Halloween Spook?

Is this a Halloween Spook from outer space hiding in our new place?

No, it's grandpa showing off the drywall in the pantry.

That counts as half a room. We just have the guest half bath to go to finish the 10 rooms that we are drywalling. These small rooms with all their angles and corners for the air conditioning, plumbing and electrical "chases" take longer to do than a large room. Next the professionals come in to do the 20 foot ceiling of the great room and mud and finish up all the drywall. This is the finish they will put on. I think it is called "knock down."

So we're getting closer to moving in.

9 down and 1 to go

We have almost finished all the drywalling. We just finished the master bath (we just need to hire a tile setter to finish the shower and tub)...

and the master walk-in closet (which will also be grandma's sewing room).

We are now finishing up the last room--the pantry and guest bathroom by the mud room. They are small so the two count as one room. Once we hire someone to do the ceiling of the great room, we'll be ready to start the finishing touches. The kitchen cabinets and counters have already arrived and are ready to install once we get the walls finished. We also have the floors ready to put down.

The electrician has been here the last couple of days putting in the control panels for the house,

the shed,

and the pump,

with space in the master panel outside for the future pool and guest house. Soon electricity can be brought into the house and we won't have to keep using 200 feet of extension cords when we need electricity in the house for the saws, electric fans, and lights after dark. Things are moving along. With luck, we'll be in the house in November.

Eureka!!

Like Lehi of old, it came as a vision in the night what I should do to get drywall around pipes in the bathroom. (Did Lehi's visions have some help from YouTube?) The upstairs bath is now drywalled except for around the tub.

We are now ready to finish up the downstairs--though today we made a trip to Bubba'a Cracker Cypress Sawmill in Williston to get some advice on how to do the stairs once the great room has been drywalled. Here's a look at what we showed Bubba of our roughed in stairs and loft to help generate ideas. We have something really fun in mind.

8 down and 2 to go--almost

We finished 1 and 1/2 more rooms--the walk-in closet in the bunk room and the hall leading to the bunk room from the loft (together these count as a 1/2/ room--these small rooms actually take as long as a big room since there is so much cutting and measuring. Notice the "access to void by owner" from the building plans. You already saw the one void we used to create a Harry Potter sleeping place and the two we'll use for recessing filing cabinets in the library. This one will be for storing luggage and perhaps Christmas decorations)...

and before the sun set, we almost finished drywalling the upstairs bathroom. You can see me contemplating how I'm going to get the drywall around all these pipes. I'm sure I'll think of something in my sleep tonight. We'll let the tile setter figure out how to do the area around the bathtub. Remember too that we have something special planned for above and below the windows.

We are now done with the basic drywalling upstairs. Someone else will do the loft and great room (as we promised Wendy) and mud the drywall. We'll now finish up downstairs and get ready to paint and tile.

Another one down

Why are Mary and Victoria cheering?

Grandpa has finished sheetrocking another room--the bunk room where many grandkids will play and sleep!

Is that Harry Potter coming out of his special sleeping place?

No,it's grandpa exploring the new secret room for the grandkids.

Next up are the walk-in closet, the second hallway, and the upstairs bathroom.

5 1/2 down and 4 1/2 to go

We finished all the ceilings downstairs and up. Here is a look at the workshop in the loft (since we are finishing up the upstairs rooms first) and the head carpenter screwing in the drywall.

The half room in the accounting system for this blog is the hallway leading to the library and the guest bedroom and the large closet in the guest bedroom. It's big enough for a baby crib. It takes almost as long to do a large closet and a hallway as it does to do an entire large room.

The newly finished room is the library. The unfinished sections on the walls are where we will have built-in filing cabinets and perhaps drawers. This will be done after we move in since our filing cabinets are in the back of one of our 5 storage units and I don't feel like emptying them all to find out where they are so I can measure them. The unfinished parts above and below the window will have a special log finish that will add a special rustic touch to each of the rooms.

Tomorrow we start drywalling the bunk house room where lots of grandkids can overnight.