House Update

So we've been in the new house now for four months. Where we last left off in house updates here, we were close to getting our occupancy permit so that we could move in. As mentioned in other posts, though, it ended up being another month before we were able to move in just before Thanksgiving.

We're all unpacked now except for the sitting room upstairs, which I believe is on the agenda for this week.  For the most part, the house is in pretty good shape, although we definitely have some (re)organizing to do for where we had haphazardly unpacked things just to get them unpacked but either can't find anything now or stuff falls each time we breath near it. We're also keeping very busy with plenty of projects  - and I have the tracking spreadsheet to prove it ;)

My main task right now is to finish the painting - I lost some (ok, all) momentum once we moved, but the last couple of weeks I've been whittling away at my list an hour a night at a time, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks the upstairs and main level will finally be done. We still have to finish the basement and do all the painting down there, but that's more likely to be a late spring/summer project at this point.

Ryan has been working on getting programmable thermostats installed, getting a silt filter in place so we can flush that out on occasion when our water pressure gets down to a trickle, (on a related note) getting a water softening system, burning all our mountains of wood debris from when the lot was cleared, plus a whole lot more.

[The workspace in the garage that Ryan set up, including building the workbench (which can be dismantled to be used for skateboarding) and the shelving above the workbench]

[Our closet, with all the shelving and rods that Ryan installed]

[The pool room, including the light Ryan had built years ago but made look a whole lot better now]

We also had some paving done - the driveway, a patio area in the back, underneath the bonus room (which we're planning to eventually enclose as the"shed" for the mower, etc.), and a paver sidewalk to the back door. We're waiting for spring and then will seal/paint the driveway, add pavers and/or paint a border for the patio, and possibly add a sidewalk from the back door around to the patio area too.

[The newly-paved portion of the driveway, including a turnaround!]

[Patio and the area under the bonus room that we'll be enclosing]

Other upcoming projects include building a fire pit and putting up fencing in the backyard - most of the materials are lying around the yard already, so we just need to figure out exactly how we're doing this and then make it happen :) We're planning to have a "backyard" area for Josie to play in, and a separate garden area next to it with 8' fencing to attempt to keep the deer out. It's doubtful we'll try to grow anything for harvest this year, but hopefully we'll get the raised beds built and some cover crops going in them, maybe a tree or two planted and some of the slower-to-mature plants in the ground. Then next year we'll probably have a bigger focus on really getting the garden going.

Various finished rooms:

[Josie's room]

[The bonus room/play room]

[Upstairs bathroom]

[Dining room]