Projects between the raindrops...

Even though it rained a lot today, DH was able to get a lot done around the house.

The pool pump has worked wonderfully to remove the 2-3 feet of water from the pool cover and even ran all night without being plugged in. I didn't realize that the pump would continue to siphon off the water even after I pulled the plug. That was actually an ideal way for it to work however, as we didn't have to worry about whether the pump remained under the water. We were a bit worried that the pump would break if the water level dropped below the pump, so I went out every hour or two to make sure the pump was still submerged. With the pump unplugged though, if the water level went below the pump it wouldn't matter. The poor little tadpoles, however, were not so thrilled about the water being pumped out of the pool cover. Sorry little guys... :-( While I drove up to Slippery Rock University to pick up DS today, DH worked today on installing the outdoor shower by the pool. This is what it will look like when it is installed - it is a stainless steel thermostatic shower panel from Wind Bay...
This is the 8 gallon hot water tank that he mounted inside the garage to connect to the shower...
Here he is soldering the connectors onto the pipes where the shower will go. He loved the hammer drill that he bought (refurbished/reconditioned - are they the same thing?). It went through the brick like a knife through butter!
Underneath the shower, he plans to put a drip pan intended for a washing machine, covered with these snapping deck tiles. They will completely cover the top of the drip pan and allow the water to drip between the tiles into the drip pan which will be connected to the drainage system. He will put a wooden moulding of some kind around the edges to conceal the sides of the drip pan. The sample the company sent has 4 slats per tile, but we ordered ones with 6 slats. They are also available with 8 slats or diagonal slats. The slats are made of "pre-treated, expertly kiln-dried, extremely durable hardwood. Mold, mildew, fungi, termites, rot and decay resistant."
Here is what the back of the tiles look like - the "plastic feet elevate for drying airflow." The tiles just snap together. We ordered tiles made from eucalyptus for our outdoor shower. Stay tuned for photos of the finished shower...
Here are some more shots of some of the plants that we put out in front of the house...just don't ask me what they are. I saved the tags off them, so I might be able to figure it out, but certainly couldn't tell you off the top of my head (although I do know that the one on the back left is a rhododendron).
I believe the tall tree is a Japanese red maple and there are some butterfly bushes in front of it...
The 5 plants to the far right are dianthus. They were all marked alike on the tags, but 4 turned out to have red flowers and 1 has pink flowers. They are still very pretty, and luckily, the pink one ended up in the middle.
Our builder has started work on the punchlist for the house. It doesn't seem possible that we've been in the house almost a year (it will be a year at the end of July). Yesterday, today, and next Tuesday the drywall guy was/will be here to fix the places in the walls and ceilings that have settled or have nail pops. He is also fixing the area in the kitchen ceiling where we had the leak from the second floor furnace...
He informed me that he hates our stairs. He just knew that the way the stairs were open up to the top floor that the house would settle all around the stairs. There was a lot of repair work for him to do around the stairs... The other place he had a lot to do was in the great room. Some of the seams in the walls are very obvious, especially when the lights behind the valance shine up or down the wall and illuminate all the little imperfections. He suggested we just leave the lights off. :-D
It's pouring rain out now, with lots of thunder and lightening. I hope it stops before the plant sale that I was planning to go to in the morning...

What a great day for a picnic!

DH and I decided to head out to the house and have a picnic on our property. We packed a cooler with drinks, grabbed a couple of folding lawn chairs, stopped at Subway and picked up some sandwiches and enjoyed the sunny day (which, after about 10 days or so of straight rain and cool temps sure was nice!). After we ate, DH took the tractor and used the brush hog to clear some more brush.
While he was doing that, I set up camp and spent a good part of the afternoon reading a book. I still can't get around very well since hurting my back last Monday and I thought sitting out in the sunshine was a better idea than sitting at home.

Here is a path that DH cut through the brush yesterday when he and DS were out there clearing brush. Look how tall the brush is on each side - that's what he cut down with the brush hog yesterday!
The scaffolding was taken down from the back of the house. This was taken from down below the house when I walked down to the ponds. It almost looks like a finished house!
There were lots of frogs and tadpoles in the pond. Whenever I took a step, the bullfrogs would plop into the water to hide.
And I found some wildflowers growing nearby...
These plants grow in the pond. Anyone know what they are called?

When DH took a break, we walked through the house to see what's been happening. The tile is down in the kitchen, except for the pantry.
The same tile is in the entry. It's funny how different it looks depending on the lighting conditions. This tile was actually laid out on the great room floor, waiting to be put in the entryway. The drops are granite - the same Verde Butterfly granite that will be on our kitchen counters.
The drywall guys have patched the holes in the sewing studio wall from changing the window to the octagonal one, but there are still holes in the drywall in the chimney in DH's closet and in DD's bedroom wall.
And the doors, and trim around the doors, are going up, starting up in the attic in the kids' rooms...
Unfortunately, the Pens lost to the Detroit Redwings last night. We'll have to make a comeback tomorrow night in game 2!

