One More Major Item to Go!

The kitchen counter is installed and the alarm and video system is installed. Gravel continues to be delivered and the log railing will be partially installed on Saturday.

Bringing in the granite island top, they said this slab weighs 700 lbs, not sure about that but it is heavy!

Completed kitchen counter top, looks great.

View of counter top on left end towards dining room.

Another view between stove/ refrigerator.

Close-up of the granite, it really blends well with the cabinets and the wall colors, it is called "Santa Silvia".
Great job Lorrie picking out everything to match so well!

If you ever come to visit, remember, I will have you on video, in color even!

More gravel, I lost track of how much gravel we have put in the driveway and around the house after 700 tons.....

The List is Even Shorter

Largely we just have the kitchen counter top, the alarm/video system and the log railing to go. The kitchen counter top and the alarm system are being installed today. The amishman building the log railing called and his machine has a broken part so it may not get done before move-in, we will see today/tomorrow. We are also getting some of our final gravel for around the house, one load was delivered and drop spread yesterday, more today and tomorrow. Then I am off tomorrow and will spread/level all the gravel and bring it up to the level of all the garage doors so we can use them to move in next week.

Lorrie's Redneck cloths line on the side porch.

Must be getting close to moving in, starting to put new furniture on the front porch. You know where our priorities are, we have no furniture in the house but we do have it on the front porch!

Beam Me Up Scotty

We now have Hughes Net for Internet and DirectTV for television. They were installed today. Too bad we don't have any TV's or a wireless router to take advantage of them. They actually had to bring a TV with them just so they could make sure everything was programmed and working, LOL!

This is sorta "nerve central" out front, we have the water hydrant on the far left, the Hughes dish on the left, the conduit back to the house in the middle, the DirectTV dish on the right, then the "man hole" that has a water shut-off valve and the telephone connections in it and on the far right, is the sewage system, looks like a submarine.

A Time of Firsts

We realized we were doing many things for the first time in the house so we thought we would share some.

First load of laundry.

First items in the refrigerator.

First item in the kitchen cabinets.

First....well you get the idea.

First meal prepared in the kitchen (countertop comes Thursday).

First shower in the hall bathroom!

Quick Update

We installed the last downspout drain today (15 out of 15) and dressed up that corner of the front porch. With the new tractor even a job like this is a piece of cake, done in no time. The plumbers were here today and we now have two working faucets and one working toilet. We also plugged the refrigerator in and after a couple of hours it seems to be working fine. So in the kitchen we have a working microwave, working stove and working refrigerator. They still need to connect the water to the dishwasher and after the counter top is installed, we will get the last sink connected.

Starting the dig for the last downspout, awesome to have the right equipment.

Installing the pipe, this is only 4" since there is only one single downspout from the front porch going to it.

Done and all dressed up, just need some rain to get it all settled in.



Pavilion with poured concrete, just need gable ends and fascia to be completed. I plan to have gravel delivered next week so I can spread it in the areas where the tractor implements will go.

All Systems Go!

We now have propane and running water! The propane tank was installed and we fired up the hot water tank, tested the dryers and the stove. We also have a faucet in the hall bathroom and now have hot and cold running water, major milestone! Lorrie says I can't take a shower in the house yet, something about not having a shower curtain, whatever.....

We also moved the 475lb wood burning stove into place, quite a chore but with 5 guys and Lorrie, it was manageable. Looks great, don't need the heat right now so it will be a time before we try it out. And finally, the pavilion is 90% done. The concrete was poured, the roof is all on, the soffets are on, just need the gable ends and the fascia installed and it will be done. After move-in, I will put lights and power outlets in it. The conduit is run from the house and we already pulled the wire out to it, so the hard part is out of the way for sure. I am going to see if they can deliver and set the wood boiler next week, we already paid for it, just been waiting on the pavilion to be done to have it delivered, we are weeks ahead of schedule on this aspect of the project.

Propane tank being delivered, set in place and connected.

Concrete being poured in the pavilion, last concrete truck to come up the driveway, he even stayed on the driveway this time.......

Wood burning stove in the great room is installed. Just need to feed the outside air to it now and it will be ready to "fire" up.

"Cookin with Gas"

Adding On ..... Already!

We didn't have enough room, so we decided to add another building. Really, we started the pavillion for the wood burning stove, firewood and tractor implements today. I didn't think we would get to that until after we moved in but the Amish crew became available so we started it today and already have the posts set and the rim board installed. We ended up making it 16 feet by 40 feet. The rest of the lumber is already here and the metal for the roof will be done tomorrow. I suspect it will be under roof and may even have the concrete poured yet this week, wow that is quick!

The fireplace hearth is now done and once the tile is dry, the wood burning stove will be ready to be set. It weighs 475 pounds, going to be fun to lift up and put in place.

We have a pressurized water system in the house now and the hot water tank is full. The washer in the main laundry room has been connected and is ready. All the appliances needing LP gas have been connected and we are ready for the LP company to set the 500 gallon tank which is scheduled for Thursday.

