More drywall

Drywall installation

Drywall arrives

Front door

Roof shingles are done

The house is now watertight. The drywall will start on Monday and take a couple of weeks.

Curtain rod backing

We installed a wood block where all of the future curtain rods will go. This will allow heavy curtain rods to be drilled into the wood instead of drywall.

The fireplace is huge. The other pictures that we have don't show any reference as to how big it is. We took this one to show a comparison of the size.

Jack looking regal

Granite

We selected the granite for our counter tops. We ordered 7 slabs, each is 9'x6' in size. Granite comes in four different levels. The more grain, or uniqueness, the higher the cost. Level four costs almost three times as much as level one. The level four stuff is awesome and has waves of color and is generally multi colored. If you look closely at the photo, you will see a "darkish" spot in the middle/right hand side. Up close this looks similar to a knot in a piece of wood. It makes the granite look richer and adds color and depth, or so I'm told.

The seven slabs that we ordered came from the same huge piece of granite and are sequential. This means that all seven pieces are virtually the same, just like cutting pieces of wood off of a large tree, It looks great!!!

Front Door is in

Dirt work done for the winter

The snows are almost upon us. The contractor got the semi final grading done before the winter freeze. Once the thaw out in the spring we will finish the grading and all the retaining walls.

Roofing ready to start

Doors arrive

The front door was made in China. We ordered it 6 months ago. Why China? Cost.

The other doors are a mix of 8 feet and the standard 6'8" height. The 8 foot doors go in the great room and kitchen to capture the views.

Deer in the yard

Pacing

The interior electrical work is now complete. So is the wall insulation. Next up is the drywall. It takes about two days to hang the drywall and then a couple of weeks to tape and finish it off. The roof will get shingles this week and the exterior doors will be hung late this week. We will have the heater working in a week so the drywall guys can finish their work. We expect for the roof and drywall to be done by Thanksgiving and we will start locking up the doors in two weeks. We are a little ahead of schedule and since the majority of the remaining work is inside we are hopeful that we stay on schedule.

New views

Yard work

HereI am cutting trees down. There were dozens of small scruffy trees partially covered by the new dirt. I am cutting them all down before they die.

Driveway and walkway are done

The walkway has a circular "medallion" between the street and the house. It is stained a brownish and has a drain in the center. Along with the drain we can put a small sprinkler line into the drain so was can have a potted plant in the middle of the medallion that is automatically watered and drains itself. As cool as this is it wasn't out idea, but will save a lot of effort!