All hands on deck …

Update: I can't believe I forgot to tell you (except that I had a child hovering waiting for me to finish the post so they could use the pc :) ... about the railings. It was a very big blessing and I want to give credit where it is due. While at HD last week trying to order the balusters for the deck, I was waiting at the pro desk while another customer was being waited on. Another HD person walked up and asked if she could help me and I explained that I was waiting to order balusters as I showed her the one in my hand. To make a long story short, she told me they had some on clearance that had been returned and proceeded to show them to me. After talking with John on the phone and agreeing to purchase them, I told her that I didn't need as many as she had. In order to get rid of them, she reduced the price even more and I was able to get the whole bunch for less than half of the original cost!! Thank you, Lord, for this serendipity!

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Jeff was back down this past week to help us on our big deck – he was a huge help! Here are some pictures from the week.

Jeff and John securing the floor joists. It was COLD!!

Working on finishing up the deck boards.

The kids helped with putting the “doo-hickeys” together – these were for the rail balusters top and bottom.

Jeff finishing up the deck boards and John starting on the railings.

The sun is starting to come back around – whoo hoo!

Ta-da! It’s completed. They ran the deck boards on a diagonal for strength and also to minimize the number of seams. It turned out great!

Here is a shot of the deck and the house together. At night, it looks like a nice outdoor eating space. We are looking forward to a little warmer weather to be able to enjoy it.

Next up: final stair treads. Here are the bottom sides while they are drying.

A couple of house pictures …

Kids bathroom – finished. Mirror was installed last week, other minor details completed. Whoo hoo!

Painting – finished!!!!! Well, at least walls and ceilings. Still need to work on window surrounds, trim, touch-ups. This is a close-up of the entryway tower – I LOVE this paint!! It is Sherwin Williams Soft Suede – if you can tell from the picture, the end result has a suede appearance. It’s super easy to do and I love how it turned out. In retrospect, I am really glad we chose this particular paint because it is pretty “forgiving” – I could do sections at a time and it still looks just fine. That was a necessity when doing some parts from scaffolding.

Stairs are still a work in progress – John has contacted a local specialty contractor to work on the stairs and railings, so they are moving forward. I am looking forward to seeing them finished. This shot is to show you the light playing on the walls through the stairs. The soft suede paint adds an extra dimension that you can’t really see in the photo. Did I say how much I love it :) I am absolutely thrilled to be done painting, too. I still like to paint, but a break will be very nice!

John’s brother is on his way down from PA again to help with decks and other tasks. Looking forward to catching up with him.

I was just thinking earlier about what on earth I will blog about after the house is finished :)

More snow shots …

This is of our back “deck” off the master bedroom – well, for right now, just the frame. So, for AL, we had a good bit of snow.

  

And … if you guessed “old wok” for a sled, you were right! Hee! I was really stretching to find something for them to use for a sled. I thought of bucket lids from the paint buckets of which we have several laying around outside. However, I couldn’t find them in the snow! And then I spied the old wok. Perfect (well, at least for kid sized backsides, anyway)!

SNOW!

We enjoyed our own little winter wonderland last Friday, but now it is all gone. We had about 3 1/2 inches and it was very beautiful. We don’t have a sled, so can you possibly guess what the kids used instead? Check back tomorrow to see :)

Catch up

During the week of the We Care crusade, Grace (one of our friends from PA) was down with her husband, Steve and the rest of the men. She spent time in the women’s work release in Birmingham ministering to the ladies there. But part of Tuesday, she spent with me and the kids! We had a great time catching up and touring around our area a little – which included a stop at Noccalula Falls. We saw a large number of turkey when we went for a walk around the campground area.

The kids and I joined the men for supper one evening – that is always a fun time for us.

Most of the group. Troy was kind and scooped up Savannah for a few minutes. He is married to John’s sweet cousin and was also a huge help with the framing crew in March.

House update: We’ve been busy!

Here is the master bedroom finished – the color is a warm milk chocolate color – yum!! I took a picture with the scaffolding still up to show you the fun I was having :) The picture on your right is the study off the master bedroom – it is a very inviting reddish chocolate color. Note: I did not choose the colors, but I obviously agreed and like them!

Master shower is finished with the tile. Now, we just need the glass panels and doors.

The final painting challenge – the tower! John snapped this of me painting the ceiling. I snapped the next one to show you what I see if I peek over the edge of the plywood! It’s a long way down, but John has made me such of a sturdy platform, this has honestly been one of the easiest ceilings I have done. We are doing it half at a time in order to minimize moving the scaffolding (for obvious reasons).

And, here is what John has been up to!!!

The pantry is finished!

And, if I can brag on my hubby a bit … he made the upper doors himself!! And FAST – we picked up the supplies last weekend and they are cut, assembled, caulked, sanded, painted and hung by Wednesday! I think they turned out super!

Behind the 4 doors to the left side (above and below) are wire mesh shelving. The big door on the right is a heated coat closet – hee! That was an unexpected bonus. The refrigerator recesses into the wall there in order to keep a nice walkway between the fridge and the island on the other side. From the front, you can’t tell – the fridge just aligns with the cabinets. So, in this closet, the fridge warms up the coats. Isn’t that neat?

The wall you see on the left hand side is the outer wall of the 1/2 bath. The orange thing on the ceiling is the smoke detector – they all have plastic covers on them right now, because they are sensitive to dust.

We keep saying “we’re getting there” and each step is bringing us closer and closer.