Patience!

I've been missing in action on the blog for over a week. Drywall work --- sanding, spackling, etc. is not very photo-worthy. It's like waiting for hair to grow. Nevertheless, it's been a busy time in other areas of life! Last weekend Eddie and Kelly graduated! They bought a beagle puppy to celebrate reaching this milestone.

I've had a few assignments related to the house. I finally made my selection of tile for the master bathroom shower. I'd been eyeing the accent stripe, with the small stones that coordinate with the chimney wall in the bathroom, for a couple of months. When I decided to purchase it, Lowe's had discontinued the product! So I had to scramble to find enough, and ended up buying most of it at the Lowe's in Danville, when I went to visit Sis on May 17. Sorry the background is a little busy. This was taken in the trunk space of my car.

Another task that has driven me crazy is choosing faucets for the house --- six of them. I did much internet searching and comparing of prices. The choices were multitudinous and overwhelming, and I am not good when faced with beaucoup choices. But I finally pushed the "order" button earlier this week. Three of them have arrived and I expect the others within a few more days. I saved well over $200 by ordering online. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

wood-work

Today they reversed the "swing" of the door from the kitchen to the eating porch! What we noticed is how different the exterior color of the door is from the interior. The interior of the kitchen is much browner. I don't know if that is from years of kitchen grease, or the exterior was more greatly affected by weather over the years ....... or what. Anyway, to me this is an exciting change, one of several things we came up with to make things more spacious.

Here's the reversed door from the outside. Again, see the color difference? Plus you get a feel for the new kitchen space as seen from the dining porch.

Me being silly with the re-hung door.

Check out the board and batten door to the crawl space! Also a good view of the cantilever logs and the x-rails on the back porch. There's still a bit more work to do on the rails.

Brad is checking out how easy it is to open the new door.

Here are the new storage cabinets in the upstairs hall, partially completed.

drywall!

The drywall crew has arrived. They are a family-run business, father and children, with the last name of Mays. The brother/uncle of all these people was the Mays person who lived in Whispering Oaks and owned Samson. Some of them remember the house and Daddy and Mama. Small world! We start off with closet for BR#2. These closets are spacious and cozy. If Meg's baby crib was still at Hanshill, it would easily fit into one of these enlarged and improved closets!

Standing in the kitchen looking at the hallway to the half bath, and to the niche for the refrigerator. You can see the line of the staircase over top of the refrigerator opening. The coffee station has not yet been drywalled.

New configuration of the kitchen, with the door to the dining porch open.

Here's John Batman in the kitchen with vats of drywall compound ("mud").

This is the sunroom, my little office corner of it.

Sunroom windows. By the way, all the new windows have a protective coating of nearly-transparent film on them to protect them during construction. The coating will be removed later.

Sunroom looking toward the doors to BR#3 and the master bath. You can (barely) see where the formerly exterior wall boards are above the doors.

The laundry closet has been drywalled.

This shot is boring. I'm looking into the master bath from the hall door. I meant to show the top of the shower wall, but it's cut off.

Here's the master bath from the sunroom door. It's just cool to envision the place with the walls in place. I'm working on a second post but having trouble getting the pictures to upload.

Power, latches, and railings

The new door from the kitchen to the back porch finally arrived.
Chosen for maximum light availability.

The plumbing work for the guest bathroom has been covered with old wood. Once painted the boxes at the ceiling and floor will blend into the background.

Here's Josh's prototype for a new latch to match the old ones. This is the guest bathroom door from the side of BR#2.

A box installed related to the electrical service. Side yard overlooking the pasture.

Here's where the power company ran the power line underground.

And here's another shot of that looking the other way.

Cantilever logs are up.

Working on railings

Another good door handle --- the entrance hall closet.

X-rails done at an angle!!!!! That was a surprise!

electric company

Found photo-worthy stuff today ---- the electric company had dug a long, gaping ditch through the pasture and through the yard. But I didn't have my camera. I took 4 photos with my cell phone, but I cannot find them on the cell phone, much less figure out how to upload them. So I'll try again tomorrow, using the camera.

I chose our master bathroom shower tile today. Also went to the lighting store and made 3 more selections ---- ceiling fans for the two guest bedrooms, plus vanity lighting for the guest bathroom.

Also purchased seeds for row crops, and Brad planted them (corn, romas, snaps, okra, and butterbeans). Sorry, this is not part of the renovation.

Had a late supper watching the top 4 on American Idol!

editorial comment ---- the next 20-some years

MMmmm ---- great bourbon, great peanuts, wonderful evening. The bobber adds class to the occasion ---- along with asparagus from the garden, goldenrod from the property and hydrangeas from our house in town.

"Wouldn't the old man .........................."

"This is what heaven must be like."

(Photos taken in July 2009)

The pond was built about 21 years ago. Frequently, but in the last ten years ALWAYS, when we went to the pond with Daddy he would invariably say "I just wish the Old Man could be here to see this........ Wouldn't he have loved this?......."

or words to that effect

It was always a predictable comment, similar to Mama's comment about how "stupid" the phoebes are who nest on the porch column. If Mama is there, she will make the comment. If Daddy was at the pond, he would make his comment.

Well, get used to it folks!!!!!! There are going to be an awful lot of times in the next 20-some years that you hear me say "I just wish Daddy could have lived long enough to see this ......... wouldn't he have loved it?" If Leigh is around when family comes to visit, you can count on it that she WILL make that comment.

