New Stuff by the End of June

Somebody broke into our garage (actually, crawled under the main door that was partially open to let it cool down and I forgot to close it), and stole my new snow blower and stole my camera from the landcruiser. Thus, a new camera was required. It has lots of buttons and thingies and seems very complicated, but takes very nice pictures so far with many adjustments possible. The manual makes for interesting reading. It is an Olympus E3. All the previous lenses work with it.






Max is ready to go check it out, says "let's GO"







The kitchen counter tops are in. The island will require custom legs to support the overhang. The copper sinks look great, and the soapstone has great looking green
veins running through that look almost like jade. The island slate has the green grey hue that contrasts very well with the black highlight island cabinet. Unfortunately, everything has a thick layer of sawdust on it at the moment so you won't be able to tell, but trust me, it looks cool.





The carpenters have been slowly working on the trim work, building the "built ins" in the study, dining room and mud room. The study should be impressive, if I say so myself.



The study above. The back wall will have a desk top for the computer, shelves and cabinets. The ceiling has cross beams with can lights between and a spot for a ceiling fan in the middle. Below, the wall opposite the entry with shelves with a wood surround around the in wall studio fireplace.



Below, the dining room. On the left wall a built in cabinet with serving counter and sink. The fireplace also has a wood surround and will have a stone top hearth. To the right, window frames to hold (eventually) etched glass.



The front door and sidelight have been stained. There are about 5 coats of stain and several coats of polyurethane over that. I think they applied one coat per day. Lori helps give perspective to the size of the door (she's 5ft 1 in). The hinges will have to be well oiled, this thing is heavy!



And finally, the porches have been poured. We had the front smoothed in anticipation that we may eventually stain it. They look good, and for the front the facing will be finished with stone.




Above, the back patio under the main deck. Below, under the master deck.

Goodbye, Chapman

Once a dog has entwined himself round your heart
he is not only yours for life, but you are his.
When he is gone, his place is forever sacred.
Other dogs are just as precious
but they all have their allotted spot in your
affections kept for them or their memory.
A heaven without one's dogs
would not be the heaven we hoped for.
A dog is always man's best friend.
Written By: anonymous





Our little guy died a couple weeks ago. His appetite was fading and he was eating less and less, but he still was fairly active with us. On his last day he just couldn't wake up fully and arouse, and we had to take him in.
He sure was a trooper. When we first took him home, taking him in from a Brittany rescue, he had a limp and was taking some arthritis medication. That unfortunately just got worse and he needed a hip surgery half a year later. But it made a world of difference. He was relieved from what must have been a lot of pain, and got very active again. Like almost all dogs, he loved walks with us, our trips to the mountains where he ran all over and explored, the lot by the new house where he ran all over and explored, and especially the ride back and forth. He would share the window with Max, stick his head out and let his tongue flap. Sometimes the side of my vehicle was covered with slobber! He didn't like kids though, and almost got us in trouble a couple times by taking some "nibbles".
2 years ago he went blind and had a metabolic/hormonal disorder that slowed him down quite a lot. He adapted well, and learned his way around the yard and house. It was funny how well he could find his way quickly to the deck and door when he was called to eat.


He still loved to go for rides, and even though he was blind and sometimes even though he was out back in the yard, he knew when we were getting ready to go somewhere and wanted to go along. Unbelievably, if it was a weekend and I was home, both dogs knew to anticipate a trip to the new lot. Although Chapman couldn't run free, he seemed to liven up when guided on the leash and didn't want to stop. We had to settle him down and put him in back of the SUV just so he wouldn't wear himself out completely.
Chapman gave us many fine memories of his joy and companionship. Lori was very devoted to him, and returned the favor with incredible care and devotion, and Chapman continued to return the favor until the end. We miss him.



"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go
where they went."
Will Rogers, 1897-1935

Cabinets and Ceiling

The cabinets are pretty much set up, not necessarily all fixed in. The stain looks good. In the kitchen, the island cabinets have a black glaze, darker than the peripheral, and will look great with the stone tops. The ceiling turned out as good as we hoped. Once it's stained it should really compliment the look.


