It looks like I’ve picked up the pace of updates.  We had a significant hail event and the brand new shingles and gutters are needing replacement.  It breaks my heart to see the shingles go but the gutters were put on quite poorly so I’m hoping for better results from the next contractor.  The roof doesn’t leak and the windows didn’t break but there is damage to the shingles and window trim, not to mention the gutters are beat up and coming off the house.  The plants in the front are shown with them getting progressively less leaves as they are out from under the porch roof.

I’ll try to set up the time lapse camera for the replacement of the shingles. Kind of like a do-over.

The place is holding up well. I’ve continued to do the little things we didn’t have done when we moved in. I put a ceiling on the patio which is under the waterproof deck. It makes for a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the country.

We did extensive landscaping in the front and the grass (which I threatened to show you growing one of the last times I wrote is growing nicely, now I need to patch the areas which didn’t take.

The back deck with it’s cable railing is wonderful and right now loaded with tomatoes in earth boxes.

I’ve had issues with one of the contractors that is on-going and am looking at my options to get the issues addressed and cleared up.

It’s been too long since the last update. I was going to show a video of grass growing 🙂 (the time lapse was set on once an hour – don’t worry it would have been three days per second) but the seed was spread to late so we have a time lapse of dirt sitting there)
We have moved in, but there are still lots of little things to do to the main floors and everything to do to the bonus room and basement. The basement will be done room by room as we get the cash and the bonus room when we get time. In the next couple of weeks I’ll upload some pictures of furnished rooms an later as we get the pictures up and the little things touched up I’ll send more.

There is not much to report. Although there are still ‘hundreds’ of things to accomplish on the house, we have shifted to getting the house in town ready to sell. We have removed wallpaper, painted, trimmed, power washed, and cleaned out shelves.
At the “Castle” we have touched up the paint, scheduled the garage approach and back patio pour for next week, put up a small deck, and hauled many boxes from the house in town to the new house. We now have satellite TV and a phone line with DSL internet. The geothermal/radiant heat and air conditioning system has been giving us fits since it was all re-done after the geothermal contractor went bankrupt and disappeared. I’ll try to get some pictures posted next time I’m home.
We have changed from living in town and working in the country, to living in the county and working in town.

Master bathroom counter top was installed today.  The vessel sinks were put in place to be installed by the plumber next week.  The counter top looks awesome with the tan walls, oak cabinets, and porcelain sinks.

An exciting day in the progress of the house.  The quartz counter top was delivered and installed. The installation went without a hitch.  The pattern we selected goes exceptionally well with the oak cabinets and oak look tile floor.  We couldn’t be more pleased

Here is a closer shot of the kitchen Porcelain floor tile. You see the plumbing for the island and are looking at the inset for the refrigerator next to the door to the pantry.

This is one of the windows. The jamb extensions had to be built out to match the 13 inch thick walls. The stain color was a challenge, because Pella would not divulge the exact formula. We came close and they look very nice.

The great room fan fills up the space nicely. At 8 feet across it is more a piece of art than anything.

This is the kitchen again with all of the flooring done. At the bottom you see the island plumbing, the pantry door is on the left, and the breakfast nook will be by the windows.

Here is a little view of the green accent walls… there are little bits of green through the whole living area accenting the architecture and creating an art piece. Here you are looking at the living room (between the sconces) above there is an arched window, that is the reading room with the entryway below.

This is looking the other direction from the same place as the above picture, if you were to walk around the wall on the left you would be looking out the front door. The window you see there is the dining room, above that is the library with the catwalk leading to the reading room.

Ever wonder what 3000 sq feet of wood flooring looked like? Here you go!

and now to install it… They got the entire upstairs installed, plus the master bedroom while the guys were here! Hard workers!

AND they got the whole house primed and painted a beautiful cream color.

Wow has it been busy around here! 

Bullet points:

First the sheet rock was put up at floor level, while the tubing was being laid for the in floor heating. Then the gypcrete was poured. The drywallers finished putting up the sheet rock and hand taped and mudded everything (we ran dehumidifiers, electric and propane heaters constantly to dry the floors, walls and keep the place warm in -20 to 30 degree weather for the last month while they worked) They worked on texturing this last week, followed closely behind with primer by our favorite helpers again! The guys (Don and Joe) came BACK again this month and have been priming, painting, fixing, building, installing, running errands and are now putting down flooring… With a tiny bit of card playing if they aren’t asleep when then get back at night.