Our clock is ticking!

The kitchen countertops arrived last week -- after two delays -- and have been installed, along with the sinks, microwave/vent, and cooktop. This picture shows progress that has been made, but also some of the things that still have to be done.

The ballusters and newell posts have been set on both stairways.

We wanted an old piece of wood to use for our mantle, and Larry found this 100 year old beam in an old mill that closed down some time ago. It definitely has character! Larry's rubbing it with tung oil.

We're pushing to be ready for final inspection by Friday. Larry has 4 guys coming tomorrow to help him finish up around the outside of the house (Jeff & his brother, Jon, and 2 Berry students). We'll let you know how things are going.
There's a lot going on at the house, but it seems like very slow progress. Maybe that's because we're anxious to get moved in before we leave for the Middle East the first of April!
Over the weekend, Collin & Jordan helped us do some painting in the mechanical room in the basement. They loved it, and they did a great job!


They're still working on the kitchen cabinets. We had a complication last week that will set us back a little since we had to order some replacement parts.

Laundry room cabinets are almost complete. There will be a utility sink in the base cabinet.

Carpet has been installed in the loft:

Looking down the stairs from the loft. Treads have been stained--still a lot to do.

We're using wood from a 100 year old barn on the walls beside the fireplace. Ron & Larry have been cleaning and planing the wood. You can see the first board mounted next to the fireplace:

The mason has been working on the stone wall extending from the ground floor patio to the driveway, and the stonework covering the poured wall on the side of the house and on the entry side. The bare concrete wall you see will also be covered with stone.



They are framing up the driveway and walkways to the entry porch and the screened porch, and hope to be able to pour cement later this week.
ckc

cabinets

Cheryl/Mom and I are off to Orlando in a few minutes for the annual Chick-fil-A seminar, but I wanted to get a post up before we left. We won't be posting until next Thursday.
The garage metal roof is complete, but I failed to get a photo of it. They started the wiring in the garage and they have moved the water tank into the garage. We already have a resident owl in the garage! When the workers force him to move he just moves to another quiet place in the loft of the garage. The garage doors will be installed next week so we will have an IDO to deal with --- Internally Displaced Owl...
Our crew is working on installing cabinets right now as it is freezing cold. There are some shots of the cabinets below. These photos were taken on Wednesday, so there is more progress on the installation. The countertops will be ordered today and it will take two weeks for them to come in, so hopefully we will move in three weeks. We have purchased the carpet for the loft and it will be installed hopefully the first of next week, so the crew can complete the stair ballusters and rails (it is much easier to install the carpet before this work is done). There is still a lot of small things that have to be done -- in addition to some big things like forming and pouring the concrete drive.
So, we are under a bit of pressure to finish the house, move in and get somewhat settled before leaving for the month of April to visit with the overseas families. Cheryl will be gone the whole month and I will be overseas on business and visiting family for nearly three weeks.
Kitchen. Double oven cabinet.

Kids

Fireplace is 99% compete. It has both man-made stone that were designed to match stones on the farm and some natural stones with fossils and moss on them.

Ground floor bath.

Ground floor kitchen.

Wash room.

Master bath

A Little Bit of Color

Sorry that I have not posted pictures for several days, but there really hasn't been anything new to see. The painters started on Tuesday -- a day later than planned. They sprayed the primer all over the house, painted doors and trim, and finally today began to paint the first coat of color. They did a lot of cutting in around doors and windows (this is a little dark, but you can kind of see where they painted around the windows in the greatroom). . .


. . . and they started rolling the first coat in the ground floor family room. The walls below the chair rail will be a darker shade. The walls above the rail and the ceiling are the same color, but it looks lighter on the ceiling.


I was glad I went out there this afternoon, because they had started painting the ground floor bathroom the wrong color! Now that they've started rolling, maybe things will move faster, and I'll have some more colorful photos to post this weekend.

