The never-ending to-do list...

DH spent Saturday installing the gas logs in our fireplace. It's wonderful to flip a switch on the wall and have a fire in the fireplace. I have used it often since he finished installing it...

And the weather outside made it all the nicer to have a fire in the fireplace. We had snow flurries all day Saturday and Sunday, but fortunately only a bit of it stuck to the ground.
DH's other project for the weekend was to work on the broom closet. The builder only had one shelf in the closet and it doesn't hold much. DH will add a couple of more shelves for cleaning supplies, an outlet for plugging in chargers for phones, etc. (he actually installed it before I shot this photo), and an outlet to plug my Swiffer sweeper vac into to charge it.
While he was at the store to get a longer pipe to install the gas logs, he picked up a couple of thin sheets of metal to put in the bottom of my spice drawers to keep the magnetic tins from sliding around.
DD asked me to take some photos of her room and post them so her friends at college can see her room, so here they are. There are still a couple of piles of things laying around that didn't go back to college with her.
The dresser and closet side of the room and the all-important golf ball collection...
The desk area and entrance to her room...
The bookcase...
For those following the saga of the hunting blind that someone set up on our property, we still haven't seen any sign of the owner. The winds were strong on Saturday, so the blind collapsed but didn't blow away because it is staked into the ground. Gun season for deer hunting begins the Monday following Thanksgiving here in PA, so my guess is that he set up the blind early to stake out his territory. He'll be really surprised when he comes back to hunt and finds the Posted signs that we've hung up around our property!
A good part of this weekend was spent searching online for some stools for the bar in the kitchen/family room. I sent DH a long list of possibilities and he sent back a list of his 3 favorites. This one is the Tommy stool - I was a bit worried that the legs on this one would mar the wood floors and they were so narrow at the bottom it wasn't obvious that felt pads would work on the legs...
This one is the Hillsdale Cierra stool. Part of the problem with all the stools we looked at was the risk that the reds wouldn't coordinate with the red chairs that we already have in the room in front of the fireplace. They came in other colors, so the second dilemma was trying to decide on color.
We finally decided on this stool. It is the Hillsdale Venus stool and we bought 4 of them for the kitchen bar area. The online reviews were very good - very well made, sturdy, and comfortable...
I think this stool is really fun, but DH didn't care for it. Maybe I'll get it for my sewing studio. I'm planning to get a stool to sit on at my cutting table while I work on my scrapbooking. I need to get the counter-height cutting table in there first, then a 26" stool should work well.
I spent Saturday doing some cleaning and cutting shelf liner to fit the shelves and drawers in my kitchen. I didn't do all of the cupboards, but wanted to get the ones done that might get water or dirt on them. I mainly did the cupboards where I store my glassware and the drawers where I store my spices.

I also worked on a set of placemats that I'm making for our family room table. I finished one last week and yesterday I almost finished a second one. It may be a while before I get all 6 of them done! The embroidery takes 45 minutes to an hour per placemat and the handstitching around the embroidery takes about an hour per placemat. I hate handstitching, but it really adds to the details on the placemat. Photos to come later...

The landscapers leaveth...

We have a deck railing! The landscapers showed up a bit before 7:30 this morning and went to work putting the aluminum slats in the deck railing.
Here is a closer view - I really like how it turned out...
They spent some time cleaning up the area and made a bonfire of a lot of the junk that had been lying around. They didn't spread the topsoil yet.

And they still need to finish the pavers. I guess they ordered 10% more pavers than they needed for the area and still ran out. They talked their suppliers into selling them less than a full palette, so when that comes in they'll be back to finish the patio and spread the topsoil.
They still need to fill this planter with soil also... The landscapers loaded up their utility trailer (which has been parked beside our garage since the second week in August) and left about 12:30 today.

DH took the day off work and spent the day on the tractor getting the lawn ready to seed. He seeded part of the lawn area, spread the smelly mushroom mulch on it, and watered it. He'll do another section next weekend.
I started working on the cover for DD's window seat cushion, but didn't get very far. It was nice to be able to hang out in the sewing studio while keeping an eye on the laundry though.

It's looking good...

The electrician and a couple of carpenters were at the house today putting in lights and doorknobs. The cleaning crew was also there making everything look nice. It certainly makes a huge difference to get all the plaster dust off of everything, especially the wood on the stairs and the floors. The wood floors had been given another coat of sealer and they are looking gorgeous. I believe they are doing the final coat on Tuesday or Wednesday.

We came up to the house through the field today so that we could check out what the septic guys have been up to. From the patio side of the house, we could see that the support columns are finished. DH was surprised to see that they were square, as the plans had called for round ones. I like these much better...they still need to be painted. The patio columns match the columns on the front porch (which are almost done).

The bricklayers had finished up the brick over the concrete pad and up to the step near the mudroom door. I'm not sure why they didn't have the brick in there before the pad was poured.
I was also very happy to see the bathroom fixtures installed! And they even work now - the water was connected to both. And judging from the partial roll of toilet paper sitting there, the ones in the powder room have also been broken in. :-D
My fear that the refrigerator was still in the garage because it didn't fit in the space turned out to be unfounded (phew!). It was in place and running, as were all the other appliances in the kitchen...
The fireplace hearth is finished - the triangular pieces were not in place the last time we were out there...
I had taken lightbulbs out to the house today so I could see what the kitchen pendant lights look like when they are lit up, but we found when we got there that someone had put bulbs in them yesterday after I left. I like these better now that they are lit up...
I still like the blue ones too!
DD's window seat looks really nice now that it is clean and shiny! I bought fabric for the back of her window seat pad yesterday so now I can finish making the pad (and she can cover up all that gorgeous, shiny wood with her seat cushion)!

