More Habitation

The pond is particularly wonderful and relaxing. The fish are really happy! This is much more exciting than their previous wine barrel home. I figure it's their cushy retirement community since they're at least 10 years old by now.

We purchased a few potted pond plants - a waterlily and another with variegated leaves that looks like a mini waterlily. We placed them on the bottom where they are growing and reaching up toward the water's surface amazingly fast.





More of the main floor bathroom. Love it.









A nice place to sit in the morning sun...

Reinhabiting the Space

Appliance Delivery

We finally got into the house today after the floors getting their final coat and some plastering redo-s the last few days.

The appliances were delivered around 1. The guy had to park at the bottom of the driveway and pull each appliance up the driveway by hand! I guess the lift on the truck wouldn't function correctly on the uneven ground at the top of the drive. I don't get it, but that's how it happened. He was big strong guy!

Then it took 3-4 guys struggling to get the frig into the house. They were successful.

We're getting closer.

The plumber was there finishing up the showers and then hooking up the dishwasher and frig.

The finish carpenter was working on the final details like trimming doors.

Max was rebuilding the exterior stairs. This feels like a déjà vu.

Anyway here are some photos from today.

This is a composite photo of the main floor bathroom. We still need to have a mirror installed and then the lights put up behind the sink:





That space is for the dishwasher. He was pushing it in as we left. Note that all the handles and pulls are installed on the cabinets:



The frig waiting to be hooked up and placed in its nook:





The stove/range goes in the nook on the left here:

Countdown to Project Completion...

We gave our 30 day notice at the apartment! Soon we'll go into reverse and begin packing up to back move home.

The last bit of metal porch roof going on:



Looking pretty good. The cables in deck the railing have yet to be installed. The stairs will have a railing system, too, but they need to be redone first.



I'm not sure when the window stickers come off, they may need to stay on until final inspection.

Drying Plaster

I think I'm running out of creativity for the titles!

Here's a look at the plaster after a few days of drying. Hopefully we'll get used to having so much color throughout the house. I'm very happy with the color of the ceilings. I think it compliments the walls and gives a lightness to the space.

Starting upstairs, first our bedroom:



Bathroom, still drying:



Now downstairs...the arched window:



Standing in the living room looking toward the stairs:

Color on the the Walls

We went up Saturday to do a few things and the plaster crew was there working away. There were at least 8 guys there and at 1:00 they had gotten quite a bit done already. This may go faster than we thought. We're thinking now that we can probably go ahead and give our 30 day notice!

The final color when it dries will be a lot lighter, although this looks interesting, too. But it will dry lighter...you can see some areas where it has dried and it's vastly different, it seems.

This is Danu's old room/new guest room. That's a storage cubby above the closet:





Living room:







Atea's old room/my studio:





Here is the downstairs entry room, through the wide angle lens:





More outside shots with the scaffolding taken down:









The lovely sky & ponderosa pines. The gutters are already filled with pine needles:

Cabinets, Doors & Tilework

The house is filled with drying, painted cabinet doors and regular doors. Thank goodness the weather had been warm and dry so the house can be opened up.

Here I'm in the office looking toward the front entry. Code required us to have a large step in the doorway, where the level steps down, because the door opens inward.

The whole downstairs has new wood floors.



Looking down from the stairs into the entry room, that's our front door with the 6 small windows in it. They rigged up an interesting rack to dry the doors on.



Cabinet doors drying in the guest room (Danu's old room):



Looking down from the stairs... lots of drawers drying in the living room:



Our wonderful tiled bathrooms...this is the upstairs bath.
We met with a second shower enclosure contractor and worked out the shower glass design. He can give us our perfect design in 1/2" glass for the same price another guy was charging for 3/8" glass, plus he seemed much more knowledgeable. The other guy we met with seemed to be new at it and couldn't advise us the way we needed.




Sunlight in the corner:



Downstairs bathroom. We chose semi-recessed sinks:







The mortar bed is laid for the tile hearth on the floor and the hearth that sticks out below the fireplace is partially ready.



I'm going to feel like a princess here.