One foot in front of the other and on we go

Well now, where were we before I got distracted?

Oh yeah, building a house.

The house is intact, looks much as it did before, and we are still not in it, because those last details take Forever.

Not to complain or anything, because in truth, we do keep moving along, interrupted now and then by little things like needing to replace the water pump in the trailer, but generally making steady, if slow, progress.

Ok, fine, I'm complaining, but only a smidgeon.

We have electricity now, and lights, and today DH used said electricity to put lights on a medium-size Christmas tree growing by the driveway. It's a very pretty Christmas tree and looks beautifully festive. Maybe tomorrow I'll manage to add a picture of it. He also draped the lights up along the staircase because I had mentioned wanting a baluster to drape lights and greenery on.

We also have stacks of Douglas fir flooring wood sitting about in the way, awaiting installation. Some of it is upstairs, more or less out of the way. The upstairs is also full of boxes that used to live in a storage unit, and we are possessed of some very sore muscles from carrying them all up the stairs, which required approximately 10,000 trips, some of them carrying very heavy loads. What kind of lunatics have that many books?!

At some point the cookware and all of the cookbooks are going to have to be carried back down the stairs, but DH refused my suggestion that they therefore remain downstairs in the first place. He said they would be in the way. My aching calves and arm muscles said they did not care, but they lost the argument. They lost the argument with the stairs, too, and my calves are still informing me of  their complaints. The book boxes were packed by idiots who apparently thought someone else would be carrying them, so a number of them were unmanageably heavy, a problem I dealt with by rolling them up the stairs like very unwieldy boulders.

I also was reminded of the fact that, although we are possessed of enough books to stock a small store, numerous sewing machines (Why??? Were we also planning to open a sewing machine store?), and boxes of fabric, we are not possessed of any living room furniture, or a bed, because we got rid of those items. Because we're practical like that.

In other developments, the water pipe is (mostly) in, and we have electricity to the well, but not yet water to the house.

And we're still trying to figure out whether and how to treat the water, because it:

1. Has a pH level of 5.5

2. Is hard water

3. Contains iron

4. Contains iron-eating bacteria that are really disgusting.

Each of these issues requires a different treatment system, naturally.

We tried sampling the untreated water. In a word, ick. Interestingly, after we let it sit out for 24 hours, the taste improved. It did not taste Good, but it tasted much less Bad, and more neutral. Which is something, at least.

In other news, we bought the rest of the oak for the front door (a space currently occupied by a charmingly rustic piece of plywood) from the local sustainable wood place just a bit down the road, and tomorrow DH plans to commence with the building of the door. It will be a charming, attractive and sturdy door, the design of which he's been working on for weeks, and he is very excited.

What other small details remain?

Only small things.

Like installing the radiant heat flooring in the bathroom, installing the tile floor in the bathroom, installing the toilet, stripping, refinishing and installing the tub, locating and installing a vanity, building and installing the kitchen cabinets, installing the appliances... So, we oughta be done in a couple of weeks easy, no?

No?

Damn. Well. Onward.

Just in time

DH finished wrapping the house, right before the rain started, with the help of a couple of friends. Great work!
Unfortunately however, it is now funneling rain down behind the partial siding, so more siding will need to happen soon.
Oh, I forgot to note, another wonderful couple of friends helped DH start on the siding.
Also, we got most of the water pipe in. Then it started raining, so DH has been working indoors, finishing the circuit box and installing the water heater, various little tasks like that.
There are a lot of them.
Note; photos taken by friend of DH

