Driveway is in!

It's 6:55 am on August 16th and the concrete guys are here to start laying the forms for the driveway, sidewalk, and porch steps.

laying out the driveway

grading the area for the front sidewalk

shaping the sidewalk

leveling the ground

view of the driveway from upstairs

there was much moving it this way and that before we got it 'right'

it's quite a driveway

side porch steps

back porch steps, well the start of them anyway

at the end of the day the framing is done and the rebar in

driveway, looking out to the road - notice the backup area to the right

and from the road

the second day and they've started pouring and leveling the concrete

the second truck shows up

the workers exchange their work boots for rubber boots

pouring the back steps

and the side steps

hauling the concrete from the truck to the house with the skid steer

front sidewalk

driveway

smoothing the driveway

scoring the sidewalk

view of the driveway from upstairs

pouring the extra concrete in front of the shop

and it's done! what a driveway!!!

and a beautiful front sidewalk!!!

Kim and Aaron have been working on the shiplap in the game room this week. 

they've gotten about halfway up on three walls

doesn't it look great

I've been trying out my homemade aging stain. The area to the left is without using black tea first.

black tea used before the stain on the left side - I'm not sold on it yet. I was hoping for a grayer look

Kim built this rack in the garage to hold the trim

trim package was delivered yesterday - 8/26

More to come...

Surprise!

The following pics are from my morning walk. What you can't see is the heat and humidity. Whew!

The shiplap for the game room upstairs was delivered Tuesday, 9th. 

 

Here's the pile that we need to get moved upstairs. It's about 180 1x8 boards 12' long.

 

Aaron & Kannan came over to help. We set up an assembly line. Bailyn scooted two boards over on the stack to get them ready. Kannan and I would carry two boards each and stand them up on the side of the house. Grady would grab hold of the front of the boards and say, "I've got it."

 

Aaron pulled them up onto the roof 

 

...and handed them to Kim through the window. 

Kim stacked them all in the game room. Done! Many thanks to family willing to lend a helping hand. It would have taken Kim and I forever to get them all upstairs.

We went to town on Friday and when we got home the doors to the house were standing wide open. Kim asked if I had left them open, but I distinctly remembered closing them. I don't think he believed me and when he walked over to close up the house, he was in for quite a surprise...cabinets!!! I guess the cabinet maker needed room in his shop so he brought over what he had done.

my bathroom vanity

 

Kim's bathroom vanity - notice how tall it is 

mudroom

 

mudroom cubbies

 

utility room

 

grandkids upstairs bathroom - he found the old tin I wanted for all the upstairs cabinets!!!

front view of the cabinet

  

game room lower cabinet

 

bunk room base cabinet for the Hungarian zinc sink 

 

close up of the tin

 

love the rusted areas

BTW, I'm trying my hand at making my own stain to age the wood. I mixed my ingredients and sat the jug in the floor to do it's thing. It's supposed to take anywhere from 3 days to 3 months, depending on how strong you want the stain. I came back a couple of hours later and the container was bowed out with the bottom looking like a basketball. I thought it was about to explode so I took it outside to pop the top off and release the pressure. It sounded like a gunshot. I decided it might be a good idea to leave the lid off because it was still bubbling.

 

This is what it looks like on day 3. I'll let you know how it all turns out.  

This week we're getting the concrete poured for the driveway, steps and sidewalks and we might get the interior stairs done next week. I will post pics and updates as we have them.