Siding!!!

We're on our way now! The beautiful parchment color Hardiboard siding is going up quickly and the concrete for the guest suite is soon to be poured. We did find out that the kitchen cabinets are going to take longer than we thought but the will be gorgeous when they're done. If the cabinets come in sooner, we still may make July for getting back in there. But we're ready to stay until August if we have to. In the meantime, the electric is done and the radiant heat installation has been completed. We've chosen a nice bold slate tile for the flooring in the entryway, powder room and kitchen and close to a decision on the tile for the master bath. We're deciding between summer wheat and multicolor slate tile too. We've also chosen the stone for the fireplace and ordered out the fireplace itself.

More rafters and inside walls

New rafters and beams are up and they've started framing of some of the inside walls. In these photos you can see the ceilings in the great room, our bedroom (with attic space behind it), and David showing me where the laundry room, powder room and master bathroom fixtures are going. In this one, he's standing in the new shower. You can tell it's the master bath because of the new acryline tub we've gotten installed!! Can't wait to put that to good use! Today Les Craig came out to officially measure the kitchen space and match it up to his designs with Jim Hollister, our general contractor. Today the hardy board siding was delivered and the cement guy is coming this week so that should make for some more good pictures coming soon! The last photo is of St Francis looking out from behind the hasta. Soon we'll be able to see more of him - after the deer turn it into hasta salad like they do every year after the hasta flowers bloom.

Decisions Decisions Decisions - with kitchen design shot

This was a big week for decisions!! We met with the tile designer, the people at Best Tile, the appliance folks at Earl B. Feiden and Ackerman, the radiant heat and Sun Dog Solar folks, and Les Craig, our kitchen cabinet designer. The photo is the design Les put together for us. Things are rolling right along on all fronts. I think we've settled on champagne maple for the cabinets, slate floors for entry way, powder room , kitchen and guest suite, tumbled travertine for the master bath, 5 inch birch for the living areas, black granite for the countertop, a soap stone farm sink, and some very nice appliances. Although it won't be a totally green house, we are going to put up solar panels on the roof that will heat most of the hot water and power a good portion of the radiant heat cutting down on the amount of propane needed to do those jobs. We'll use cultured stone for the fireplace in the great room and will get the mason to redo the propane stove chimney in the same stone so it looks better. We chose a Liebherr fridge which touts itself as best in green design, a 36 inch propane powered Capital oven/range with griddle feature and a Bosch dishwasher. Having renovated our kitchen in Dobbs Ferry, we kind of knew what we liked already so the decisions haven't been too tough so far.

At the house they've been working on installing the piping for the radiant heat and roughing in the plumbing. They also built access to the attic from a "barn door" on the outside above our bedroom. The electrician is due this week or next and so is the siding.

Soffits!

Our team has been hard at work getting the soffits up to prepare for installing the siding and finished getting most of the windows and sliding glass doors in as well as continuing work on the plumbing. Cement will be poured soon and work on the garage and breezeway will begin. That of course depends on the weather though and as luck would have it this week is predicted to be rainy. But Jim said there's lots to do inside if they can't work outside. The fun never ends around here!!