Painting & The Submarine

You might be wondering what we mean by "the submarine". Actually the submarine is our nickname for our propane tank and believe me, it deserves the nickname! We decided on the big one because there are frequent power outages due to storm damage on the coast. We've heard stories from friends who live there of the power being out for several days at a time. Our submarine will provide us with enough propane to run our generator for a long time when need be. We're considering painting some portholes on the sides with little men looking out...what do you think?

The exterior of the house is almost completely painted. My brother Doug came up and painted the north side of the house. Cliff couldn't paint it himself because reaching to the top required an extension ladder. Thanks to Doug for driving all that way and sleeping on a cot! This paint job has been lots of work taking so many hours that we've not been able to count them. The only thing left to paint is the window and door trim on the south side.

We have installed 3 doors in the master bedroom and bathroom and the medicine cabinets in the master bathroom. The door of one of medicine cabinets is not on yet because one of the hinges was broken when we opened the box. A new hinge is on the way.

That's all for now!

There Be Color on the Walls!

As the title says, we have done some painting, this time the fun part (not just white primer). I should say, "Cliff has done some painting", because he's the one who has done all the painting. I play the roles of: 1.Choosing the colors (so if you don't like them you can blame me) and 2. Providing food and drink at the proper times throughout the day.

The master bedroom color is blue and is called Sea Dreams.

The master bathroom is green and is called Beach Bum. I really didn't set out to choose colors with names pertaining to the ocean, it just happened that way!

This trip wasn't all work for Cliff though. He took some time in the mornings and evenings to go hunting and was successful one morning at 6:22. We know the exact time because one of our neighbor's looked at his clock when he heard the rifle shot.

For those of you who don't care to see a dead deer close your eyes. I don't like to see the dead animal either, but I certainly like how the poor critter tastes cooked up for my dinner!

One of the reasons we love the coast is the constantly changing color and condition of the ocean. During our last trip we had one of the most beautiful days we've ever seen up there. It was very odd weather, really warm which is unusual and overcast which is not so unusual! Here is one of the pictures I took that day. Cliff teases me about taking so many pictures, but see for yourself why I'm obsessed!

Our next trip up will be spent painting the outside of the house. Cliff really wants that done before the rain starts. Our propane tank is also going to be installed while we're there. Stay tuned!

The Drywall and Texture are Finished

There's not much to report except that the drywall is hung, the texture is drying and we took up half of the travertine for the downstairs area. We only took half of it because it's so heavy that our truck can't carry more than one pallet at a time. Here are a few of the latest pictures.

Billy inspecting the texture...


Travertine laid out in front of the french doors in the master bedroom...
More proof that Iain Murray the cat is the boss...

Now the painting begins. We have a lot of primer to put on before we get to the fun part - colors!

Drywall

Drywall day finally arrived. It seems like years since we got this project started. Well, it is one year and two months as of July 19.

Here are a couple of pictures of the day the drywall arrived... first our driver and next our installers.

And now on to the work in progress..

the stairwell

the great room

one of the skylights

taping in progress

Next up, paint. I've been thinking about the colors for 14 months but now it's time to choose. The majority of the house will be green but we're putting in some blue and possibly a little bit of orange. The colors will reflect what you see when you look out the windows...ocean, the bluff and California poppies in bloom.

See ya next time (and I'll be covered in paint-my dad would have laughed at how sloppy I am at painting).

Fuzzy Walls and Dump Runs

We now have insulation, aka fuzzy walls (and floors and ceilings). Next week is drywall and texture. We can hardly wait. The days leading up to the insulation coming were busy for Cliff with finishing up all the little details that are easy to put off. But he got everything done on time. The difference is amazing. We had become accustomed to sound traveling throughout the house. The insulation deadens sound, so when we walked into the house for the first time it sounded so different. We kept having to ask, "What?" when we were in different rooms trying to talk to each other.

One of the details that needed to be finished was making sure the projector screen worked properly and it does. We can hardly wait for out first movie night!

One of the unpleasant details that comes along with construction is all the trash that it generates. We went on dump run #78 (a little hyperbole there).

Of course, I hestitate to complain about dump runs when this is our view on our way home.

Stay tuned in for pictures of drywall....

