Happy Birthday to Me!

Carpet was installed 4/13 as scheduled and we started baseboards the same day. I moved in on 4/15/07, 2 days before my Bday! Happy Birthday to ME! Yea! Other than finishing baseboards and handrails for the stairs, we're done... It's kind of hard to believe, that we're done. I've been unpacking and cleaning and realizing that I need to do some decorating, guess that's going to have to wait until I win the lottery or something because building this house broke me!

It's beautiful even without being decorated, the breeze is awesome as I sit on the porch and to think... my dad and I built this house.... what an accomplishment. I think a nice road trip to the beach is in order!

I Have a Move in Date!

Ok, This may seem a bit repetitive, but seriously folks... this time I'm almost done! I can laugh now, looking back at how many times I said that... how many times I thought I had "a month to go". Silly me!

I spent Easter Weekend by myself and it was awesome! My daughter was with her father and my parents had escaped to South Carolina. For the first time since January, I had the house to myself. Well to myself and the 2 dogs, 2 cats & 2 horses that I fed and entertained in my parent's absence.

I got quite a bit done at the "Work House". Installed ceramic tiles on all my window sills, put the final coat of polyeurothane on my Red Oak Stairwell treads, installed the mirrors, towel racks and toilet paper holders in the bathrooms and did a MAJOR clean-up. My carpet for the loft is being installed this Friday and I'm hoping to finish the baseboards this weekend. I've already told my dad - once the carpet is in, I'm moving in! So, getting the baseboards in this weekend would be good... then I will begin moving in after the weekend.

I have very little to finish: handrail for the interior and porch stairwell, loft carpet, baseboards and closet systems... that's it. Then I have to sod 3 feet from foundation and I can get my Certificate of Occupancy..... I am so glad this is almost over, I really need my weekends back!

Primer and Paint... Repeat!

OMG - If I never have to paint another porch railing it would be too soon! The porch is finished and it is incredibly beautiful and I can't wait to sit outside while the wind blows and just enjoy the beauty of my 3 acres and the woods around me......

Now that you have that peaceful thought in your mind, let's bring you back to primering and painting that porch! The entire porch system is pressure treated wood - all except the new composite type planks that are supposed to last forever, never warp and never need painting. I love them, they are awesome. The pressure treated wood needed painting though, and there was a LOT of it. The "base" of the porch, posts that are part of the porch roof structure and all the crazy railings, which I give major kudos to my dad for making them from scratch - my dad is AWESOME! I had to primer them with the nasty oil base primer and then paint them - it was a long process but I got it done and it looks fantastic!

I bought some post top lights for my porch entry area and then some clamshell type lights for lighting the porch area, as well as the walkway to the porch - writing about it just doesn't do it justice and I am hoping I will be able to link my pics to these blogs so you all can see just how beautiful it turned out.