Shower tile

The tile man is working on the master bath shower. The tile has no grout yet. The same color tile will be used on the floor and around the tub in the bath and in the wash/mud room.

Down baths tile

The black and white tile for the downstairs baths is done --except for the grout. They were working on the master bath shower today. I will post a photo of that progress soon.



Rain and more rain coming means a delay in pouring our slab for the garage and the front porch. It is so muddy on our hill (since the heavy equipment work last week) that we are shuffling material to the front door with the Kubota ATV. We are building a temporary front porch with wood just to have a place to clean our feet before going into the house.

We have the electrical approval and electricity will be turned on in the house by this Friday. Then we will go ahead and install the HVAC outside units and have some heat in the house. Interior doors were ordered today. Tomorrow we work on ordering the moulding, window casing and trim.

Yes, work continues

Sorry that it has been a long time since the last posting. We were in Virginia to pick up Allison at orientation this last week. She will be leaving for the Middle East on January 2.

The sheetrock work is finished. Painting will be delayed as we don't have our doors. We ordered them, but the company we used is having financial problems because of the housing industry crunch and they were unable to get them ordered. So, on Wednesday we will start over. We also have to get our moulding bought this next week. The painters want it and the doors installed before they begin painting.

The tile was laid in the basement baths this week-- black and white. I will post a photo of that later.

We have been doing a lot of dirt moving --- AGAIN!! We had to remove three feet of dirt at the garage site to level off the pad for the slab. Plus we are having to move more of the mountain beside it to make room for us to get a vehicle past the garage to get up to the top of our hill, and we are taking out some of the hill to make room for a turn-around. That's a lot of dirt! We also to dig up the main water line and electrical line to the pump and garage since it would have been higher than the excavation for the garage. So, lots of unplanned work has taken place these last two weeks.

All electrical outlets and switches have been installed and we hope to get the electricity to the house turned on this week so we will have some heat. We have constructed a deck (just outside the east side of our bedroom) for the three HVAC units to have a level place to be installed.

This first shot looks from the east side of the loft down into the great room and into the dining room.

These next two pics show some of the dirt work that has been going on. The garage will sit in front of the well pump in the second photo.

Sheetrock almost finished

The sheetrock workers have not worked at the house for two days while allowing the sheetrock to dry out. The first photo looks into the kitchen from the great room. The second photo looks into the great room from the kitchen. Stairway to the loft is to the right.

Sheetrock

It is truly amazing to watch a team of six people install sheetrock. They work like synchronized swimmers. Then, the taping team comes in and a couple of those guys works on stilts and move around with the grace of a ballerina.

Sheetrock should be completely finished tomorrow. Cellulose is being sprayed in the ceilings today. I will have more photos later, but these are of the sheetrock hanging team when they started work on Friday. By Saturday late morning they were finished and the tapers were in right behind them.

First photo is in the great room. Second photo is in the loft.

Insulation

This is not a very exciting photo, but it is what is going on at the house site. Insulation is being installed. The gutters will also be completed tomorrow. Insulation is running late because the sub-contractor decided not to come on Monday as scheduled -- and they did not bother to call us. When this happens it throws off the scheduling of other subs, so we had to postpone the delivery of sheetrock until Friday. Hopefully the sheetrock subs will come on Friday to start the sheetrock.

Security system wiring is all complete. We are installing a small camera in the play room downstairs so Nana will not have to be running up and down the stairs to look after grandchildren when they are playing down there. The camera can be monitored on a certain channel on any TV in the house.

new (old) pictures

AJ here. Long time, no post! Those pictures that were once lost have now been found, and even though they're almost two months old, they're just too cute not to post. And you can see how much we've enjoyed our warm weather picnics at the house. It's amazing how much you can enjoy a house when it's not even livable yet! We've picnicked on the screen porch, and you can see our view, and the spot under the porch that Dad has talked about filling with dirt (behind the concrete wall), and has been one of Collin's favorite places to play. This is during Mimi and Pop's visit, when he pulverized his thumb. Millie is my dog, and is now, along with her brother Boss (Jeff's dog), the first inhabitant of Ton Tenga (Dad built them a pen by the barn). Enjoy!

new (old) pictures 2

Inspection hurdles finished

Today we finished the plumbing, electrical and HVAC inspections --- finally!

