First Maine Christmas

We spent our first night in the house on Christmas Eve. We cranked the wood stove up to 60 degrees. We were surprised, considering the wood stove is the only heat source currently in the house. We opened presents on Christmas Day and of course Charlie enjoyed the most.

Siding continues, poly-urathane of the floors continues and our plumber is scheduled to start the plumbing late next week. Our new goal is to be in the house by January 15th. As soon as we finish the floors we can bring in our appliances. The propane tank (our fuel source) comes on Wednesday.

We got HughesNet satellite Internet hooked up yesterday. We went with the commercial line and we are receiving speeds of 935k-1.5MB download which is equivalent to the DSL we had here in our condo. There is no cable or DSL high speed Internet at or near Robbins Point Road.

Nicole's Dishnet satellite TV is installed next week as well. Our back yard will soon look like a government research center.

The house is really coming around and we are very pleased. We can't wait to move in.
Happy New Year!

The Siding

A 30-sec clip of our siding. Check it out. More video to come in 2007.

Siding Started, Plumbing & Heating on Deck

We just started the siding of the house. Actually we have Danny & Mark working on this job as Nicole and I decided it would be best to allow the carpenters to work on this project. We hoped to be in the house by Christmas but this will not happen as we have to hire another plumber/heating crew. We had some, lets say "creative differences" with the first crew so we are now on back order with hiring another crew.

My "rocks" came in today and I'll pick them up next week. I am looking forward to working on the chimnney. Wait to you see my "cultured stoned chimnney.

We are finishing up the floors. We sanded all floors last week and coated with a poly-oil base to protect the sanded finish. The spruce looks great now.

Oh yeah....if you didn't already know we built the house for 3 months without electricity. Well we had a gas generator that ran the saws but thats all. The guys out front are hooking up our electric.

Danny our finish carpenter built an awesome tub base for Nicoles whirlpool bath/combo on the 2nd floor. The tub base he made is beautiful. He did a great job. Danny is doing all the inside trim in the house as well.

First Snow in Maine

We took some pics of the first big snow storm in ME. The house siding will start going up later this week, so look for more pics of the outside actually being completed. Yeapeee!

Lost Camera Found

Well we finally found our camera that was missing for 2+ weeks. Here are some pictures we took in the last 2-days. Much is getting done. Electricity going in and interior work including finish carpentry being completed.

Our friends from Ouray Colorado (Craig, Maureen, Marley & Gertey) came to visit us for a few days. Maureen even swung the hammer. Look out!

Stairs & Dogs

We built our basement and 2nd floor stairs the last two days. We constructed using our own design. We went with a "floating" look, removing the risers from the back. It looks cool.

Charlie and Hot Dog (Sharon & Marvin our neighbors dog) up to their tricks.

House Closed In

2 months after the first hammer was swung we completed closing in the house. All the doors and windows are in and the mud room is complete. The roofers finished up on Wednesday on both the main house and the mud room. We will tackle the siding and finish work next.

Windows, Doors and Mud Room

We have installed almost all the windows and doors in the house. Just a few remain. We are now working on the mud room. The main roof is suppose to be installed next week. We could use it as the rain keeps finding its way into the house. We had a ladder and wood bench stolen from the site the other day. We were a little upset but our neighbors Marvin & Sharon seem more upset than we are.

We have missed a few days from building as the rains continue here in the Northeast. Wed, Thur, and Sat look good so we hope to make progress on closing the house up. We will fire up the wood stove tommorow as well. This should help dry out the house from all the rain.

We have made a few more home purchases including a couch and sofa. We are holding off on our kitchen appliances and cupboards until we get the outside of the house all closed up.

We hope to be in the house by Christmas.