Flooring begins

The installation of the flooring has begun. They started with the bamboo flooring, which covers most of the main floor. For those interested, I got this strand woven carbonized bamboo. Here are some pictures sent from the builders.

The southwest side of the kitchenInstalling on the east side of the living roomAnother view of the living room

A closeup of the flooringThe hallway to the bedroomsThe master bedroomMore master bedroom with a better image of the wall colorThe playroom/extra kid's roomThe massive ceiling in the pool room has taken a lot of time to drywall, you can see why.

The first coat of paint

Exciting news, most of the loft and main floor has gotten it's first coat of paint! The builders kindly sent these pictures from Tuesday showing some of the rooms that have been painted. Also the kitchen cabinets and appliances have arrived!! You can see a photo of the cabinets at the end of the post. The image above is the foyer. I can't wait to see it with the slate and blue Pewabic tiles on the floor!!

The kitchen, the big space on the right will house the fridge and ovens.The kitchen from another angle
Looking into the mudroom from the kitchen. The same darker green

will be an accent in the kitchen and in the dining room.

The master bedroom and looking onto the master bathroom, two shades of the same green
One of the kid bedrooms, we (by which I mean "I") are calling this the playroom.The kids bath and looking onto Alex's bedroom

Alex's bedroomThe loft, the color is going to go up higher.Some massive piece of dehumidification equipment taking up valuable cake pan storage space in my basement.Bwah, ha, ha! Don't you love the photo of the cabinetry! They're still in the boxes

and I made you look at that air dehumidifying/conditioning thingy. I feel better now.

Indoor paint colors

Today, I sent in the indoor paint colors. While this is one of the easiest things to change it still is scary since a mistake will make a big impact. However, I'm been living in a beige nightmare for four years now and anything interesting (even in a bad way) at least will be a change. Either way it's really exciting and a sign that we are truly nearing the end. Here's the floorplan with indoor color going from the top to bottom, all trim is white:

Top floor: main space is pale yellow, light green in the bathThe foyer and bath are a very deep cobalt blue, it doesn't show up well here.

The living room/kitchen is a light grey green which also doesn't show up too great.I am so in love with this orange and the blue for the pool room. I think John's

red office is going to take some getting used to but he wanted it and it is a great red.

Frost pictures

Tuesday morning we stopped by the building site to see the pool room drywall. It was a sunny morning and we couldn't help tromping around and enjoying one last look at the fields and forest before heading back to the asphalt and brown grass of Detroit. Everything sparkled with feathery frost and I attempted to capture some of it. The above photo is my favorite, it's a paper wasp nest we found in the scrub. I loved it's striated greys and the frosty edges. Here are some other pictures of Dog Hill covered in frost:

The fields of the property are over-run with invasive spotted knapweed.
The purple flowers are pretty for a short time in the summer but then
it becomes a scratchy menace. It was nice to see it covered with the finest feathery frost. Curly dried grasses with more feathery frost
Sumac bark (from a dead bush) covered in lichen and then a layer of frost
Morning sun shining on feathery frost on a boulder
Autumn olive berries turned into raisinsStaghorn sumac
Sparkling autumn olive branch
Some twigs and a stump covered in frost

Drywall hung in the pool room

Before we headed back south to the Detroit area we got to see the drywall hung in the pool room. Yes, there really is a pool hiding under that giant plywood platform on the floor. I'd like to not think about how grungy it's gotten but the drywall in the pool room looks great! The windows and the view out are spectacular and I love how the skylights are framed (even though they are covered with snow now). Here are pictures:

The western wall of the pool room The framed in skylights
Some of the southern windows
The eastern wall in the pool room
(the lower window goes to John's office)
Half of the northern wall of the pool room
(top windows go to the main floor hallway)

Drywall and a furnace in my kitchen

After an extended period away from the building site, we started the new year off with a trip up north. The insulation is installed and drywall hanging has begun. The change is dramatic and makes the inside feel much less like a pile of sticks with a roof, suddenly rooms are defined. The first change we noticed is that the garage doors have been installed. This lead us to walk all the way around the house checking doors before realizing that we should manually open a garage door to get in. We were told that they put in temporary furnaces to keep the house warm, which is especially important so that the pool water doesn't freeze. That didn't prepare me for the furnace in the middle of my kitchen!! I got word a week before Christmas that the cabinets have arrived in town are are waiting to be installed-- no way is that happening soon with a furnace there! We lost a considerable amount of time in November and December which has pushed our "completion date" to late March (if we're lucky). Though I love how the house is coming along, I'm battling with panic over the new completion date. With our house to sell in the Detroit area (is there a worse place to try and sell a house right now?) we're moving past the dates when we would like to move and into the time when we need to move. We need time to paint and catch the prime time to list the old house. Alas, this is a problem I just have to mentally deal with since there is no easy fix. I just have to keep thinking about how fabulous it'll be when it's all done...whenever that may be. Here are some pictures to see the progress so far:

Icicles on the pool room (a picture from our exploratory walk around the house)The patio view in the snowThe kitchen furnaceThe kitchen
The living room
The pool room windows in the living room
Alex in the hallway to the bedrooms
The master bedroom
The master bath view and Alex
The foamy Icynene insulation in the master bath showerThe top floor bonus room, west
The top floor bonus room, northeast
Alex is standing the powder room doorway
The top floor bonus room, south
The view from the southern window of the bonus room
The basement stairway The basement family room
John's office The pool room, west
The pool room skylights The whipped cream like insulation in the pool room