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!

Cabinets delayed...

Well, we went to choose our carpet tonight. We are putting carpet in the master bedroom, kids' bedrooms, attic hallway, guest bedroom, and music room. We took samples of the carpets we liked out to the house to see how they looked next to the tile that will be in the adjoining hallways. We were unable to go in the house, as the tile had been laid in the mudroom and was blocked off so no one would walk on it.

We borrowed a small piece of the kitchen/entry/hallway/powder room tile so we could compare it to the carpet samples and we can use it when we're out shopping for other materials.

The kitchen cabinets and master bathroom which were supposed to be installed yesterday are now slated to go in on June 2nd. The floors need to be in and grouted and dry before the cabinets can be installed.

We found a light for over our table the other day and have chosen our towel bars, etc. for the bathrooms, so I think we are done choosing everything for the interior of the house (whew! what a relief!). I'm sure there are still a bunch of decisions as far as choosing plants and trees for the landscaping, but for the most part I'm happy to let DH decide what to plant. The only thing I really want is lilacs - as long as some lilac bushes get planted, I'll be happy.

And the changes just keep on a-coming!

There were quite a few changes at the house when we drove out there tonight.
The garage doors have arrived...
and the stone (El Dorado Meseta Fieldledge) is going up on the chimney...
and on the fireplace...(there will be verde butterfly granite over the black fireplace box that is still showing)
The tile has been laid in the guest bathroom (still needs to be grouted)...
The wiring is on our master bathroom floor, which will heat the tile...

The tile is also down in the kids' bathroom (also yet to be grouted)...
Stone is going up on the pillars that will support the covered patio area off the back of the garage. There will be wood pillars on top of these stone bases...
Here is a photo of the brick on the back of the house that is now finished (I remembered to take my boots with me tonight!)...
And DH used the tractor to pick up some broken concrete blocks to use to keep the tractor attachments off the ground to help prevent rust. I didn't get to drive the tractor because I injured my back at Boot Camp yesterday morning. I figured there isn't any hurry - I'll probably be driving it more than I want to once we get ready to attack the brush on the property!
The painting never got finished before the tile was started. It seems like it would have been a lot easier to paint without the need to provide protection for the floors.

Thursday doesn't look good for the kitchen cabinets to go in. The kitchen tile is there, but there were only 4 tiles laying on the kitchen floor. Even if they get the kitchen tile down tomorrow, they have to let the tiles set and then grout them. My guess is the kitchen won't be installed until next week.

The Brazilian teak for the family room, great room, and office is in the house so it can acclimate to the temperature and humidity conditions in the house. No sign of the bamboo flooring for my sewing studio, 2nd floor hall, and laundry room though.

I think we'll need to start going out to the house more often now, as the projects being done now make a really big difference in how the house looks. It's really amazing how fast everything is coming together now!

Let's go Pens!!!

More stuff in the walls...

We went to the house on Tuesday so DH could run the wires for the security system. It took about 2 hours. While DH and DS ran wires, I took 228 photos of the insides of the walls and ceiling in every room in case we someday need to know where the electrical, heating, and plumbing "stuff" is located. Today I uploaded them to the computer and sorted them into file folders by room. Hopefully, that will be enough to tell us what area each photo is showing, although I'm sure over time it will become more difficult. I had a tough time today telling where some of the photos were taken and I knew what order I photographed the rooms in.

The first thing we noticed when we arrived was a huge trench running from the private road to the house (about 450 feet). It contained the electric cables, the phone cables, and a pipe of some sort that will be used to run the cable wires later.


Here is a shot of the front of the house, since I haven't put one up in a long time. The large ditch near the base of the house has been filled in with shale and dirt, the side yard has been roughly graded, the shingles have been finished, and of course, there is a huge trench running up to the house. The area over the front door will have a copper colored metal roof, so it has not been shingled.
Lots of wires hanging down into the basement...
So, we've had some good news. Molyneaux was able to find enough of the tile that we need for the kitchen/mudroom/powder room/halls/entry so we won't have to pick another tile - hallelujah! But, Lowe's now no longer has the fan that we picked out for the kids' bedrooms, so we need to hunt for another one (or two).

We are meeting another landscape person out at the house on Saturday morning. Our DD will also be in town, playing with the Shenandoah University Wind Ensemble at the Fox Chapel Area high school on Friday night at 7:30pm, and in the lobby of Heinz Hall on Saturday night. Jens Lindemann, former trumpet player in the Canadian Brass and guest trumpet soloist in orchestras around the world is traveling with them and will also perform in the concerts.

Why does it seem...

...that every time we make a final decision about something in the house, we end up having to change it? The latest example is our kitchen/entry/hall/mudroom/powder room tile. (I posted photos of our tile choice here.) It turns out that the tile is a discontinued style and Molyneaux may not be able to find enough in the same lot for us. I found a couple of sites online that we might be able to get some from, so we have our fingers crossed while we wait for Molyneaux to let us know if they can get enough for us.

My island has also changed again (nothing major). Here is the plan that we had before the KD went out to the house and measured.
It seems that the actual aisle measurement between the island and the beverage center was narrower (by about 3") than the other aisles around the island and the KD wanted the aisle widths more consistent, as he thought we would notice and it would bother us if they weren't consistent. As a result, the 18"x24" 3 drawer stack in the above photo is now a 15"x24" 3 drawer stack, and the 36"x12" base cabinet is now 33" instead. I now only have one nice, wide 3 drawer stack (36" wide) in the kitchen and it is for my plate storage. It had better not change, as there are no upper cabinets near the sink/dishwasher and I need someplace to store my dishes.

We are headed out to the house tonight so DH can run the wires for the security system. The security company wanted $1700 to do it and we can do it for a couple of hundred. I'll get some up-to-date photos of the outside of the house. The shingles were all finished last Wednesday when we were out there, but I didn't get a photo. If we're lucky, perhaps the bricks and siding have started going up.

Choices...

We accomplished some of our goals today. We chose our brick and our shingles and narrowed down our wood floor choices to just a couple.

The tile was tougher. We mainly wanted to get an idea of what was available and what we might be interested in. I think we've decided what type of flooring will go where in the house, but we weren't able to narrow it down any further than that. We may get our kitchen designer to help us with the tile choices.

I'll try to take a photo of the brick later and put up additional details about the brick and shingles that we'll be using.