Kitchen coming together and more...

Yes, the lower cabinets, most of them, are in for the kitchen.  The counter top and sink are being installed this Friday.  Upper cabinets hopefully next week then appliances to be delivered and installed!  The fireplace is here and they have started on it too.  Once we get a working sink and a working restroom, we can get our "occupancy permit".  Probably won't move in full time at that time, but we can at least sleep in a regular size bed!  Will probably still cook from the trailer until all the work is done in the house, so we'll be going back and forth for a while.  At least we will be able to start moving in furniture and emptying our many many boxes!

Working on finishing the utility room.

Can't wait until I get my washer and dryer hooked up, I know
that sound weird, but I'm really getting tired of using a
laundromat!

Lower kitchen cabinets going in...

On the left will be the sink and the dishwasher to the
left of that.  Turning shelves in this and the back corner, as
well as the upper corner cabinets.

The fireplace is going in.  It's extremely heavy, has to be framed with metal and concrete board.

The backside of the fireplace,
a discussion about installation.

I know it won't put out much heat
this way, but that template will come
out soon...LOL

Always checking the installation
instructions... can't afford the time to
have the inspector say something
is wrong.  We're getting it right the
first time, every time.  Haven't failed
an inspection yet!!!

Our log splitter works great!  I don't know if you can view the "movie", but try just clicking on it and see if it plays for you.  If it doesn't, it's obviously Larry splitting some logs.  The wood is nice and dry because it splits almost immediately for him.

Try clicking on this and see if
it runs the short video.

Log splitter working GREAT!

It was definitely a tad cold this morning.  I believe it was 18 degrees when we woke this mornin!

The center pipe is the exhaust from one
of the systems, I think it's the heater...
Notice the icicle hanging from it!!!

The platform is ready for the whole-
house backup generator along the
backside of the garage.

Electrical... Floors... Snow

We have all of the floors done, the electricity has been cut over from the temporary service to permanent service to the house.  We also had our first true snow of the year.  They are all saying "it's early", of course that's what the "woolly worm" predicted... a harsh start then a mild winter... we'll see.

All the inside doors are on their hinges.  They are solid
wood and still need staining and knobs, but the look good.

The "great room" flooring.  It's a tad dusty with all the
construction, but they look beautiful.  I'll get a good
picture on the blog when I can get them clean.

Guest Bathroom flooring is in.  All we need now is a
toilet and sink, one room done!  Well, almost...

Electrical Crew making the cut-over from temporary
to permanent.

No temp pole!  Looks nice and clean now.

Our First Snow... burrr!!!

Truck parked in the snow.  It fared just fine...

This morning's display on the Weather Channel.

I know some of you are looking for
a snowman... this is as good as it gets
for now...



Can't see him?  well, he is all white... LOL,
I'll see what I can do...

Interior doors and ready for floor

We have SEVEN vehicles here today, all the work going on is pretty exciting!  They are installing the interior doors today and the flooring is being prepped for installation.  They are planning on building the hearth for the fireplace today and are bringing in a masonry professional to do the rocks around the fireplace.  It will look similar to the rock wall outside the front windows.  I'm really excited about that, it will really tie it all together.

Workers trucks parked all over the place!

The painting is all done.  The walls are "faint maple" and the
ceiling is white.  This is going to look great once we get
all the woodwork done inside.

The inside doors are all going in today, unfinished so they will need to be stained once it's all done.

Door from master bedroom to the bath.  Also, the door
to the walk-in closet.  I wanted real doors, I truly
hate those accordion type doors.

Closet door for the guest bedroom.

This is the stone which will be the face of the fireplace.

It's chilly!!!

Chilly is hardly the word for it.  This morning was 19degrees, feels like 16degrees, at least that's what the weather channel said.  Like my mom said, be careful what you ask for... LOL.  We're actually pretty comfortable, the trailer is doing us well.  The fireplace will be in the house this week and the flooring started today.  A tad too chilly for Jake, so we got him a hoodie.  Surprisingly, he likes it and doesn't try to shake it off at all.

We've lost a lot of the leaves on the trees, but
the sunsets are gorgeous anyway.

Yes, that's frost on the grass and ice in front of
the porch

Jake isn't real fond of the hood part, but he does
like being warm when we go outside

Not much of a soccer player, but it keeps him toasty!

We had to have our water tested at the request of Shell Appalachia.  They are installing a well about 1/4 mile from our property, so they are making sure the water is good before they start the "fracking".  It's good for us in case something goes wrong with our well while they are working.  It protects them too, I guess, this way if it goes bad and it's not their fault, they won't be blamed.

Testing for all kinds of things in the water.
Should get a report in 6-8 weeks!

I babysat for Shannon the other day and Evan didn't like it when mommy left.  He cried by the door for literally over an hour.  Tried everything, found it best to just let him work it out.  Dried his tears every few minutes, but they just kept on comin...  He's walking like a pro now, into everything, growing up way too fast.

Why did mommy leave?

Walking everywhere is fun fun fun!

Some family updates and more

We had quite the wind storm the other day.  This was over our picnic table and got shredded pretty bad in the winds.  The report said the winds were over 50 MPH.  Boy was the trailer a bit scary that night!  We survived and it's been nice since that night.  A tad chilly, but it's nice.

Still windy the next day when we took it down.

Our grandson Jesse in Tucson... He's growing up fast!

Maybe he'll try football when he's a couple years older...
we'd love to see that!

Our grandson here in Pennsylvania finished their football season.  They lost their last game, but it was a close one!  They did a good job, got a second place trophy with a 6 wins and 1 loss game record.  Good work!  Our granddaughter did a great job of cheer-leading too.  They're both already talking about next year's season.

Ryland is number 27 on the right.

Pole Barn...

Larry has finished the pole barn, well almost.  It's got all it's walls and roof.  He is going to put some shelves up later, but we have a place for our tools and for split wood for our new fireplace.  Now comes the fun part of cutting and splitting logs, but we have a log splitter to help...

Larry has done almost all of the work by himself, quite the job!  We did have a couple of neighbors come and help, that was nice.  The roof is green tin and next spring Larry is planning on painting the wood.  He'll probably put doors on the front, but hasn't decided yet.  More pictures of the finished barn to come later.

Our neighbor John was nice enough
to come help Larry set the poles.

Larry and John setting the poles
with concrete.  Larry dug the holes
with the tractor/backhoe.

Framing out the floor in about a third
of the whole barn.  This part will be
used to store about 4-5 cords of
wood for the fireplace.

Another neighbor, Fred came down
and helped Larry put the roof on.

Relaxing for a little bit after the roof is done.  They
did a great job.  It's great having neighbors
help out with such a big job.

Larry making the walls.  It was a little
rainy that day, as you can tell.

Drywall is done...

The drywall is done.  Actually the painting is done too!!!  Ready for the flooring to be put in.  Here are some pictures of the drywall being done.  I'll have pictures of the painted finished product pictures later.

Installing the insulation.  No more
view of the attic area...

Applying the glue for ceiling drywall

Using a very handy tool to put the
drywall up for the ceiling.  It was
interesting watching it be done.

Finished drywall in my craft room!!!

Next some pipes are cut for vents throughout the house and the "tape and texture" guys show up...

Lance cutting PVC Pipe or a vent...

Taping and Texturing under way...

Amazing to me how they walk around on these stilts.  It's
second nature to them.  Drywall is done, ready for paint!!!