This is the leech field for the septic system...
It looks like they had to cut down about 4 small trees to get the septic system installed...
The septic tanks are now in the ground and connected to the plumbing in the house...
Here is one of the outdoor sconces...

Items completed as of today are marked in green...

septic tank - almost done - probably 1 more day of work
gas lines - still need to be connected by the gas company
furnace
A/C
painting
kitchen - granite, finish work, vent fan, pulls, granite backsplash, appliances
plumbing
electrical - lights/fans, valance lights (probably going in Wednesday or Thursday)
gutters
brick/stone/pillars
driveway - concrete, gravel
grading - rough, topsoil
sewing studio - knobs/pulls, upper crown moulding on cabinets
master bath - grout, finish shower, cabinets, glass doors, baseboard stone, granite
stained woodwork on great room walls
closet shelves/rods
pantry shelves
stain front door
paint garage doors, install gaskets
grab bars on guest tub
shower curtain rods in 2 bathrooms
stairs
fix vanity granite backsplash in kids' bathroom, recess medicine cabinet?
top for windowseat
doors on bookcase shelves in great room
doorknobs
carpet (going in on Monday)
fireplace granite surround

Countdown to move day: 10 days and counting!

Hmmmm...

Well, tonight the granite looked a lot like it did when I left the house earlier this afternoon, except a whole lot cleaner and attached to the cabinets. For some reason, the backsplash didn't get done. We have a call in to the KD to see if he knows what is going on with it. The granite certainly is shiny though!
Here is the beverage area...
And the island...
And the cooktop/eating bar area...
DD's window seat is now covered in stained wood...

These are the closet shelves in DS's room - they are a bit odd in their arrangement...
The sink has been installed in my sewing studio...
We now have a furnace and a water heater in the basement...
And the doors have been installed at the bottom of the stairs in the basement...
Things are moving along. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the hardwood floors are supposed to be sanded and sealed and driveway poured. Thursday and Friday the kitchen cabinet guy and the master bathroom tiler should be back to finish up and the following Monday the carpets are supposed to be installed. I don't know the schedule for the rest of the subs - plumber, electrician, etc. but the end is in sight!

Countdown to moving day: 18 days and counting!

Who likes a bright kitchen?

So, in case you haven't figured it out yet from other kitchen photos, maybe this one will help you to realize just how much I like a bright kitchen... ;-D

The drywall people were there today, finishing the ceilings. This is the office ceiling - it looks so much better without the drywall and tape and mud showing! I'm a bit worried about the paint in this room and the music room. I thought that the last time we were out there the paint on those walls was the actual paint color, not just the primer. It turns out it was just the tinted primer. The real paint color seems very dark and I'm not sure I'm crazy about the color (the very top of the wall in this photo is the real paint color, the lower part of the wall is still the tinted primer).
The drywall (or fireproof board of some kind?) is getting put up around the fireplace.
The underlayment has been put in the rooms that will be tiled. This is the guest bathroom...
DD's room is painted with the tinted primer only so far. The window seat will have a stained board on top and I will eventually make a cushion for it.
It looked like the brick was finished on the back of the house, but I forgot to take my boots with me, so no photos of the outside today. I think the bricklayers are working on the windowsills now.

So, the builder's assistant has been searching for our LG refrigerator and is not having any luck. It seems that there is a new model out now and no one (at least locally) has the old model in stock. The biggest problem with getting the new model is that they changed the door handle style and the old model had handles that matched very well with all the JennAir appliances that we are putting in the kitchen. The inside of the refrigerator had minor changes also which I didn't care for as well. The 2 large bins are now 2 medium bins with a small can-size bin in-between and the large drawer under the bins where large trays can be stored opens differently and I don't like it, either. My guess is that we will try to find the old model online, but I wonder whether that makes repairs difficult if you buy it online.

The long-awaited window seat...

We stopped at 2 tractor places this morning. DH had already decided on a Kubota so we just needed to check out a couple of different dealerships. We were using the GPSr to locate the first one, when we decided we must have passed the place. I'm not sure how we missed it, as there were all these HUGE, very orange tractors next to the road! We must have really been in la-la land when we drove past it. :-D I think we've decided on the B3030 tractor and attachments so we can mow, smooth gravel, landscape, etc.
We headed to the house after our tractor shopping trip. The carpenters were back today and they had put in the half wall between the kitchen and family room.
They were also working to open up the ceiling over the master bathroom tub. Originally it looked like this, with a flat area over the tub (this photo taken from above the tub, from the kids' bathroom in the attic)...
And now it looks like this, with the ceiling opened up to the area beside the kids' bathroom on the attic level (this photo taken from the master bathroom, standing where the tub will be and looking up into the kids' bathroom)...
They were also framing-in the master bathroom tub...
And DD will be excited to see that her window seat has finally been put in. It's really big - we could get rid of her bed and she could just sleep on the window seat! I'll eventually make a cushion for the seat...
The electric, heating, and plumbing guys were all working on things today. This is a photo taken in my sewing studio. Because of the way that the steel beams and joists run, there needed to be a soffit built in my sewing studio to contain the heating and A/C ducts. The soffit will be over the wall of cabinets, over the door and in front of the closet. We started with 9' ceilings in there, so it doesn't feel closed-in at all.