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!

Bathroom door

Nothin' like a good night's sleep and the sympathy of friends to help clear away the snares of self-pity.  Life is good and we have a bathroom door!

First floor bathroom door, leading into the hall

Walls, vents and other stuff

It's hard to report on some of the house progress.  Like the aforementioned sealing of the basement floor, some of it is relayed in a few words -- and no pictures -- despite representing hours or days of work.  Some things are cool, but hard to take pictures of...  like duct work.

Bob works on ventilation duct from the master shower vent/fan

 But, here, devoted log-ees, are some pictures of a beautiful wall my FIL Jim is finishing.  The beautiful wide boards were milled by The Hubs from trees he felled on or near our property.  To me, that makes them all the more beautiful.

To give you some perspective on where the wall is...  

at the top of the stairs, to the right of the pocket doors that lead into the master bedroom.

Some walls aren't as pretty, but I'm still happy to see them going up!   This one is on the bedroom side of the master bath:

And this one is -- clearly -- behind the main floor toilet:  

Now there's just a bit of trim work left to do in that bathroom!  

*Sigh*  I love spending time in the new house.  

Bathroom walls, vents and all.

In Which Anne is Useful

Hurrah!   I made myself useful up at The Log House yesterday!    Let's be frank:  there's not much I can do to be helpful, except sweep up sawdust and make proclamations.  So when The Hubs gives me a job I can actually accomplish, it's momentous.

Said Husband had to go un-stick the snowmobile from the sugarbush, where it had gotten mired in the deep and softening snow, and set me up with some polyurethane in the dining room.  Never having polyurethaned anything before, I am pretty pleased with the fact that I didn't even screw it up a little.  Because, to be honest, it was a distinct possibility.  

During:

After:

I think it warms up that wainscoting nicely, eh?

Let's just step around the corner and see what we can see...

Well, hellooooo  lovely lights!   Fancy meeting you here!   

You know -- even though I know that we have so much work left to do before we move into The Log House, it's finish details like these lights that just make my day.  It makes it feel that much closer to reality.  

Here's something else The Nonchalant Husband demonstrated -- as an afterthought -- yesterday: 

I am so inordinately happy about this, I feel a bit shy to admit the amount of squealing that took place.   This is the main floor bathroom, the one directly across from the guest bedroom. So it will be convenient for you when you visit.  You ARE coming to visit, aren't you?

So much progress!  And for once, I actually contributed more than squeals of delight.  Aw, yeah.

Our Day In Logs

The facing of the chimney exterior is ALMOST done --  all but a little corner, so I'm holding off on my TA-DA!  pictures until the whole shebang is done, and the scaffolding down.  

In the meantime, the rain today nixed The Hubs' work plans, so I bundled us all off to The Lake to get wee bits done on The Log House.

What makes me nearly as happy as progress on The House?  Children reading. 

We put on some outlet and switch covers in the downstairs bathroom:

Before

During

After.

Then Bob hooked up the sink in the upstairs bathroom:

We made a written list of the rest of the outlet/switch covers we need and I made a mental note of the remaining tasks that need to be done before we can move in (installation of kitchen cabinets & countertops, flooring over the entire first floor, exterior and interior doors, railing on the balcony, caulking in the bathrooms, wainscoting in the dining room, building that half wall between the dining and living rooms....  oh me oh my!)

But today, I'm grateful for the little things that were accomplished that bring us that small amount closer to done.

And that Bob didn't die while doing this:

More little things

So, here's a better look at that new ceiling fan and peak trim board in the living room:

And the last few window casings are in:

(except in the Master bedroom and bathroom....  but don't hold your breath for finish work in there!)   I love that every piece of the window casings is home made, from tree to installation.

The main floor bathroom fan/light/night light is all hooked up and ready to go:

We have a handful of little things left to do in the bathroom, but it's functional, at least.  And in the world of bathrooms, it's all about function, eh?  

Stay tuned for more exciting "little things!"   It's all PROGRESS in my book!

Update

Just in case you thought we'd forgotten we were building a house....

No, not a murder scene.  This is the kitchen.

Bob trying to fix my crappy painting job.  Hmmm.  It looks orange here.  In real life it's BRIGHT red.

And looks great against the exposed logs in the ceiling.

Bob spent most of his time this morning working on the plumbing in the upstairs bathroom, and met obstacle after obstacle.  Poor guy.  So then he came down to QA my painting work in the kitchen.   Poor guy.

It still needs a third coat, but then we're ready for the cabinets and countertops to be installed.

SQUEEEEE!

Bathroom floor

You'll recall that Bob and his friend and coworker John were cutting and prepping the master bathroom flooring a few days ago, right?   That's now completed, and I thought I'd drop in a few before and after shots.

Before:

During:

After:

I know that laying a small bit of linoleum isn't exciting, and it certainly isn't fancy as far as flooring goes, but it is, as I am wont to say, PROOOGRESSSS!!

The sink (around that back right corner) is the next thing to go in --  it's now in pieces on the bedroom floor awaiting its turn at installation.  The toilet (dead ahead over that hole in the floor) will wait until we're done tiling the tub surround (left).  The shower (right) also needs to be tiled, and all the trim needs to be done, of course....

But I'll take what I can get!

Just for fun

Fun with mirrors:

First floor bathroom

And the potty-side gunport in case we need to defend from invaders during inopportune times:

That is all.  No progress to report.   Just some shots of the house I took before giving a tour to our friend Joanna-who-abandoned-us-by-moving-to-Tennessee.    *sniff*     And before our pre-K-aged daughters took a little skinny-dip in the lake and The Girl then loudly and proudly announced it to siblings, cousins, her father and anyone else who wandered by....  

Yes, no pictures.  You're welcome.

My kind of fireworks

We had our annual Fourth of July celebration yesterday.... so, it was actually a 3rd of July picnic, but whatever.

The best thing about the day?  Well, aside from this:

Aunt Chrissy and The Girl relaxing on the dock

and this:

Flag fruit kebabs.  

and this:

Bob and The Troll  Aunt Chrissy in the ladderball tourney

and this:

The Hubs, Cousin Steve and the newest member of the extended family, little BabyA

and this:

Cousins and friends enjoying the day together

Was this:

A working bathroom sink.

That's as good as fireworks for me!


(And yes, Bob worked on our house the same day as our family 'do.  He's good like that.)