What's Been Happening The Past 19 Months?

Progress Continues. In little steps.  Every once in a while, we have a BIG project. And we still have projects, big and small on the agenda.

I'll describe on the inside, room by room, what's 'been happening.'  The outside will be another post.

The Mud Room is a bit better organized with a dryer installed and working well. The room is very soundproof, due to the appliances being there.  But it is the primary entrance.  Our problem was that we couldn't hear anybody knocking. We now know when a visitor has arrived as we have a doorbell installed and working. It can be heard throughout the house!

Handicapped Bathroom I is painted and has curtains, the vanity and sink have been installed.  Some organizing is still needed and the transfer fan (to bring some heat in from the bedroom) needs to be enabled.

Handicapped Bathroom II has the toilet, antique tub and vanity installed, but is still a storage and workroom.  It is painted and well lit.

The Master Bedroom still needs some painting and trim added.  It has curtains and a functional closet, phone and internet. The floor is not as smooth as we would like, but we can live with it at this point.  It is partially furnished with a bed, night table, and lamps. And visitors have slept here, not George Washington though.

The Standard Bathroom is fully functional.

The Dining Room is furnished and has a ceiling light fixture. It is in use daily.

The Kitchen is becoming somewhat more organized. The clutter of daily use is evident.

The Living Room is less cluttered, more livable.  We actually enjoyed dining in the living room, and watching the wildlife outside for the first year, prior to the dining room becoming furnished.  We are also using part of the living room as a greenhouse.

The Work Room has monitors and computers, light, power, internet and phone.  I need to clean out and organize the room better; there are building supplies to be moved out.

The Earth Tubes still need grates, but a plan has been thought out. A prototype is in the design stage, involving an OEM floor drain grate and a milled piece of  8" PVC pipe in the coupler as it's support system.  We have acquired a router to do the milling...

Upstairs, the Library has a kitchenette installed, a phone, table and lighting. We still have the Earth Tube fans to bring online. All doors in the library are REAL wood doors with latches from the old farm house that was torn down in the first blog entries.

The Jack and Jill Bathroom is fully functional.

The Office, has a daybed, desk, bookcase, chairs and plants, phone and internet.  It is all painted and at least partially in use. There is a functional closet.

The Guest Bedroom is painted and furnished. We installed an arched door that Warner built; and its latch and the bathroom latches, are also from the old farmhouse.  There is a functional closet.

Micheal Farraday Room is our utility closet, housing the phone system and internet hardware.

Harry Potter Room currently is miscellaneous building supply storage. It may become a linen closet, and will still have room for Harry Potter.

The Garage exterior doors, windows, and trim are 'in the process' of a facelift.  The entry to the garage has been paved with old bricks and slabs cast with truck-cleanout concrete.

There is a cleanout pipe for the septic system that has been 'cleaned up' - cut off, capped and shallowly buried, so we can find it if we have to use it.

The Outhouse (built early on for construction workers' use)  had been moved closer to the garden and a new roof attached.  Now, it's for our use as tool storage or defecation as needed.

The Umbrella on the roof of the house was started in October. Because of the size and nature of the project, we planned to finish only about half of the umbrella.  That was accomplished in November. The process involved shaping the dirt, laying down plastic sheeting, blueboard insulation, plastic sheeting, straw blanket and then adding and shaping more dirt, straw blanket and grass seed.

Other things are going on that are not particularly of any major effort, but need to be done nonetheless. For example, we are trying to get the subsistence farm operations going again: bees, garden, orchard, etc. And, of course, enjoying living and working here.