Watching the Grass Grow

What's interesting is that we live in a place that is a naturally beautiful landscape. However, we spent hours and hours hunched over a plot plan trying to enhance what is already here. 

Ed, the excavator,  brought in tons of dirt from the ponds and pushed dirt around, dug up huge amounts of russian olive trees and cleaned out brush, filled in a huge hole etc....

This is the pile Ed cleaned out. The bonfire will have to wait until winter.

Mike had about decided to wait and just do all the landscaping himself early next spring.  I was sorely disappointed.  I was hoping to see some green around here before then.  And finally, after much thought, he decided to bite the bullet and let the professionals do it.  Yay!   Mike is still so busy with finishing up siding the barn and wiring the barn.  He also has all the exterior painting to do and lets's not even revisit the garage full of boxes again.  

He called Mike at Red Leaf Landscaping.  They did the backyard at our house in Eagle and we really like their work.  He and his wife are a great team and really know their stuff.  They came out and spent over an hour walking the property with us and then came up with a great plan and one that we felt was worth every penny.  


They came on a Monday and by Thursday evening they had fine graded all the way down to the river, put in the sprinkler system and planted ten large trees and about twenty bushes.  

  We wanted to line our driveway with red maples to match Pat and Donna's, but that will be on the five year plan.  We were able to get four pretty good sized ones in and then we will just add a couple more each year until the driveway is done.

They will come back and add a few more trees and bushes in the spring...the ones that they felt would either transplant better then or that they'd be able to have a better choice when selecting the ones we want. 

I was dreaming for months of putting a clump birch in the circle, but the landscapers said it was too close to the septic system and so they convinced me to go with this.  It's really nice.

Travis came out for a few days and got the barn wired.  Let there be light in the barn!  
Mark finished with all of the lap siding and Mike has just the front of the barn left to side in the reclaimed barn wood.

He also finally got the house painted.  We went with a medium shade of grey siding and a dark grey (it's actually called Urbane Bronze from Sherwin Williams) for the trim.  I was so used to seeing it that tan color that the siding comes in that it's taking a little getting used to seeing grey next to the barn wood.  We know the barn wood will weather to several shades of grey and brown, so I think it going to look really nice as the house ages a bit.

Terrible pic of the grey house color, better one next time.

Can you believe how much my other half gets done!?  He also finished building the rustic farm table I have longed for ever since we lived in Europe.  I searched for three years for the perfect one and came home empty handed.  Mike said he could build on and lo and behold, he finally did!
It turned out amazing!  It's eight feet long and the top is made of two inch thick planks that in their previous life were outdoor bleachers at a local high school.  Dreams do come true.

We stained the legs quite dark and left the top in it's natural colors.

Mike trapped a gopher and Ollie was VERY interested in the whole process.  Maybe he'll figure out how to do what he was bred to do, and go gopher hunting.



And I'll leave you with this...who says watching grass grow isn't exciting?

It's Starting to Feel Like Home

I woke up yesterday morning and for the first time I really felt like I was waking up in MY home.  It's been one month since our move in day and it's been crazy!  We still have workers here almost every day.  I feel like I have this big extended family that pops in and out.  As you can see in the photo above, Mike finished up with the barnwood on the house and the lap siding and board and bat siding is almost complete.  





The sider is about ready to move to the barn and get that sided next.

Great news!  After almost six weeks, the tile setter is finished!  He did a fantastic job, but wow...six weeks!  The showers are beautiful and I love the flat pebble stone floors in both of them.

The Guest Room Shower ( still needs a glass door)

The Master Bath walk in shower. 
 I've tried and tried to get a good picture with no luck.  I'll have to find a contortionist to come take a better one. 
I found these cute little initial plaques to put over the hooks. That way Mike doesn't steal my towel. 

The house is still bare.  Not much in the way of decor yet.  That's because the garage looks like this:

There's my other furniture and decor items...somewhere in that mess.

So here are a few interior shots, no judging!  It will be awhile before it looks all put together and I'd like to blog about each room as it transforms.  Anyway, consider these the "before" pictures.