Not quite 50 shades of paint

The house is (mostly) painted inside; white ceilings, cream walls, except for the bathroom, which is green. REALLY green, including the ceiling. It's a bit … more … than anticipated. Like being inside an avocado, or a jar of wasabi. So somewhere in the schedule is a plan to apply some subduing elements. Namely, to sponge on some lighter green, and some darker green, and, hopefully end up with something that is attractive, but not like being trapped in a large nest of grass. I want to use fir branches to apply the paint, so it looks like being in a fir tree. DH says NO.
Spoilsport.
Conversations have also been had about painting some of the walls in the library dark red.
The library has a single large double window which faces north, into the woods, so darkening it might be a slightly odd choice, but on the other hand, libraries can be dark, and yet well-lighted. But on a different hand, there are plans to cover most of the walls with bookcases and cabinets, and so does it make sense to re-paint walls we plan to mostly cover anyway? Should we just paint the cabinets and bookshelves instead?
The question remains unresolved, and so does the exact shade of red.
It is, perhaps, slightly complicated by the division of space. There are two rooms upstairs, and one is the library. That is, half of it is the library. The other half of it is to be my sewing room, to be filled with cabinets of fabric, and sewing machines, and suchlike. The library half will contain bookshelves and rugs, and comfortable chairs, and good lighting. Already, I want to retire in there and possibly never come out, except, of course, to play in the garden.
Before I can do that, however, there are a few [dozen] tasks to complete. Today, we put in about half the waterline from the house to the well. This involved digging out the trench by hand, for about 15 or 20 feet, where it had collapsed. Project get-exercise-by-force is working out well. Tomorrow it's back to the office for me, and we'll revisit this thing over the weekend.
DH also has acquired some of the flooring, which is sitting in piles in the living room and kitchen. Nailing it to the subfloor is one of those minor tasks awaiting us.
Also, we need to put in the bathroom subfloor heat mat. It was supposed to go in before the sheetrock, but it, uh, did not. Oops. So now the wires will have to be snaked up through the walls using something called fish tape.
Meanwhile, the garden survived an unseasonably early light frost, but we picked many pounds of produce ahead of it, which I am now frantically trying to use up. I've breaded and [oven] fried many, many zucchini (it's an excellent replacement for tater tots! to which I may or may not have a small addiction), and we've been eating tomato salad, tomato salsa, green beans, scrambled eggs with zucchini and tomatoes, eggplant parmesan, chili with corn, cornbread with corn and jalapenos, oh my. And there is still So Much to use up. Send help. I've been taking some to work to force -- er, generously share with, my colleagues, and debating whether the food bank wants amounts that are too much for us, but not enough for all their baskets.

Updatery

Things have been eventful lately: We have insulation installed and the sheetrock crews have installed the drywall. Now they are mudding, which seems to be a time-consuming process. When they have finished mudding, they will prime the walls, and then, at last, we can paint.
We have already purchased the paint, and I'm quite impatient to apply it to the walls.
Speaking of which, we have walls. They make a surprising difference; all the rooms seem smaller, and yet the house seems larger, and more mysterious. You can get lost wandering into rooms and not being able to see through the walls to tell where the other person is.
Here are some pictures:

 This is the kitchen, with a glimpse into the adjacent pantry.

This is upstairs in the library.

And, just for good measure, this is the garden:

