Oh, how humbling...

Remember when Jesse and I spent weeks... literally weeks laying block for the master suite?

 The masons came down last week and completed a 3 block wide retaining wall, stairs and outlined the porch section in ONE day.

one day.

Now we know for the future... don't waste your time trying to do it yourself!!  It is not worth it!

The excavators came today to backfull around the retaining wall and porch as well as fill the porch with stone so we can pour a slab and eventually lay brick.  I am excited about our back porch!  We got some old brick that was just laying around in the Stoltzfus' barn that we are going to lay in a herringbone pattern.  I am dreaming of lazy evenings sitting on the porch, drinking meadow tea, reading and watching Cedar run around the yard.

 This week felt like another productive week for us.  We finished building the interior, upstairs walls.

 Along with Mike and Ben's help, Jesse placed some of the exposed oak beams in the mastersuite and kitchen ceiling.

 Thatcher and Oliver came over to help pick up wood scraps and dump them on the trash pile.

 Jesse made a few scarf joints in the oak beams for the porch,

as well as started to hand chisel the chamfers on the porch posts.

This week Jesse and I also completed a big hurdle and decided on our exterior colors!  Jesse really wanted orange shutters, but I didn't think I would swing that... so we went a little more neutral.  We are thinking lots of white and cream with Cedar shakes (and compromised on an orange door!!).  Can't wait to see it in real life!

Last weekend we scored big time at a local plumbing supply store that was having a yard sale to sell some of their showroom pieces.  The deals were so good we felt like we were robbing the place!  We got a copper sink for the powder room, some faucets, and some towel rack misc items for the bathrooms.  We also found out about a local foundry that is going to melt some old iron window weights that we salvaged from a previous LongView job, and turn it into our porch post anchors.

I have continued to paint... and paint... and paint... the soffit and fascia in the barn so it will be ready to put up when the porch is done. Thank you Janelle and Rachel for your awesome help in making the monotonous job more enjoyable for me!