New Aerials

Google must have done a pretty recent flyover, as they captured our house from above after all the snow had melted, but before any plants greened up.   Please pay no mind to all the construction debris and garbage piles....!

They also captured our house before we got the real metal roof on.  So, not terribly representative, but I kinda like the bright blue look!  (the blue is a full layer of high-temp ice & water shield under-layment).

I can finally measure the actual (projected) distance from our  house to the barn now.  At under 200' away I should be able to run some power out there using affordable wire but with acceptable voltage drop (nice!).

I also like being able to finally properly visualize the graceful curves of our driveway.  All 1000' feet of it...... (including the turn-around loop)

Thanks to the power of google earth, you can also pan down and see how our house sits in a valley.  Hence the terrible cell signals out there.... doh.

We made it. WHOOO!

Distinct lack of posts lately; not due to a lack of progress, just due to a lack of surplus time and energy. But we made a mad dash to the (temporary) finish and now live in the house!!  Whoo!

THANK YOU, thank you, thank you to all the wonderful people in our lives who helped make this possible. You know who you are. Truly amazing. 

It was all for this:

So, there's still lots of work to do, but we're allowed to live here now. Phewf!

Moving in was a relatively simple affair, again thanks to the extreme generosity of others. We did it the best way I can imagine, with a powerful truck hauling all our gear in one shot, in a massive weather protected trailer that we can borrow for a little while. Thanks Carl, you rock!

Carl dropping off the beast:

We spent a hurried afternoon stuffing it with our... well, stuff. 

After a partial unloading and some delicious soup (thanks Grace!), everyone frolicked around the yard (dirt pad).

Love it. There's a lot to do still, but most of isn't so urgent. It's time to enjoy the summer and all the amazing people around us!  Hope too have you all out here soon to visit and frolick.  :)

A Couple Extra Windows

After finishing up the framing, insulation and drywall, and getting started on the exterior siding, we all realized that something was missing.

Where would you stick a couple more windows in this wall, if you could?

Making the Grade and Pouring the Patios

Well, it's awful nice having a clean, dry place to enter and exit the house from. finally.

Because this is not what you want to see right outside your front door....

Ok, so that was after a brief and very intense torrential downpour.  But it was still very much not cool.  So we got into patio prep mode.  First I did some basic excavation and auger'ed the roof support post holes.

Can't Stop Stairing...

Ok, I guess we can stop now, actually.

But I just realized I never posted a picture of these lovely stairs Greg built for us!

They are as steep as code will allow!