Of odds and ends and various vents

Vents for the kitchen and bathroom fans have been installed, via a commercial lift, a large and expensive machine that, despite its power, is remarkably wobbly and unsafe-feeling. Nonetheless, DH persevered and got them installed. Mechanical inspection -- of the aforementioned vents, the plumbing pipes, the dryer vent, the bathroom fan, the hose bibs, etc. -- done and passed.
Many fiddly small jobs done, more yet to do. DH is now nailing additional two-by-fours under the supporting ceiling beam, the inspector having decreed that that was needed, while I spent the day sweeping, in preparation for the installation of insulation.
There is a great deal of sweeping to do, largely on account of all the drilling that has been done all over the house, of holes through the framing studs, to accommodate electric wires.
It is at this point in the proceedings that I find it hard to follow all that requires to be done. There are metal plates to nail into the two-by-fours, to prevent future nails from being driven into the plumbing pipes, after the drywall is installed and the pipes are no longer visible. Stray nails and staples to be removed from the walls, to accommodate insulation and drywall. Assorted other odds and ends.
The whole process has been more interesting, and yes, enjoyable, than I ever expected, as I have watched -- and assisted with -- this house coming together. I know where the plumbing pipes run under the house, having helped to weld them together. Know which are hot, and which cold. Know where the wires run through the walls, and what makes the dryer vent fire-resistant, where the radon pipe runs, and the vents for the fans, and what holds the sill plates to the foundation. Am highly familiar with the crawlspace, as well as every room in the house. It is remarkably satisfying.
And in the meantime, the garden is flourishing; zucchini and tomatoes producing abundantly, first sunflowers and dahlias blooming.
Gophers are eating the potatoes, with great enjoyment. I think their tunnels run under every square foot of the garden, and the terrier is enjoying himself greatly digging them up, but doesn't seem to be actually slowing them down any. He did dig up the onions for me, and quite a bit of parsley. I philosophically rescued the parsley for use in cooking, kicked dirt back into the hole to re-cover the remaining roots, and gathered up the onions. I'm in a race for the potatoes; usually they don't show damage until all the harvest is gone, but I've scavenged some, wondering all the while whether I'd be better to leave them, to slow the gophers from moving on to the next plant. Curiously, of the three varieties I planted, the little beasts are, so far, going after only one. I dare to hope they will take only a tithe, but they may be considering the entire planting of my German Butterballs as said tithe.
Today we learned that sunflowers are fragrant; being possessed of a lovely, delicate scent that was entirely unexpected. They are blooming in lovely hues of autumn reds and summer yellows. The bachelor buttons are also blooming, blue, deep purple, maroon, pink, white, to the delight of the bumblebees, and pink and white cosmos are starting to open.
To celebrate all of the goodness, I have made ratatouille and pasta salad; next on the list to prepare are fried zucchini, pesto, and a blackberry cobbler. In my spare time.

Wired!!!

The wiring is complete and has passed inspection!!!

Much happiness, especially from Mr. Homebuilder, who is delighted to be finished with that massive project.

And on to the next.

The next is finishing up a bunch of smaller things; the last few plumbing connections, the sewer pipes under the house, the connections on the meter box for the well, etc. Gonna be another busy weekend.

Also need to get to work on the bathtub, which needs all its old peeling paint scraped off so the refinishing can commence. Which necessitates first moving it from its current location down to the house site and plunking it onto a sheet of plastic to catch all the scraped off paint. It's heavy, so that keeps not happening.

We remain on the lookout for a super cheap bathroom vanity that can act as a placeholder until DH has time to build one, because you have to have a functioning bathroom before they'll give you an occupancy permit.

A complete, fully functional bathroom would be a nice change in any event, though the last year and a half have certainly been a good lesson in how much more simply you really can live. (But, man! I really should have learned how to knit first! Or crochet, or something).

We found a lovely kitchen sink awhile back at the Habitat for Humanity Restore -- a big, porcelain double sink that was just exactly what I wanted. DH was holding out for stainless steel, but decided that for $15 (he asked them to lower the price -- from $60! -- and they did!), he can live with porcelain, even if he is taking private bets on how long it will be before we manage to chip it. There are some paint drips dried into cement on it, but, hey, they're cream colored. DH, however, would like to figure out how to remove them.

Thus far, no one has put any actual effort into this, such as, say, Googling how to remove paint drips from porcelain, but it will work its way to the top of the list eventually. At present, the sink is tastefully decorating the fir wood behind the house. There are other priorities, such as putting in the baseboard heaters. Because they, too, were used, these are a truly ugly shade of gray. We're grateful to have them, but I wish they came cream-colored. Too bad I can't cover them with lace doilies, of which I have inherited about 10,000.

Meanwhile, this lovely place goes about its business: There are spotted fawns bounding through the hedgerow, baby quail learning to fly, half-grown baby scrub jays squawking to be fed in the hawthorns, tiny brown rabbits running about.

The garden looks good for early July; unfortunately, it is early August. And my some of tomatoes are diseased. Robins are eating all the blueberries, and when I work too late in the garden in the evening, they come and tell me to scat, because it's their turn. They sent a towhee to yell at me, since landing on fenceposts to stare at me wasn't doing the job.

Bird of summer

Wiring proceeding.
In other news, here is a quail.