Kitchen view out the back. The sink will be under the middle window




Cooktop wall. The tall cabinet on the left is for the fridge. A stove hood goes between the wall cabinets




Bathroom cabinets. The tower cabinets aren't up yet.











Some boulders were moved to set up retention walls. This will help keep the hill from sliding down. More boulders planned. This is the south side of the house.

It's a Laugh

He asked "How long did this house take?"

Trimwork Starting

After some more delays and slowness, the trim guys restarted upstairs. We're waiting on an order of wood and supplies. The kitchen ceiling isn't started yet. Lori and I got the appliances for the kitchen ordered yesterday. We also started looking for hardware for the doors and cabinets. We saw a front door handle/lock that we liked a lot for the style and quality, until we found out it was $1600. We figured that was somewhat excessive for our needs.

Outside, some boulders got moved around and a few were placed in the driveway circle. These will be in an "island" in the turnaround with plants and trees. They also fortified the slope on the approach with boulders as retaining walls. I'll update with a picture later on that.

Footers were poured for the perimeter of the front patios, with concrete blocks layed out to hold in the patio. The concrete will go up to the bottom two levels, and above will form a sitting wall. That will be fronted with stone to match the other veneer.



Patio off the dining room, looking across the front entry


Front covered porch


The patio areas are larger than we pictured, which was a nice surprise. Blocking out the layout gives a different perspective, and it has turned out better than I initially was expecting (so far).

Inside, the upper level doors are mostly installed. They look good and should look great with the stain. Lots of glass in the doors keeps it open looking inside and keeps the light throughout. It stays very light.


These doors are viewed from the hall looking into the dining room. A fireplace is to the right and another set of similar doors on the other side. They swing in.



This view is from the hallway looking to the master bedroom. A set of double doors opens to a "vestibule". Looking straight through are the double sliding/pocket doors for the bath area. To the left is the bedroom.



From the sitting room into the master bedroom



Double door into the study from the front foyer. Behind me is an identical set into the dining room, another entry way than the double long glass doors.

The master shower tile work is moving along. Grouting has to be done. The light tile is travertine. The diamond tiles are "rain forest" marble, along with the seat and the border trim. Looks very nice so far.




The tape is holding up the upper tiles until the mortar dries.

The counter tops and tub deck will have the same rainforest marble.

While waitng for the wood delivery, they started installing cabinets. This is the laundry room. The wood is alder, same as all the rest will be. These cabinets are a little lighter than the rest, as we went with a downgrade model in the laundry and it didn't come with the black highlight stain that we used on the rest.


Coming up, more trim around windows and doors, kitchen ceiling and cabinets.

Tile and Doors

The tile floors are going in. The nook and mudroom is layed out, and the master bedroom floor is done except for a small section. In the nook, we put the fossil slate. The color looks a bit washed out. Once they're dusted the color comes through, and we'll finish them with some enhancer. The front foyer will get the same. The bathroom has travertine tiles, and it look pretty good, I think anyways.


Travertine Master bath floor



Mudroom above, eating nook below



The carpenters also started setting the doors. The doors come in their frames and jams, and they install them into the openings. The basement is first, and they made some adjustments to the headers to fit them evenly. They've also started fitting the trim, with the top trim boards already placed on most of the doorways.



The doors are 7' to give perspective. Above is the lower level hall to the guest master, which is the doorway to the right of the 2 closed doors. The wood is alder.



Above is the long hallway to the guest bedrooms, downstairs laundry and equipment room. Below is the center meet closet doors in a guest room.

Kitchen inspiration

This is a photo that served as the basis for the original kitchen design. We won't have the upper cabinets along the window wall, but there will be a counter and sink along the back wall with the windows above. We liked the wood ceiling in the pic. It turned out well in the great room, and so we decided to do the ceiling in the kitchen as well. Mom was worried about too much wood, but it goes along with the feel of the house well.