Update, 27 February 2014

Lots of people working on the house this week. My shower was tiled today (I had to drive to Staunton to get enough tiles, but, hey, what else do I have to do?); will be grouted tomorrow but here's a photo of the ungrouted tiles:

The fireplace surround was tiled, and will be grouted tomorrow:

And the decking was started:

Skip and Linda are coming for the weekend. Photos to come...

Catching Up, February 20, 2014

The snows of last week kept the crew away from the house. But they have all been there this week, including Larry the painter/caulker. Larry doesn't drive so when he has a job, he stays at the house until he is done. On his first tour at the house (about a month ago, when he applied the base paint throughout), we took him food and drink each night. He has been staying here all this week, to get caught up on the caulking and painting. He is a funny old bird but extremely accomplished. Here he is, in the middle of caulking:

When Nancy came to visit on Tuesday, we opened a bottle of proseco. Here she is in front of the fireplace. Ray had asked what I wanted to do around the fireplace. My design consultants, Nancy and Moey, recommended stacked stone. We'll see how much that costs....

Here is Miss Nanc, in my shower, holding up the main tile. Moey and I bought these beautiful marble tiles at auction. We paid $100 for 10 boxes. I keep on getting my math confused, so can't remember if that is enough for all the walls, or just the back one. The shower floor will be slate. It is going to be gorgeous!

Here are the two design consultants, Nancy and Moey, with design consultant-in-training, Miss Avery. They are in the pantry, which just had its floor put down:

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make accent tiles for the two guest bathrooms. The tiles were installed this week, and here is one:

The electricity folks were out today (and about time)! They apparently had difficulty, finding a non-rocky place to put the pole...seven holes later we have this!

And now you are up to date!

Hardwood Floors

The floors are just about done, with only a little trim work left in the great room, my bedroom and the pantry. Here's the great room:

And here's my bedroom:

Progress...February 4th, 2014

Today the crew started laying the hardwood floor:

Isn't it lovely? And the furnace was installed but I can't show you a photo of that because there is no electricity yet...Dominion Power says maybe we'll have electricity by the middle of February. The builder says, "I'll have the house finished by then." Well, wouldn't that be nice but he was just yakking. Mid-March makes more sense to me...we'll see...

February 3, 2014

Wow! Here it is February already! Ray's crew has been busy, but some of the stuff is hard to see and certainly hard to photograph. They have trimmed all the windows, applied the first coat of paint throughout, laid the tile and hung the doors. Here's a photo of the great room:

Floor tile laid in the master shower:

This is the studio, painted, windows trimmed, waiting for the sink and cabinet. I'm not going to finish the studio; I like the look of the concrete floor and open ceiling:

The rest of the studio:

Here's the back guest room:

And the front guest room: If the weather stays miserable, the hardwood floors will go down this week. And I just ordered the kitchen cabinets. Things are moving along....