Ours Latest Project !

 The hole was dug for the beginning of our weekend, get-away, someday retirement home on July 20, 2012.  Here are a sampling of pictures taken as the construction progressed.

 Here is the outside of Steve's dream barn/workshop/garage when it was finished.

 Here is the inside of his barn.  He hopes to really "finish" it sometime in the near future.  In the meantime it became a huge storage facility as we moved stuff from Hilary's basement, our basement and the storage closet in Idaho.  It stored our appliances during the construction of the house.  It is still pretty full of stuff until we finish our basement in the house

 As a part of our construction contract, the entire inside of the house was painted white.  After we closed on the house, we started our own work. At Hilary's suggestion we enlisted Heather and Taylor's track coach who is also a painter to help us with the 2-story family rooms.  That turned out to be a wise choice as it has taken us many days during the holiday season to paint the interior of the house.  Each color was meticulously mixed by the local paint store as we made many trips trying to get just the right shade.  I believe we are finally satisfied with our selections.

 I believe it was the end of November when we hauled up a mattress and set up our bed in the master closet so it would be out of the way of our work.  It is still there as we are going to put a wall of bookshelves in the master bedroom first.

 Steve is staining and building shutters for the exterior of the house.  They won't get installed until the weather drastically improves.

 Thank goodness he got the mailbox installed before the winter storms hit.  His insistence paid of there.

 This is how our front porch looked prior to the snow and ice barrage.

 We love our hardwood floors.  They are 5 inch rustic oak plank.

 A major snow storm hit Christmas Eve day and Christmas day.  We shoveled 4 or more inches at least 4 times.  Here is the view out our back windows of the morning sun on the mountains across the valley.

 We have lots of deer tracks through our back yard.  It must be a regular migration pattern.

 The weekend before Christmas, Heather, Aaron and kids initiated the house as the first guests to sleep over.  We threw mattresses on the floor and sleeping bags too.  Everyone survived the night.  It was kinda of fun.  We made breakfast at Hilary's.

 One of the many times Steve and I shoveled during the holidays.  We took turns so that we didn't either one of us get too worn out.  Now that we have the snowblower up there, it hasn't snowed heavy again.

 Steve has spent a lot of time hanging hooks, mirrors and putting together furniture.  It is starting to look a little homey.

 Here's what our porch looks like now after with all of the ice and snow.  We will have to have heat taped installed.  It is a danger zone right now.  We aren't using the front door as you might guess.

 Now most of the blinds have been hung and we are starting to put rooms together.

 We have new beds in the guest rooms which Steve and Adam put together last Saturday.  Now we are really ready for visitors.

Here they are unloading sheetrock and stocking it in our basement.  Here we go with the next part of our project--finishing the basement.

We discovered an interesting benefit to our work over the holidays.  It is pretty unbelievable but in spite of the feasting and partying, we have both lost some weight.  I guess all this painting and physical labor is good for us after all.  We are not complaining.  Get me a paint brush and bucket of paint.  I like this way of losing weight.  It was the easiest 5 lbs I've ever lost.  Certainly the most fun.  Of course, Steve lost more weight than I did.  He weighs less than he has for 30 years.  What a nice benefit!