Not much done on the house, but the Pens won!!!

The painters were supposed to start on the interior of the house this week, so we were surprised and a bit disappointed to see that they hadn't even started. We also figured that the brick would be finished, but they still have quite a bit of work to do.

The fireplace is in, however, and they ran the pipe up the chimney.

They had to cut into the drywall in order to put in the chimney pipe - curious that they didn't work on the chimney before the drywall went in. This hole was cut in DH's closet...
And these holes were cut in DD's bedroom walls...
DD still has a view of the river from her bedroom, but it is quickly becoming blocked by the leaves on the trees.
It looks like work was done on the roof over the front door this week and that will hopefully stop the leaks that had developed inside the house.
Here is the office/guest room end of the house. The outside is actually coming along nicely...
The back still isn't finished. The area over the garage and the upper 2 floors of the angled wall still need to have brick added...
The patio side of the house and the back of the garage are done...
And here is a shot from the end of the garage looking toward the patio area...
We've been working our tails off on this house so that we can get it on the market. I finished DS's room, the guest room, all the bathrooms, the dining room, and the laundry room. I still need to dust and make sure the beds are made and dishes all done in the morning before our realtor brings the other agents from her office here on their "caravan". On Thursday, she will have an open house for agents from other real estate offices. The only room that still needs work is the playroom in the basement. There are some bookshelves and game shelves down there that really need to be straightened up and packed up, but that can wait a couple of days.

I haven't figured out yet where we'll go when someone wants to show our house. Perhaps for a walk? Or maybe to hang out at Ice Cream World? Hmmmm....maybe both of those!

I just finished baking chocolate chip cookies to mail to DD for finals week - can you smell them?

New mantel and old cupboards

Not a great photo, but here is the mantel for our new fireplace. I didn't quite get all 6' of it in the picture! It is unfinished cherry and will be stained to match the kitchen cabinets.

We met with the realtor on Tuesday night to discuss getting this house on the market. We are having a POD delivered tomorrow and will load it up with all the boxes that we've been packing up. I cleaned out every kitchen cabinet and packed up everything that we can do without until we move. Here is the pantry - still full, but neat, at least.
And a couple of my kitchen cabinets - nothing falls out on our heads anymore!

This week I've been working in my sewing room. I haven't seen the floor and table tops in that room for a very long time! It had become a catch-all room this past year. I should have taken a before photo (on second thought, that would have been too scary to post). Here are a couple of after photos...

Now it's time to pack up some of the excess paraphenalia in the closets and DD's bedroom. What fun!

The walls in the new house are being mudded now. We haven't been out there this week, so I will take photos this weekend. The builder said that the hard surfaces (tile, wood floors) will go in about 3 weeks from now. I'm anxious to get out to the house to see how the exterior is coming along.

We have walls!

Brick is going up on the front of the house and our front door has been uncovered...
We have walls! This is the kitchen wall, looking out over the future patio area...
Drywall in the family room, everywhere but on the fireplace...
The ceiling in DH's study...looks like the fan extension pole will need to be pretty long in order for the fan blades to clear the ceiling.
Photo of my closet, looking up at it from the great room...
Detail on the corners of the brick...
Shot of the back and side of the house...there is quite a bit of hardie plank up on these sides, but not much brick.
It's time to decide on interior paint colors. I think we know what we want in our bedroom (Sherwin Williams Quietude - this is the color currently in our bedroom and I love it - it changes from blue-green to green-blue depending on the lighting in the room at any particular moment) and in the great room (again, we like what we currently have - I can't think of the name of it, but it is a very gray purple), but the rest of the colors are a mystery at this point! What is your favorite paint color? (We prefer cool color tones, if that helps you choose!)

"Follow the orange brick road..."

There was a lot of activity at the house today, both inside and out. There were workers everywhere! There were a couple of guys working up around the chimney area. I don't think that area has been completely sealed up yet. A couple of other guys were covering the soffit areas.
The bricks are going up! They started on the end of the house where the office and guest room/guest bathroom are going to be. This is also the end of the house where they started with the hardie plank siding, so both materials can be seen together in this shot...
Around to the back of the house, the siding and trim continue to go up. The angled walls will be brick.
On the inside, it looked like the plumber was finishing up some things and sheets of drywall have been placed in each room. It didn't occur to me that they might be starting the drywall on the top floor until I was halfway back down the driveway to the car, so I didn't go up to see.
It's exciting to have so many different things going on all at once! If they keep going at this pace, we'll have to start going out there more often or we'll miss something!