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.

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.

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

Too many things

I discovered today that there are too many things left to do to move in to The Log House.  We're never moving in.  

Well, at least that's the way it feels today. 

Too much left to pack.  Too much left to clean.  Too much left to build/finish/paint.

I spent HOURS just vacuuming the first floor log walls and the rest of the dining room and kitchen ceilings and cleaning windows of accumulated grime and adhesive from those manufacturer stickers that we just never took off before.

But I am digging those double-hung windows!  

I might actually clean those windows again within the coming decade.  

Bob and his father built a temporary railing on the balcony.  Eventually it will be made of log and bent twig, but for now, it'll keep me from falling off the edge.  Temporary, but sturdy.  

But there's still so much left to do:  

• clean out the arctic entry
• prime and paint the arctic entry
• select, purchase and install flooring in the arctic entry
• install hooks for coats and hats and bins for gloves and tuques
• move all the construction materials to the basement or to the shop
• clean the upstairs -- floors, walls, ceilings
• prime and paint the master bedroom walls
• install the board ceiling in the master bedroom
• let's not even talk about the master bathroom
• install bedroom and bathroom doors on the first floor
• put several coats of poly on the bedroom and bathroom doors
• stair treads and risers
• hearth and stone facing on the chimney
• exterior door face casings and filling in that empty spot over those doors
• laundry room wall and door

I'm not even listing things like exterior window casings, baseboard, closet doors, laundry chute doors, the whole closet in the master bedroom....      okay, well, I guess I did list them.  But there's more!  I'm just getting too depressed thinking of them all. 

It doesn't all have to be done before we move our schtuff out of the house in town and out to The Lake and start sleeping in logness and telling the post office to deliver our bills out there....   but a good bit of it does.   And now that I can see the move on the horizon, I feel impatient.  

There's the real problem:  I am impatient.  I want to live in my hand-crafted, lovely, perfect, beautiful log home NOW and I don't want to have to vacuum more sawdust to do it.  What an ungrateful whiner I am.  But, there you have it.  Warts and all.  

It's a work in progress, but I suppose so am I.  And if this house doesn't kill me, I sure will love living there.   *grumble*   You know:  in three more years.  

Just kidding.  

Not really.  

*Harumph*

The end.

Glass half full?

I am such a pessimist that I am hyper-sensitive to announcing an event before it comes to pass.   However.

Ahem.

We have started packing.  Yes, to move.  Into The Log House.  THAT Log House.  I. KNOW.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm hyperventilating.   Give me a moment, here.  

No, it won't be all finished before the move.  No, it won't even be close to being finished --  but it'll be habitable, and that's all I need, baby.  And, yes, I realize my standards have changed in the past 8 years.   Exactly.   Since we are only moving 9 miles away, we will be packing and moving in drips and drabs.  (The "drabs" mostly refers to my wardrobe.)   It will probably take us a month or two.  But, still!


Here are some photos of the little things around The House that The Hubs is finishing up in advance of the move:

That old steel door that used to be the front door?  It's now the back door.  Well, you can't win 'em all.  But it makes that hallway so much brighter!

The Girl takes advantage of the partially-assembled bunk beds to do some climbing.  

I will spare you the photos of me, with hair on end, sorting and packing up our (too) many belongings in the house in town.  You're welcome.

Stay tuned, faithful log-devotees!  Big thingz is afoot!

[insert door metaphor here]

Today is the start of fall.  Yes, I know that the weather is still as summery as yesterday.  AND that autumn doesn't technically start for weeks.   But for those of us whose employment follows the traditional American school year?   The first day back to school = fall.  The bairns don't return to the rigor of formal education until Thursday, but for me, it's today.   Sooooo...  I was going to whip up some sort of fab-O metaphor about portals to new....   this -- or doorways to the future.... blah.....   but it's 6:00am and I should actually be gathering myself to go to work, so cook it up yourself.

And furthermore, get off my lawn!

[ahem.  sorry.]

The good news is: we spent yesterday afternoon up at The Log House.  The BETTER news is that we put in the new front door.  YES WE DID!!   (and by "we," as always, I mean Bob and FIL Jim)

Sometimes, what makes it possible to build your own home ... er... freehand ...  is that you use "found" materials as you go along.  In this case, the found material is the front door we've been using for a few years.

