My garden

Here is a photo of my tomatoes. Lynn planted these for me in our front yard (aka the field) in June. I've been neglecting them terribly and they have nothing to help them stand up so they're forming an extremely bushy and dense ground cover at the front part of the field. There are many tomatoes, in a variety of interesting and rather unappealing shapes. These are some of the nicer ones.

We've also got squash, cucumbers, and a row of sunflowers that are in bloom and only a foot high, since I planted them later in the season than I should have. Around the back I've also got sweet peas, black eyed susans, lavatera, chives, and parsely. Strewn around the front field I have ornamental poppies, california poppies, lots of sunflowers and lavatera, and more sweet peas. I neglected all of these terribly too, so I don't have any flowers and I probably won't get any from anything other than the sunflowers, which apparently thrive on neglect.

Our 'field'

This picture is of the 'field' between our driveway and the east side of the house. It's a decent size and over the next year or so we are going to prep this area to be pasture for the horses.

This year all we did is cover it with the huge pile of detritus that used to live underneath where our house is currently sitting, and seed it. In May my mom brought me a grocery bag full of annual rye seed, and one rainy evening I strewed it around by hand like Johnny Appleseed. After a week or so there was just a patchy green fuzz. Then the fuzz got bigger and stronger and more and more of it grew, and now looks quite nice in places. Still there are piles of construction materials lying around, but if you look at it at just the right angle (like the photo above), you can see how nice the field is going to look.

Natural light

One of the things I love about our place so far is the abundance of natural light. I probably won't ever have to have lights on in the kitchen or living room during the day. Take the photo above for example. It sure looks like we have a light on in the kitchen, but that is actually from the sun shining in the west windows. So this is the kind of light we're going to have in our kitchen at 7:00pm on a sunny day at the end of August. :)

I'd also like to note that we have started the sanding extravaganza (as of the weekend before last). All of the wood surfaces need to be sanded and varnished. As you can imagine, this is an immense undertaking. Last night marked day 11 of consecutive sanding, and we're a little over half done. Erick and I are pro-orbital operators at this point, and all that remaining wood doesn't stand a chance. We also had some awesome help this weekend - Erick's brother Curtis and his wife (and my friend) Lori put down some pretty serious sanding time and thanks to their help we're a lot further along than we would otherwise be. Lori and I did the kitchen, and although you probably can't notice in the picture above, that whole kitchen is beautifully smooth to the touch and the beams are free of mud and footprints. Lori and Rosie - 1, Dirt and stained wood - 0.

Bitch'n Kitchen

For the past few weeks I've been busy planning the kitchen. On Saturday I met with dad (my cabinet maker extraordinaire) to plan what is going where. Here are the sketches I showed him:
North kitchen wall: pantry on left, Fridge in middle, drawers and counter on right.

South wall - sink under windows, dishwasher to the right of sink, drawers on both sides.

East wall: stove in middle, drawers on both sides, microwave range hood.

One problem that I've encountered now that was fully unanticipated is that because our house is open concept, the kitchen colours and such have to match the living room, or it will look odd and will lack flow. So the colour scheme I've been planning for the past 6 months has been scrapped, and we're starting again. I am planning on consulting the kitchen designer at kents to get a few opinions before we buy any of the paint or countertops. Whatever colours we go with, I am sold on granite tile as a counter top. We're too poor for granite slab, I don't like laminates, and granite tile is as cheap as the laminates. Done and done!

A big YAY for cable

Erick and I have been busy! Just look at this lovely second floor. This is where we left off two weeks ago. Yes, I really am *that* far behind in my posting! Erick and I put on 3/4 of the decking for the second floor all by ourselves within two days (that's about 600 square feet of 6" boards that each need to be glued, screwed, and clamped), and we finished up the remaining 200 square feet the next three nights after we got home from our day jobs.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd pass some of the blame for my delinquency in blogging to our cable provider. We got cable a week and half ago (around the time my computer's power bar got pressed into service at the house), and we've been so busy watching HGTV (I think it stands for Home and Garden, but I'll confess I'm guessing about the garden part) that I haven't been able to make myself set up my computer again. Also I'd like to note that now that I've been watching HGTV for a week, I have a better appreciation for how crazy Erick and I are. What we're doing is an awful lot like the show 'House of Bryan', except we:

1) both work full time

2) are doing this on a shoe-string budget (compared to Bryan's!! We can't afford custom furniture, custom draperies, granite, marble, and a backyard oasis!)*

3) don't have a designer on call

4) and lastly, don't have the liberty of calling in a crew when we're running behind schedule.

* Edited to add this after numerous complaints about this comment from my ever practical dad. Sheesh.

still alive

For those of you who haven't given up hope that I'll post on my blog again someday, this one's for you. I don't have any recent house pictures to share, but I thought I'd post this one that I took over the NB day long weekend.

Work continues on the house, but the power bar for my computer has been pressed into service up at the house, and I'm just too busy to cart that back and forth so that I can take the pictures off my camera. But I'm really excited to show you guys what's been going on, so I may do it soon.

We've been insanely busy, and things are still moving right along. :)

Prettiest little barn in Musquash

Work on the barn has been progressing. I thought I'd post a photo of the beautiful cupola on the roof. In the evening, the cupola is the last thing on the property the sun hits before it sets, and the rooster just glows. You can see it shining like a light from hundreds of feet away.

All tyvek'd up

This past weekend we didn't get quite as much done as we were hoping, but we still finished putting on the tyvek, and we finished the corners. Next thing we have to do to the outside of the house is put in the vents for the kitchen, bathroom, and mudroom.