And finally, a roof.

And we are not the ones doing it, thank god! We've "sub-contracted" out the roofing and I couldn't be happier. It looks fantastic, I really like the weathered wood color that we picked, it goes nicely with the blue-green trim color.

Walls, walls and more walls!

I really love building interior walls. I mean I REALLY love it. I go to bed early just because I can't wait to wake up the next morning so that I can go to work and build interior walls. There is something about how quick it happens, how spacially satisfying it is to see rooms and closets and nooks and be able to imagine where all the switchplates are going to go and how this little corner will be perfect for a comfy chair or a potted plant. I love using the level to get everything plumb and strait. I love that you build it on the floor and then heave it up into place. I love that I get to measure and re-measure to figure everything just right. (and I love that I can use the saws-all to erase most mistakes ;-) Since our house is so tiny, it's difficult to get far enough away to take decent pictures of the interior, but here are a bunch anyway. Look at all those walls!

Our stairs...in the beginning

So we were out at the lumber yard yesterday to pay our bill and pick up a few boards. I ask our lumberman if he ever has any 1" by 12" boards that we would be able to plane down and use as stair treads. He usually doesn't but being the extremely helpful and most extraordinarily nice guy that he is he said that he just happened to have a log in the line up that he thought he could get some nice boards out of for us. And there it was, just sitting on his roller next to the saw, waiting to be cut up into boards for us to make stairs out of. He wrote our names on it as a reminder and that was that. What a romantic and beautiful thing. Really. Wow.

Exterior trim, knee walls and a dollop of freezing cold weather!

Brrrrr! It didn't get above 29 today, but I kept plenty warm building and hoisting a 27' long wall all by myself! Well, it was a knee wall, but it was made of 2 x 6's and nearly 6' tall, so I do get some burly points for the effort. After one failed attempt in which all 27' of it came crashing down magnificently, I was able to get it up by incrementally raising it and propping it on taller and taller blocks. After completing the knee walls on the second floor, I nailed the 2 x 4's to the rafters to fir (fer? fur? foor?) them out and create more space to insulate on the angled part of the ceiling. I couldn't help but put up the trim around one of the windows...it looks fantastic. Dad and Matt got almost all of the facia board on yesterday while I painted trim and built an interior wall. We're sub-contracting out the roofing (Hooray!) and they might be up at the house as early as Monday. The shingles have been ordered and should arrive Monday morning, so we'll be ready for them.
Also, sadly, the little cluster of trees that were so mercifully saved during the ground work and stood the the front left corner of our lot providing that extra "woodsy" character...have been chipped. HEA flagged them and a crew came today to clear them out in order to put our power line in. Good news is that maybe this means we'll get power before spring.

We've been making progress...baby steps it feels like sometimes. Today I built the dormer walls and Matt sanded and began painting the exterior trim. We worked over the weekend to get it all cut and put together and it looks pretty classy. I was actually thankful to see rain today, because at least it wasn't snow! No more snow! We still have a roof to shingle! Egad. It will all get done in time even if we have to shovel the roof to do it. I've finally included a few pictures of the back side of the house, which are hard to get since the ground drops off so steeply around back, it'll be a good sledding hill perhaps.

Mock-up

I couldn't help it...I had to do some fussing around in photo-shop to see if my trim ideas will work out. Since the house is so tall, we thought that a wide band of painted siding (4" T1-ll probably) around the perimeter of the house would help break up the tall verticals. I like it so far...

Front gable

We built the front porch yesterday and Dad got busy today building the front gable. It looks so cute now that the front has some different lines. Matt and I had to move the huge pile of siding from one side of the front yard to the other so that HEA (Homer Electric Assc.) will have a clear path to dig a trench for our power. Dad hung the meter box and we're waiting for them to show up. We've had snow the last few days and yesterday there was quite a bit on the ground. Fortunately it's warmed up and we had some beautiful rainbows and sunny skies this afternoon. I'm hopeful that our rainy summer will not just turn to a snowy fall...it would be nice to have a little break to finish up our exterior work. I started painting exterior trim and have the facia boards all done. We picked a pretty blue-green-grey called "Midnight Garden". I think it will look nice with the siding stained brown.

Walls and Windows

Finished sheathing the gable ends and popped in 11 of the 13 windows. Phew!

Handsome couple pose with pile 'o' siding

We borrowed a truck and were able to haul all of our siding up to the house yesterday. It's a big pile of wood! Our windows and doors have arrived as well and are taking up a lot of space inside. The windows are quite handsome, I can't wait to put one in!