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.

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.

Chimney days 2 and 3

Little by little Mike laid the stone...

End of day two...just a little bit more to go!

Day 3 and the roof part of the stonework was finished...

except for the grout.

Here's Mike standing next to the chimney. He laid every stone himself and the quality of the work just shines!

Chimney day 1...

Mike started early morning. This was our first glimpse around 11 AM. What we saw we loved!

Mike continued throughout the day...Up and down the ladder all day long. We were exhausted from watching him climb.

By the end of the first day this is what we saw! We were hoping for something truly impressive. This was beyond our wildest dreams.

Painted the side door...

We really did take advantage of the great weather! Four days and we felt great that both the garage overhead doors and the house door got 2 coats of paint. And we think the color matches the windows pretty good!

Sensory Overload...

We arrived last Friday (a week ago now) and there was all sorts of good things going on! I just walked around looking in awe at all sorts of progress. The doors to the rooms, closets, and basement were being installed. The electric panel in the basement was having all its wires numbered and named. We had outside lights working. We had bathroom and kitchen lights working. The garage had electricity...and the garage doors worked like a charm. We had a furnace sitting in the garage (now it's found it's way to the basement). Rick and I picked up our oil tank at the Home Depot and trailered it out to Nicholville. Anyway, every place I looked there was something new to see. It was all very exciting and impressive.

We have begun to move our boxes out to the garage. Only the ones we never opened since we moved. We are beginning to fill up the garage out there as we can't move into the house "quite yet" but it is a good thing to get started. We gave our landlady "one month notice" so we will be in the log home on or before December first!!!

And...we put in an order with Mother Nature for Mike. He badly needed 4 good warm days so he could lay the stone on the outside of the chimney (only the stone for the roof) as he can do the interior stone no matter what weather we are having. We actually feared Mother Nature would say "NO" as we still had snow on the ground...So all you people out there enjoying this nice warm summer weather in November...well... you can all Thank Mike. And I can't wait to show you pics of his creation with the stone for our chimney!

Snow's gone...

Oh yes...back to wonderful warm weather...

And...

Oh yeah...we painted the garage doors!