2/12/12 - Stairs to loft

The stairs to the loft are almost finished.  What you see in the pictures are the installed brackets with the unfinished treads just sitting on the brackets.  Kristin had the brackets welded out of plate steel and then she painted them gray.  The treads are made out of regular 2x8 stock that was sanded and routered.  They will be finished with linseed oil.  If you look closely you will notice the basement hatch underneath the stairs.

Looking from living room through to the bathroom. 

Looking from bathroom into living room.

From downstairs bedroom to living room.

2/12/12 - Kitchen work

We have started putting the kitchen together.  Kristin recently made an Epic 1 day road trip to Ikea in Philadelphia and returned with a pickup truck full of cabinets (and other stuff).  I built the toe kicks and she has put all the boxes together.  We are both really happy with the way the kitchen is laying out.  At this point we are on hold until the refrigerator arrives.  I also wanted to finish the stairs and get the plumbing inspection before we focused on the kitchen.

1/28/12 - Flooring is REALLY finished

Kristin spent about 5 whole days sanding, cleaning, patching, urethaning, sanding again, cleaning again, urethaning, sanding again, and urethaning 1 final time.  Our lovely pine floors now have 4 coats of a whey (yes the cheese by product) based polyurethane.  Its made by Vermont Coatings and although not completely natural its as close as we could get and still end up with a hard finish.  We can now start building out the kitchen's (as you can see our cooking stove has arrived) and bathrooms.  This is a big step and we are all very excited. 

1/2/11 - Flooring finished

Today was a big family work day and we finished the wood flooring throughout the house.  Kristin selected and cut the pieces to length and Grey made any necessary scribe cuts and nailed them in.  Mean while Eli and Asa put on light switch and outlet covers and then built a massive bon fire outside to roast marshmallows.  BTW we had our electrical final right before Christmas and we passed with only 3 corrections.

12/31/11 - Woodstove is installed

Today I completed the wood stove installation.  As you can see I imediately started a fire in it.  After many days of working in the cold this is going to be like heaven.  The stove is made by Morso and is ultra efficient yet beautiful.  Kristin had the floor protector fabricated out of sheet metal and we painted it black

12/7/11 - Exterior Siding is complete (Finally)

Well after a year of green zip wall we finally have siding on the house.  Just in time for the snow.  We used a combination of maple plywood and pine ship-lap for the siding.



Just about done.  There is Eli up on the scaffolding, that has to be an OSHA violation.

View from Northwest corner

View from West

View from South

12/7/11 - Drywall finish and painting is done

During the last month and a half Kristin has knocked out a ton of work. First she finished all the drywall, a job that she says we should definitely hire out next time. She also primed and painted all said drywall. Lastly she oiled all the interior plywood. Now all thats left on the interior is floors, electrical finish, bathroom and kitchen build out.