September 27th, Concrete work

Some very visible work done this week included new concrete. This is the walkway from the mud room to the back porch. The opening is where a sliding glass door will be.

Here is a view of that same walkway from the north side. The box in the foreground is the well, used to be well house.

The following picture is the west side of the house. The concrete pad will house a propane generator in the future to protect us from the frequent power outages we have here in the boonies. An opening to a wood box will be under the window. Inside the house the wood box will serve as a window seat beside the wood burning stove. The blue pipes are part of the drainage system to control water flow around the house. The land the house sits on is on a slight hill, but it's enough to cause a water problem.

And here's the gazebo with roof completed. The gazebo sits just north of the concrete pad in the previous picture.

This picture shows Denis doing his job of cleanup crew. I thought you might be able to see that the trees are turning but the hill is too distant. The one that looks dead is not. It's just a black walnut tree and they always lose their leaves before all the other hardwoods.

Septemer 26th, Master bath in progress

There is actually a lot of interior work going on with the house, but most of it is not picture worthy. I mean who wants to see primed sheet rock, electrical outlets and duct work in the crawl space for heat and air.

Today though, the builder got started on the master bath. I wanted the spa tub to be tall enough so I could see out the window. Seeing how tall the platform is, I wonder if I should have had the window installed lower instead. I may need that ladder to get in and out of the tub.

Actually, there will be two steps I can use to enter and exit the tub. The big window faces east. The one on the right faces south and is over what will be my makeup area of the vanity.

This is the view I will have when I am in the tub, if it is daylight of course. That's our old barn and the two horses are out there, although I'm sure it's hard to tell it in this picture. Sorry it's a little overexposed but you get the idea.

If I look straight out of the window I see into these trees and most days, early or late, we see deer grazing out there. No, don't look too hard. They are not in this picture but last night we saw half a dozen, in three different groups. Two are very young and always hang out together, just the two of them. I think they must have lost their mother and are twins.

September 11, An unexpected expense

This past week we had an interesting (?) incident with the Sky Trac. That's the big machine that is used for lifting such things as roofing or sheet rock or ladders as you see in the picture below. It is also handy for lifting people up high to work on installing siding etc. It had been used up close to the house on the west end for putting up siding or soffits when it fell in a hole.
When we first heard about that, we didn't get too alarmed as there are many small holes in our yard due to dogs and other smaller animals digging. When we finally checked out the hole, we discovered it was sizable and in a very suspicious location. Denis got a five foot long walking stick to check out the length and depth of it.


As he poked around, he could tell he was hitting something hard other than tree roots. We began to have the uneasy feeling that the hole was above the septic tank. The fact that the hole was filling up with water lent credence to that suspicion. Surprisingly, the smell was not that noticeable so we were still in doubt.


Then Rick, the contractor, got a back hoe operator here to dig out the hole enough to confirm that it was indeed the old septic tank. Actually, it was a relief to find out that it was the septic tank and not a cave or sink hole that was going to swallow up our house before it was finished.


Metal tanks are no longer allowed. Today the tanks must be concrete and you can see why when you look at this piece of the old tank, riddled with rust holes. Roots from the adjacent elm tree had penetrated the tank also. This tank did not have much life left in it anyway so it's just as well that we corrected the problem now.

This is a shot of the end of the tank. It looks a lot like the tanks we store gas in for the farm. Maybe it was. Who knows.

Here's the hole, almost ready for the new concrete tank. You can see how the old tank went up under the edge of the furnace room. Fortunately it didn't go so far as to cause the foundation to sag and it only required filling in with rocks and not concrete for support.

Here's a picture of the elm tree that crowds the septic tank area. I lobbied to save the tree and you can see why. It's a big beautiful tree that provides lots of shade for that west end of the house. Whether it will live or not is up for debate. Many of the roots were damaged during the digging up of the old tank. At least we are giving it a fighting chance. The new concrete tank is in now and should last for the rest of our lives at least and probably many more than that.

August 31st, The gazebo is taking shape

A lot of the work lately has been inside and although progress is being made, pictures of something like insulation, or a wall that has been sheet rocked are not the stuff for blogs. This past week the gazebo started taking shape so I decided to showcase it. The black blob in the lower right hand corner is Nigel.


We have a round metal picnic table with four chairs that will fit nicely in the gazebo. I bet we will be drinking our morning coffee out here on nice days. In the winter we will be sitting in front of our wood burning stove in the kitchen area.


The builders did a good job of getting these roof boards to line up so nicely at the peak of the roof.


In this more distant shot, you can see the chimney for the woodburning stove, which will be just inside the french doors leading to the back porch/patio. The further chimney is for the vent hood over the gas cook top.
And here is another picture of the well head, now surrounded by more of a box. Sure don't miss that old well house that was there in our way for so long.