The security system should be installed in the next couple days and insulation will go in early next week.

The underground LP gas tank was delivered today, so we will have to rent a track hoe to bury the tank sometime next week. Once the sheetrock is delivered, we will pour the slab for the garage and front porch.

The backfill dirt around the 12' foundation wall has settled during the rain last week, so I will have to get the skid steer (Bobcat) again and haul more dirt (probably Saturday if the rain holds off).

Here's some pics from Thanksgiving at Mimi and Pop's.

Not much evidence of progress

One of the workers were supposed to install the tile on the porch while we were in NC this past week, but he was ill. He only did the hardie board under that goes on the treated wood and under the tile. This shot and the next one show a bit of the beautiful colors around our house.

Looking down toward the barn.

Work is proceeding on the HVAC.

Cows

Here are some photos of my cows.

some evidence of work

Here's a couple shots of some work going on. We have passed the electrical inspection, and we will have the plumbing inspection this week. Hopefully insulation will begin by the end of this week and sheetrock before Thanksgiving.

Contrasting fall colors

Hey, thanks JH for the contrasting fall colors! One of the things that I missed the most about living in West Africa those years was the change of seasons -- especially fall. You have to be into earth tones to really enjoy the same desert colors all year long!

Here's the way the house looks now. There is not much physical evidence of progress right now. I will make another post to give a couple shots.


Mom insisted that I post a photo of me on the blog. This is my best side. The GA fall colors are the highlight of this shot. You can see our road coming up to the house. I am pointing the a tree that is dying in the top. We lost five trees in front of the house from the drought and stress from the septic system excavation. It is not too bad, though because they blocked part of the beautiful view.

Fall Colors

We hear that some people like to visit North Carolina in the fall to see the leaves, but we don't need to go that far for autumn beauty. Check out the striking colors on the scrub brush, notice how the brown of the sand really highlights the brownish-green color of the leaves.

for AJ

AJ, here's a shot of the grass that is coming up in front of the house, and a shot that I took in the fire pit. Thought you might enjoy these.

Fall colors

Some of our friends from here in Rome are going into North Carolina to look at leaves, but it is already very pretty here with colors appearing daily in the woods. I tried out the new little Sony camera today and here's some fall color shots.

Exterior painting completed

The painters finished the exterior painting this afternoon.


The waterline was run from the well to the house. The photo shows the water holding tank hooked up by the well. When the sheetrock arrives we will start the garage and the tank will eventually go in the garage.

Little pumpkin

East End

Sorry about the dark photos. We have been in Pine Mountain for a couple days and we just returned to Rome at dusk. Exterior painting should be completed tomorrow except for the doors and columns (have not installed yet). You can see the remaining area to be painted on the east end of the house. I have not taken many photos of the east end -- that's our bedroom on the main floor.

Staining the deck still needs to be done.

Inside: more water line work and putting in vent hoses for bath exhaust fans.

Tomorrow I am taking off work and helping to dig trenches and install waterlines.

Dirt color

We asked for the color of "dirt" and we got it.
It was very late this afternoon when I took these photos, so they are a bit dark. You can see from the screened porch side that below the deck has not yet been painted. There are only two guys doing the painting, so it will take 4-5 more days.

Inside, more water pipes and HVAC are going in. It seems very slow right now, but we have to remember that we have only been building for three months.

Ponds, Bobcat, more pics

This Bobcat skidder belongs to WinShape and I did not know we had one until this week. I used it today moving dirt to backfill on the east side of the house. I am not able to get my tractor on that side, and I had quite a time gettin the Bobcat down there. All morning the groud was wet and the first attempt proved to be a challenge. I started down the hill without a load of dirt to test the traction-- there was none. After spinning for several minutes, I wound up after 20 minutes at the bottom of the hill below the house stuck--three times. Anyhow, I worked all day and finished back filling the excavation hold on the east side.


For the first time since March, we have had some rain water in our silt pond and pasture pond. the pasture pond has maintained a steady level (2 feet low) from the spring water flowing into the pond.