Mike, son Travis and Mike's friend, Kelly have been wiring the barn.  That required taking a lot of stuff out of the barn.  Yes...the Beverly Hillbillies do live here.

Travis putting his electrician skills to good use.

This is why it's called a "Toy"Barn.

 Ed and the landscapers have been getting the yard area all ready for sprinklers, grass bushes and trees.  It's pretty complicated since we have quite a bit of slope down to the river.  It's hard to decide how much of the overgrown trees and bushes to take out and how much to leave in.  I like the natural look and a little seclusion from the river, but the view is so beautiful.  Hopefully we can find a good compromise.  Eventually we'd like to have grass all the way down and a little sand brought in to have near the edge.  The problem is that the edge of the river varies according to the height of the water, which changes from season to season.  Like so much of the rest of the house, this will take a few years and some patience, but it's going to be so nice!
 

 We had reason to celebrate last Sunday.  We had the first family dinner at the new house and celebrated Mike and Vella's birthdays.  What better way to celebrate than for Uncle Pat to pull out the barrel train and give the kiddies a ride!

And that's about it for now.  The crisp days of fall have been occurring more frequently, the leaves are turning and the shadows are longer.  Happy October from the Little River House..

Home Sweet..Construction Zone

And.....we made it!  We are in the new little river house and so happy!


Fist of all let me remind you, the house is not finished. It's still very much a work in progress.  I've been getting up at the crack of dawn to run down the hall to the one and only bathroom that has a working shower in it, to get ready for the day before the workers all start showing up. We still have a tile setter, painter, siders, HVAC, landscapers, plumbers, inspectors etc..all doing final touches.

Do you remember last time I teased you about a surprise from Pat and Donna...
Well it was pretty fantastic!

I was driving to the house a couple of weeks ago and they had the road blocked and were putting up the big iron gate that is like the one Pat and Donna had at their last place. 

 
It's big and heavy and of course it would make some great photos for the blog.  So I pulled over, got out and starting snapping a few pics.  Donna came out and tried to convince me I could go around the back of her house, no need to wait, it would be a long time until  the road was clear.  

No thanks, I said.  Just enjoying the view.  She finally said well darn, you just spoiled your surprise!  We wanted you to drive up and see it when it was all done!  

 
Then I saw they were hoisting up some initials for each side of the gate.  
M C on one side, P D on the other.  


Oh what a wonderful idea and so thoughtful of them to include us!   We all love it!


The one thing that's really holding us up is the tile setter.  When he's done, then the plumbers can finish up. The tile setter is very meticulous, which also means, slow.  We are going on six weeks to do two showers.  To his credit, the framers did a pretty poor job of making straight walls and so he's had to do a lot of prep work to make it all square and plumb.  The guest room shower is finished, just waiting on the glass door. We are hoping that he'll be done with the master bath walk in shower by the end of this week.  


We lived here for about a week with a construction door that didn't even have a handle on it.  I had to stuff grocery bags in the holes so the bugs wouldn't come in.  That fact alone made the arrival of the real front door a big event.  

Speaking of big, the front door is huge. Mike had me help him carry it from the garage to the front porch.  The glass panes made me very nervous and luckily the tiler offered to help hold the door and help Mike set it in place. 
 
It's an oversized, solid wood, knotty alder with six glass panes and it turned out just perfect.


In other news..

Ollie tried to swim in the river like his big friend, Simba.  He is loving being a river dog.


I cooked in the new blue oven

Mike and his friend starting building a big farm table for the dining nook.  They found some old wood that had been the high school bleachers from a small town in Idaho.  I think it will make a great table. 


We had a little get together with friends and family at our house.  Our friend, Cindy, brought dinner for everyone and the house really felt like home!



Last week we helped a little with Pat and Donna's landscaping. They had to get everything ready for her niece's wedding which took place next to the river at their place

A double rainbow over Pat and Donna's place

The boys finally got the mailboxes and the last road sign installed, so we are officially official. The work doesn't stop just because it's dark, you know!



And that gets you a little bit more updated on the goings on out here at the little river house(s).  Life is busy but wonderful.  Happy Trails until next time!