This view is looking
north from my "yard" at the southern exposure of the house. The house
is about 950 square feet and is 26 x 36 feet in size. This is at the very north end of my wooded 10 acres
(all maple/beech hardwoods) that abuts a large state forest. Yes, the
road is paved and we do have electricity, but NO cable TV! (harumph)
Please check in the June-July photo section for more outside photos.
Here is the west side of the house the day the drywall arrived (July 18)
showing the partially completed stoop. We got this installed just in time!
When I get my DSS dish I will mount it to one of the right side posts that
you see. There is a narrow opening in the trees at just the right angle to
get reception (we are blessed!).
I have a fine assortment of wild flowers growing here. So many nice flowers that I have made a special
WildFlower page to show them off. If you can identify them for me I would be
most appreciative. 
Here is dad with a humorous grin. We were amidst installing the
drywall and Matt Benjamin came by to assist. Boy, his help sure made
the job move along quick!
Thanks to Bill Byrnes and his skills to make us a really nice drive down
at the barn. Now dad and I can park AND turn around without getting
in each others way. All three vehicles fit just fine.
With the new driveway extension, my Thunderbird is so much closer
to it's new home (inside the garage!).
Here is a computer rendition of the kitchen cabinets that we ordered.
We went with the Mills Pride Buckingham "medium oak" that Home
Depot sells. I have included here more detailed prints on the NORTH wall and the
EAST wall for those
who are interested (40k each).
This is a page from the Home Depot Mills Pride catalog showing what
the cabinets we ordered are supposed to look like.
We decided to go with the American Standard Silhouette kitchen
sink. It is made of a nice rugged composite material that supposedly
insulates the water so it stays hotter longer. The sink is a near-bottomless 9
inches deep (with a near flat bottom) and an array of available accessories.
We also will use the Delta kitchen faucet shown here.
This model will allow us to fill nice big drywall mud buckets in our
kitchen sink if we want to! Note the soap dispenser too!
A refrigerator with both ice and water on the door is one
bit of luxury that I insisted on. Drinking the quantity of water that I do,
it is likely that the water handles will wear out first! The model we have
chosen is an Amana and thankfully is not too deep. It should blend well with the cabinets (and not
cost a mint at the same time!). The Amana models also have a "scotch"
more room in the water/ice dispenser for my extra tall glasses!
Back to construction, we rented a drywall lift to assist us in installing
the ceilings. This was the best $50 (per week) that I have spent in a
while. What a great invention!
There are a great many events that "make my day" and I have to admit
that returning from the store to find that electric service has been
installed is definitely one of them! It was so nice to see that meter reading
all zeros! Regretfully, it hasn't taken long to get well past that first
kilowatt!
Every house MUST have a pizza box somewhere, and this place
is no exception. (note that there is a spot in the kitchen cabinetry set
aside for pizza boxes). A permanent addition to the building is now
located above the bathroom and aids in the venting of the attic.
It was so very nice to pass the three rough inspections. Doing the
electrical and plumbing work myself was a great experience. Passing the
rough inspections was a big load off my mind. The structure also passed
but the guy signed the permit as opposed to adding a sticker.
You cannot work so hard on such a project without having friends to give inspiration along the way. 
Before we covered up the studs, plenty of high resolution photos were
taken so that we could someday remind ourselves of what was in the
walls. I added numerous additional wood blocks to make mounting
kitchen and bath cabinets, handicap rails, drapes, etc an easy task.
I wrote on the boards the key dimensions needed and the photos
did come out great! The dimensions were very readable!
As I said, I had added plenty of additional blocking. Some of what you
see is for kitchen cabinets, others for handicap railings in the bathroom.
Even though we will have over a foot of blown in insulation in the attic,
I didn't want to totally lose access to this area. I built a rather nice (and
sturdy!) "crawlway" across the attic which will be very handy in the
near future!
Above the bathroom is our bathroom exhaust fan. Also shown is the
main vent "stack" from the plumbing system.
Even the bathroom has a bathroom "feel" now. We did the entire room
in "blueboard". This is the special water resistant type of drywall.