I can see clearly now (the rain is gone!)

On this beautiful Thursday, the UPS man delivered 3 BIG boxes to our tiny apartment. Most of the lighting has arrived (check) and the gas/propane stove top (check). This necessitated a trip to the property since they took up most of the room in our kitchen/dining room!

Out at the house, the shingles are ON (check)!

Did you notice a bare spot on the garage? That is for the cupola to hold my flying pig weather vane. I forgot about it until I saw that our wonderful builder had not.

The siding is going up on the front of the house, with help from the "Lull". Here is one of the crew in a box working up there.

It is completed underneath the deck, including the first set of green french doors (check).

The dry wall is almost all up. It should be ready to paint in another week. I am so excited I can almost taste it!

A Bright Spot

It was dry but cloudy most of the day today...a nice break from the 24/7 wetness we've been having lately. I think it is happening because we are trying to get the shingles on! J got her school work done in record time today, so we had time for baking Chocolate Chip Banana Bread to share with our builders while L napped.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

recipe adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

3 c flour (1/2 whole wheat)

1 c sugar

1 1/8 tsp baking soda

3/4 t salt

2 c mashed bananas (about 3-4 large)

9 T melted butter, cooled**

3 eggs

1/2 c yogurt (plain or vanilla)

1 1/2 t vanilla

3/4 c mini chocolate chips

Whisk together dry ingredients. Combine remaining ingredients except chocolate chips. Mix all ingredients together until moist. Divide into 2 small loaf pans, greased, and bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes. **This recipe actually works without all this butter, as I discovered after coming home from delivering the bread and finding my melted butter still in the microwave! It is a bit more chewy than normal, but I think I'll try decreasing it for the next time!**

We arrived on Poplar Ridge just as some sprinkles started to come down. The girls and I disappeared into the woods for a stroll, where we were sheltered from the rain by the trees. We looked half-heartedly for ramps and morels (no crawling through the underbrush, in other words), but none were to be seen from the path.

The photo at the beginning of this post is of our Solatube in the kitchen ceiling. In spite of the fact that it was gray and rainy, you can see that it let in quite a lot of light! This is the way it looks from the outside...just a "bubble" on the roof!

The roofers did manage to get most of the roof shingled so far this week, to my delight. The hip roof, and garage remain...probably just part of a day's work for them!

The dry-wallers have made good progress on the first floor. Most of the walls and ceilings are covered. Here is the kitchen...

...and the great room. Hubby noted that the rooms are feeling bigger again now that they are being closed in. Seems paradoxical, but it's true!

The power was turned on in the house today, the builders used the first 2 indoor outlets instead of running an extension cord in from the pole. They also got the siding on the house and breezeway behind the porch. The windows are trimmed out, and the soffit is going on...looks nice...like a finished house! They will still have to paint once everything is sided, but it LOOKS like progress!

I worked my last day of the school year yesterday, so I am feeling on top of the world! According to what I've read, J should have met the criteria to complete her school year by the end of this week as well. I would like for her to finish her subjects before summer, but we will still be finished well before moving day.

No more walking through walls

Our builder wanted to meet with us this morning to be sure that everything is where we want it before they start putting up dry wall on Monday. I don't believe we made any changes this time!

The water inspection occurred last week, but a leak was discovered in the grey water system. This is the water coming from sinks, showers, washer and dishwasher. We intend to divert it to a lagoon, filter it and perhaps stock it with fish(?). The final point of this project will occur when my Dad is here full time. After cutting about 5 holes through the concrete floor in the girls' room, the problem was found and corrected.

We gave the builder our tile and carpet choices today...2 more things to check off the list. Now we just have to work on paint.

I finally got the lighting order together. We still need to order the chandelier for the great room, and I have to wait until Monday to order the bathroom fixtures. I'm happy with these outdoor sconces for beside the doors.

All of the walls, and most of the ceilings are filled with insulation. The house has lost most of that echo-ey sound of an empty construction site. I have also lost the ability to walk through the walls.

Due to a rainy week, the roofers only got about a quarter of the shingles up. These are on the back porch roof. I just learned that May is supposed to be the wettest month in this part of PA. What happened to April showers and May flowers?

The breezeway between mud room and garage is framed out. The open door in this picture is the garage. Sorry about the busy picture. L wanted to eat her pancakes on the porch!

We watched "Marley & Me" last night, and it brought renewed grief over the loss of Zach to all of us. J had to visit his grave today with a bouquet.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

That is the song I had blaring on the radio this afternoon as SEVEN (count 'em) girls were leaving Poplar Ridge. We actually made 2 trips up the hill today, as we were anticipating the cement truck today to pour the basement floor...thought it might be nice to see them pour a little bit, seeing as our entire house is concrete and we've missed it all so far!

This morning we were able to see the hoses/pipes for radiant heating in the floors of the girls' rooms on one side, and the Exercise Room and extra Bathroom on the other.

They were also laying re bar to prepare for pouring footers for the porch between the house and the garage.

This afternoon, with blue skies above and 70* fresh air blowing on the hill, we returned with friends in time to see them pouring the footers. The cement truck poured into the bucket of a tractor, which in turn dumped the concrete into the footers. Someone had to slop around down in the hole to jiggle the air bubbles out and level it all off.

The floors downstairs are all smooth and neat.

The shingles and siding have arrived. Our builder expects windows and doors next week.

A good end to a good week!

Color Samples

Here I am, wasting time on the computer, when I should be doing school with J! I just wanted to post an idea of the exterior color scheme. So here is an idea:

Keep in mind: 1) The colors are not exact because we are getting our siding, shingles, windows, doors and paint from different companies, not just the one that had the sample. 2) There will be no shutters. 3) The gingerbread on the eaves is tentative...just brainstorming at the moment.

Ta-da!

Happy to be Here

The builder called today and said he had window and shingle samples to bring by later. I offered to meet him at the building site so I could see how things are coming along. They have all the structure framing finished, and have boarded up windows, doors and the stairwell downstairs in order to maximize warmth down there.

L slipped on some ice and fell in the mud. Going out in the cold with her is tenuous at best, and this incident put her over the edge. "I code. I wanna go home!"

Now we need to pick windows. I think this is what we are going with, without the grilles.

We thought for a brief minute that metal prices had come down enough lately to make our metal roof affordable. They have come down, the builder informed me, but are still more expensive than when he gave us a quote last Spring. Bummer. We are interested in these shingles in Hunter Green.

We are supposed to be thinking about exterior doors now. What color are those going to be? We ended up with white garage doors because that was the only color we could get FAST, and we needed to use the garage in a hurry. Do we go with white, green, taupe (like the garage) or some other accent color??? HELP!