Complete!

I am happy to announce that the house is complete. We moved in last Saturday; it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and perfect for moving. It took the 2 movers 11 hours and they did a great job.

We are getting settled although there are still boxes, things to do, like hanging pictures, etc and, most importantly, from my perspective, things to be built. :-) I plan to do a mantle, built in book cases, entertainment center(s), bed head board, dresser(s), etc. First, I have to get my shop in order which requires a few new tools (a teaser for the wood workers that read this) and mostly time, a precious commodity right now.

Since the house is complete, I won't add to this blog going forward, however, I am considering a sequel, Merle'sShop. I will announce that when/if it happens.

Finally, we want to thank everyone that has watched our house become a reality and has helped us through the process. Especially, our builder, Joe,who has been very patient with us, educated us, frustrated us and brought the project in late and over budget, but did a great job and delivered a great house.
Thanks,
Merle & Michelle

It's coming together!

The major events this week are that most of the appliances were installed in the kitchen, the tile is finally complete, the painter completed painting the accent walls and the stairs were finished.

Here are some shots of the kitchen tile and the appliances.









Michelle will take the white film off the oven when the workers are done.



The tile back splashes in the master bath and the powder room.





The accent wall in the great room.



The wall paper in the dining room.



The stairway.



There isn't much left to do. The driveway has to have gravel put down, the propane has to be connected to the hot water heater and the cook top, touch up painting and finally cleaning. Then the final round of inspections and you all know how I feel about those.

Finishing Touches

We are getting close to having the house completed. We have scheduled movers for January 26th. They finished hanging the doors throughout the house and only have a few door knobs to install.





The finish face is now on the fireplace.



The plumber was back and installed all the faucets, etc. He still needs to install the shower head in the guest bath and finish the appliances when they arrive tomorrow.

The powder room.



The master bath.



The kitchen.



The iron monger put in the railing over the stairway and the railing for the stairs. He made the supports for the stairway railing to match the design we chose for the medallions in the railings.







The stairs now have finished oak treads and risers, but I didn't take any pictures of them because they are covered with cardboard until after the appliances are delivered.

That is all for now.

Progress resumes

After having been scheduled several times, the counter tops finally were installed this week. We used the same stone, Bianca Antiqua, in the kitchen, master bath and guest bath. The powder room is Comet and the fireplace hearth is Absolute Black. The installers were about to leave the job, because they couldn't get the largest piece into the house due to its weight, but our builder arrived on the scene and insisted they call in reinforcements to carry it up the stairs. Joe earned his money Friday! We put plastic over the below fixtures to, hopefully, keep the granite dust off them.





The sink is black fire clay, supposedly indestructible.



The cook top was just dropped into place for the photo shoot.










The carpeting was also installed in the bedrooms. I wish I could get better color rendition.

Happy Holidays?

The building trades in NM shut down between Christmas and New Years so I have no pictures of any progress. Hopefully, there will be something to share this coming week end.

Let there be Lights

This week's excitement is that the electrician returned to install the lighting fixtures. The sconces in the dining room and the chandelier. Both have crystals that will be hung with care after we move in.





The pendants over the kitchen counter.



The chandelier in the breakfast nook.



The master and guest bathroom fixtures.





We almost got out granite counters installed today, but there was 3 inches of snow yesterday and that scared them off until after the first of the year. That means that everything else is on hold as well. Here is a picture of the snow from a north window.



Finally, Gail beside the stairway nicho.

Recovery!

I am happy to report that the new sink base was installed this week and the granite guy came back and made a new template for the sink cut out. Looks like this may have only cost us a week. Nevertheless, we will still be into January before we can move into the house.



Many of the doors were hung and the hardware attached. Mostly the doors not attached were the sliding doors for the closets which won't be hung until after the carpeting is in.




The above is the door to my shop. These double doors go to into the finishing room and the single door is for the closet that will house the dust collector and air compressor.





The same people that do the doors also are putting on the floor molding.





Here are a couple pics of the elevator. Now that the phone line is in place, it is fully functional, although the tile guy still has to tile the floor and the lip in front of it. The doors to the elevator aren't the same design as the other doors in the house because they have to be fire doors.





We are really getting anxious to be in the house now that it is getting so close to complete.