The Hangin'!

We wanted to show you a couple of shots of the Yahara River taken from the house in winter. The southeastern sun is gorgeous and warms the house even on the coldest days. We've had many warm days, too, and the River has been alive with Canada geese. A bald eagle regularly flies over the river right at our eye level. Some days it's hard to get construction work done because the bird-watching is just so great.

We had our "Drywall Party" yesterday, and some wonderful friends came and spent their entire Saturday working hard hanging drywall with us. It was really great to get a good start on such a big job, but the best part was knowing how lucky we are to know so many fine, loving, and generous people. Thanks SO much to Henri, Kathy, Rich, Kreg, Evelyn, Mike, Leslie, Valli, Jack, and Laura's daughter Julia. Honorable mention to Spence and Deb who stopped by to provide moral support while sharing a shift at their book store. Thanks again, everybody, and most especially to Henri.

  

There's gonna be a hangin!

Yep, that's right.  We're gonna have a good ole fashioned hangin.  Next Saturday, some friends are coming around and we are finally going to hang drywall.

Last week was busy, getting ready for the rough-in inspection.  Mostly electrical work wrap-up stuff along with Laura always cranking on her part too.  The inspection went well, he only had a few small things that I had to fix.  This week will be insulation, another inspection, and then drywall.

The weather has been really warm, so the river keeps freezing and un-freezing, really confusing the geese and ducks.  There are over 1000 a day that come and go.  It's very amazing and very cool.

January news

Well, here we are already part way through Feb.  We've been busy.  Besides getting married on 12/31 we have gotten back to pushing forward on the Walnut Bank. 

Lots of wiring, and window trimming.  I've should be able to finish the rough in this weekend and Laura has finished the upper (close to the road) window trim including varnishing.

Every little thing we do seems to take a bit more time and more tweaking.  However, it's still great fun and we love working along side each other.  It will be a special place.

The move in date is hard to predict.  We are still pushing forward, but we don't want to drive ourselves crazy.  I suspect that we will put the Holy Goof back on the real estate market in April, and then wait to see what happens.

Here are some pics.

MOVIES!!

I've done a little editing of the time lapse videos.  Here are two that take a few pics every day at noon.

See the post dated 12/8 it's newer than the one below

Finally a new update

We've been remiss at updating the blog.  I guess there's too much going on.  Anyway, here are some new pics.  The outside is 99.9% done and we have moved to the inside work.  Laura will post inside shots soon.  Rich

Moving inside!!

Please welcome my incredibly beautiful granddaughter Norah Maria Hillstrom into the world, and into our family. My daughter Mary and her husband Karl are overwhelmed with joy at her adoption. They've had her with them since she was 15 minutes old, and have been savoring their parenthood every waking (but not sleeping) moment.

Well, we've finally taken over from our builder! The gutter and garage door went on and that was it for the outside except for some painting, which will have to wait until spring. I spent Thanksgiving Day planting 150 bulbs in the slope outside the front door, which will be our signal to start up outside again.

We've completed most the the framing of the walls, and got the bathtub and fireplace in place in our bathroom. The shower is just around the corner from the tub, and someday we'll enjoy the view while we scrub, and hope the neighbors across the river won't notice. The plumbers are nearly finished with the rough-in, too. I forgot to tell them to keep the wall space open above the sinks for the medicine cabinets, so they had to redo part of it. oops.

Check out Rich climbing down from the "bachelor bed" we built above the stairwell! It'll be a cool place for an extra guest to sleep, and someday our grandchildren can play in the indoor tree-house.

My son Pete was home for a week and did hard labor for us, chopping wood (I wish I had a picture of that!) installing the foil insulation between the joists for the in-floor heat, and helped with the wall framing. He and I also installed the first pieces of drywall around the basment kitchenette.

My big project was acid-staining the floor of the basement family room (future guest apartment for friends and family) and you can see before and after pictures here.