Automatic . . .

It still needs some hardware for dress (kind of like jewelry) but the new garage door is here and installed. And the motor purrs--so quiet. YAY!

Tomorrow's a big day--Door delivery. Well, most of them. I love having stuff delivered!

Weekly?

Well, I didn't mean for this to become a weekly blog, but better that than monthly or never? I'll go with yes.

Progress continues, slowly. Tomorrow morning the garage door arrives. Next week some of the other doors should be delivered, and within 2 weeks we should have the sliding glass door and the garden window for the laundry room. With that, the house can be buttoned up (read: locked) and my job will be to tear down the small, plywood locking "shed" in the corner of the garage. It's a safe place, and we have a locked gate, but construction tools are so appealing to lift.

Some of the siding was installed over the past week +. Here's a photo of the garage end of the house with some of it's shingles up. It'll be shingles at the top and horizontal siding below. And the colors are not final--it comes this way and then gets painted later.

It's hard to see in this picture, but there are no exposed rafter tails in the eaves. Due to state, county, local or some other extreme regulations, they must be soffitted (is that even a word). From what I understand this is a very lengthy, tedious and painful job. I guess we're considered to be in a wildland fire area. So we had to meet a lot of specifications with all our materials that were pricey!

More photos to come as doors start being delivered! Yahoo!

No, it will not be blue

I've been taking a picture here and there, but mostly on M's phone (which is never at home when I think about writing a new post) and so it's been awhile again.

Progress is slow. But, after many, many walks, bike rides and road trips to check out vintage Craftsman homes and what their details were like, we settled on a window trim style:

Sorry for poor photo quality

This window happens to be in our "mud room" just to the left of the garage. But you can kind of see the trim (ignore the black tapey stuff--it has some kind of name, but I couldn't begin to tell you what it is. Some kind of moisture barrier stuff). It's kind of hard to see the sill here, since I'm looking up at the window. But I give HUGE kudos to M, who was beyond diligent in considering all our options before settling on this. We know every Craftsman-style house here in Auburn (there are only a handful) and have taken many, many walks by those to check out their details. We've gone to Sacramento on Sundays with bikes and ridden around to check those out. We've even driven to Pasadena twice (a solid 6 hour drive, no stops) to check out the charming Craftsman neighborhoods there (ok, it also helps that the Rose Bowl Flea Market is in Pasadena. It's a 2-fer!)

All that analyzing, going back, looking, measuring, and finally, we got it right. Of course, we still need siding (Dormer siding is underway this week!) and paint and lots and lots of other things, but if you squint and ignore the blue cast, you can kind of picture what it's going to be like.

I can't wait!

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!