A door opens, and also closes

The homebuilder in chief has been busy building.
Also, he hired a crew that came and sided our house.
Here it is (click on the photos for a bigger version):

DH built the charming portico.
Then he turned his attention to the bathtub; scrubbed it clean of peeling paint and old crud, and we hauled it into the house, with a bit of help from a shop crane, and the pickup. Damn, that thing is heavy. He primed it, drilled the screws out of the rusty feet -- and discovered that the screws were of a type no one makes anymore. They didn't even have a mold to make a custom set. Of course. So he also drilled out the receiving holes and re-keyed them (I do not think that is the correct term, but it's late, so we're going with it) to take modern screws, and installed the now-primed feet on the bathtub. It looks very nice, and the finger that we dropped the bathtub on turning it over has healed from its cut and bruise, so I've stopped whining about it. Mostly.
But the siding crew is coming back Friday to paint the house, and they want the door installed first, so DH stopped working on the bathtub and built a door.
Here is the door from the outside:

And from the inside:

Isn't it beautiful?

Meanwhile, I bought a load of compost for the garden on Saturday, and promptly pulled a muscle in my back, and could barely move, so poor DH had to unload it for me -- and there it still sits, waiting for me to, A. heal enough to deal with it, and B., have the time to do so.

DH,meanwhile, has been lifting heavy doors, bathtubs (and compost...) all week, and his back is tremendously sore, too. We're limping around groaning in unison, and it's quite the scene over here. Good times.

Still, on we go!

And lo, we have a bathroom

Well, minus the "bath" part. We do, however, have an actual, working lavatory, with a flush toilet, sink and hot and cold running water. And there is much rejoicing.

Behold:

Is that beautiful, or what? Yes, the mirror really is cracked. That's one of DH's Restore finds, and I think the cracked mirror is his favorite part. Part of our whole "brand new 100-year-old house" look. If you cannot find a 100-year-old house to buy, the next-best (or possibly much better) thing is to build one. That way you don't have to deal with 100-year-old (or whatever) wiring and plumbing. We also especially love the little porcelain coverplate -- DH found it, guess where?!

By the way, if you are considering installing a pedestal sink, our best advice is, don't. They look pretty and we like ours, but man, was it a pain to install. Apparently they are intended to be installed by plastic people who can magically flatten their hands to reach between sink and wall where room there is none. There was some yelling and cussing. Of course, that describes most of our projects...

But just look at the results! Apple green walls, white porcelain fixtures, antique medicine cabinet, plus the luxury of a heated floor. Happiness. The toilet, by the way, is new. Because antique sinks and bathtubs are one thing, and toilets are another.

There is excitement, today. There is joy. There is still a #%#@^$ long to-do list. Forward, march!

Lights, heat, water

The house has been progressing, bit by bit, or, as DH puts it, “coming along, singing a song.”

DH has spent the last several weeks installing the floor heat mats and tiles in the bathroom, followed by grout; it’s almost done, but a bit more grout needs to be applied around the edges, as soon as said grout is delivered.

It looks very nice, and will look nicer still, once it's finished and we've put in the pedestal sink DH found at the Habitat Restore, for $5 (score!). Oh, also, we installed a bathroom door, another really pretty Restore find that is heavy duty enough to not rattle in its pocket. 

This weekend, we moved the bathtub down next to the house, so he can begin stripping and refinishing it; you may recall it's an old cast-iron clawfoot tub with peeling paint on the outside, and stained -- but, importantly, un-cracked -- porcelain on the inside. 

I was not in top form this weekend, having spent part of last week throwing up in various locations enroute to the outhouse, after acquiring a nasty stomach bug. That was a bit of fun, and naturally, since we've been living in the trailer, I don't have most of my usual herb and remedy collection, due to lack of space. Not that I had enough presence of mind to come up with anything under the circumstances anyway. 

DH finally drove to town and bought me some Pepto Bismol, something we never have on hand, and which appears to be manufactured from Elmer's glue stained bright pink. Also, its "minty-fresh!" flavor is just as revolting as you'd expect mint-flavored pink glue to be. However, since it allowed me to stop throwing up and actually keep tea or water in my stomach, I have some newly-acquired affection for it. With that accomplished, I was able to care about being alive enough to make a berberbine infusion to mix with fresh ginger juice, to help finish killing off the bug. DH was fortunate enough to fight off the worst of it after a mild tussle, although he had rather unhappy insides for a couple of days.

 Eventually, if reluctantly, my stomach agreed to let me start eating again as well. So that was nice, and I was able to spend the weekend assisting DH in "heat-welding" our polypropylene water pipes together, to complete the connections from the well to the well shed where lives the pressure tank, and even do some light digging out of the trench where the pipes needed to go. Fortunately, it wasn't demanding work. I moved like a sloth and was annoyingly absent-minded, but no matter, the work got done. We're one step closer to actually having running water.

DH has been installing light fixtures throughout the house whenever he has a moment, along with all but one of the baseboard heaters, all of which are now operational, and so the house is delightfully warm. We have to buy one more, but are delaying in hopes of finding it second-hand.

He installed the smoke detectors and the bathroom fan, and we spent one hair-raising day installing the ceiling fan that hangs above the stairwell. No one fell off the ladder and died, so yay, but it's not an experience we want to repeat. The ceiling fan, however, is great, and does a terrific job of evening out the temperature in the house and creating air flow.

We also did some more painting in the house, which led to a truly annoying discovery that the paint does not match itself if applied on different days. Which means there's an entire wall, encompassing the living room downstairs and the library upstairs, that now has to be repainted, next time someone finds some extra time and energy for the job. Two steps forward, one step -- dammit! Well, at least most of the steps have been forward.

The remaining to-do list is intimidating: Finish the bathroom floor, install the sink and toilet; re-finish and install the bathtub; install flooring, apply finish to the flooring, install stairs (the ones in place are made of two-by-fours), and the bannister; make or buy and install a front door, complete the electrical wiring from the well to the pressure tank, finish hanging pipes under the house, test the water system and finish hooking it up -- and several things I'm no doubt forgetting -- but I swear, we can see light at the end of this long tunnel. Someday -- maybe even someday soon -- we will live in a house with Indoor Plumbing!! I'ma throw up right inside the house, if I've a mind to.

Never lose sight of the dream.

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: