Thursday, December 25, 2008

The stair rail...

The stair rail going down.
Richard had built the railing...

Installed it for size and fit...then took it down again.


The railing going up! While Mike was laying the chimney stone the railing came down and up a few times checking for fit with the stones.

It's ours !!!


Richard, Mike and Lee had just walked out the door and told us they were finished! This is the first pic taken where it's all ours!!!
Next thing we did was start to vacuum! This was the afternoon of Dec. 4th.
Our first visitor arrived not more than an hour later! Bearing gifts of Champagne, fluted glasses and a big smile. It was Laurie (Richard's wife) coming to congratulate us on the new home (and I think grateful to have her husband back just in time for the holidays). Thankyou Laurie!

Almost there...

We are so close to moving in. We need the stove pipe!


That's Mike walking up the stairs checking the stone along the way.


Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family...

Mike finishing up the chimney...







Pics from Thanksgiving and early December...

Finishing touches like shelves in the walk-in closet...

And still plenty of space to hang...

We stained and gym sparred the floors...


It's called red oak stain...


Monday, December 22, 2008

We are still here...we are still unpacking...it is still snowing...
"The Beast" (which is what we call our plow truck) is getting a daily workout.
The Schrader wood stove is running 24/7 and providing great heat.
We've managed to clear one bay in the garage so my car is snug and snow free. Rick's car is not that lucky yet.
And, (as of yesterday) my Grandfather Clock is back up and chiming away like always. I worried so much about that clock making the journey, and was so happy to have it back.
Life is good!!! (but hectic and busy)

Monday, December 15, 2008

We are all moved in...!
My apologies to all who have been faithfully checking the blog and have begun to wonder just where we are and what's going on.
The actual move went wonderfully. Our furniture all arrived on Friday December 5th and we spent that first night here in the LOG CABIN with just our beds and an overnight bag. Oh yes, and our pots and pans which Rick could not wait to hang on the pot rack.
The following day our Schrader Family arrived with all our boxes, clothes, and the rest of our possessions. (A seriously big THANK YOU to all who helped). By the time all those boxes arrived here there was no room left to walk anywhere in the house and the unpacking began. And here we are 10 days later and the unpacking continues.
It's been an interesting week. Starting with a week ago Saturday and the 3 AM smoke alarms that refused to shut off no matter how many times we pushed the "silent" button! Rick eventually disconnected them all (hard wired into the house electric) but not without a trip to the garage to get the 12 foot ladder as 2 of the detectors were at the peak of the upstairs cathedral ceilings. Yep, not much sleep that night! But, they are all working again now. Mike was here the next day to troubleshoot and reinstall them all! We won't get into the fact that Rick could have just unplugged each one instead of disconnecting the wires, but come on...it was 4:30 AM by this time...and there was no way to see the plugs until you got the detectors down!
The only other interesting glitch was the washing machine that had no power. It was never plugged in. Sounds simple enough just find the cord and plug it in...right?...but trust me it wasn't that simple. Seems the washing drum is locked in with bolts for transport and as a precaution to make sure the bolts are freed before use the power cord is wound around those bolts INSIDE the back of the machine. Now that machine was a heavy sucker and raised on a pedestal and getting behind it to free the bolts required some contortionist moves on both our parts. Not to mention the fact that I hadn't done any laundry before moving and we were out of clean clothes! We went to Sears first thing the next day and found the answers and fixed the problem and I must say I really love the new machine (now)!!! But...I will admit to thinking several horrible thoughts about whoever wrote the installation instructions because we never found a word about those bolts anywhere in the instructions!
So here we are...all moved and living in our new log home and loving every minute of it. We unpack a little more each day. And Rick has been cleaning up the basement so he can move all the maple floor boards out of the garage and into the basement in order to start the planing so we can (hopefully) begin installing the downstairs flooring around March.
It snowed 5 out of the first 7 days we were here. We also had serious sub-zero temps and wind chills to minus 30. We still can't get the cars into the garage until we get lots more boxes unpacked. Right now we are just moving the boxes around to get at what we need and the cars are still sitting outside and only complaining a little when we go to start them in the morning. We have to make "dump runs" frequently as there is no garbage collection here and we are generating huge piles of empty boxes! We fill the porch with garbage...then pile it all on our utility trailer and bring it to the transfer station!
So, all of the above is the reason I've been neglecting the blog. I hope to be back with more pics soon.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Stonework continues...

