You May Ask Yourself - Where are they with their beautiful house?

Ok, so it's July 26th and this is the first post of the month so you may ask yourself - are they really working on the house? Yes, yes, always yes.  We always work on the perpetual house.

Here are a few views of where we are now.

This is the enclosed porch with floor stained. You can see the stone pad for the Jotul stove in the background. We put it on the enclosed porch so we could isolate any air leaks from the stove from the main part of the house. There are 2 windows and a door connecting the house with this porch so we can easily open the porch to the main part of the house should that be needed to heat the house.

This is the opposite end of the enclosed porch with the front door and now the floor has one coat of Waterlox finish on it.

Guard dog at the plumbing supply warehouse. We bought a really beautiful Toto Promenade toilet from the people here. We were very quiet while we waited for our toilet delivery so we wouldn't get the dog riled up. I'll try to get some photos of the toilet later this week.

This is the hanging light over the stairway. We waited quite awhile for it to be installed. The colors on the wall are somewhat distorted. These hallway walls are painted with a color called Aqua Pura - a light clean blue, sometimes looks white when the sun is shining on it. John hates it, but the True Turquoise used most other places in the house is too dark. He can paint over it if he wants to take the time to do so (but he won't).

And what have been doing for the last month or so? Taping, foaming, taping. Here are few photos so you'll have a better idea of my current projects. This is a cropped view of my foam face. I was foaming around the ducts underneath the house and got splatted with foam. I kind of had to sand it off my face before I went to work the next day.

Protective gear to prevent "foam hair" which is a real problem to deal with.

And here is unfinished my masterpiece - the Pro Clima membrane under the house taped to the enclosed duct work. This is the best view of the membrane. It's somewhat difficult to take a good photo that illustrates how involved it is to seal under a house. This topic absolutely deserves a lengthy post of its own.

There is still a lot of work to do under the house. That's why it's my unfinished masterpiece. I will keep you informed. 

Thanks for reading this blog on the perpetual house. Hope to be finished with this project very soon.

June Construction Update - A Few Pictures

I took a few photos today to illustrate how things are coming along.

Here is the countertop with the copper sink.

Now you may ask yourself, "Why does John get a copper sink? Isn't that a little extravagant?" The answer is, "Yes, you are correct. It is quite an indulgence." I justified it because we saved so much money on the lights. We went to the Greer Habitat for Humanity Restore and found several lights that probably saved us over $100. Also the other lights (mostly the infamous boob lights) were not expensive at all - probably saving another $100. I figure the sinks we were looking at were going to cost about $200 so when John fell in love with the copper sink for $399, he had already made up for it in inexpensive choices in the lights. It does look good, doesn't it? And as John would say - it's naturally antibacterial as well. 

This is a view of the kitchen pantry cabinet to your left and the countertops. I still would like a more neutral color on the wall, but it's not my house. 

Next photo shows the bathroom floor tiles. We wanted them installed in a running bond or staggered fashion, like you would install a wood floor. Carlton already had installed about half of the downstairs tiles when we saw them. We just let him continue. I think it looks very good even if it is not how we envisioned it.

Carlton has finished the tiling around the tub upstairs. 

We've got 2 coats of the Waterlox finish on the upstairs floors. I think we need probably 2 more coats to protect the floors the way I want it. We stained it with Minwax Golden Oak before the Waterlox was applied.

I hope these photos help you understand that the house is truly coming together and John will be inhabiting it soon.

Thank you for reading today. 

June Construction Update - Happy Days!

I don't have any pictures for today, but I am happy to report on significant, tangible progress on the house.

We currently have:
Bathroom floors tiled and grouted - upstairs and down
Upstairs tub/shower area tiled, not grouted yet
Countertops in the kitchen - beautiful granite countertops with the copper sink installed (more on the copper sink later)
Power
Air conditioning
Most lights are installed and working
Upstairs floor with stained with 2 coats of Waterlox finish (need 2 more)

Progress. Real progress. We are beginning to see the finish line. Still much to do, but we are very excited. John called 3 times from work today to check on the house. He is very anxious to be done with this. Me too, as I have more challenges ahead.

Montana Vacation - 6 days in Montana with Friends

I had a brief vacation in Montana where I went to visit my friends, Lynn and Mike. I say brief because only 6 days in Montana feels like much too short a vacation. I had a great time. We hiked some, did some touristy things, visited their family and ate very well. Lynn is a great vegetarian cook.

Here are a few photos from the visit:

Quilt kit I bought at the beautiful Deer Country Quilt Shop in Seely Lake, MT. This is the sample quilt that they made. I have not made mine yet. Lynn showed me how to piece quilts so that the corners line up perfectly. I am excited about applying my newly learned skill to this quilt.

 View on the way to hike at Holland Lake

Holland Falls, MT. There was a lot of snow in Montana this year so the falls were spectacular.

The view from the falls across the lake

Lynn and Mike and the 3 hiking dogs - Lily, Sarah, and Bailey. Luc is not shown, he's 14 years old and only does little hikes around their house.

We passed the Continental US Cold Spot on the way to the Dinosaur museum in Bynum, MT.

We also passed "Egg Mountain" where 2 paleontologists realized that dinosaurs actually do care for their young based on the presence of eggs and baby dinosaur bones.

I took a few pictures of Lynn's quilts. She is a true artist as a quilter. Most of my photos are not that great so I'm only including a couple of quilts.

This is a Twister quilt. I'm making a small table topper out of this pattern with Christmas fabric.

This is one of my favorite quilts that Lynn has made. The quilt block it is based on is called Delectable Mountains. I think the color choices are so beautiful. The border is shown below.

That's just a brief overview of some of the fun stuff I did in Montana. An excellent vacation from crawlspace insulation and duct sealing. More on that later.