The landscaping crew has worked on the front yard. The walkway is done except for the lights. You can see it below, including the rocks and some plantings (including a tree).
And the rest of the front yard is now covered in leaf soil and leaf mulch. As soon as we get seeds, we can start planting. We want rhododendrons along the road, and we want a meadow in the yard. But we are struggling to find meadow seeds so we may be forced to put in a lawn, once the watering restrictions are lifted.
Next up for landscaping:
Final paving of the driveway
Planting of hair cap moss on the south side of the house
Lights along the walkway
We have also ordered some signs for that post along the walkway directing people and packages to their correct doors. The signs may be a few more weeks before they get show up.
Two weeks ago the game room was officially broken in by playing “The Captain is Dead”. Or almost. The game room has a set of shelves for board games on one side, and puzzles on the other. I’d been too busy to do any puzzles before, but I finally did today.
I always love puzzles that don’t have regular pieces where every piece is the same. I much prefer interesting shapes. Sunsout is one of my favorite brands even though it has the worst puzzles. The puzzles aren’t well cut. The paper rips from the back. There is cardboard dust everywhere. But their pieces are not square and much more fun to put together.
This puzzle was a decent compromise.
Though the shapes if this puzzle aren’t as interesting as some of the Sunsout pieces, they are at least fairly unique and the pieces don’t fit together in a square grid. They are also very well cut and very little cardboard dust.
Even though we have moved into the house, we have still been busy finishing up turning the house into a home.
Lets start outside. They still need to landscape the front yard and put another layer of pavement on the driveway; for now, they have taken the next step by installing our walkway.
Here are two pictures of the walkway, one from each direction. The first picture was taken while the stones were wet and the second taken a day later when they were dry, which is why they look different. The paving stones are blue mist granite, the same as the front stoop.
Do you see that lonely rock along the path. We will actually have six rocks placed next to the path. In fact, earlier in the week, Daphne visited the landscaping company’s rock pile to pick out the rocks she wanted.
Also outside, Daphne has been doing more planting. Here is the area around the backup generator (which has still not turned on for its weekly lubrication run).
To the left is a coral honeysuckle, near the red flag are wild strawberries, around the soaker hose are winterberries, and way in the back are some sedge.
Last week we have the construction team address some things on the punch list. We finally got the screens installed on the porch. Here is a picture of them, although the screens are intentionally almost invisible (even if I was able to get the camera to focus on them).
We also got door stops installed everywhere. Here is an example from the guest bathroom.
The master bathroom door no longer squeaks and the master shower no longer leaks in the basement. The latter was because the plumber over tightened the plug in the trap and it was cracked.
Lots of furniture has arrived and been assembled and placed. Here is the south side of the game room, which is now a reading corner.
On the second floor, we just got the table for the family room delivered. I call this the “Space Alert” table. Space Alert is a cooperative board game that is quite loud when it is played, so we force the players to use the second floor.
Here is another angle on the second floor family room. The couch is now usable. When the movers moved the couch from our old home, they removed the center leg and when they carried it upstairs, they did not reattach that leg. After a few phone calls, they found the leg (it was not in our house), brought it over and installed it so now the couch is usable (although its is far enough from the window that you do not really get a good view when you sit down).
The guest bedroom has been set up. All of the furniture is from our old house, except for the bed frames. That chair does have a great view.
And that’s my update. We are still hanging pictures on the wall. And I still need to finish unpacking and sorting the tool bench in the basement. We are still waiting for the coffee table for the living room, and we are about to order some blinds for the bathroom windows.
I have added another two months worth of progress pictures to the photo timeline of the house construction. If you have only occasionally been following the progress, that page is a great way to get the whole story in a single sequence of images.
I have added a page that includes historical documents about the original house. These were submitted to the town during the process of getting a demolition permit.
