Stone is installed around the front door.

Can you believe they told us there was a glass shortage?!? That's why the sidelights around the front door aren't in. The front door in these pictures is actually called a "bang door"--one that can get beaten up a little bit while all of the workers are moving things in and out. The real door will come later.

Finally deciding where to put the fireplace. It's between the living room and kitchen.

Adding the stone to the pedestals

Getting the front entry design figured out... was a challenge!

After much discussion and a few changes we finally decided on 6" posts (two on each side) on top of two stone pedestals (which turned out a little big bigger than we thought they would).

Repurposing some of the windows!

We took the 3 double hung windows that were in the hearth room and put them in the garage. We LOVE them in the garage! We separated two of the other windows and put one of them in the master closet. It lets in a lot of natural light so we think we're really going to like it even though it takes some of our closet space away.

The Big, BIG windows are finally in! :-) Yay!!!! And the bathtub is mounted!!!

Starting the stone application

The stone is called "chablis" from Lumberman's. We like Wes at Lumberman's. He's awesome!

Hosea & Miguel are our stone application guys! They are good!

Siding continues

Here's the new windows in place!

Starting the Siding

We're using Hardie Plank siding. We're happy to finally get the siding started!

Cutting the openings for the new windows and doors!

The old windows are now gone and the openings for the new windows and sliding door have been cut. It was AMAZING how much it opened it up and let so much more light in! I am in love with the new window choices!




Here's the "new" pool table area with BIG window openings and the 6' sliding glass door openings.











Here's the new hearth room window opening--nice and big casement windows and the new 8' sliding glass door opening.















Wild flowers to decorate the dining room (in a mud boot!)

Here's the old windows & sliding door that we removed

Here's the old windows and sliding glass door that had to go. Does anyone know anyone who would like to buy some just removed brand new 400 series Anderson windows???

We took advantage again of the beautiful weather (a full moon again!) and hung out in the 'great room' . The big window wasn't in yet, so we could still enjoy the view (without the film on the windows--which can't be removed until the interior painting is done, which is still a long way off!)

Finally, more pictures!

We had big slow down due to deciding to change some of the windows that had already been put in. But, the slow down is over! It's been 3 months since I've posted so I'm going to post several pictures of the progress in the past 3 months. It took 6 weeks for the new windows to co in which really slowed us down, but I love my new windows so much that I don't care one bit!

The two pictures below show the back of the house with the old windows in. I decided that I couldn't live with the double hung windows in the back because they cut up the view of the lake too much. We kept the double hungs in our master bedroom (on the far left), but removed the 3 double hungs in the hearth room. I also didn't like the 6' sliding glass door. It seemed WAY too small, so we took it out and ordered an 8' slider. We also removed two double hungs from the lower level.

Most of the windows are in and the shingling is almost done!!!

The roofing crew is hard at it!


















Here you can see the completed front roofing and some of the installed windows. I love these front windows. We have a modified colonial grid in the front--just the top of the double hung windows have colonial grilles. No grills in the windows in the back of the house.


















We are still waiting for the big back windows to come in. I can't wait!

"Camping out" at the house!

We had been wanting to spend the night out at the lot because the weather has been soooo beautiful. A few nights nights ago, a perfect night presented itself (not only temperature-wise, but there was also a full moon!!!) . We set up camp in the great room and fell asleep watching the full moon. It was beautiful! Here are some pictures--they don't do it justice!



















The next morning we woke up around 6:00 a.m. to the most refreshing sky and air, AND a hot air balloon rising over the other side of the lake!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. You can see it in the pictures below.

Some magical views!

Soon the windows will be in so I took pictures of the views while they were still wide open. I'm going to miss this big wide open view! The view below is from our bedroom window. We love the views more every day.





















This view is from the hearth room windows.



















This is the view from our masterbath, right where the tub will be, looking to the west. Some of the sunsets are just amazing.



















Here's a few more pretty views from other parts of the lake. I love it out at the lake so much. I have planted a garden with peas, tomatoes, radishes, melons, squash, and several herbs. I can't believe this is going to be our home! (Oh, the garden is rather lame at this time, I must admit. There's a lot of silt runoff that goes over the garden and I don't think the plants like that!) (Wish I could figure out how to get the underlining of this text turned off!)