Metaphor

I have one beautiful, lovely, gorgeous step:

 metaphors and aphorisms abound

Bob was trying out the durability of the construction adhesive on one stair tread/riser combination before he did the whole flight of stairs.  But it's the most pertyist step you ever did see!

Pretty soon I'll be walking up and down just to experience the pure staircase perfection.  Who needs exercise equipment?!   Okay, me, but that's not the point.

Stairs.  Well, stair.  But soon: stairs.

The End.

Beauty!

It's a beautiful day here in the North Country!  Blue sky, colorful leaves, warm breezes...   it's our last hurrah before the cold blows in and settles down for 5 months. But today... we are in heaven.

But the real thing of beauty around here?   

The arctic entry floor!   

SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!    

We have a few pieces in the corner that still need to be laid down, but it's so so SO beautiful!  

Come on over and gaze upon our Arctic Entry in all its glorious beauty.  You know you want to.   

Back steps

So last winter, after we moved into The Log House in December, the Hubs had to use the rickety temporary construction steps out the back door to feed the boiler.   In advance of the heating season this year, the menfolk decided to build a nice new sturdy set of steps.  I was expecting just simple little stairs, but I returned from work to this:

A wee little deck!   I *may* have squealed a little with joy.  

Over the following week, Bob - and an assortment of friends and family - completed the decking and the steps.  

No, the cat didn't help much.

Now I can grill on the deck like a real 'Merican and not in the woodshed.   And the Hubs won't fall to his death in a snowbank this winter.

Which would put a real damper in my plans for a new back door.  Heh.

Hang your hat

That arctic entry is almost ready for prime time!   And even this manual labor-phobic blogger has been pitching in.  I helped shellac the vertical wall boards and sanded and shellacked and polyurethaned the horizontal cherry boards that the coat hooks will be mounted on!  Yes, I did!  I can prove it:

Me, shellacking the wall boards.  

Me, sanding the cherry coat rack boards

Okay, this one is The Husband, removing the loose bark from the edges of the coat rack boards.

Well, that doesn't really prove I helped.  But it's hard to take a selfie AND actually do some real work.  I tried.  No can do.  So, you get my weird-looking hands and the opportunity to trust me on this.  You're welcome.   

This is the before picture of the cherry coat rack boards:  

  

This is the after:

Yes, it looks like bacon to me, too.  I ain't got noooo problem with that!

I imagine we'll discover at some point that we'll need more than one hook.

Summer 2015

It's a hot, hazy mid-summer day in Northern New York!  We don't get too many, comparatively speaking, and so we love to hate these days.  The Hubs has been picking away at this and that on The Log House, completing little tasks, but his father is intent on finishing that arctic entry! 

He has started to put the hand-milled boards up on the walls:

 

It's hard to get a good angle for a picture

 

The FIL is itching to get the flooring down in there and for me to decide what I want to do with that end wall and whether to continue the boards all the way around.   Advice?  You know I'm not going to take it, what with being so contrary and all, but I do like to *hear* others' opinions.  Heh.

Since it's summer, and that means hosting many friends and family, not much work on The House gets done, but it's an embarrassment of riches of a kind, so we aren't upset!  We do, however, get the largess of my father's garden.  Which is getting largess-ter each year. 

The Girl wandering the garden looking for something to munch on in early July

Our little spinach thief

With the great blessing of living in the woods all hermit-style comes the trial of limited internet access.   *sigh*   SUCH a first-world problem, eh?   So, that has made my blogging even more haphazard.  And we all know it was straight-up iffy at the best of times.  

So, see you in...  what?  November?    

Heh.   You know I'm only half joking. 

It's May Already?

May?  It's approaching the middle of MAY?  Seems like just yesterday we moved into The Log House, but it's been 4 1/2 months already.   And yet, I'm still as goofy happy about it as ever. 

The progress on the house is now just a bunch of little finish work.  Well, I say "little", but every new door knob sends me into a squealing squealer of squealingness.  We have doors on the downstairs bathroom and the kids' room/spare 'oom and the artic entry is in process of having its walls and ceiling finished.... see?

 

That brown is just the primer, but it's a lovely chocolate color in person, and I don't mind lookin' at it while waiting for the boards to be applied!

 

 

What else have we been up to this last wee while?   Well, a little of this:

 

 

Bob and Jim enveloped in a cloud of sweet steam from the evaporator, boiling down sap into maple syrup.

 

 

 and a little of that....

 



The menfolk splitting wood for next winter.  Already.

and cuteness....

 

  KITTENS!!!  Yes, we have two sweet kittens now -- who love to climb The Boy like he's there just for that reason.  And he loves it.

