Fits and starts

I've been meaning to take more photos and post, but I keep thinking about it after I've left DGE. There's been a lot of progress, and now another lull.

We have:
* A new roof (yay! and just before the first rain)
* New gutters (though no downspouts or water exit yet, which made for a nervous night last night with the pouring rains)
* TYVEK! The house is wrapped, and ready for siding.
* Windows: All except for one that came damaged, and one (laundry room greenhouse-style) that still needs to be purchased.

Here it is:

September, 2011. From the front. Note the missing window, left

Up next: trim (we've finally settled on width and style; then siding (part of it was delivered last week, more to come tomorrow). But all that has to wait until our early rains stop.

Until then, here are some pix of our beautiful Dahlias. I think I'm in love!

This one bloomed in late summer

This and the ones below are the last 3 week's beauties

No photo Monday

I had some photos of the garden bounty (or kind of lack thereof) a week ago, but can't find them. Must be on M's phone.

The garden has been a bit of a disappointment this year--sure we're getting tomatoes and squash, but it just looks kind of pathetic. I planted 3 kinds of seeds: Sungold (my favorite), Brandywine, and Box Car Willie (for our dog Willie). Maybe I got too carried away too early in the season? It's funny because the plants I put in the garden last (after having to transplant them from small peat pots into larger pots) did the best. And I thought it was late for those. But we had such a rainy spring . . .

We never really got our drip system up and running for the whole garden, so that meant some uneven watering and lots of tomatoes with blossom end rot, and lots of splitting. And the weeds! Ay the weeds! I have so far refused to use any herbicide or pesticides, and you can really tell. It's a mess. I hope that next year when I actually live on the property it will be easier.

We've started to get a few figs, but nothing like last year's bounty. Though this year the grapes (Thomson seedless and Red Flame, we think) are doing much better than last year. Each year is an adventure, I guess.

I'm still glad we have the garden, but will count this year as not my best effort ever. That's ok.

As for house progress, there's lots to tell and show. I won't be able to post pix for a few days, but stay tuned!

My present

Late last week, M came home and said she had a present for me, but I had to find it. I love presents, but after looking around a bit, I didn't see anything and new it was pointless to hound her. I decided to be excited when I DID find it.

I didn't make it out to DGE until Sunday, and even then it took me a few minutes to find my "present." Not a traditional present, but a welcome one nevertheless.

What's under the 'wrapping'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The backside wrapping. Note the hose bottom left

Is that what I think it might be?

YAY! "Indoor" plumbing!

Yes! A toilet (hooked up to water supply by hose!) which is not permanent, and it's only semi-private, but it beats the bushes in the backyard!

Friday Night Dinner

So the progress on the house has slowed again as we have had a bunch of other stuff vying for our attention. And it's been hot. Apparently this is the coolest summer on record for the last 50 years, yet even at 90 in the afternoon, it's, well, a hot heat. And hard to be motivated to want to work in it.

So instead of new photos of the house itself, I offer you a photos of my lovely Friday night dinner.

 Corn, spinach, sweet white onion, squash, sungold tomatoes and farm fresh egg. YUM! I wish I could say the whole thing was from my garden, but it was only the tomatoes and the squash. I'd love to have a couple chickens for eggs, but don't trust Hairy (cat) and Willie (dog) to live peacefully with them!

Tomorrow I'll reveal my new present at the house that I recently received and found on Saturday!

Open house open house

A couple weeks ago, we had our first party at DGE. We called it an Open House Open House, since our house is still "open." It was family and a couple friends, and we had a lot of fun. It was a warm but not hot Friday evening, and we served wine, beer and a light dinner (Chicken and Peach Salad with Goat Cheese, Tomato Feta Tart and Rocky Road Bars). We "toured" our house (took oh, about 5 minutes) and then noshed in the shade of the veggie garden. I hope it's the first of MANY fun gatherings we have at the new house.

Our progress has slowed some as we've had a lot of other stuff going on in life. But here are photos, taken a couple weeks ago, that show the house (mostly interior) as it is today. Next up is Roofing, HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Siding, then all the interior stuff. It's going to be awhile . . .

Front of house with most of sheeting up

In the master bedroom, looking toward street

Does this look like a good size for the shower?

Yay! No more ladder to get to the 2nd floor!

"Bonus" area, someday to be craft room

It really feels great to be able to walk around the rooms and feel like we did ok with the design and layout, and try to imagine what it will feel like to live here. I'm one lucky girl.

More progress

We spent the day at the house yesterday. I mostly worked in the garden, and sought out the shade with my book, but Melissa got step one (pun intended) of the stairs complete. No more ladders to get to the second floor! It was hot (over 90) but it's amazing how cool it was inside the house. Thankfully there was a breeze, and the roof panels have some fancy reflective material that really shield the heat.

It's amazing how having the second floor and roof panels make it feel so different--and like so much has happened in a couple weeks. There is still months more work to do (more outside sheeting, roofing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, sheetrock, etc etc, etc, but there's enough in place now to really see how great it's going to be.

We spent some time on the second floor (yes, I had to climb the ladder again--NOT my favorite thing) reconfiguring the upstairs bathrooms yesterday (wow--this is a nice benefit of not being tied to plans and paying someone for each change) and I think it's going to work out nicely.

In the meantime, I picked 3 summer squashes, lettuce, nasturtiums and cilantro. And I pulled all the sugar snap peas out of the beds. The weeds are taking over, but I can't bring myself to use the Roundup in the vegetable garden. There's gotta be a better way.

Here are the photos of the house progress:

Front. Office on left. Panel (center) waiting to go to 2nd floor

Back. Living room right, kitchen center, laundry, garage left.

Side. Living room left, office and door right.

Step 1 of stairs.

Holiday weekend, after the fact

They were predicting temperatures in the high 90's and low 100's for the 4th of July weekend, so we did what any sensible people would do: packed up Willie and headed for Donner Lake. We're so lucky that we live only an hour away, that we can go to the house pretty much anytime we like, and that it's usually 20 (or so) degrees cooler up there.

Because we'd given blood on Saturday morning, and it was super hot, we got a very late start (packing up the hot car with low energy was just so unappealing!), but made it there by dinner time. We spent Sunday hanging out, and most of Monday too. It was fun to catch up on magazines, go sailing, watch Willie swim in the cold lake water, and relax. All in much cooler temps.

Monday, we headed back before dark, and then got to meet my friend Kathy and her daughter for some fireworks watching (and yes, we wore red, white and blue). The display seemed a little lacking this year, but how cool is it to hang with the friend you've had since age 2 on the neighborhood hill where you watched fireworks from probably around age 4 until 14? It's fun to think of all those years ago, hanging with our moms and listening to their conversations and now my friend's girls doing the same with us.

Hope you all had a nice, long, patriotic weekend!

More house photos later this week: the progress is exciting!