Completed to the flue...

Stone for the first level almost done...
View from top of stairs...



View from loft...


Friday, November 28, 2008

MOVING DAY IS...
FRIDAY DECEMBER 5, 2008
What can I say. We are excited!!! The hired movers are taking all our large furniture to the log home on Friday. On Saturday all our North Country relatives will help us move the smaller items, boxes, clothes and anything the movers did not take.
I'll let you know as we get closer, but our first night in the log home should be Saturday December 6, 2008. We thought about staying there on Friday night, (and may yet)...but for an early start on Saturday I think we will be staying at the Fort!
We will probably be without the computer and TV until the cable hookup happens on Monday. We have it scheduled...we hope it happens!!!

We have heat and hot water!!!

One hot air furnace and instant hot water on demand...We met a great new friend by the name of Charlie who installed this baby. And he has become our furnace guru for eternity!

The hot water on demand is wonderful. Very user friendly...and has the ability to be turned off by the press of a button (for long weekends away or vacations). You can also adjust the water temperature. As we aren't living there yet, we can turn it off when we leave the house at night, and turn it back on the next morning. Within 5 minutes you have all the hot water you need!

Our first Art Work for the walls...

This is a free hand drawing done by Lee...He presented it to us about 10 days ago. Lee's the artist responsible for Pluto and Goofy (those cartoon drawings from back in June on our logs)

We've been trying to find an 8x8 frame ever since. That's a very difficult size to find! Thanks Lee, we will treasure this always!

Chimney interior stonework begins...

Mike laying the hearthstone...

The raised hearth...

The first few courses...
















Thursday, November 27, 2008

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL !!!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Wall switch plates...

This one is at the bottom of the stairs. We think it's really neat...and very appropriate for the cabin.
This was a special Christmas present from my sister about 5 years ago.


And yes, I am a Bear Lover!
Some day I will share with you all my "Bear Tales"...( a compilation of stories about the bears and their excitement leading up to the Christmas Holidays of years past).

Kitchen hanging lights...

None of these chimneys are on yet...

The fear is that some piece of construction material (or even a piece of furniture on moving day) will come thru and bang the glass!



Some of the interior lights

Downstairs hallway

Upstairs landing (without the chimney on)


Upstairs landing with chimney...

Exterior lights...

Side porch

Front door

Garage...

Friday, November 21, 2008

The loft ceiling fan...

It's operated by remote control...


We planned the height so it was easy to replace the bulbs without needing a huge ladder!

Kitchen Faucet...


We didn't have water on the day it was installed, but yesterday I actually used the sink to wash my hands...
*giggle* It's the little things that make it feel like home!

Loft railings installed...

We love the log railings for the loft...

Richard making the height perfect.

We feel much safer now...especially with the 3 dogs who love to play up there!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Light over the Kitchen sink...

This was a "do-over" fixture. Mike installed the original almost a month ago. But, without the glass portion because he wanted to protect the glass from breakage during the cabinet installation.

We came along afterwards to install the glass only to discover they did not fit and there was no fix that was going to correct the problem. They just were not compatible!

We had ordered this light way back in June, but called the company anyway...they were wonderful...but the exact fixture we had ordered was no longer available. This one is a little larger and the glass is a different shade. But they shipped it quickly and sent return merchandise labels to return the old one free of charge.

Doors and latches...

Rick spent the better part of 3 days installing these handles and latches.

This is the Master bedroom door handle.

This is the pantry and it required some creativity from Richard and Lee. The latches were not lining up with the jambs. Much time was spent deciding the best "fix".


Lee won the design contest and Richard executed the design to perfection!!!


The porch rails...

This pic gives you an idea of the size of the porch.


Richard and Mike worked hard on getting the rails to fit. We are going to have 2 entrances to this porch. This is only one section of the rail. There is a second section that will carry the rail another 8 feet to the right. One entrance will be right in front of the door. The other will be from the side of the porch.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Grout Day...

This is the finished chimney... Mike spent most of the day spreading the grout.

I joined Mike on the roof for some up close pics!

We are totally thrilled with the stonework. And can't wait for Mike to start the chimney and hearth for the Schrader Fireplace inside the house.