Beginning the Finish Work

Begin hardwood flooring!

Finish hardwood!  

Begin cabinet install...

Base cabinets are in.

Meanwhile, Ron and I begin the last big tile job:  master bath shower and tub surround.  Starting with "red guard".

Tile floors sealed and finished!

We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Getting to the Fun Stuff!

We now have skylites and real lights in most of the house!
That made it a lot easier to start the tile in the laundry room that doesn't have any windows!

We have the tile about 75% down, and the grouting is at about 60% - It's a slow process, but we are really happy with the results!

Entry way

Wayne finished the great room flooring this afternoon.  The reward for all the hard flooring work comes tomorrow when we open up the kitchen cabinets and start moving them into the kitchen area.  It will definitely look a lot different by the weekend!

Flying over the Great Pacific Northwest

Ron enjoying the ride - amazing as he is a bit squeamish about flying in a small plane.  His confidence in our pilot made this day possible!

We first flew over Swartz Lake, where you can see our existing house in the upper left hand corner of the picture.  We  pretty much have the east side of the lake to ourselves.  The new house is on the 5 acres to the right of the existing house, nestled in the trees, so not visible in this picture.

We had heard about the red tide warnings in Puget Sound, but it was clearly visible from the air.

Our pilot, Ron Moen, took us to one of his favorite spots for breakfast.  It would have taken us half a day to get to Port Townsend by car and ferry, but we were there in minutes in the plane.

After a nice breakfast where we ate on the outdoor patio overlooking the landing strip, we headed back.

We looked for some other friend's house on the point in Marysville, but weren't sure which one it was.

The Stillaguamish River near Island Crossing as we lined up to land at the Arlington Airport.

Thank you Ron, for a lovely ride!

Taking a Break!

I suppose you could call us obsessive when we start painting on the new house at daybreak (about an hour before the sun comes up!) - Which at this time of year is about 5 a.m.

So when our friend, Ron Moen, called and said "Let's go fly to breakfast" at 7 a.m., we already had a couple of hours of painting under our belt.  We dropped our paintbrushes and rollers and cleaned up and headed out.   We arrived at his hangar at the Arlington Airport by 8 a.m. and he took us for a grand ride!

I was surprised at how many of the San Juan Islands I could identify from air.  Everything looks different from above!

The new house we're building is in the middle of the left side of this picture.  The van in the driveway is the garage door installer.  Nice to see someone is on the job there today!

Making Progress!

Work continues on the inside - insulation, sheetrock, all underway.

Wayne finished the soffits, and he and Jimmy finished the siding.

Steve and his guys poured the back patio,

And, most amazing of all, Ron and I finished most of the exterior paint in record heat yesterday!  Once the garage is sided and the front post wrapped, we can put on the finishing touches.

Moving Right Along!

Roof is finished!

The walls are full of electrical wires, plumbing pipes, heating ducts, and vents.  After the last framing inspection and the "OK to insulate", the insulation people were here this week.

Meanwhile, Jimmy and Keith and Wayne are continuing on the outside - Doors, windows, trim, siding, soffits, etc. And Steve and his crew poured our front sidewalks yesterday and are working on framing up the back patio this week.  We've had such a wonderful talented bunch of guys working on this project that it almost inspires us to build another house. :)

  

On to sheetrock!

Time for a Roof!

Another truckload of material arrives - this time the metal roof - at 5:30 a.m. - Yikes, these delivery people get up early!

The roof has been covered for several days with the moisture barrier, so we haven't been stressing too much lately about rain!

All the interior walls are framed, the furnace ducting is in, the electrical stuff is all wired throughout the house, and the plumbing is roughed in throughout.  Ready for our framing inspection on Thursday, and insulation starting Friday or Monday.  

Metal roof going on this week - one skylite is in - a royal pain to install, but boy, does it bring in light!