It's been about a year since we got started building

It's been about a year since we got started building our Irish cottage in earnest. It's not finished yet (mostly sheetrock finishing to be completed) but it's livable and we love being in it. Here is a picture of the house with the stucco and texture before we painted it last Friday:We're not quite finished painting the stucco (for waterproofing as well as appearance) but here's how it looks now (note that we are beginning to clean up the construction mess)... oh, Ben Williams won't finish stuccoing the window trim until next week so the trim around the windows hasn't been painted yet:A front stoop and flower beds go in next along with three trellises for the Confederate Star Jasmine to climb up the front wall. We decided to use the Confederate Star Jasmine instead of climbing roses because it grows faster.
Alexis is busy putting in her "square foot garden." So far she's planted Kentucky Wonder green beans, Blue Lake green beans, Texas 1015 onions (Alexis is quick to remind me that the Texas 1015 is the granddaddy of the more famous Georgia Vidalia onion... guess the Vidalia's have a better PR person?), heirloom tomatoes & numerous herbs. Note the tomato plant hanging upside down from the tree... we tried growing two tomatoes like that last year to no avail... maybe we'll master the secret this year. Now don't get me wrong... I completely enjoyed the tomatoes that we successfully grew last year in spite of the fact they cost $57.13 each.
I moved her beds last week so they would receive more direct sun. Tomorrow I'm going to build her four more beds.Here's a video on the square foot garden growing system:

Hopefully our square foot garden will do as well as hers.
Did you see this picture of my BEAUTIFUL grandson!? I think he likes to swing? What a cutie, huh!?
Oh, maybe you did see this picture?... don't forget... his pictures are for sale. But call NOW and we'll double your order. Operators are standing by.

Look at my BEAUTIFUL grandson...

Looks like my little man enjoys his swing:
Here's Daddy's helper.
My pint-sized gardener... his Daddy's family is in the nursery business:
Smilin' at suppertime... he's got almost as many teeth as his Granddaddy:
A set of drums might be a nice gift for the little guy to entertain the neighborhood:

Here are some comments by his Mommy:

(These) are some of the more recent pictures of Ethan. He loves to go outside and play with sticks and leaves. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty, but he knows how to wipe them off on his shirt! He loves to play with Da Da, and anything that makes a loud noise like Phillip's truck (planes, trains, trucks) is called "Da Da". He is a lot of fun and we are enjoying every minute.

Jordan

I just got this picture from a friend...

My priest/photographer friend Charley Watkins surprised us with this aerial photograph of our house and land... click on the photo for a larger view. Obviously, we're the "Sister Margaret" blue roof in the middle surrounded by our 3 acres (approx 250' X 500'), the University's 11,000 acre domain and hundreds of other acres that will never be built on (never say never but it is unlikely). We have LOTS of wooded privacy! Thank you, Charley!We lived in the duplexes across the road while we were building... very convenient.

And here's a picture of my grandson, Ethan... ain't he BEAUTIFUL!?:

Window trim gets stuccoed

Well, today Ben got the first coat of stucco on the windows and finished the west wall stucco/texture so it's ready to be painted Saturday (the blue tape in the window pictures is masking tape). We got a bad batch of "Quikwall" so Ben recommended that he use plain stucco to finish the remaining 50 square feet (see gray stucco in picture, below, with Boone-Hoone, the mountain goat dog, lying on the top of the remaining AAC blocks).Picture of kitchen window last summer:Picture of kitchen window today:With this eventual look:
While Ben stuccoed I bored a 4" hole in the utility room wall for the dryer exhaust (look closely in this picture for dryer-flappy-thingy under the scaffold board).I purchased masonry paint for the stucco with the refund Quikcrete gave me for the bad bags of Quikwall that I bought at Home Depot... it all worked out and we'll try to paint Saturday.

Stucco gets textured

Today Ben continued to stucco and I kept him in mud. We had a problem with a bad batch of the stucco ("Quikwall") and were stopped until Alexis could run to South Pittsburgh and get some more to finish. While she was gone Ben textured the front of the house. Here's a picture of the front that has just been textured... and ready to be painted tomorrow:
This is our storage building that features a classic "Tennessee trailer park look"... complete with an inoperative upright freezer (it will eventually go on the front porch... NOT), shower enclosure and mountain cur dog (named Mosby aka Mose-Bose... "nobody knows where Mose-Bose goes"):

More progress today with stucco

Ben and I were back at it again with the stucco. Except for the trim around the windows/door, we got the front of the house stuccoed today. The gray speckles on the east wall are the texture that Ben applied this afternoon. The texture hides a multitude of sins and will eventually be painted a uniform color... probably gray to go with the blue roof, light gray siding on the gable ends and the red door:
This is a front view of the house where Alexis will plant her climbing roses:
This picture is of a tree that my DEAR (and helpful!) friend Jerry Hawkins felled this afternoon (Jerry and I went to St. Andrew's together back in 1961... Jerry was from South Pittsburgh, Tennessee which is down the mountain towards Chattanooga... we nicknamed him "Tennessee Hawkins"). The root system of this tree had been comprised during the original bulldozing of our land and the tree was leaning towards the house and more SPECIFICALLY towards MY side of the bed. In a word... if the tree had fallen during the night, I would have been DEAD. Anyway, Jerry has every tool known to man including 5 chainsaws, nylon wedges, industrial come-a-longs, cables and mega-chains. Last week - to ease my sissy mind - he secured the tree with his chains/cable and come-a-long to keep it from falling until the wind died down (today) and he could fell the tree. He was like a brain surgeon making the tree fall EXACTLY where he intended (it was 3 feet in diameter and at least 75' tall)... watching him work was a beautiful thing... THANK YOU, JERRY!

We made some progress today

Aaron, my helper, referred me to a fellow named Ben Williams who is a 25-year stuccoer from Florida. He's been living here in Tennessee for 7 or 8 months and needed some work in the worst sort of way. He helped me start the stuccoing today and hopefully we'll be finished in two more days. Here's what it looks like:
East end of house...NE corner of house...Front of house looking SE...
Eventually we'll get 'er done.

Alexis here: I was just re-reading the blog. We got started a year ago this month - around the 22nd of March, 2008. It's just amazing (and humbling) to see how much we really have done this past year.

I am so proud of Dave and all his hard work. I could never have imagined someone "hand building" a house, but he did it. I can look at every block in this house and know that he put it there. We've had some wonderful helpers, too, especially Howell, Aaron, Jerry and David (and now Ben) and we're really thankful for their expertise and hard work.

The house is still a way from being 'finished', but when you stop to look at this time last year - Wow! I'm happy. Next week is spring break for me and I'm hoping the weather will cooperate so I can get the garden going. And it's Holy Week, as well. Lots to be thankful for and one of the things I hope to accomplish next week is to begin the little spot that will be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and to my long ago kinsman, Brigid. And the spot will be expanded to include little memorials for several family members, including Martha (Dave's mom) and my grandmother, Lucy, and aunts Norral, Gladys, Lena, Lucy and Dorothy.

Oh yeah, I picked out the color for the bathroom. Quite tropical in feel (a vacation in Tahiti every time we shower!) It's Behr's "Sweet Midori". Seriously tropical tiki green!

Stay tuned!