I can't get a very good angle of the arctic entry to show you the work as it goes on, but I'll squish myself into a corner and try to get some good shots as the board walls go up and the floor goes down.

*Sigh* At Long Last

I have been a blissfully contented woman this week.  Because?  I have come home to a crackling, flickering, toe-warming fire in the fireplace each day!   It is soul-soothingly lovely.


We waited until both sets of parents could be present for the first fire, since they have been such a big part of the building of this house.  So, since Bob's folks FINALLY returned home from that wicked parent-stealing Florida last week, we all gathered 'round on Easter Sunday to ceremonially light the lights, so to speak.

 

If you'll recall, we have not yet faced the chimney... or laid a properly pretty hearth... or purchased an adequately-sized screen.  But, who needs 'em?!

  
*Sigh*  A thing of beauty.  

Getting a *handle* on this thing

Three full months in the new house and I'm still just as excited about the whole thing!  Okay, I'm a little naggy about baseboards and such, but no less enthralled by the sheer logaliciousness of it all.

We are slowly doing the finish work (see previous reference to baseboards), which includes putting grain sealer on the raw pine doors:


and then adding doorknobs, etc:

  Hey - I know it's not the most exciting thing on earth, but *I'm* excited about the doorknob.  And, frankly, if you'd come to use the bathroom before the doorknob, etc was installed, you would be a little happy about it too.

Stay tuned for door casings and curtains!

Wait... you thought I was done?

Yes, we're in The Log Highness, (pause for squealing) but that doesn't mean we're done.  Lots more to do, folks.  Lots and lots.   And yet, this tightly-wound girl is surprisingly sanguine about it all.  Yeah, I know.  Crazy.  I'm even attempting to blog from my phone... although this might be what pushes me right over the edge.  Fair warning.

The Bob has been finishing this and that as we try to stay warm in this zero degree weather.  

To wit:

Walls in the laundry room! 

 The coolest log hand rail anywhere!

 We'll see what I come home to next... will it be permanent stair treads and risers?  Bedroom door?  Even actually living in the house doesn't diminish my excitement over every little new thing that gets built or finished.  I'm still just as squealy over new closet rods as ever. 

 Actually, if it would just stop snowing, The Hubs could come in from the relentless task of plowing our oh-so-long-and-picturesque driveway and work some more in the house!  Poor guy.  Poor plow truck!  That thing is on its last legs.

 

 But, hey!  At least it's clear so you can come visit!  You are coming to visit, aren't you?  

Especially if you like to sand and paint walls.  Then you're definitely welcome.  Heh.

Aaaaaand..... we're in!!



Hey, you guys!!  I've been absent from the blog for a month for the BEST of reasons...  okay, also because I'm lazy and have been without an internet connection...   but the main reason is that we MOVED INTO THE LOG HOUSE!!!  

I KNOW!   EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thanks to a little push and help from our friends Bert and Lisa and my mother, we moved the big stuff out to the new house the weekend before Christmas.  Despite our herculean effort, though, we left quite a bit of detritus littered about the old house which we are *ahem* still boxing up in drips and drabs.  Yes, I know.  UGH. 

But, I digress.  Once we had that major load of schtuff moved out to the new house, The Hubs and I sort of looked at each other and said, "What the heck? Let's just ...  sleep here." 

And we did.  And there was much rejoicing.

My Pennsylvanian sister Ells arrived a few days before Christmas and helped us decorate.  The new house.  For CHRISTMAS.  It. was. wonderful.  You have not seen a happier girl than this girl right here.    On Christmas day, we hosted my whole family for gifting and eating and more happiness.  The only thing that could have made our full hearts even closer to bursting is if Bob's parents hadn't abandoned us and the cold northern winter for the alligator-infested warmth of Florida --  er, I mean, if Bob's family had also been present.  We can't wait for them to return and for all the cousins to experience the joy of log-a-riffic living this summer. 

 To illustrate said happiness, I submit this photographic evidence:

Cooking for the first time in the new house.  With cheese, appropriately.

Hey, I didn't say it was a full, fancy meal.  What's wrong with grilled cheese?

The dining room... with furniture sort of temporarily scattered about.  But - look - a table cloth!

The Boy and The Girl on Christmas morning.  In the log house.  For Christmas. 

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!   Sorry.  It's still just so awesome.

The stockings were hung by the (unfaced) chimney with care... by an 8 year old whose decorating ideas consist of hanging sparkly clumps of garland on those metal tab things like birds' nests.

Just a gratuitous shot of the interior of the house. 

(This is standing in the dining room, looking through the living room toward the arctic entry/front door.)

Bob and I, finally at home in logs.