Elia's Ballet Graduation Class

Here are some videos of Elia's ballet graduation. The lily pads on the floor are their fairy houses. She loves ballet class and has a big show this Sunday where her class is buzzing bees.

Working on the finishes and the roof...

Here's a look at the roof. The eaves and the whole mudroom roof will be metal, as you can see. (The metal roofing is yet another free thing Eben has acquired) The rest of the roof will be comp.

We have been hard at work inside and outside these days. Here are the boxes of shower tile we'll be using. We were lucky enough to get it all for free. I really like it!
This is the bathroom vanity. We have some free granite which Eben has been hauling around for a couple years now. It will work for the counter here and in the wet bar area. We'll just have to have it cut and finished in a few places.
I've been working on the slate floors. You can't see the color very well here, but it's nice. It's not too hard and I feel like I am learning some of the tricks of laying it. I'm glad we got the 16's...it is going pretty quickly, but is rough on the hands!
Here's the wet bar cabinets (minus an upper one that isn't installed yet) The open shelves on the left we designed thinking that one day we might want to put a bar fridge in there. So, they can be removed if necessary.
The walls and ceiling have paint on them all ready. We will just be adding a couple accent walls and rerolling the walls when we are all done.

In all his free time...

I was lucky enough to find a great swing set on Craigslist last week. So, for Mother's Day, Eben took a break from the big house and built a little one for the kids. This is as much a gift for me as it is for them, since they can now entertain themselves right here at home! What a find!
Now it's back to the real house. We'll be hanging the rest of the facia in the evenings this week, so that the roof can go on. We found an amazing price on roofing and will be doing a combo of metal and composite.
All the finishes except for the floor and the trim have been ordered, which is exciting. We'll be working on painting and tiling the shower soon.

Onto the finishes!

Well, the drywall is in and textured.
I still can't believe how much work this has been and that Eben has built this whole place. It's pretty amazing now that it is all coming together. We are getting excited! Above is the laundry area of the garage and where the furnace and hot water heater will be. The door goes out to the backyard.
Here's most of the rest of the garage.


Here's our mudroom to be! The shot is taken from what used to be the front door and will soon be a glass door. The stairs below go up to the new living space.


Here is the great room up there.
This corner is where the wet bar will be and the door goes into the bathroom.

Here's the door into the bedroom.
And here is the bedroom with a view of the loft.
Here's the bathroom, toilet on right and vanity will be on left behind that wall.
Shower!
And here's the pony wall in the great room. The stairs go down from the landing on the right.Kind of confusing, I am sure, but you're welcome to come up and see it for yourself. We're working on getting a real roof on soon. As the rain is pouring down outside, we'll just hope for no leaks.
We're choosing floors and tile and painting should be happening in a week or so. We've ordered cabinets, knotty alder. It's all coming together!

We have a garage door!

Here we are! A garage door, front all sided and trimmed out. Almost seems like things are going to be done soon....hmmmm. We are moving along, almost ready for rough inspection. Eben stained the garage door and that is the final color that the whole house will be eventually. He tells me the staining is my job and so it will probably be done the second Tuesday of next week with the amount of time that I have to do things. Sure is nice to have an enclosed garage door and one that works.

Moving a little quicker these days...

So here are the latest advancements in the addition. It is really fun to start getting an idea of what the finished product will look like. We have a front door now! Elia helped Eben stain it.
The shakes are up on the gable of the garage and you can see some of the boards which will complete the siding on the bottom half.
Here's a view from the street. The garage door in coming in a week which should be really exciting. Don't worry, the existing house will one day be sided to match the new one!

Just some more shots of the shakes. I'm a big fan! Thanks for your help Tel and Tim!
The windows in the addition are now all in. These are in the living room in the new space.
Eben has been hiring some guys he works with to help with things. It makes things go a lot quicker, that is for sure. Juan put in all the ducts for the HVAC. This is the back of the garage ceiling.

This little platform will have on it the furnace, hot water heater, washer and dryer, and a utility sink and counter. All to come soon. Thankfully we were given a Miele washer and dryer from some clients of Eben's who that they were too small! Can't wait to get those up and running.
The plumbing is in too. Eben is going to finish it off. The electricians have also been working. So things are really moving along. Our hope is to have it done by June...and then it will be on to phase 2, the existing house (oh man!).

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Progress seems slow these days as Eben is working on things as the weather and his time allows him. He's been trying to get the facia up for awhile now, but can't do it by himself, so he has to wait for kind and helpful friends to drop by. Also, things have been icy even though we don't have much snow! I'm a big fan of the tongue and groove under the eaves.
The front windows went in, which is exciting. Only 2 more windows left to put in upstairs now. He has ordered the garage door, the shakes for the gable ends, and we are getting bids for the plumbing and electrical work.
It's always a a question of money or time. More money means it takes less time, but right now we are opting to save a penny or two. So this means, slow progess and more work for Eben! Good thing he's such a hard worker and a jack of all trades.