How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

View thru dining room window

You should see all the pine that Don has put up in the house.  I told you before that we had 6500 square feet of sheet rock to paint, but there’s a LOT of wood too.  The goal is to get the walls covered so that the electrician can come and finish hooking up the electrical and the plumber can come back too.  In NEWA, you can build the house yourself, but you have to hire a licensed plumber and electrician if you want your home inspected to code.

Our furniture is here!  Don took a trip to Nevada last week and returned with most of our furniture.  It seems bizarre that we have furniture set up in the living room and we can sit in the evening in front of the woodstove, but we don’t have electricity or running water yet.   We still go off to the trailer to sleep and over to mom’s to eat.  However, it makes for some cozy evenings.

First Snow!

Two nights ago, the water in the trailer froze.  We’ve had some chilly evenings.  I don’t keep track of the temperatures because we have a ways to go before we are officially in the house and I don’t want to jinx it.  There have been a couple of snowy days and nights, but it has warmed up enough during the day to melt all but the northern shady spots.

The game camera activity has slowed also, though we get the occasional deer.  There’s a buck hiding nearby.  Since it is hunting season, he feels safe here.  Daniel has decided not to hunt this year so I guess he IS safe.  We are still in awe over the family of river otters we captured on film.

Conversation 'pit'.

Anyway, I was talking about all this pine on the walls.  I think I previously mentioned Webley’s sawmill.  We got a great deal on the wood and it’s going farther than we planned.  We will still need to purchase a bit more, although not as much as we thought.  The wood looks beautiful.  I love that rustic, classy feeling it gives.  As of this morning, he only has to finish one wall in our bedroom, the upstairs hall and the stairwell.  The living room wall, ceiling, downstairs hall and Daniel’s room are done.  That includes one wall that is 54 feet long!  (I did help on that one!)  Keeping in mind, he has a ton of trim work to do, but that can wait for the long cold days of winter!

Hallway

You’ve seen the floor plan, there are not going to be any doors upstairs (except for the bathroom).  So once you ascend the stairs, you are facing the west wall that runs the entire length (54’) of the house!  That was a huge pine project, but with Don’s handy-ness, it took only two days to cover in pine.  

To recap:  the kitchen cabinets are up (no doors yet, don’t wanna scratch them), the laundry room sink cabinet is in, as is the washer, dryer and hot water heater (sitting in place).  There are some cabinets in the mud/laundry room that are not up yet.  The downstairs bath has its tub/shower installed, otherwise the room is empty.  The upstairs bath is empty and the tub is sitting in Daniel’s room.  

View through our bedroom window.

All the sheetrock is done and painted. We found a wall outlet that was sheet-rocked over, textured and painted and Don had to cut it out.  There is always touch up painting to do.  The downstairs floor is done and polished (needs wax).  The furniture is in downstairs, including the living room, kitchen table and what I call the ‘conversation pit’.  I came up with that yesterday when my furniture wasn’t going the way I liked and there ended up being more room between the living room and the kitchen table.  The ‘pit’ is in front of the woodstove, so it works well.  A little cramped maybe, but it is MY house.

54' of pine wall

Things still to do are:  Buy vanities, toilets and lights for both baths, a cook top stove and microwave and all of the interior doors.  Also, plan flooring for upstairs and how to finish the stairs.  We are considering painting the stairs.  Thoughts?  I also might just paint the plywood floor upstairs for now.  That would give us time to consider how to finish it.  We’ll need a back porch floor next year, but the porch ceiling (also in pine) looks great.

A lot to do, but a LOT is done.  That’s the joy in building a home.  You have little triumphs every day.  Many of my friends on Facebook are giving thanks every day this month.  I am thankful on this day for this opportunity; to not only build one home, but to have been able to build two homes.  When this kind of love goes into the project, you are not just building a house you ARE building a ‘home’.

So even though we don’t have woodchucks in NEWA (that I know of), we sure have a LOT of wood.  I am certainly ‘pining’ away for move-in day!

Production!

P.S. - A friend asked me this morning if I had stopped writing my blog.  I said there wasn't much to write about as progress was slower.  That is simply not true.  There are unlimited things to write about.  It is just that this darn computer keeps crashing and the internet is so slow.  I play multiple games of solitaire and hearts just waiting for things to load, IF they load at all.  I started today's blog at 8 a.m. and it's now 2:30 p.m.  Bear (pun intended) with me!

Don's production is definitely much more productive than my own!