Hey, it was free.

 
I asked The Hubs last night how we came to have a random extra old steel door lying around.  Apparently, a family friend got it from a store that was replacing it and gave it to my Father-in-Law Jim.  Thus -- free door.

But, rusty old free steel door NO MORE!   Okay, well, not on the front entrance.  It's just getting moved around to the rear entrance for the musicians and vagrants to use.   No, sorry.  That can't be right.  I mean for dashing out in the freezing cold winter to feed the wood boiler.   At least, it'll grace the back door until we can convince the children to give us all their lemonade stand earnings so we can afford another door.  Do you KNOW how expensive quality exterior doors are?   I nigh unto had a stroke when we priced them.  

But I digress.

Here's the old door gone:

Looking out

With a really handsome dude

Sorry, kids.  No college.  We got ourselves a nice front door.

So, usually, when there's work going on up at The Log House, I either hear about it after it's done and run up and take pictures, or take some before and after shots and in the meantime, go about my business.  

But in this case, I stayed for the whole thing.  Because -- well, how long can it take to put in a new door?

Hour ONE.

Apparently, I forgot that it was being installed in a hand-hewn log home.  AND that I have no concept of such things.  Because:  dang.

Four hours later, it's in.  Well, no casing.  And there's an area over the door that needs to be filled in....  but whatever.

Look who's being helpful!  That's right:  me.  

Nice door, eh?

The time we waited while the sausage was being made...  er... I mean, the door was being installed, wasn't entirely wasted though:

The Girl made good use of the new carpet.

Wanna come knock on our new door and pretend like we live there NOW?   'Cause I'm pretending that, too.  

Well, after I pretend that I'm ready for a new school year.  Yeah.  Pretending that too.

ACK! And apologies...

... for my delinquencies as a blogger.  I am sorry.  

Forgive me?

Truthfully, there hasn't been much action up at the logalicious home these past two months, but that's no excuse for not waffling on about this and that, as I usually do.  

So, what have we been up to?

Well, this:

Friend's wedding in Delaware

The Boy's annual Halloween party

The Girl carves her pumpkin

Church hayride {and agricultural lesson on soybeans}

Real-life Hunger Games

(or cousins at play during Maryland visit)

What we really went to Maryland for

Iron Man...er.. The Girl turned 6

 We're catching up now.... 

And POW!  Now we're up to current time.  

This is The Girl's game of "Bury the Brother" yesterday during our Lazy Family Saturday.

"Yeah, yeah, Anne," you say?   "We're here for LOGS, not all that family nonsense!"

Well then, feast your peepers on THIS:

The ACTUAL plans from our kitchen designer, who is ready to begin making our cabinets after Christmas!    {er, once Bob & I can agree on a countertop....}

So, now we need to get all the flooring in on that first floor where it's missing, bang in some real doors, and finish painting those rooms I should have gotten done before the end of summer.  Ahem.  

Thanks for not abandoning me during my hiatus, and I will endeavor to earn your readership, faithful log-lovers.   Plus, you wouldn't want to miss the KITCHEN installation, would you?!  EEEEEEK!

Pocket Doors and more!

{What a great store that would be.}

This little guy greeted me when I visited the log house on Saturday:

As Paula Poundstone once said about Henry Winkler, "Now there's a happy little fella!"

Once inside, I was greeted by this happy little fella too:

No, not Bob.  Well, yes, he was there too, obviously, but I don't think he's often referred to as a "happy fella."   I MEAN the pocket door in place!    First one, then two!

The walls on either side of and above the doors will be pine board.  The Troll Bob's sister gave us a gorgeous colored-glass window for Christmas this year that will go above the doors.  I cannot WAIT to have it in place up there.  It's perfect. 

While shopping for a refrigerator, which we didn't get, we got a stove.  Which I don't have a picture of.   But we also stumbled upon a great deal on a hot water heater and snatched that bad boy up. 

Bad boy.

So, while we don't have plumbing, we do have the theoretical ability to heat up water. 


Anywho, it looks a little like progress, eh?    Huh?  huh?    Who's with me?