A Horse of Course

The dry wall finishers were out on a Saturday. Apparently the 100 gallons of joint compound was not quite enough, so they had to go for a "mud run" in order to finish up today. It was pretty cool to see the guys zooming around on their stilts.

On top of the 2 wandering herds of cattle into our yard incidents in the past 2 weeks, there were eight horses there this morning.

J was thrilled at first (she's on a horse/pony kick at the moment), but once she discovered that they trampled through our pig garden, she became furious.

We got our mailbox put in.

JP got to drive his tractor. That's our creek, Wisecarver Run, in the background

We bought some more light fixtures and a kitchen sink.

Oh, and in the paper yesterday was an article about how there are plans to repair Wisecarver Dam, restore the 18-acre Wisecarver reservoir, and turn 360-acres into a public recreation area. Wisecarver Run empties into the reservoir. It will be nice to have this close by.

One Month To Go!

We have been promised the keys to our new house in 4 weeks from tomorrow. The builder has been ill this week, but some of the crew were out today working on the siding. They put soffit under the eaves of the prow, and have the upstairs set of french doors in.

The dry wall finishers are moving right along. The walls look nice and smooth and ready for some paint!

The Oak flooring has arrived and looks beautiful!

New week things should really start looking great! I can't wait!

Pig Garden

We decided today that it was high time to plant some flowers on Poplar Ridge. The girls and I dug up about 3 square feet of weeds at the edge of the woods (well out of the way of random heavy equipment), pulled out the roots and sticks, and sowed some wildflowers. J reminded me that George Washington Carver used to say "A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place."

I couldn't find my flower bed fencing in the garage, so we put some pigs around to keep the seeds company, and did a little Totoro dance, willing them to grow. Thus begins our first gardening venture on the hill!

Our builder is home sick today, he sounds awful! The drywall finishers were in and things are looking good. Here is the great room.

The tray ceilings are really looking nice in the Master Bedroom.

The well man put our gia-normous holding tank in and dug trenches to run pipes from the tank to the house

and the well to the tank. We should soon have running water, which we will need to get tested A.S.A.P.

L painted this picture today. I thought it was an appropriate sentiment for this post.

Another Big Hole

We drive out to Poplar Ridge quite frequently these days. When the weather is nice, it is so lovely to get away from our close apartment quarters and roam free! The other day L said "I want to stay here AND go home!" Soon, very soon, that will be the case!

It is interesting how my 2 princesses can go from this

to this in a matter of minutes. Here they are digging into an ant hole.

The water man was out this weekend to dig an 8 foot deep hole between the house and the well. This will be for our 2000 gallon cistern from the well. Once he has the well hooked up, we will need to get it tested to be sure it is safe to use. Then he will put a smaller cistern on the other side of the house to hold rain water. We will use this for watering the garden, washing cars, etc. We wanted to have lots of water on hand since we are so far from the Fire Department and any hydrants.

The dry wall is all up. This week they will work on finishing it. I hope that 100 gallons of joint compound is sufficient!

We finally settled on a paint color. I can't believe how difficult this task was! Although paint is easy enough to change, we wanted to get just the right color for most of the house. Our builder prefers not to use too many different colors. The paint board samples at Lowe's did not translate well into the big picture. I had to buy 4 different samples before we found what we were looking for.

This one is called "Weeping Willow". That seems appropriate given that our huge willow is just about the only thing we will miss from our old house.

The girls have picked a bright yellow-green called "Lemon Mint" for their rooms, and their bathroom and the one upstairs will be a soft yellow "Butter". I will do our Master Bathroom in light blue "Blue Thistle" and "Stratosphere" just like before...still have the paint.

That just about covers it for this week!

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.