The Beginning of the End?

That's right...I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're starting the finish work. We have lights! We have heat! We have a sink and a stove! We have tile (it's not grouted, but it's down!). We still have a ways to go, but it's so close I can almost taste it! Here are some pictures of what I like to think of as the beginning of the end!


The front steps were delivered and installed today!

The light fixtures have power!

Cabinet w/ wall oven installed...needs a little cleaning up, but it will probably always have fingerprints on it so we should just get used to it now!

The kitchen sink...of course there's no water yet, but...we have a sink! And we'll have countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms on Friday!

Outdoor lights - yep, we've got 'em!...and they work!

COLOR!

So we have almost wrapped up painting. There is only one room left to paint downstairs and then we are DONE! Whew...I strongly suggest that you hire someone to do the painting if you ever have an entire house to paint. Ryan has become an expert at cutting in and I am quite a roller at this point, if I do say so myself.

Ryan is working on installing the cabinets over the next few days, and the granite folks are coming to template the countertops on Friday. The electricians are supposed to come toward the end of the week to begin the finish electrical too. That's right, we'll have lights at the flip of a switch! What a novelty! Here are some pictures of the painted rooms - and a couple of the show the sun put on for us the other night. I don't think I'll ever get sick of the sunset out our front door!

Brody's bathroom...


Brody's bedroom...


Master bath...


Master bedroom...

half bath...downstairs

Ryan unloading all of the cabinets!

The cabinets out of their boxes!

Still more cabinets!

Sunset from the kitchen...

The house at sunset...

View from the front porch...

What's tan and white and brown all over?

...our house! Because the siding is done! OK, that statement is not entirely true. The siding looks done though. Ryan still has the soffit to finish up, but other than that - the siding is done. And I think the house looks FABULOUS! I'll let you decide for yourselves!


It would be a bit more impressive if the ladder wasn't still leaning against the front of the house, but you get the idea. The posts under the farmers porch still need to be stained too, but I think we're going to wait until after we get in the house to paint them.




So I know this isn't a picture of the house...but even though the spotlight of this site has been the house, the spotlight in real life is Brody. Heis so much fun right now even though he is seriously tests our patience daily! He reminds us of what life should be all about...and the next instant makes us want to pull out our hair...but alas, he is 2 and we wouldn't expect any less from our smart, funny, stubborn little boy! Raising a child is quite a Jekyl and Hyde experience! He was a happy camper the other morning though and decided to take a breather on the kitchen floor for some reason. On a house-related note, Brody picked out the paint color for his bedroom...surprise he wanted blue!

A Splash of Color!

That's right...we're putting color on the walls! We finalized the paint colors and Ryan quickly ordered it before I could change my mind! Ryan and I painted the kitchen on Friday night. On Saturday, my mom joined us and we painted the main hallway and entryway and finished cutting in the primer in all the other first floor rooms. Yesterday (Sunday) Ryan and I spent the afternoon painting the family room and the mudroom. The mudroom and the hallway need one more coat, which we'll probably attempt to do tonight after Brody goes to bed. I'm hoping to take at least one day off from work this week to finish painting the first floor and hopefully get started on the second. We'll see! Ryan is trying to finish up the siding today - although there was a pretty good frost this morning and I think he needs to wait until the sun warms the roof until he can safely get up there. So here are some pictures of the painted rooms...we didn't stray too far from Goffstown in the intensity of color on the walls.

Family room - one of the lighter colors in the house...it's called Weekend Getaway, which seems fitting for a family room! There will be wainscotting on 2/3 of the walls (from the end of the green paint down to the floor). This room is probably the darkest room in the house in terms of natural light so we're adding the wainscotting to brighen it up.


These pictures are proof that I really do help!

Hall & Entryway...I'm not so sure if I'm feeling this color. It's called Stone Hearth. I loved it on the color swatch and it's perfect in direct sunlight...the problem is that the hallway has very little direct sunlight. I'm afraid it looks more like fleshtone than "stone". Ryan said I can repaint it when I'm 40...until then he wants to see if it grows on me!

Mud Room...the color in here is called Sparrow. It seems perfect for a mudroom because it pretty much is the color of mud. We LOVE it!

And this is the kitchen...it's called Rushing River. Sometimes it looks green, sometimes it looks blue, and sometimes it even looks gray. I love it...and at the end of a long weekend of painting, the view of the sunset out the kitchen windows was a nice reward!

The view out the front door on our way out! I can't wait to live here!

Final Grade!

Just when we were starting to get used to the piles of loam in the front and side yards, the site guys came back and spread it all out for final grade. I had forgotten that the front yard had been farmland...big, open, expansive farmland.

We put up some silt fence, seeded with winter rye in attempt to stabilize everything over the winter, and planted 3 teeny tiny christmas trees that have been living in pots for the last 2 years. It's kind of late to plant things, but we figured it they've managed to survive in pots, they should survive over-winter in the ground!

So even though the yard is a big expance of loam...it is starting to take it's final shape. We have finalized the interior paint colors (these are the final, final paint colors - unlike the last 2 times that we thought we had picked the final colors) and Ryan is ordering the paint this week so we can get started this weekend. The first rooms to get color will be the kitchen and the bathrooms so they will be ready when the cabinets come in - which should be the second week in November. They will also be the first rooms that we do the flooring in so we can get the plumbers back for finish work. Yes, that's right I said finish work...as in finishing...as in the light at the end of the tunnel! It's all very exciting! Here are some pictures of final grade.

Ryan is finished the siding with the exception of the front dormer on the main house. The weather is uncooperative today - drizzly and raw - which makes the roof slippery and dangerous to side on. Hopefully the rest of the week will be more siding friendly!


Front yard...

More front yard - we're going to need a riding mower!

Back yard.

Progress

Ryan has finished the siding on the entire first floor of the house and the gable ends. The front and back dormers on the garage are done (with the exception of the soffit) and Ry is getting started on the main house dormers this week. Here are some pictures of the exterior...

Front porch - the posts will be stained a darker brown to match the bronze windows.


Front dormer on the garage.


Front porch head on.


Whole house.


Front of garage


Looking out from the back porch


We didn't quite get the railings finished before Brody woke up from his nap...another day!


Back of the house.

View of the back porch from the back yard.

Our woodstove insert was finally delivered on Saturday. Ryan and I spent the day installing the pipe - soon we will have heat and be ready to paint!!

Creeping Along...

The drywallers finally finished taping and priming last week. So we now have our house back to ourselves! It's a wonderful thing. Ryan has been working on the siding, which seems never ending, and the garage doors were installed. We're ready to start painting inside the house, but it has been so cold this week that we need to wait until the woodstove is installed and fired up to heat the house up a little before we can start painting. The woodstove is supposed to be delivered on Saturday (tomorrow). It apparently is going to take 3 delivery men to get the unit into the house. They told us it's about 900 pounds! Needless to say we went against everything we believe in and decided to pay the extra for delivery to save ourselves! Here are a few more recent pictures...

Garage doors and shakes installed.






Kitchen & Hearth Room with finished drywall - ready for paint!