Beginning to settle in

Ben finished the sheet rock texturing Friday. Today was another milestone as far as achieving some semblance of normal living here at Brigid's Wood (the hassle of living in the middle of a construction site is beginning to wane)... except for staining the floor we finished the master bedroom closet and started moving into it. Alexis picked out a really nice color ("Vanilla Delight") for the closet that will also go on three walls in the master bedroom.
To see a better representation of both colors, click each color image.The fourth wall will be a bright, cheery color called "Orange Spice." All the trim will all be BRIGHT white enamel.She and I talked about using bold, bright colors and that's what we'll have... orange in the bedroom (it really is a neat color especially with the vanilla), rose/pale, pale pink in the living room/office, GREEN in the master bath (like Kermit the Frog says, "it isn't easy being green") and "Bicycle YELLOW" in the utility room. We painted the closet last night at 2 AM and today we were able to get the 11' closet rod in, the cover on the electric panel and the huge double cabinet - that I got for a song at Vanderbilt Medical Center - set in the corner. We also got our new freezer set in the corner and got it "cranking:"We'll have to add a "window treatment" to this closet window but this is the other end of the 11' rod. We have a chest and at least one more short closet rod to go on this west wall.
Here are some new pictures of my beautiful grandson, Ethan:
Messy eater just like his Granddaddy:Helping Daddy spread fertilizer:Easter haircut:Helping in the backyard before haircut:More teeth than his hillbilly Granddaddy:Alexis and I are headed to Nashville tomorrow to a "Cap 'n Trade" Tea Party... we'll get back to painting tomorrow afternoon.

Slowly but surely...

Alexis and I made some progress today in the master bathroom and office. First, we almost got the copper-colored tin cut and installed in the shower... it's different but we like it (I still have several small pieces of tin to cut and some finish screwing to do):Alexis got the Corian vanity top and base cabinets cleaned today. I still have to install the white enameled chair rail to separate the textured sheet rock from the bead board wainscoting (and obviously put the far door on the base cabinet and hang the mirrors).We are beginning to move into the office which is a nook off of the living room (we'll have our Mac computers, an antique secretary and a large and much needed book shelf in there)... man, what a wonderful view out into our woods. I am particularly pleased with the lighting effect in the house during the day. My 3' overhang doesn't let any direct summer sun into the house (which helps to keep the house cool) but there is LOTS of natural light which gives the house a very bright and open feeling... NICE!Here is a "something" that we found on the stucco on the front of the house yesterday? His body is as big as my thumb and he's about 7" long with a tail in progress (growing?). I wanted to ask him if he could give me a deal on car insurance.Here's Boone-dog relaxing in his chair. Mosby continues to like living outside and patroling our property... only coming in when it's REALLY hot... too bad there's no demand for ticks because we could harvest hundreds off him every two or three days... he's a tick magnet. Baxter, our elder statesman, is still a VLD (very large dog... 120 pounds) and a real sweet boy.
Ben (stucco) and Aaron (general helper) are coming tomorrow... Ben will finish texturing the sheet rock in the master bedroom and hang the last sheet rock in the master closet... Aaron will help me install/plumb our rain water collection tanks on the west end of the house... we finished installing the guttering on the back side of the house yesterday afternoon.

Just wanted to brag...

I just wanted to brag on my grandson, Ethan (18 months old)... following in his Granddaddy's footsteps as a writer, here is his recent epistle to me for Father's Day (I think his Mommy helped with his signature):Brilliant, huh!... look out Pulitzer... look out Nobel.
Signed, a PROUD Granddaddy!

Alexis has worked VERY hard on the kitchen

Well, we continue to make progress with finishing up the house. Alexis has been working particularly hard painting, cleaning windows and spiffing up her kitchen. Ben, Mr Stucco, is busy fixing some of my mistakes and texturing the master bedroom which - other than the master closet - is all that is left to sheet rock. I have done many unconventional things in this house - you know me: Mr Delightfully Eccentric yet tacky - including using copper-colored roofing tin as our shower surround surface. In this picture you can see one of the copper-colored sheets that will go over the knobs and shower head. As you can see the bathroom will be GREEN (Kermit the Frog reminds us that "it isn't easy being green" especially this shade of GREEN) with a white chair rail dividing the bead board from the textured sheet rock, white fixtures, white vanity & white vanity top. The concrete floor will be stained to look like a rich leather (chair rail, baseboard and crown molding are faked with my iMac program Keynote).We repositioned all of the "stuff" that cluttered the office into the NW corner of the dining room so we could paint and get to the windows for cleaning... these are pictures of the office and the wood stove corner (our 10' computer desk will sit in front of these windows looking out into the Tennessee woods):These are shots of Alexis' kitchen... it's kind of hard to appreciate her hard work unless you begin to look in cabinets and open drawers to see how neatly arranged and organized everything is:
Lastly, you may remember "Dobby the House Elf" from the Harry Potter movies, to wit:It is a little known fact that between the shooting of Harry Potter movies "Dobby" works in and around our house/land. He is known affectionately as Mosby or Mose Bose ("Nobody knows where Mose Bose goes?"):