Working on the tile on the fireplace hearth.

Hearth ready and the wood burning stove on standby to be set in place.

16' x 40' pavillion for wood boiler, firewood and tractor implements framed and ready.

We Have Dial Tone

The phone is completely installed, 1,400 feet back from the road into our kitchen, we have dial tone! Last major system to make it up the hill. The water line is into the house, they are installing a pressure regulator and in-line water filter today and will install the water softener tomorrow, the hot water tank is already installed, ready for all the connections to be made including all that is necessary for the outside boiler. Pretty complex inside the utility room with all we have going on!. We have 70lbs of water pressure from the county so we had to put in a pressure regulator to tame that down a bit to reduce problems with facets, toilets, etc they say more like 55lbs is ideal but we can adjust it up if we want more pressure for showers, etc.

All of the cabinets are installed, they finished today. This includes the entire kitchen and the vanities and linen closets in all three bathrooms. The vanity tops are installed and the granite kitchen counter top gets installed next Thursday. They came and made a lazer generated computer template last week. Apparently they have a machine that then cuts out a template from plastic, they then lay it on the granite pieces to get the best pattern and use out of each piece of granite, before cutting it.

The Amish crew is installing the remaining doors, door hardware and working on the hickory stairs. With the exception of the outside boiler pavilion and a few small odds and ends, they should be all wrapped up this week. A different Amish person is then going to do the log railing, still not confident that will be installed before we move in, we will see. We need to run and get him one evening once the stairs are done so he can make final measurements before final cutting prior to coming over for the actual installation.

And finally, the carpet in the two upstairs bedrooms was installed today, one more step towards completion!

Master bathroom hickory cabinets, linen closet and solid surface counter top. Just need a fawcet and toilet and we will be good to go! (oh, and a mirror....)

Kitchen cabinets 100% completed. Just need the granite counter top and the the appliances all connected and we will be ready to go here to! I installed the under cabinet lighting Sunday morning.

Carpet being installed in the upstairs bedrooms. The upstairs bedrooms are now 100% complete.

More Digging

The sewage system is in the ground, the conduit out to the satellite, the ThermoPEX piping out to the boiler and the copper line to the propane tank are all in the ground. The phone line and water line also now are run into the crawl space under the house. We now have 10 of 15 downspouts routed away from the house too. The kitchen is ready for the granite counter tops to be measured, which is planned for tomorrow. The vanities and linen closets have been set in all three bathrooms and the vanities tops are here and ready to be installed. The cabinets/ vanities should be completed by end of day Friday. Then it will take a couple weeks to get the granite counter cut and installed, will be pushing it to get it in before we start moving items into the house, but we can deal with it if we don't get it in time.

"NPDES" Sewage System - An EPA approved min-sewage plant that discharges clean water out the other side, no leach  beds required, very nice! It even has a phone line connected to it that calls for service automatically when something is out of spec.

Filling the system with water so the tanks don't flout out of the ground.

Kitchen is coming along nicely. This will all be done except counter tops this Friday.

Ditch out back of the house to where the boiler and propane tank will be.

Yellow pile is for propane, black pipe is the ThermoPEX pipe to bring the hot water from/back to the boiler, the gray conduit is for power out to the boiler/ lights & power in the pavilion.

More of the downspout drains, only 5 to go and we'll be done and all the water will drain away from the house.

The List is Getting Shorter

We are getting closer, day by day. The list of open items is getting shorter and shorter each day. Lot's if pictures below to catch everyone up. Here is what has been accomplished since the last posting, the fireplace stone is done, the hardwood floor is done, the window and door trim is 99% done.

All the cabinets/ vanites have arrived, the kicthen is being installed. The appliances arrived Saturday evening. The light fixtures are about 50% complete. Lorrie and I worked on the downspout drains over the weekend and the sewage system installation has started and will be done in the next couple of days. We should also have the water line and phone line into the house this week. Next week the main stairs will be finished and the final measurements can be made for the log railing.

We are still on track to move in the first week of September. The only main house item not done may be the log railing, it took a long time to get the wide/ long hickory boards we needed for the stairs.

After move-in we will then complete the outside wood boiler pavilion and installing the boiler. The boiler is in, just don't want to have it delivered until the cement pad for it is ready, which will be in September some time, well before we need the "heat".

Complete fireplace!

All the canbinets and vanities, still in their boxes.

Ceiling fan in our master bedroom.

Picture of the great room from the loft. Hardwood "puzzle".

Front porch lights and ceiling fans completed.

Hummingbirds out the camper window.

Lorrie holding the feeder, while a humming bird comes in for a drink.

Digging the trench for the sewage system.

Digging the ditch for the front shop downspouts.

Completed front shop downspouts.

Appliances being delivered.

New refrigerator and the new kitchen cabinets in progress.

"My" washer and dryer in the deer processing area.

Transporting the downspout pipe to the back side of the house.

Completed front porch downspouts.

Completed and groomed out after downspout drains installed. Lorrie and I are proud of the work we did.