Encouragement

Steve and Frank finished cutting trim for the baseboards downstairs, then moved on to making shelves for the storage area in the garage.
We met with Johnny McDonald the painter today. He wanted to walk through the house with us room by room to finalise our paint color selections. He completed the work on the stained cabinets today and will start painting tomorrow.
We had hoped to have a small meal together at the house on Thanksgiving with Paul's family, but with all the paint fumes and the weather turning cold that day we decided it was best to cancel those plans.
My sweet friend Kathryn wrote us an encouraging email today, she said "Next yr, God Willing, your home will be filled with all the wonderful smells you want - turkey, dressing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, hot rolls...yum. So close...hold on! moving day's around the corner. Thank you Kathryn, you made my day!

Stained Cabinets & Friend

Johnny McDonald the painter started staining the cabinetry this morning. He said he always stains and seals all wood before he paints because if any paint happens to fall on the wood work it will wipe right off. Our builder Steve, went on to tell us the story about the one time Johnny broke his rule and painted first. His paint hose broke! The paint went everywhere. It landed all over his customers unstained-wood cabinets and he had to replace them. He said it was a very costly mistake.

The cabinets actually look darker than my camera pictures show. Johnny applied a honey oak stain on the cherry wood which is just a little darker than the wood flooring.

Elizabeth found our latest critter at the house hanging on the screened in porch this evening. Should we keep him?

Pantry

Today we were in town most of the day at Sherwin Williams. We met with the painter to select stain and paint for cabinetry and trim. We also picked up all the lighting for the house at Lowe's.

With all the crown molding completed Steve and Frank have started on the base board trim and pantry shelves. I was reluctant to post these pictures of the pantry because it is difficult to take good pictures of such a small space, with bad lighting.

The pantry is located under the staircase which will explain why the peg board on the back wall is cut at an angle. The peg board is to hold large frying pans and other large items, like those colanders that never fit under a cupboard. The pantry shelves continue up to the ceiling for added storage.

Steve thought we could make good use of the large space back under the stairs with a deeper shelf unit to hold larger appliances, the ones I don't use everyday, crock pot, etc. I asked Frank for a couple of dividers on the first shelf to house cookie sheets and muffin tins. I liked this feature in Rita's pantry. In our former home I stacked them on top of each other and every time I needed a cookie sheet I had to lift out the whole stack of cookie sheets (heavy) to get to the one I wanted to use. But in Rita's pantry I just walked in and pull out the one I needed, so easy and organized too! Later this evening Frank added a trim molding around the storage box which is not pictured, the trim completed the unit very nicely.

Cabinetry

Leon Beimer and his son Eric arrived Friday with the last of the cabinetry. They installed two of the beautiful shelf units they built of cherry wood. These two flank the fireplace in Paul's study. The old bank safety deposit boxes will be pushed back into the opening on the left side of these units. Then after the walls are painted the rock layers will come back to rock in the fireplace and mantel.
They also completed installing all the kitchen cabinet doors. The doors above the island will be fitted with glass after the painter stains the cherry wood cabinets. The glass door cabinets over the counter bar will be a lighted curio cabinet. We hoped if we could see though the cabinets the space would not feel closed in. Elizabeth looked on with great hope of living in her home pretty soon, we hope before Christmas.

Trim & Tile

Steve has done a beautiful job with the crown molding throughout the house. He completed all the crown molding work today. He hired Frank to help him complete the window trim work today. Their wood working talent added the perfect detail to every room of the house.

The bathroom shower tile started going up yesterday. The tile men are just as talented as Steve and Frank. We really didn't tell them what to do, they just seem to know how showers should look using the tile we selected. We were not certain how high, or low the tile chair rail should be installed. Before we arrived they had installed all of the accent pieces of chair rail. When we saw the finished product we agreed it was just the perfect height. The tile is a 13 inch floor tile and matches the floor tile, which is a larger 18 inch tile.

They completed setting the master bath shower, the second bath tub tile and started on the downstairs small shower before they left today. Tomorrow they will add the shelves in the showers then start grouting them. Great progess today.

Kitchen Cabinets

Leon Beimer and his son Eric brought the cabinets for the kitchen this morning. They put in a full day installing almost all the cabinets. He said they will be back Wednesday to finish the kitchen and deliver the cabinets for the study.The cabinets are made of cherry wood and will be stained by the painter to match the wood flooring.

The Beimer's added so many nice features to the cabinets. They built in all the cutting boards I asked for, three. One is pictured below to the right of the spice-rack drawer, its pretty wide. The spice rack was Leon's idea to make use of an otherwise unusable narrow space. The double trash drawer pulls out with ease and returns just as nicely.

Septic

We quickly heard good news from Ray Stubblefield this morning when he said, "no jack hammer was required!" Last winter Ray came out to the property to give us an estimate and locate the best place to install a septic system. He thought then we might need jackhammer work, which is very costly. We were very happy to hear his good news today. The septic measured 350 ft. from the house when they completed the long.....line today. Can you see the corner of the garage roof way back there?

They installed two tanks and a additional water run off line. The tanks are made of cement and have very large cement lids. Ray took the time to explain how to care for the system, and also how it works.