The Inspector Inspected

Whew! We finally got to the point where we were ready for our electrical, plumbing and mechanical inspections so Cliff called the county office and set up the appointment. It was only at this point that he realized that our permit had less than a week before it was going to expire! We couldn't time these things better if we tried! The day came and the county inspector drove up and went inside with Cliff while I waited in the trailer. And I continued to wait...for about an hour. He was very thorough but the outcome was that (insert drumrole here) we passed! There were a couple of minor things, one being that a few of the junction boxes had too many wires coming into them for the depth and needed to be changed to deeper ones. We just happened to have the right ones there so they have already been changed.

So now we are ready for insulation and then drywall, tape and texture. Woohoo!! (You'll have to excuse my enthusiasm from here on out. I'm so excited to get to the finishes).

One of the last things that Cliff had to get done before the inspection was drill the last three holes in the exterior soffit and install the last of the outdoor lighting. Here's a couple of photos of him accomplishing this feat on the second to the last one. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of the last hole being drilled. It was the highest and most difficult. Cliff borrowed the neighbor's extension ladder in order to be high enough. I was watching and praying from the trailer because I'd just gotten out of the shower and couldn't get outside just then. We figure that God must have had several angels on duty for the job of keeping Cliff from falling and getting seriously injured.

This photo is one of the medicine cabinets (there are two) that will be in the bathroom on the main floor. I love it!! They were a great find and on sale! We were framing the openings for them when I took the photo.

Spring at the coast is so lovely. There are flowers everywhere. We took this photo at the end of the bluff. If you look at the water you'll see the waves crashing on a rock.

Iain Murray, the cat, not the author, has decided that he loves being in the house playing. He has a blast chasing flies and rolling on the rough concrete downstairs in the master bedroom. Pete, our other cat is content to stay in the trailer and sleep, but he is ten years old. Billy had fun as always. He runs hard and sleeps hard when we're at the coast. It's such fun to watch him at a full run across the bluff. He had a fine ending to this trip though at 2:30 am on the last night when he was outside (just to use the facilities) and caught sight of a skunk. Off he went, the skunk didn't appreciate being chased by a 105 lb. doberman and did what skunks do. Lucky for Billy his aim wasn't great. We think he got it in the mouth a little and also a little bit on his side, no doubt as he turned to take flight. Ah, country living.

Progress

I recently went to the cabinet shop and designed the kitchen with the help of a very nice gal and a great computer program. It was amazing to watch it come together on the computer screen. I'm going to make a few changes but the images you see here are pretty much what the kitchen will look like. We're putting in white cabinets with a rope detail.

Here's what it looks like now...

Here's what it will look like...

Yay! I can hardly wait.

Here's a video of our adorable cat Iain Murray playing fetch.

Goofy Parent Games

This is for all you adult children who wonder what your parents do after you leave home.

No More Dirt Piles

We've had these huge piles of dirt and wood chips on the property since excavation last spring. During the late summer and fall when it was really dry and the wind came up out poor neighbors to the south had to contend with our dirt blowing their way. We wanted to get the dirt piles spread out before it stops raining so that some grass will grow on it this spring, holding the dirt in place once again. Last Friday that took place and it's nice to look out and not see big, ugly piles of dirt.

Picture with dirt piles...

Picture during spreading them out...

Picture after, notice how smooth...

It's been a while! I'm sorry to those of you who are wondering what's going on at the bluff!

Cliff has been working on electrical. Not too exciting or spectacular, but we're so glad that it's progressing. Much of the house is wired up. We have all the recessed lighting installed and some of it is connected to switches. I never knew there were so many decisions to be made concerning electrical. Now is the time to choose the light fixtures, to place the recessed lighting, to decide where all the switches and receptacles should be installed. If that isn't enough, we're also putting in a sound system throughout the house and an alarm system. We can't thank Alex and Jason enough for all of their expertise and for giving up weekends to come and help with installation.

Cliff did have a bit of fun last weekend burning brush piles. It is legal there, you simply have to follow their rules such as: size of piles and only burning on "burn days" during the hours of 9 am to 3 pm. But really, what could be more fun for a man than spraying fuel on something and lighting it on fire? Our neighbor and his son had a few piles of their own, so they worked together.

We installed our first "finish" item last weekend as well. It's our shower pan for the master bath. It needs to be in before drywall goes on so here it is.

We take our cats with us if we plan to be there more than a couple of nights. Here's a picture of our newest addition, Iain Murray. He's such fun to have with us, he even fetches his toys (when he feels like it, he is a cat!). In this photo he's on top of the cabinet in the kitchen area of our 5th wheel trailer. He's a great jumper.

That's all for now! I'll endeavor to post more frequently!