The Project: Week 22 - Huzzah!

In  recognition of the Renaissance Festival near here and in accordance with the manner of that time, (sound of horns - horns draped in colorful scarves in the colors of the King) I now decree and announce to all assembled here (more horns to mark a big announcement) that with only a few exceptions and some odds and ends, WE ARE FINISHED with the main floor of the house!

Yes, you heard that right: 

Huzzah! 

Yippee!  

Hallelujah!

Hot diggity dog!

Wowie Zowie! 

Whoopee!

and

Amen!

Now we are turning our attention to the exterior and the grounds. We have a ton of work to do at our existing house and need to get going on that, talk to Realtors, and get that house on the market.

Moving is exciting. We love our new house and it is in a much better location as far as distance to shops, my dad and 'things'. But... we have a wonderful set-up at our existing house with lots of land to ride on, lots of people with horses right around us and fantastic neighbors. We will really miss that. We've met several of our neighbors at our new house and they seem really nice, but since we will no longer be on a cul-de-sac, our houses aren't as close together, so we probably won't have impromptu coffee chats on the front steps nor sit around enjoying a cold brew in the late summer evenings.

These Google satellite shots clearly show the difference in 'neighborhoods':

New

Old

This week we:

• cleaned out the garage.
• had the dumpster taken away.
• received a new, empty dumpster for the guys working on the exterior.
• mowed the area for the round pen and had a 6 tons of sand delivered (needed 6 times that) for footing.
• killed the battery on the tractor - got a new one now.
• tried many different color combinations on the Sherwin Williams Visualizer site. We bought 5 different colors in trial sizes. For $5.49 you can get custom color quart of paint - it sure beats the little 2 ounce samples at other stores. 
• had a load of siding delivered.
• began to paint the siding - we figure it will be easier to get at least one coat on the boards while they are on the ground. Ideally, we'd like to get two coats, and then just have to touch up once they are in place... but with our schedule that isn't likely to happen. 
• gave up on painting the siding on the ground after doing 108 4' X 14" pieces of cedar shake siding and 45 pieces of 8 1/2" x 12' regular siding. It was just too much moving around and we didn't have the drying space... and it rained!
• pulled out and cut more thistle and mowed some thistle spots in the pasture.
• finally planted two evergreens we bought over a month ago!
• had a Father's Day visit from our son - who brought his dad a new mailbox for our house with pretty brass numbers. He stayed to help Dad get it installed.(Son is very thoughtful - he called to get the color of our house, got a paint chip close to what it will be, and then looked at mailboxes trying to decide what color would complement the house! He chose dark green - a great choice!)

Dumpster on Week 2

Dumpster at Week 22

Hey, there's still some room left!

(We did add more after we closed the door)

Siding being delivered.

It's hard to believe that this will cover our house.

It doesn't seem like enough.

108 pieces of fake shake painted and drying

on the porch.

I can't wait to spend some time sitting

and relaxing on this porch!