Put your hands in the air...

Put your hands in the air, Sweetie and back slowly away from the paint can. I love her dearly but when it comes to math, visualizing space and picking paint colors, Alexis sometimes needs to stick with her specialty... teaching history and the Constitution to unruly teen knuckleheads. I gave Home Depot strict orders not to sell her anything if they find her wandering around in the paint department staring blankly at paint samples. She still won't admit that Pepto Bismol pink is not a good color for the living room unless you live on the Hispanic side of San Antonio (she did live in San Antonio for 50 years and had lots of Mexican friends... hmmmmm?). That's the way my eyes bugged out the first time I saw the original PINK wall which was fortunately only a tinted primer coat (but I haven't had even a hint of diarrhea since).
We compromised like all happily married people do and settled on a dark rose color she picked called "Italiano Rose" for the east and west walls and a color called "Barely Pink" for the rest of the room. It's going to look GREAT. This darker rose color makes the almost white "Barely Pink" have just a hint of pink but not enough to look like Barbie's 1962 Corvette. This flash and the artificial light don't do the combo justice because the two colors really do compliment each other. This is our office... our 10' computer desk will sit in front of the windows looking out into our Tennessee woods.Jerry "Tennessee" Hawkins walked into our "Sweet Midori Green" master bathroom and made the understatement, "IT'S GREEN!" And so it is. Admittedly it took Alexis and me several days to adjust to the intense shade but the happy, tropical color has really grown on both of us. Tomorrow afternoon Howell King, our plumber - remember the guy in the tux!? - will come over and install the master vanity and toilet. I'm hoping to get the copper roofing tin affixed to the shower walls tomorrow... I hate even thinking about cutting the holes for the hot/cold knobs and the shower head.
Hopefully Ben Williams will be feeling better tomorrow and be able to come back and finish the sheet rock texturing in the hall and master bedroom. He's been very sick with ulcers... please say a prayer for him.

More progress with the sheet rock

Ben Williams, my exterior stucco guy, is now working inside finishing the sheet rock and texturing it like it was a masonry wall. He's an artist and very proud of his work... I love what he's doing... it has so much more character than a BORING, smooth wall.
It's impossible to see the texture in this picture but at least you can see that the sheet rock is FINISHED in the office and ready to be painted and window sills installed.Roger Gertz, my friend/business partner, and I were talking the other day about Brigid's Wood. I first met Roger 35 years ago when I signed on with him as a laborer and "Heat-a-lator Removal Specialist" when he was building his magnificent log cabin in Waynesville, North Carolina (for you construction newbies: a "Heat-a-lator Removal Specialist" has the delicate touch to surgically remove a metal fireplace firebox from a masonry chimney using only a 10# sledge hammer and BEEF... IQ required: not more than room temperature). I don't remember what Roger paid me but during "operation heat-a-lator removal" but whatever he paid me wasn't enough... that was the hardest physical work that I have ever done (but he was able to use both recycled Heat-a-lators in his log cabin's two fireplaces)!
Over the years Roger has completed dozens of remodel projects and he suggested that I put a bead board wains coating with a chair rail in the master bathroom. I thought it was a good idea so I am in the process of installing it while Alexis tries to decide on colors. It's very difficult to look at a paint chip at Home Depot and know what it's going to look like on the wall. She's having second thoughts about both the colors she's selected so far. Fortunately what she has used to date is tinted primer... so no problem... it will be covered up with the final color choice.
Here you can see the bead board sans chair rail and one of the rejected paint colors.
I've done a number of unconventional things with this house and I'm about to do another. I'm going to use copper-colored metal roofing as our shower surround... it'll be different for sure. Hopefully I'll have some of it up tomorrow and we'll include pictures.