A Gathering of Friends...

About a month ago we had a gathering with our building crew. A funny thing happened during the eight months they all spent here and somewhere along the way we all became great friends. I always felt welcomed with open arms and jokes. Richard, Mike and Lee always had time for questions from Rick and Andy about the garage. They all made the experience of building this home one of the most rewarding times of our lives. The true dedication of these guys can be best understood by this little story:

Late Fall (last year) a Sunday night and Rick and I decide to just take a drive to the house and enjoy the way it's coming along. We drive up the driveway and see lights shining in the windows. We are baffled but enchanted that it's our first time coming up the driveway and seeing lights in our new home. Well, the lights were Richard, hard at work at 8 PM on a Sunday night, getting things done and ready for the crew to start the next day. That was true dedication on his part!

We could not have found a more perfect building crew!!! Thanks guys!

Eric (Mike and Wilma's son) with Laurie (Richard's wife)

Left to right: Laurie, Wilma and Janet (Lee's wife) and of course that's Eric standing behind his Mom. They are holding pictures of the view from the deck!

I'm not really sure what is going on here, but there were some construction discussions going on. They may have been discussing the ridge beam...It was the hardest part of the entire build!

Mike, Richard and Lee

Eric (a college student really needs those left-overs)

And I must add that Eric was my favorite photographic subject all summer. He always smiled for the camera.


Everyone leaving...

Well, this was a SURPRISE view...

We were so enthralled with the river views, so imagine our surprise to turn around and find a never before seen view of the back of the house.
It was certainly a shock, but a very nice one!

We never realized that while clearing out all the dead wood and brush to open the view of the St. Regis River, that we were also creating a new view of the back of the house. A view (I must add) that we absolutely love!

Welcome to Fall on "our" River...

We moved into the back yard...

Well, we've told you all that we live on the river, thing was you mostly couldn't see it for all the dead wood between the house and cliff.
Rick just started taking down all the dead wood with the chain saw, lots of dead branches that were just blocking the view.

This is now the "new view" off the back deck...

We did it a little at a time. We didn't want to take down any good trees. So he chained and dragged and then walked back to the house to see the results.
We mostly did lots of branch trimming and the rest was just hauling the dead stuff away.

And our grass grew...

We really wanted to go into fall and winter without all the mud.
Next spring we'll be landscaping the entire front with shrubs and flowers. We'll re-seed the bare spots then. But this makes us feel really good about bringing less mud and dirt into the house. We may know where to step, but the dogs actually go looking for the mud puddles. Go figure...Eh?

Another project...

This door kept bugging me every time I saw it...One could say I should have been seeing "red" and wasn't...
Finally I took a few hours and painted it. Boy...was I glad to cross this off the "to-do" list.

Wood for the wood shed...

All the wood from Schrader Logging that had been drying in the meadow needed to come up closer to the house.

During construction this was our tool shed. Two weeks ago it got emptied of all tools and converted into a wood shed. We hope next spring/summer to actually build a real wood shed closer to the house, but this is going to work just fine for this season.

We filled it with all the wood...Now we pray we have enough!

My trip to the Catskills...

We sat with my Dad and watched the birds. They didn't mind people!
This was the view out our motel window....

This is my step-brother's house. He built it himself! Nights, weekends, vacations (over a period of 4-5 years) he and his wife did 99% themselves.
I've been hearing about this house for years and I finally got to see it for myself. It's totally impressive....and very very beautiful!

An early Christmas gift to ourselves...

Last year the wood was all over the floor and I really hated the mess.

This rack is perfect to keep it all together, organized and we think it fits perfectly! !

Another bonfire...

Perhaps not as large as our first one a few months ago...

But, totally effective!

Yep, I do love bonfires!

We've been busy...

Once again I'll have to say I'm sorry that the blog has been neglected. We've been very busy getting the cabin ready for winter and making sure we have enough wood to heat with.

I took a long weekend to visit my Dad in the Catskills.

Rick managed to mess up his back for a few days and then I decided to mess up my knee a few days after that.

Apology over...I'll be posting the pictures that will tell the story...

And the Deck...

We are thrilled...The weather was perfect for staining...

We are "thinking" of doing another coat on the top rail and deck floor.

It was lots of work, but...totally worth getting it done! It really transforms the deck!!!

We moved around to the back...

Yep...we started staining everything in sight!

Okay...Okay...this door still isn't done...my bad!

Although please note...the door will be painted not stained so my above statement still stands (LOL)

Stairs......

Remember I did say anything that was bare wood was getting stained?

We meant it...with the still gorgeous weather we have no excuse!
We'll move out back next...stay tuned!!!

We moved onto the side porch...

Still waiting for the grass to grow, but I think the side porch is looking good!

It was good to get this done...

There is less dirt coming in the house these days...

(Well, less is a relative term because I still can't get the dogs to wipe their paws)

Okay, that's done...we'll move to the set of stairs down from the garage next.

Staining the front porch...

The reason for our lack of posts? We have been furiously staining any bare wood surface we could find...

We've had wonderful staining weather for the past 3 weeks and made good use of it.

We planted some flowers...

Advertised to bloom late summer thru first frost...who knew we'd have frost alerts the very next night?

Just a nice picture...

We are just waiting for the grass to grow...

Can you see the improvement???

The above pic was taken just over a month ago...
This pic was yesterday! And although the pathway to the front stairs isn't complete and may not even stay in it's present pattern, I am still very happy with the improvements!!!
We know there is lots more to be done (like grass and bushes) but I feel good about how everything outside is shaping up!

And I really want a Bird Bath somewhere here in front!