Well shucks, it seems like I did not keep my promise of writing the next day after the last entry! Truth be told, Grace had a down day at school Wednesday and on Thursday, I really had to cut our grass. Friday was the last day of school and Grace also had a piano recital in the evening. Saturday the dog ate my work and Sunday I ended up watching a movie with Grace. So that is how 5 days slips away from me like the flap of a butterfly’s wings!
Anyhoo, in the last entry, I had spoke about and shown to you the changes made in the front yard of the new home. That last picture, was taken a couple of weeks ago and more work has been done since then, so here is the current state of affairs. No sign of the old place at all and boy do we love it! Some topsoil still needs to be spread out over it and then sod will be placed and we will have a wonderful, new, front yard! There may even be a tree or two planted, we’ll see.
Not only was there landscaping done to the front yard of the new house, but a bunch of work was done to the land behind the shop. I don’t have a before shot, which I wish I really had, but there were two sheds that were in the state of falling down as well as several dead and nearly dead pine trees. There was also a few small maples and brush in the spot. The cleared the entire area in one morning with the use of the bulldozer in the back right of the photo. The next day they hauled in the sand for the septic, got it in place and then the washed stone and piping for the septic. In the far back on the right hand side is the brush pile that was created by all the bulldozing, we will burn that when the first snow arrives in around 4 months.
The septic still needs to be inspected, then more rock, landscape fabric and topsoil put on it. The new house also will need it’s own tank, so that will be need to be put in before the waste system is considered operational. The stinky stuff will also need to be pumped from the tank to the field, which will require electricity, which has yet to be brought over to the new home, but I have been told that should be happening any day now.
On the inside, they are chipping away at the final things that need to be done. The guys painted the rest of the trim that Nora, Grace and I had initially said we would do, but then ran into issues and had to give the job to the crew. That trim has to wait for the interior doors to arrive before it can be installed and while there is no official word on the door order, I suspect that it too is in the “any day” category, as it was ordered almost two months ago and we were told 5-6 weeks for delivery.
Also among the items on the inside that have been done include all the tile work in the master and guest baths. The fixtures still need to be installed in all of the bathrooms and I think they are just waiting for the septic and perhaps the electric to be done before they finish the plumbing fixtures. I am really looking forward to my showers in the master bath, the system has a 2 foot wide by two food deep rain shower head, plus six body sprays, plus a wand. We ran extra large supply lines to that shower and if the pressure is still not to our liking, we will be able to put a booster pump to increase the pressure to what is desirable.
The third item that they have been working on is the fireplace. It was installed several weeks ago, but since then, they have build the framework for the chimney and while this photo does not show it, the framing is completely done and they also have put up the cement board that the stone will adhere to.
On my side of the work need to be done before we can move in, aka the kitchen cabinets, I have about 85 percent of the pieces for the cabinet boxes made. That amounted to around 16-18 pieces of plywood being cut into the pieces needed. I did assemble the cabinet that will be going to the right of the range and brought it over to the house. The guys then wrestled the range into it’s spot right next to that one cabinet and then I was able to take a measurement of the remaining space to the left of the range and to the right of a doorway to make sure everything fit once the cabinets were done. I may do a little work yet this evening and will not likely be doing much work tomorrow, but will get back at it for the rest of the week and with a little luck, I should have all the cases assembled by the start of next week, then will come the face frames, doors and drawers, finish and then donezo!
We still not have any kind of firm move-in date. Nora is thinking sometime in August and I am a little more optimistic and am thinking the middle to end of July. Only time will tell and we are very excited for the move-in day to come, but it is not eating at any of us. We all are fairly comfortable in our current living quarters and once we move in, these quarters will make for a top notch spot for friends and family to stay while they visit us!
So I think that about covers it for this one. The bugs are still pretty bad, primarily the mosquitos and ticks. That despite the fact that up until today, we have had very little rainfall. I suppose there was still enough moisture around from the cold and wet spring we had to keep them from dying off. The woods and grass also has remained green throughout the dry spell. It has been raining all day today. Not heavily, but it will likely insure that the bugs and the grass do not change from their current state.
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD