mystery photos answer

I was reminded that I didn't describe the mystery photos. Adam was on the right track! Brad held the camera under the fireplace opening to get photos of the chimney. For the first 86 years there has not been a damper for the chimney. Remember seeing leaves in fall or snow in winter on the fireplace floor/hearth?? Brad consulted with the stonemason and was told what process he should follow. He purchased a damper and has been going through successive steps, with lots of experienced advice, to install it securely. He will also install a chimney cap. Hope this will discourage birds from nesting in the chimney and bats from coming inside.

We have a big day today, at least emotionally. The kitchen paint color is going up, the one I've been stressing over. I absolutely love the color, but have not been able to envision how it will look with all the other elements in the kitchen ---- appliances, cabinets, board and batten areas, and stone chimney. Brad says that paint is the easiest thing to change and it could be re-done some weekend afternoon while watching football. Truly there won't be much of it there. I just hope I like it when everything is put together.

The other thing about today is that our architect is coming for a site visit, and he hasn't been in about 6-7 weeks. He'll get to see all his ideas instantiated (sorry, word from data modeling days).

worthy of a mortgage loan?

I took a bunch of photos this morning and had them quickly developed so I had something to show our mortgage loan officer at an afternoon appointment. I'm sharing some of the photos, to show the current state of the renovation. It's neat to compare the new photos with those taken last summer. Here's the new version of the view on approach. The exterior will be stained in the next couple of weeks, and the windows painted, too.
This is a front-on shot of the addition from the driveway side.

Here's the current state of the "back" of the house.

Here's the addition taken from the front yard.

I love this next shot. You can see the sunroom from the first floor, and see how they used wood from the original house in the ceiling area of the sunroom.

And finally, the flagpole is going up! It's in the middle of the circle. Brad says we will raise the flag for the first time on Monday (Independence Day).

Brad and I made a list of all the things left for the contractor to do ---- turns out it is a very long list! Completion will take every bit of six weeks, if not longer. We hope to move in late August.

mystery photos

I'm posting three shots related to some work Brad has been doing. Guess what this is. I'll share the answers next time.

interior staining

I hesitate to share these photos of the new interior stain, because the stain was still wet and the final look is not yet achieved. But I want to document what is going on this week. The first floor staining will be finished by Friday and next week they will concentrate on the second floor. On this door, the stain has dried, so this is very close to what the actual color will be. The surrounding wall looks browner and that stain is still wet. It goes on looking brown and dries looking gray-er.
In the next shota again the door is dry and the wall is wet. The shine disappears when the paint dries.

The last shot shows the new color, still wet and brown, against a door which has not yet been stained. The characteristics of this stain is very interesting, due to it changing as it dries.

primer & outlets

Progress continues. It is not glamorous, but nevertheless it's progress. All the drywalled walls were painted with primer in the last two days. We'll probably leave the closets a light color close to white just for the light (although they do have light fixtures, above the entry doors).
Another task done lately was the installation of some light switches, light bulbs hanging from the ceiling (shades of "old" Hanshill!), and electrical outlets. The painters will need some light to do their work. Here's a 3-way switch on the new wall entering BR#2 --- three switches to accommodate lighting and a ceiling fan.

Boring, I know, but here's a light switch in the upstairs hall.

Master closet primed.

The master BR used to have one electrical outlet --- same for BR#2. Now each of them has 8 outlets!!!

I forgot to show the new stair treads on my last post. I love the evening light on this next shot. You may need to enlarge the photo to really get that effect.

And I close with this view from the living room ---- I love this view and can't wait to be living at Hanshill and enjoying so many new, wonderful views, as well as those original and beloved views cherished by members of our family for the last 86 years.

End of construction - on to painting & other stuff

The team of three construction artists have nearly finished their work. They've been building shelves, doorsills, and all kinds of finishing trim. Today was supposed to be their last day, and they did many things to finish the sawing, assembling and nailing. After today, apparently, the paint crew will come. They will prime walls to be painted, then stain the interior and exterior, then paint the drywall. I tried to capture some of the finishing details that have been done recently. First, you see pull handles on the doors to the pantry (left) and half bath (right).
Here's something very cool ---- the dividing wall that will define the right side of the horseshoe shape of the kitchen counters. The raised bar granite countertop will be placed atop the supporting pieces that the builders created, shown here. This wall will be the dividing point between the board and batten old look of the house and the "surprise" addition of the modern kitchen. As usual, Josh did a fabulous job.

Here are Matt (sorry I didn't realize your eyes were closed or I would have taken another shot) and Josh with the glass cut-out on the door to the eating porch right after it was re-hung. Hooray!!

Here is something very exciting --- Josh's design of the banister and railing for the new staircase. The new treads have been laid, too --- I forgot to take a picture of that.

Isn't this beautiful??? And it is rock solid-sturdy. The little tail in the picture is grand-puppy Bailey who was visiting us while Eddie went to a funeral.

Next is a shot of the right-side interior of the master closet. This side will have double-decker rods for hanging shirts and other shorter items.

The left-side of the closet will have a single, higher rod, plus the stack of shelving. On the back wall of the closet we plan to place the tall dresser that was Daddy's in the old version of the house. So when you open the door to the closet, that is what you will see straight ahead. This will be a wonderful closet!

Today they also added a shelf into the upstairs hall cabinets. This makes the space more usable for storing blankets, sheets, towels, whatever.

Next is the interior of one of the expanded closets. Even in the closets they added baseboards and custom-sawn shoe molding, to match those in the original part of the house.

And let's not forget that the second railing on the back steps was done today!

This rear entrance is so cool!!! What beautiful workmanship! I am so glad we held out for stone. And the trex deck surface is perfect, not to mention the right color!

So, the shot above and the one below are two of my favorite ones from today. However, the staircase ones going to the sunroom are fabulous too. Doesn't this look wonderful???

interior doors & Nannie's birthday

Meg went out with me this afternoon and gave me some good suggestions about paint colors.
At the end of the week, the builders hung all of the doors that were left to be done. Above you can see the door to the pantry on the left, and the door into the half-bath on the right. Hinges from old window shutters were re-used for these new doors.

This shot is boring, but it's the new door leading into the master closet.

In the sunroom two doors from the original house are being used to transition from the sunroom into the old house --- the door on the right goes into the master bathroom, and the one on the left goes into bedroom #3 (also recently known as "Kelly's room").

The new storage cabinets in the upstairs hall have been finished. Battens were put onto the front, and a beautiful one-piece top of very smooth wood was added. This could be a great place to fold laundry!

Happy Birthday to Nannie ---- 87 years young! We love you so much!

75% complete??

Brad and I just had a fun day, going on a "date." This was a real change from all the days of non-stop work Brad has been doing since he got out of school. But more about our day later. For now, I'll explain the photos on today's post. First, I've been meaning to show how one of our builders, Matt, repaired one of our shutters --- by replacing three slats that had long been missing. This repair has been especially pleasing to Nannie. Once the exterior staining is finished, the new slats won't be noticeable.
And, by the way, much work in the last few days has been guys working on the exterior of the house. They have been caulking every single batten on both sides. This is in addition to the fact that all the exterior battens already were re-nailed to make them tighter. This is going to be one well-sealed house!!

So above is a shot of the new pantry shelves. Next, we bought paint samples and tried them out. Here are two shots of the kitchen where we tried out the color.

Next we have two shots of a neutral paint color that we are trying in the sunroom. There is quite a bit of glare on the first shot. We stood the door by the paint, because the two doors from the sunroom into the old part of the house will be two old doors from the fish-cleaning porch. However, they will be re-stained, as we have decided to re-stain the entire interior of the house, as well as the exterior. This is a late-breaking piece of news, as originally we were not going to re-stain the interior walls. We were just going to have them cleaned. All the new wood trim on doors and windows will be stained to match the old, so the raw-new wood look of the trim is a bit misleading.

The paint on the photo below is a better representation. I think I like it!!!! Wish I had family and friends out there to help me decide.

Okay, so now about our day. We left home at 9:00 a.m. and drove up to Schuyler, VA which is between Lynchburg and Charlottesville, off to the east a bit, in Nelson County. We took Route 6 and then a couple of really small back roads. The main purpose of our day was to visit the Alberene Soapstone Plant. I have been wanting to see the plant and somehow to incorporate some Virginia soapstone into our renovation project from the very start. This was something Daddy and I had talked about for several years. He was familiar with the business from his days as a traveling salesman. We bought a remnant piece of soapstone that is really beautiful and we are going to use it for the vanity top in the master bathroom. Brad will drive back up there next week in his pick-up truck and transport the slab to Spectrum Stone in Concord so they can fabricate the piece for our needs.

After that we went to The Waltons Mountain Museum, which was less than a half mile away from the soapstone plant. We had a wonderful stroll back in time at the museum --- this coincided with our recent discovery of re-runs of the Waltons on a couple of different channels on our satellite TV.

We rushed home to get the dogs out for a walk. While away, our builder had called and asked us to visit Ferguson's Kitchen and Bath to make the final selection concerning the glass shower door for our master bathroom. I did that while Brad stayed home to be here with a guy who came to service our upstairs air conditioner. Late in the day we finally went to Hanshill and took the photos shown on this entry. It was a busy day, but very satisfactory! We received a bill for the third installment on our construction bill (3rd out of 4). I think this means we are 75% complete and may be able to move some time in August!! It's getting close!

Nannie was here!

We just returned from a nice drive to Hanshill with Mama. The very exciting news is that she negotiated herself up all the stairs to the second floor, and down again. I am just
so mad at myself for not taking a picture of her, say in the sunroom. As the last task of the week, yesterday afternoon the builders put up the woodwork around the windows.

Friday June 3, end of week

This is an attempt to show the new flooring, looking from the kitchen toward the half bath.
Next is a shot of the master shower stall; the grout has been done on the tile.

Here's another shot of the master shower, with the bench.

Next is the master shower as viewed from the hall doorway. I need suggestions about paint color for the bathroom.Okay, with this next shot, you have to guess about it. Check at the end of this post to learn the perspective.

Next you see the interior of the closet in BR#2. The point of the shot is to show the baseboard that has been installed. That has been done throughout the renovated parts of the house.

This shows the baseboard in the sunroom.

Okay, so did you figure out the mystery shot???

I'm squatting down inside the closet of BR#2, trying to show the trim that is framed around the door on the interior. You can see the doorway between BR#2 and the master bedroom, the entrance door to the tiny original closet in the master BR, plus you can see the leftmost window in the master BR that looks out on the driveway.

Our new home is taking shape and becoming more real every day. It's so neat to see the things that were just ideas in my mind coming to life as reality.

Tile and the beginning of the floor work

Here's our stonemason Eddie back for one quick adjustment at the bottom of the stairs.

The old flooring has been removed from the kitchen, and new flooring installed, all uniform and consistent in color. When the floors in the old part of the house are sanded, hopefully they will all look alike.

Here's the tile in the master shower. The grout has not yet been applied.

This is somewhat boring ---- lots of white 4-inch square tiles in the guest bathroom. But it looks great!

Faith and our grand-puppy Baily conked out on the sofa in town after a trip to Hanshill. Flooring in the sunroom will be in the next set of photos!