It's uncanny . . .

. . . The way that after nearly a month exactly has gone by, I get that inner nudge to come on over and write a post. And then am shocked it's been another 4 weeks!

We spent almost a week in NYC in late April, a fabulous trip. Then I've done some travel for work, and tile jobs have now been completed.

So, have we made progress on the house? Yes and no. The electrical is still nearly finished, and we're close to insulation and sheetrock. At least we're trying to get insulation installed by the end of this month as soon as we can. Every time I put a deadline on it, it seems even more elusive, so I just hope for the best (and if you ever worked with me, you'll know how difficult this is for my project-planning mind!)

We have, however, moved the work outside and made great strides in the yard. We've installed over 70 Dahlia tubers in what's now being called "M's Dahlia Farm" and we've planted a mini orchard. M's spent many hours on irrigation to both of those + my refurbished veggie garden, and we're just about finished with drip lines and emitters. Oh the joy (and may I say thank goodness for the tractor!) Last summer much of the veg watering was by hand, so this will be a godsend, especially since it's still a 10 minute drive between where we live and where we will live. I know it doesn't sound like much, but after a long day at work, it's hard sometimes to get excited about driving to the new house to drag a hose around.

I've got about 1/2 of my tomatoes in (varieties and counts later) and still have peppers, squash and a few other things to plant. My sugar snap peas are producing like crazy! And the volunteer sweet peas are wafting their sweet scent--it's a nice place to be weeding!

Ok, hope to be back before another month goes by. Stay tuned!

Delay redux

Well, nearly another month has gone by. There has been gardening (in between all the rain we've had) but that's it. Oh yeah, and a little more electrical.

M's been bogged down in tile work and it's been very wet when she's been in between jobs. And we're getting ready for a trip out of town for a few days. Maybe May will bring more progress.

Back in a couple weeks . . .

And time goes by

Oh dear. It's been more than 6 weeks since my last post. I wish I had much to report, but it's been slow stalled progress. M's had tile jobs, other home maintenance, emergency landlord issues, and last minute day trips to SF with me. All that adds up to very few hours logged at DG.

Since it's already late March (how exactly did that happen?) it's become clear that my hope and desire to move in this Spring is not going to happen. So I demanded requested asked for a promise that we could be in by Thanksgiving. I won't dwell on the fact that I had hoped to be in by Thanksgiving 2010. Nope. Life goes on and things are good, and everything is going along as it should. Albeit slowly.

We did some garden additions which I'll post about soon. Spring has come to the Sierra Foothills with tons of rain, and it's still dicey about whether our new "additions" will make it. Hope springs eternal, right?

Cleaning the house

Who knew that all those messy messy contractor boys (you know, all the trash they throw down, cigarette butts, sawdust, mostly empty water bottles, etc) actually made it a priority to clean before an inspection? I didn't.

Work has been ongoing, though not much to show. Mostly wiring. Some more plumbing. A ledger board hung high in the air on the back for the pergola (later). Central vac installation (today! Yipee!).

I got my work assignment for my "2nd shift" tonight: help clean and tidy up for tomorrow's plumbing inspection. So I'll don my work clothes and head out at 5, and help sweep, tidy and generally get the place looking ship shape for plumbing.

Up soon (we hope!) is insulation. Then drywall. Then many decisions about flooring, cabinets, wall colors, fixutres etc. The fun, but overwhelming stuff.

But tonight I'll sweep with the best of them!

Ready for rain

M was able to get pretty much everything buttoned up today, getting ready for the rain. She's sick again (my fault--I had it last week) but not as bad last month, and she's powering through it.

The front porch is now ready for roofing (timing tbd, but tar paper's down); raw wood has been primed against the predicted week of rain, and the floor is ready for decking.

Don't those corbels look nice?

The top part of the pillars is ready for paint: they'll be plain, but notice the slight "craftsman" flaring? The bottom will be built up (they're missing still--see below) and larger, and straight. They'll be shingled to match the dormer above.

Once again, the color is NOT the final color--the dull yellow-y color is just the color of the siding as it comes. Even the trim around the windows and the door itself will get painted--we're thinking a gray/taupe, but haven't picked the color out yet.

Ok, rain, bring it on. The trees need it, as do the California poppy seeds I sewed last week! We hope we can move inside to electrical while the weather is wet.

Doesn't it look AMAZING?

The Front Porch Continues

The work on the front porch continues. It's nearly ready for decking. We'll likely wait until after this week's predicted rain, since there's other work (the endless siding) that would be good to get farther on before the rain starts.

Here are a few photos. More to follow!

roof mockup in place, 2 of 3 footings poured

 

 

 

Framing out the structure

Roof sheeting on!

Though it's mostly been about the front porch for the last couple weeks, siding has continued, and the front is complete. More updated photos that also show decorative accents on front porch roof to follow!

Front porch

Though I've been an infrequent poster, we have accomplished some work in the past few weeks. We've had really dry weather, which isn't good for the climate but is really good for building.

Over the holidays, our big effort (besides siding, more on that another day, but suffice it to say the work continues) was to get the front porch and cover built.

First we poured the footings (it was pretty fun--I've never mixed concrete before)

There were three in total.

Two footings poured, assessing the third

More photos to come of the cover structure. And a follow up on the neverending siding.

Happy New Year!