 33 marked the arrival of the concrete, and work resumed in earnest.

They're baaaaaack.

The first pour was in the middle room.  They had popped a section of the flooring up and poured in through the opening.

A second cement truck joined the first and they moved on to the garage floor.  They poured through the window and garage door.

The crew then worked their magic on the cement and by 5:00 that night, there was a beautiful floor in my garage.

 While all that was going on downstairs, upstairs the builders were working on more interior framing, and soffits along the eaves.

Here's the hallway in front of the bathroom.  The box to the left will be a linen closet outside of the bathroom. 

This is a broom closet in the hallway, just outside my bedroom.

And this area to the right is the closet in my bedroom.

Could it get any more exciting? 

Hold onto your hats.

Day 34 saw the arrival of windows and doors, woo hoo!

They started with the single windows and doors along the front.

Ain't they purdy?  I think so!  We wanted to match the windows on my mom's existing house as best as possible, which meant windows with grids.  Or grilles.  Or muntins, if you're so inclined.  Whatever you call them, I'm not a huge fan.  So...compromise.  Grids on top, open on bottom.  I actually wasn't expecting that, but I do like it.  Aaaaand a basic door.

The scary part was watching them put in the big picture windows.  All of the windows are custom ordered, so if they dropped them, it would be an expensive accident.  There were a few white knuckle moments, but these fellas are professionals, and they did a great job.

The boss is happy, or just relieved it went so well.

And don't they look great?  I didn't want grids (or grilles, or muntins) in these windows, because I wanted as little interference as possible when I looked out onto the pasture.  I absolutely love them.

And I have no idea how I'm going to clean the outside of them.

*sigh*

The back of the house might look a little off kilter with only one window, but the stairs going to the basement are on the other side.  There's no way I'd be able to clean a window in that spot.  It'll be a great wall for my extensive collection of artwork. ("Dogs Playing Poker", an old Duran Duran poster, etc.)

 

 

 

Would you look at that view.  Man, I cannot WAIT to stand in front of those windows and just enjoy the morning.

Now on to Day 35, wherein I get my downstairs window and door...

...and my French doors.  Sacrebleu!

Who's a happy girl?

😁