We take comfort in the fact that Daddy knew about our plans. I had shared Brad's and my hopes with him for a good two years before the plans all fell together. And he DID get to see the architectural drawings and have some idea of what we were going to do. But I truly am sorry that he wasn't able to see our dream take shape and come to life.

Wouldn't he have loved it?

insulation & doors

So it may not be the most exciting thing in the world to see insulation stuffed into walls, but that is what you're mostly going to see in this post. Above is the new kitchen and the walls have been insulated.

Here's the sunroom with insulation

This is the door into the front hall closet ---- it has been downsized to fit the smaller opening.

This shows two doors into the laundry closet at the top of the staircase. Josh used hardware that came off shutters.

This is a NEW door they built using the purchased rough-sawn wood, but done in the style of the old doors ---- note the horizontal pieces top and bottom done with old wood, plus again the hardware from a shutter. This door goes from BR#2 into the new bathroom.

Back to insulation. This is the closet for BR#2 ---- the flying squirrels and mice won't know what happened!!!! These closets are going to be COZY!!!! Drywall to follow pretty soon!

And finally, here's today's view of the exterior --- most all the battens have been done, except around where the door will be ---- it is past due for arrival and installation. I love how they used old wood and re-installed the old vent above the windows in the addition, and I love the dappled light in the afternoon.

Insulation

It was a big day on the project. First, a small thing --- the electrical boxes were put up in the hallway between the kitchen and the new half bath. But the big job of the day was insulation. Our soon-to-be graduated Eddie was in town, briefly ---- he'd driven to Raleigh for a job interview and was heading back to Charlottesville, but stopped at Hanshill on the way to see the progress firsthand. Last time he was there the addition had not yet been built. Anyway, below he is holding the little tube that was used to insert the dense-pak cellulose insulation into the walls of the original house. However, we are standing in the kitchen, and you can see the same sprayed insulation in the ceiling on the left side ---- it was installed in the cantilevered area of the sun room that hangs out farther than the first floor. Remember you can double-click to make any photo larger.

This is the "drinking porch" wall, and you can see places where the insulation came through. It feels sort of like dryish foam rubber. It breaks away pretty easily, so the construction workers will go around and scrape it off in places where it came through. The installers have an infrared gun-type device that they point at the wall after the insulation has been inserted. If it is red there is plenty of insulation; if they see blue, more is needed. Fascinating that they can pinpoint where more is needed.

This next is an interesting shot. It's the "eating porch" and the sideboard/hutch has been moved away from the wall!! (door to kitchen in background) So the wall color behind it is darker, as is the floor where it normally sits. I told the guys I was surprised they could move that thing. I thought it was probably pretty heavy, and I had wondered if it was nailed to the wall. But no, it was freestanding! Maybe we will move it a tad to the right when it is put back.

It amuses me when I take photos now of the staircase. That has traditionally been such a dark space. The flash from the camera makes it look so bright and light ----- WRONG!!!! at least in the past. With all the electrical outlets that have been installed, we can make any area we want light and bright going forward. Here, they have not re-attached the battens after the insulation work. But in the living room, where the battens have been re-attached, you would never know they had been removed. Amazing! They guys will be working on the second floor tomorrow ---- Thursday May 5 --- come out if you want to see how this is done!

Next follow two shots of the attic with a different form of insulation --- the kind sprayed or blown with a huge hose. This shot is looking toward the tennis court end of the house.

This shot is looking toward the cabin/old pool end of the house. You see through the attic and the sunroom ceiling out to the exterior above the sunroom.

We may as well give a "shout-out" to the company doing the work. One of them knew Daddy and Daddy allowed him to hunt on the property. He is the person who cut up the large tree that fell in the Circle some years back. It's nice to keep the work in Amherst County.

Today's work included putting up siding on the part of the addition that faces the front yard. Interesting that they used battens of the old wood, on top of the new rough-cut, kiln-dried pine boards. Also, it appears that the foundation and staircase stone work has been completed. Have I written about the wonderful man who has done the stone work???

He believes that each stone is a gift from God and should be treated with respect and reverence. We are only stewards of God's generous bounty, not owners. This is what I have been saying about our ownership of our house on Peakland Place --- that we are just stewards ---- as well as Hanshill. I often pray that I am/will be a good steward of the land that God has lent to me. Thank you to our wonderful stonemason "Eddie" --- I do not know his last name ---- for doing a job that is such a work of art.

And now for a late-breaking update: Brad is so excited about watching the process of insulating the existing walls that he has called in for a substitute teacher for the second half of his school day tomorrow. Beginning at 11:00 he can go to Hanshill and watch the insulation guys at work! He wants to see the infra-red camera in action! Both Meg and Nina thought we are nuts when I told them how excited we were today about the insulation process. Nina also said she likes the photo with all the ladders.

new back porch coming together

So now the siding is complete on the driveway side. The wood that is natural colored without stain, used to be on the storeroom interior. After the exterior of the house is completely re-stained, the addition will appear to have been there always.

The stone steps are almost finished. There's still some work needed on the top step. The trex decking has been laid on the little porch and three posts for the railing are up! Isn't this wonderful??!!

This just shows the new wood siding (battens not done yet) including on the side of the dormer.

Also the siding has been put up to the left of the back door ---- hope that new door comes soon! And finally this shot is to show that the little patch of wild azalea is surviving all that is happening around it. It bloomed about two weeks ago.