Holy Crap!

Things are moving real fast now. We could possibly be moved by Dec. 10. In short order they have painted, put in most of the flooring, started the trim work and interior doors, finished the deck (and it is righteous!), started to install bathroom and kitchen cabinets and lights. The appliances are to be delivered Monday and phone/internet to be installed Tuesday. Here are what the paint colors look like:

This is the master bedroom.

This is most of the rest of the house (Kilim Beige).

This is the study (Taupe).

Here is the kitchen. Notice bamboo floors. The walls will have a backsplash of subway tiles in biscuit and browns. The counters are a mottled dark brown (laminate).

Hope they don't get screwed up. We were supposed to get a green counter for the powder room, but all three bathrooms are now biscuit.

Tom on party deck.

That's one hell of a deck, eh? It is 32 feet long and 12 feet deep. We already decided to put the gas grill on it, plus adirondack chairs, a dining table with chairs and umbrella. Join us for mojitos this summer.

Site of the future Owen Family Farm.

We had Stan D.  plow this up for us, since we don't own a tractor. He also ended up plowing up some history.

Notice the creepy glass doll head...

Anyway, it seems the story of the old house located near the road is true. Joe, Tim and Ryan spent part of a lunch break kicking this stuff up. I'm sure the rain and weather will expose more. Hope there isn't an ancient Indian burial ground nearby (like in Poltergiest). Whoa, watch out for the TV!

They say the best stuff is often found in old privies. Guess the soil may be more fertile then we thought.

Happy turkey day to all.

Whoo-Hoo! (And All That Jazz)

It's been a while since I last posted. Sorry, guess having to eat all the leftover Halloween candy put me into a sugar coma. Quite a bit happened since the 31st of October. But first, I digress: we found out an interesting tidbit about the property. It seems during the Civil War (you know, the one Taz calls the War of Northern Aggression), part of the land was used as a staging area for local troops. A house once stood at the front of the land, close to the cemetery, according to Stan Drainer, who used to own the land. He said I need to talk to his mother about the early history. I am intrigued, especially since an old coin ( a half dime to be exact) and button was found.
So in short order here is what has transpired:

Walls went in. Tom talking to Kenny, aka "the drywaller"

Seems Kenny knows someone in Litchfield-small world.

Poop processor, aka "sand filtered septic system"

Siding all up (looks like the Signal Hill stuff, right?)

Actually you be wrong. Looks like wood, but it's concrete siding, aka "Hardie board".

Peek-a-boo wall in basement.

Cistern.

It doesn't look like much, but it goes down pretty deep. Our builder, Joe, created this on the fly. It harvests rainwater off the roof. An electric pump then permits us to water the garden. The whole time he was explaining to Tom how he might need to go down and do maintenance, I am thinking: "No flippin' way is Tom going down into that thing!" Just like Tom is not going to crawl through the attic to pull insulation off the attic fan. These are recipes for disaster, or at least unexplainable emergency 911 calls.

The walls are being painted in the next couple of days because on Wednesday the flooring gets installed. The overall colors are Kilim Beige for most of the house, Timeless Taupe for the study and Smooth Sailing Blue for the master bedroom. The kitchen is supposed to be delivered to the warehouse by Friday and we have gone nuts and ordered all the appliances. Stan said he would till the front acres this week and we plan on planting the mailbox post before the ground freezes. I keep trying to pin Joe down on move in dates. He vaguely says early December.

We will be out again this week as we must get the mirrored vanities to them and we want to talk to the closet guy. By the way, we have tried a few eateries in Jerseyville: Fran and Marilyn's (delish pork tenderloin sandwich and fried chicken livers), Hickory Grove (more fried pork tenderloins-very yummy) and The White Spot (killer onion rings). Do I detect a pattern here?

Parting shot:

Jerseyville courthouse, 1893. Pretty, huh?