More details

Details like towel bars are hard to photograph, but here's a look anyway at them in the master bathroom. The lights are the ones in the upstairs guest bathroom--it only took about half an hour to decide on the small detail of whether they should have been hung a mere 6 inches lower. They should, and now they do, and they look wonderful! The final photo is of the great room fireplace, which they finished the detailing of yesterday.

Move in day: T minus two days and counting!

Beauty amidst the rubble

Photos today show a few of the lights--one is the dining room chandelier, which has been on my "get for the new house" list since Thanksgiving last year. Another is one of the outdoor lights to give you an idea of the prairie style that we have out there, and the third is a view of the mini pendants in the kitchen. It is hard to see just how lovely they are when there is so much junk surrounding them. Just four more days before they start cleaning it up!

The fourth photo today is of the front sidewalk. We're almost ready for visitors...once that rubble is cleared away.

Functionality

The plumbers are mostly done--note that we now have faucets and toilets! In a few days, they will actually be functional.

Bob's big range is in (note the lovely cabinets and the gorgeous countertops that surround it!), and the gas company will be over tomorrow to connect the gas and see if the range is actually functional.

The shower glass is installed and it looks very nice. We are going to wait until after we have showered a few times to see if it is functional without a door. The original idea for the glass block shower was to make it so that it wouldn't need a door, but the space ended up being a little smallish. We will see!

They are installing the lights today; tomorrow the decorative trim in the doorways. Little details like the garage door keypad and the trim on the dishwasher and fireplaces are on the list for the next few days as well. It's getting close, and looking almost finished.

(Except for all the dust.)

A prairie "wedding"

Many years ago when Bob and I were antique-hunting, we saw a piece of furniture with two different kinds of wood in it, and the dealer told us it was called a "wedding." Here's our prairie wedding of the light ash of our flooring and the red oak of the cabinets and trim.

The three different-size lines in the top photo of the foyer floor is a standard prairie-school design, and it will be repeated on the chandelier that will eventually hang above the wood design. The ash banding around the oak on the stairway landings was the workman's idea to ensure we had enough oak to do the foyer design. It is beautiful, and we should have thought of doing it, even if expediency hadn't made us!

The workmen did an awesome, meticulous job with the designs, and they were as happy with their work as we are. The pictures really don't do them justice.

Other work going on is sidewalk installation, more trimwork, the bathroom countertops, the glass block on the shower, and the upstairs mantle. Did you figure out from that long list and the small number of photos today that we've been forgetting the camera lately?

While he's cooking

Bob, of course, will be doing all the cooking in the new house with his new toy (see previous post). A worthy hobby for him while I, on the other hand, will be at work--but with my new Amish-made desk! Note the media center glass cabinet doors (at the bottom) and how the pattern there matches the desk. Very cool.

We're cooking now

The kitchen cabinets have been installed (mostly--there are odds and ends to fix), and they are lovely. The bathroom cabinets as well--all beautiful. The Amish cabinetmakers sure do a fine job. I'll have to put up several posts to show you them all, since there is a limit on photos per post! Along with the cabinets themselves, Bob's monster stove has also been brought in. Forty-eight inches of stainless steel power...two ovens, eight burners. Ask the guy with the big smile on his face how many BTU's he'll be master of.

The mountains crumble

Look at our house! They cleaned up the masoners' mess yesterday and started spreading out the mountain of dirt from the foundation (part of it is still visible at the right). Looks like a real yard now--smells like one, too. The property used to be a farm and there are lasting consequences, if you know what I mean....which means, also, however, that we should have good luck with our plantings! Bob is itching to dig into that Indiana dirt and start the landscaping (but most of that will have to wait until next year, of course).

Elusive progress

I use the word "elusive" today, not because progress isn't being made, but because the progress being made is hard to photograph. Progress is being made on the wood floor: as of today they have finished the great room (kitchen section shown in the photo) and started down the hall--but how many photos of an unfinished floor are YOU willing to look at? The tiling and grouting of the tile is continuing, but there again, one photo pretty much looks like the last.

The attached photo of the stone retaining wall is something you haven't seen before. Looks nice and rustic!

Compare that outdoory rustic-ness to the attached photo of the ultramodern-looking chandelier. Our lighting lady made this suggestion...but thoughts on our part that this is the look we want in the foyer remain elusive!

