The Stainless Steel Railing Is On!

We went to the coast over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and Cliff, Craig (our brother-in-law) and Jack (our nephew) installed the deck railing. Cliff put the deck on last Memorial Day weekend so it's been a long wait for the rail! We are so happy and relieved that it's no longer perilous to be on the deck. There is one open section in which we're going to put a glass panel/door that will block some wind and allow access to the windows on the north side of the house for cleaning.

The guys hard at work....

 The south side of the house...

 The southwest corner...

  

Cliff, Craig and Jack after a hard day's work...

 Billy (safely) enjoying the view from the deck...

 The west side of the house...

And last but not least, another picture of the ocean for my friends who never get tired of seeing it!

We Have Appliances!

Yes, we have appliances! No more big holes in between the cabinets. They are now filled with lovely stainless steel appliances.
We purchased them a couple of weeks ago and arranged to have them delivered to the coast. Along with the kitchen appliances we also bought a washer and dryer so no more bringing home sheets and towels to wash and then taking them back, yay!
So here are the pictures of the refrigerator, range and dishwasher.

This next picture is corner cabinet in the kitchen. We wanted to have a glass door so we could display some of our pottery. Cliff came up with the idea of having the glass made to mimic our front door. He took a picture of the front door to a local stained glass shop and they did a wonderful job. We love it!

These pictures are taken in the main floor bathroom. Cliff installed the lights and the shower curtain rod. He also set the vanity's in place but I forgot to take a picture(!) On our next trip he will hook up the plumbing and then the guest/main floor bathroom will be finished.

 And last, here are the washer and dryer. They aren't hooked up yet because the conversion kit for the dryer (from natural gas to propane) didn't arrive with everything else, but they are in the laundry room set in place.

As always, I'll let you know the next time I update the blog.

Cliff and I had a great time at the coast last weekend. Cliff did what he loves to do, worked. The weather was beautiful, a bit windy on Saturday, but there were no complaints from us. But the best thing about the weekend was getting some of the finish items installed.

The first is our range hood. We waited until it had to go up because we didn't want to take any chances that it might get damaged. Our next step it getting the crown molding up and you'll see from the pictures that the crown will go right to the range hood.

The other thing finished is the fixtures in the guest shower/bath. I bought a curved shower curtain rod today so that will be installed on the next trip and we will have a guest shower!

It really was a lovely weekend so I can't resist posting a picture of (what else) the ocean!

And the last thing is we are so glad that we have a wood burning stove! We planned to make pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning but the propane camp stove wasn't cooperating and wouldn't light. (It wasn't getting propane). So we just switched to the wood burning stove. That thing sure came in handy!

Next up is installing doors, crown and baseboards. I'll keep you updated!

Finished Floors!

Yes, that's right, our floors are finished! We hired a contractor to go up to the coast and put down the travertine tile upstairs and on the patio (Cliff did the downstairs himself a couple of years ago). They also finished the travertine tile in the guest shower.

We have also had some more painting done. Once crown molding, baseboards and bead board wainscot are in the remaining painting will be done.

So on to some pictures....the great room...

the kitchen...

standing at the kitchen looking down the hall at the garage door...

the upstairs bathroom...

the laundry room...

the patio...

That's all for now (as if all that tile isn't enough!)

Thanks for looking :)

Two Posts In One

Hi to all our friends and Merry Christmas! I have pictures to share from our last two trips to the coast hence the title of this post.

Cliff has been getting a lot done on the inside of the house, mainly the great room. He has installed all the window trim on every one of the seven large windows. It hasn't been painted yet but it did cover up the rough wood framing so it looks great. He also installed the kitchen sink including the plumbing. And the kitchen backsplash. So let's get to some pictures!

This is the west facing wall. Nice wide window sills for the cats to birdwatch!

North facing wall. Nice window seat, don't you think?

Running water in the kitchen!

Here is our backsplash. Lovely glass tiles.

And now we move into the main floor bathroom. This is the travertine tile in the shower. It's not finished yet...next trip!

Last but not least, we had an amazing thing happen. One Saturday afternoon I was napping downstairs in the master bedroom (not amazing, normal) and Cliff was working upstairs when he heard a bird fly into one of the windows (also quite normal unfortunately). He walked outside and saw a hawk lying on the deck under the kitchen window. The hawk wasn't moving and it was cold and raining so Cliff picked it up thinking to keep it warm. The poor thing was stunned. It's head was bobbing and one eye was turned up in its socket. Cliff didn't think it was going to live so he didn't wake me up to see it. He just held onto the poor thing and it started to recover a bit. So he kept it in his hands, keeping it warm. After 10 or 20 minutes it seemed fine but wasn't making a move to get free, just seemed content. It was about this time that I woke up and came upstairs to find Cliff holding a hawk and was able to take the pictures. Just after I took the pictures it moved a little in Cliff's hands so we went out onto the deck. Cliff knelt down and opened his hands. The hawk hesitated for several seconds, we both thought it was not going to be able to fly away, but just then it took off, flew straight away from Cliff and then flew back around over the deck and just a couple of feet from Cliff, and then he was off and soaring. We watched him fly away across the bluff and land (hopefully) in a tree. I told Cliff it was a fly by thanking :-)

When we got home Cliff did some research and found that it was an adolescent sharp-shinned hawk.

Well that's all for now folks. I'll let you know the next time we have some progress to tell about.

Our Microwave Drawer

A little here, a little there. That's our philosophy about finishing this house and we are so thankful to be making any progress at all!

We bought our microwave since the countertop one we had been using died on us. It's very cool and our first appliance! Here it is closed and opened.

After installing the microwave Cliff headed outside to begin a big painting project. In preparation for installing the deck railing he had to paint the facia and posts. He's doing the priming in these pictures. It made such a difference just to have them painted white as opposed to pressure treated wood.

Now that the cabinets are painted we emptied out our make-shift pantry where we kept everything from dishes to food to zip-lock bags. For someone who loves to organize (me) it was a real treat! Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

I'll let you know when there is more to see. Thanks for looking.

Painted Cabinets

As we left for the coast last weekend we were excited to see the cabinets all painted white and the anticipation grew as we got closer and closer! When I first walked into the house and saw all the white I was stunned at how white it all looked! The cabinet doors and shelves were spread around the living room where my brother (our painter) had left them at our request so Cliff could install them himself (saving a little money). It took a day or so to get used to seeing them white after more than a year of seeing them as unfinished wood. I had the same reaction at the change after the walls and ceiling were painted.

The cabinets look beautiful and now we are so excited to get the backsplash up because the contrast is going to be amazing. Here are a few pictures....

This is the cabinet where the microwave drawer will go and also the area for cookie sheets, etc. before the door was put on.

This is the corner cupboard with lazy susan inside and deep drawers for pots and pans. The range will be to the left.

Here is the pantry without doors, and yes, those are pull out drawers!

And here it is with the doors on and adjusted.

And last but certainly not least (how could it be least when it's so long?!) is our window seat and bookcase.

Cliff spent some time installing cabinets in the garage over the weekend as too. These were salvaged from a lab that was being demolished on one of his jobs. I ask you, could they be a more perfect color for a house on the coast?

Along with the excitement of making progress in the construction we were blessed with a magnificent day on Friday. It was warm and sunny all day! Fall has always been the best season at the coast and last weekend didn't disappoint. There wasn't a breath of wind coming from the north to cool the day down and that is very unusual. While Cliff was working hard installing the garage cabinets I was lounging on the deck enjoying the sunshine and a good book. There was one tense moment when a spider threatened me but other than that it was great!

Until next time then........