Week-end work on fireplace

Well, you're going to get a crick in your neck, trying to look at some of these pictures! I had them turned right in the computer, but when I posted them, they turned back and I can't get them fixed. I'm tired of trying to figure it out, so I'm just leaving them the way they are in hopes that you can get a good enough idea of the progress on the fireplace. Ken has been working today (Saturday) on the mortar, and these show what it looked like late this afternoon. He plans to finish it tomorrow (Sunday) so that the painters can get to work on Monday. The photo of the garage shows the completed siding.




Garage, Fireplace and Stairs

The first two photos show the work that was done today on the garage siding. Our neighbor, Ken, is working on the stone around the fireplace. I think it's like working a giant jigsaw puzzle, so it's moving more slowly than the work on the garage. The painters will wait until Ken has finished the fireplace before they continue their work, hopefully the beginning of next week. The stairway down to the ground floor (basement) is looking good! Tim & Eli are doing a great job. By the way, this is Cheryl posting now. Larry wanted to make sure that I could handle this before he leaves Friday for eastern Europe. I'll be posting pictures daily over the next 10-12 days so that Larry can track the progress on the house while he's gone.




Progress on Garage

As you can see, the garage is shaping up quickly. They just started the framing yesterday (first picture). The second picture was taken this afternoon (Tuesday). The painters have been doing preliminary work inside - caulking, covering the floors -- and today they primed all the trim. If they continue to have as many guys working as they did today, the painting will go very quickly! Ron & his crew are working on the stairways, and work has begun on the stone around the fireplace. Lots going on. It's raining tonight, so it will be a muddy mess out there tomorrow.

Wet and Cold, but warm inside

We finally got the slab and retainer wall for the garage poured. We had to wait for a day when the ground was frozen for the cement trucks to get up the hill. The ground is frozen this am so we will have the wood and trusses delivered today for the garage. Framing should begin on Monday.
Note there are only three columns up. There will be four, but Lowe's did not have the base and cap for the fourth one, so it is back-ordered.
On the inside the hardwood floors were finished yesterday, so all floors are finished. Today the cabinets will be delivered!! (Cheryl said to put those exclamations in there. She has worked hard on getting this order done).
Pending completing work on the stairs (treads, risers, ballusters, railing, etc.) and some trim work, the painters should start the first of next week.
The stones for the fireplace and outside trim were ordered this week. We will work on the fireplace once the painters are finished. Work on the natural stones on the retaining walls will be going on the first of next week.


Finally concrete on the hill

Two concrete trucks rolled up our hill this morning before daylight. They came early before the ground thawed so they would have better traction after the wrecker had to come and pull one of them off the hill last week. They also poured the front porch and footings for a retainer wall between the garage and the house.

After we have another drying spell, one truck will return to pour the three foot retaining wall on two sides of the garage slab. Later we will pour the drive and a turn-around at the top and the bottom of the drive.


muddy hill wins

We have been waiting for three weeks for the ground to dry out enough to get a concrete truck up the hill to pour the footings for the garage, the front porch, and footings for rock walls. After the freeze the ground has been very muddy, but we thought it was OK to order the concrete on Thursday. WRONG! The truck wound up cross ways in the road and had the contractor had to have a tow truck come and straighten it out so he could drive back down the hill--- with our concrete.

It rained again Thursday night, so we are back in the waiting mode for beginning the garage for a few more days.

In the meantime, the crown molding will be completed today. Tim and his son will be work on installing doors today. We are waiting on a back order for the attic space doors (either side of the loft) so we can heat the house and "warm up" the hardwood for installation. We will be buying door hardware this weekend, so we can secure the house.

Laminate flooring

the laminate on the lower floor has been installed. It is called "Georgia Pecan." We will install the interior doors on the lower floor this week. The guy who is installing the crown molding only works on Saturday, so he did not finish yesterday, but he will complete his work this Saturday. The outside HVAC units have arrived and are being installed this week.

Hopefully, we will be able to form up the garage slab and retainer wall and pour the footings this week. With the hard freeze this past week the ground has not dried up enough to remove the remaining dirt. At the same time we pour the footings for the garage, we hope to pour footings for a couple retaining walls and the front porch.