Post 38- Siding, with close anticipation of final inspection!

We've got the siding (mostly) up now, as well as the soffits and gutters (mostly up as well).  Dad came up and we had a very productive weekend.  There's still a little left to do to finish it up, but we're anticipating being finished by next week, "Lord willing and the creek don't rise".  Here's a few pictures, I'm pleased with the way it turned out:

We've still got about 5' of siding on 2 walls at the top and 2.5 walls worth of soffit and gutter to put around the very top.  Final inspection soon!













Thanks for reading!
-Jj

Post 37- The Aptly Named Post of Many Belated Pictures

I'm long overdue on posting....deep apologies.  My wife has been posting pictures on facebook kind of as I went, so I slacked off a bit on posting.  Sorry about that!

Here's some of the stuff that's happened in the meantime:

Benches!  Are done, and redone.  I'll show you the "redone" pictures below.

And the new kitchen sink.... (Thanks Renee!)

Sink Closeup...

The bit here actually gave me a spot of bother because it was veeery tricky.  Looking at it, you can't tell how it possibly would be, which shows I did a good job.

A buddy at work just pointed out these are upside down...DOH!  Easy fix, but embarrassing.  I got a lot of cabinet doors and hardware at a salvage yard, and pieced everything together.

Another tricky bit...trimming in the bathroom door

Psycho Kitty...

This is a very clever idea.  More below.

The drawers under the oven were made from recycled pallets, faced with a hand trimmed piece of oak.

The flip down corner table by the sink is one of those things that you wonder how you survived so long without, after having it for a bit.

Table, flipped up.

Knobs on the drawers now...

The couches, redone.  I wasn't happy with them when they were done originally, the upholstery was all bunched up and it just didn't look very good.  Looks much better now.  I've got the middle box done (it's big!), got knobs on all the cabinet doors, and sectioned it off.  It looks much better now, IMO.  Here's a bunch of pix.

Box is made entirely from recycled pallets.

Probably going to stain it, still debating...

Before you go, here's a  video of our kitty "Lumi", hiking.

I believe this qualifies as "lolcatz", as the youngsters say.

Thanks for reading!

Post 36- The Ceiling.

We still had the scaffolding up from putting up the drywall, and we got the ceiling up this week, too.  I had 3 major items (and a couple minor things) to do before my final inspection, and that was 1 of the 3.  I'm 98% done putting up the drywall (I've got a few tiny pieces left to put up), but then we've got to mud it, and that will be 2 of 3, and then all we're lacking will be the exterior.

Dad came up and we worked the ceiling with Josh and Heather both assisting as well (and doing a great job at it).  Mom was up, but she couldn't stay as long so she had to leave before she could see the final product.  It's really starting to come together, and it's looking great.  We're very blessed in all the things that matter.  So, here's a few pictures:

A view (completed) from the top floor

A view (completed) from the first floor, looking up.

You can see in a couple of those pictures that I've got most of the drywall up as well, here's some pix of that (before the ceiling was up):

 and also, our garden has kind of shot up....

And, we acquired a new turtle as a pet, kind of.  He kind of comes and goes as he pleases, but has been hanging out with us for the last week.  Here's a picture of him (or her) hanging out with the cat.  The cat, by the way, has completely gone native (and become a little bit...special).  He comes and goes when he pleases, and only stops long enough to yowl at us if his food bowl gets empty.  He's a bit funny in his old age, and likes rolling down the driveway.  When he first saw the turtle, his initial reaction was to talk to it a little bit, then start rolling in the dirt beside it.  He's just a little bit special.

We've also got a couple baby turkeys, groundhogs, and rabbits running around but I haven't gotten a good picture yet.  A baby turkey (just hatched) is about the size of a smallish grown chicken, btw.

That's all for this time, thanks for reading, hope you have a great day.

-J

Post 35: I'm floored.

Well, while the wife was away I got the upstairs floor done, and it looks amazing.  As Kenny would say "That looks so good it looks like someone else did it."

I'd actually planned to do the benches (but the foam store was SOLD OUT!!! I have some hilarious notes about the foam store, but'll save that for when I do the benches) or drywall (but Lowe's couldn't deliver drywall to me in a timely fashion "Ok, so you need this tomorrow?  How does sometime in June sound, then?  Also, instead of drywall, how about some nice cardboard?") so I was kind of looking for something productive to do, and my parents had been kind enough to bring up the flooring a couple weeks ago, so there you have it.  Floors it is.

Here are some pix :)


From the stairway facing along the wall....

A closeup of some of the detail work near the stairs.... (the "lumber" looking wood sticking up on the right there is part of the glue lam: those will be boxed in and look like either solid oak or a roughcut beam before we're done)

And, from the window wall facing the stairway...

Since they look so good, I also had a few pix of the cut in's and detail work around the bed and the closet too, but I didn't want to "air my dirty laundry in public" (that's not a pun, my dirty laundry was in hampers above the part of the picture I wanted to show) so, soon :).

That's all for now, short one today.  Back soon!

Jj

Post 34- April Showers....

The shower is (finally) done.  I remembered how much fun tile isn't, it seems I do every time I lay tile.  Anyway, without further ado, here's a lot of pictures!  (ooooooh.....)

Underground Electric lines.....

Both my gals....

...and the peep show.

This is a funny story, and adorable.  Josh found a baby bird out of it's nest and brought it in the house and kept it in a box last night.  I had him show me where he found it, and after feeding the loud little fellow a hearty breakfast of mushed up soupy cat food through a syringe, took him out to go see if we could find his mama.  I walked him out in a cloth, set it down and it started to cheep plaintively.  About 45 seconds later, a very worried looking mama bird came running out sideways from a bush about 10 feet away and the reaction was priceless.  I REALLY wish I'd gotten the reunion on film, it was the most adorable thing I've ever seen with the baby bouncing along after mama and going "CHEEP! CHEEP! CHEEP!" excitedly.  I did go back and get my camera and got them frolicking, just after the reunion, along the railroad tracks.  Here's the video of that, at least:

Post 33- Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?


Like this!
(Pix)

This is the S side

Here's the SE side...

Inside planters behind the benches are prettied up too...

And, the left overs we put in the ground too off to the side...

Raised bed planters now lining the front of the S and SE walls, I think they turned out pretty good :)

Cheers!