Heating up

Continuing my punning practices, today's blog title refers to the weather, me, and the fireplaces! First, isn't the stone on the fireplaces beautiful? Bob found the upstairs Indiana limestone design on a wall at the Bloomington Convention Center and had them replicate it for us, and they did a wonderful job doing that. The downstairs half-wall fireplace is the same stone as on the exterior of the house and it looks nice down there too.

The two photos of tile show our shower all grouted and ready for the plumber and the guest shower with its IU red design. Neither of the designs in these rooms is exactly what I had ordered from my tile guy, sadly (especially the red design), which contributed on Monday to a tense conversation between me and the builder--you could say I was a little "heated." He had picked out a shower "sill" that looked cheap and started installing it. I won the argument, and I'm now ordering a nicer one from my countertop man, which is what I was in the process of doing before he decided he needed one NOW--which he didn't really.

So that issue has been laid to rest, and the beautiful ash floor is being "laid" as well. Yikes, the punning is not as pretty as the floor!

Father's Day report

For Father's Day, here's a photo of Bob's muscular calves, as he stands in the tiled master bath shower. Which is lovelier???

There are not many good photos available this week--the tile guy continues to work, slowly, although he is nearing the end. The other interior work has involved mostly planning stages and ordering supplies. Hopefully actual visible work will be done next week.

You can see a photo of the finished columns on the front, as well as one of the white basement doors standing up to dry and the angular stair handrail.

Tile photos

Here are some photos of the tile in the upstairs guest bathroom and master bath, where we will have a seat and a soap/shampoo shelf. You can also sort of see the floorboards installed in the shot of the downstairs entryway tile. The floorboards and the walls will be different colors (slightly) in the final paint job, but right now they are pretty close.

Things that go up

Here is a series of shots of the front pillars going up. Work has been slow over the past two weeks, but it is coming along (you have never seen ANYBODY who moves slower than our tile installer, who is nonetheless doing a good job and is a very nice guy).

Also included today is a photo of the oak stairs that have also gone in and that also go up!

Moisture control

Just two new photos today, for a short and sweet post. The first shows the initial installation of roof gutters; the second is a shot of the two large pallets of ash hardwood flooring that they have delivered. This wood needs to sit in the home for a week or so in order to cure and thus not warp after it is installed. The point of both gutters and wood-curing being "moisture control" -- of course!

Cement and other hard surfaces

The rainy weather has finally broken (with several 90-degree days in a row--not what we really wanted!), which means they have finally been able to drive the gravel and cement trucks onto the property without having them sink to the axles in mud. Thus, this week they poured the front porch (see Bob surveying this) and the back patio. I was also actually able to walk in the back yard to take a progress photo of the back of the house, which you haven't seen in a while.

Progress has also been made--in fact, is almost done--on the staining of the doors and trim. I like the artsy way they stood the doors up together in rows in our bedroom for drying.

Other photos included today are a picture of a little maple Bob transplanted onto our prairie from my Mom's yard in West Virginia and photos of two other "hard surfaces"--the "Blue Butterfly" granite we chose for our kitchen countertops and the tile going in on the laundry room floor.

Stinkin' up the house

When I walked in the house today to see what was newly done, one of the workers warned me that the smell of the fresh stain was pretty strong in the basement. And, yep, it was...almost enough to knock you out or at least make you lightheaded for a good long time.

Today's photos include a shot of the stair treads, all stained and ready for next week's installation; also some window trim standing up next to a newly installed basement door (you'll note, if you are paying close attention to this blog, that the upstairs doors are oak, to be stained, and the downstairs doors are white painted wood.

The exterior shot shows the stonework on the side of the house, which has been in place for about a week, but it has been too muddy for me to get over there to snap the photo (we had 15 minutes of dry weather this week, I think). There is also a photo of a sample try at the pattern for the deck railing. The guy who made them said they were stinky. Well, the word he used was actually "crappy," but he intends to round the edges of the small pieces and trim them 1/8 inch smaller than the verticals and sand them perfectly square on the ends. The meticulous work all the workers put in has been and continues to be amazing.

The glass-partitioned door is the door to my office--it's got plastic wrap on it; the glass isn't really wavy. This door is one of Bob's choices. I think he's been allowed to make three choices so far: (1) that door; (2) the fireplace stone; and (3) the ash wood flooring. All his choices are, like the workmen's work, certainly NOT stinky!