Oops... I did it again...

...waited too long to do a blog post and now I'm wading through 70 pictures trying to decide which ones to include!  For awhile it seemed like not much was going on--a little painting here and there, a few electrical issues fixed, and then all of a sudden:

So many workers at the house that I had to park down the street!

Where to start... I guess with the biggest project done in the last week:  THE FLOORS.

The workers went through and hand scraped every inch of wood.  

Why hand-scrape the wood?  

"The use of planks of wood for flooring goes back to the 1600’s, and as late as the mid 1800’s scraping the floor boards was still the technique used to even out the differences between planks.... Today’s handscraped hardwood flooring is designed to have the look of an older style floor made by hand, showing a natural kind of wear, but it still enjoys the modern finishes which protect the floor.  One advantage the handscraped look has is that it naturally hides any minor blemishes which may occur in the future, a minor scrape or stepped upon nail, a dent from a dropped thing, any of that. This can make it a good choice for an active household where those eventualities may be deemed inevitable." 

We hope to have a very active household... and we know from the experience of our last house that hand-scraped floors definitely hide blemishes.  

The floor is scraped with the grain.  It can be scraped across the grain,
but that gives it a more rustic look than we want.

Here's the main area sanded and scraped, ready for stain.

Ah, the stain color...  

Coffee brown.  Looks beautifully dark here.

Here's the first application.  They roll it on...

and then they rub off the extra.

And then they apply polyurethane to protect it.  2 coats now and one coat right before we move in.

Here they are starting the kitchen.

Here's the door sign telling everyone to stay out.  The house was closed up from Sunday when they
 did the second coat of poly to Tuesday morning.  That did not stop us from going and looking at it
from the tiled areas or outside the windows!

Taken from the windows on the back patio

Dining room, taken from front windows.

Here is the main area now.  

Upstairs hallway.  This is not as dark as I would like.

Gallery hallway.  

Here is the photo that shows my desired color combination:

The jury is still out on whether or not our color is close enough.  It is not as dark as this picture OR the sample they put down for us before they started.

Other items that they have been doing over the last several weeks:

Here's a better picture of the media room than I have posted previously.  The lights on the columns
dim way down which will be nice for movie watching.  

They finally tiled Robert's shower entrance.  Not well.. but it is tiled.  If you look closely you
can see a creepy hand on the edge of the shower...

Balcony railing

Pad poured for the little patio outside our bathroom.

Tile backsplash for master tub.

Here's a close up.  I LOVE this tile.  I do not love our tile contractor.

Powder bath sink.  This took awhile to find.  The original house plans had the vanity here
 too large for the space and so we had to redesign it.  

They still have to add the faucet, which will go in the back right corner.  And repair the trim
they had to take off to get all of this in.  And stain the front panel.

Guest bathroom vanity and mirror frame got their glazing.

Thermostats installed:  WE HAVE HEAT!  No more freezing to death when we walk through the house!  Here is a cool little video about the Nest Thermostat:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L8TkhHgkBsg

Bedroom fireplace finally uncovered.  

Laundry room cabinets glazed.  This large open space was something I added in after we
had to re-design this wall when we moved the washer and dryer.  They were supposed
to put a shelf in the middle and I was going to store laundry baskets in it.  The other day I had
a great idea:  No shelf... and put Susie's bed in here!  It is the perfect place for her to
nap while I'm doing my "stuff" in the laundry room.  She usually follows me around
the house and tries to find a comfortable spot, so this is going to be
perfect for her.  They just need to get a coat of glaze on it!

They stained the garage doors and added the hardware... which we had said we didn't want
 but somehow here it is.  It does look nice....  I just don't get why they don't FINISH the
staining/painting all at the same time.  Notice that the framing still needs to be done.  
Michelle said, "why couldn't they just stain the floors the same color as the garage doors?"  
Good question.  Different subcontractors.  But I'm going to find out what color this is.

Here's the first coat of metallic paint on the groin vaults.

Here's the finished ceiling.

This shows it with the light dimmed a little.  I like it!

The powder bath has the same metallic glaze.

Lots of work has been going on outside, too.  At least it was before we were inundated with 3.48 inches of rain this week! 

Here's the view from the back balcony during our 2 day rain storm.  No, all that water is
not actually the creek!  It is in the 100 year flood plain and it just doesn't drain well.  

Here they are pouring the final segment of the driveway on a cold day.  If you look closely, you can see that
they have a fire going on the left side of the driveway to keep warm.  It was probably in the 40's that day.

Here it is from the street.

And here is Robert's shoe print, immortalized in our driveway!!!  (Oops... he didn't know it was
still wet when we came to look at the house in the dark that night.)  There are actually about
10 similar shoe prints all the way down the side.  Our project manager was VERY
relieved to know that it was one of us that did the dirty deed.

drainage pipes under the driveway.  We have a lot of water flow issues to get worked out on final grade.

Here's how it looks from the street now.  They are supposed to start on the front entrance soon.  
Weather permitting.

View from upstairs in the barn.  Jim says it is 14.000 cu ft. of cement.  That's tons.  Literally.
 I think Robert can't wait to get his long board out and go for a spin on all of it!

showing the back concrete area by the garages.

The horse fence is making progress.  

This is the post hole for one of the gate posts.  It is almost 5 ft deep.

Jim checking out how sturdy the fence is.  I don't think it will be going anywhere!

Here's how we are fencing along the creek.  We will put a gate in so that if we ever build a
bridge we will have access.  We wanted to stay far enough off the bank that a small
flood won't take down the fence.  Tia hates water so I never planned on her having access to the creek.

Here's how it looks with the rails up.

More progress on the barn:

Working on the loft trim:  baseboards and doors.

Walls and ceiling stained.  End doors installed.  We decided to go with electric garage doors
rather than sliding barn doors which are notorious for sliding off track and are very heavy.
They cost more, too!

As I was walking around the property the other day, I found this little Wooly Worm.  Hello!
 You are supposed to be attached to a leaf somewhere getting ready for spring!  

Our weather has been very confusing.  Here was Christmas day:

And today:

I, personally, have had enough winter and so I am loving having the sun shining in on me while I type this in my short sleeve shirt!  And now, I'm going to be like that Wooly Worm, pretend it is spring, and go for a walk.