Loves It!

If you asked Cocoa if she likes spending time on the property, she would say she LOVES IT! Steve walked from the back of the barn to the front of the barn one day recently and saw this.

There she was - sleeping on the driveway - the picture of contentment. Steve grabbed the camera and snapped some photos. Wait a second. What's that in her mouth?

It's a rawhide chew! Isn't that adorable? She fell asleep with a rawhide chew in her mouth.

Oops! Eyes open now.

She stayed still for a few more shots,

but Steve's 8th photo captured the second she decided she was done with the photo shoot!

All in all, she was a good sport about getting her nap interrupted.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday - Stair Lighting

You get another lighting peek today. The ceiling above the stair landing is angled. A flush mount or semi-flush mount ceiling light would not work there, and wall sconces didn't appeal to me for that particular area. So, I decided to look for an appropriate pendant light. When I saw this one hanging at Menards in Marquette, I fell in love.

It fit the budget, but it was out of stock. They had trimmed quite a bit off the chain on the display model, so it was too short to work in our space. The nice employee at Menards did some checking for me and discovered they had ONE (just one!) on order, and they set it aside for us when it came in. It's now in our barn - waiting for the day it will hang in our new house.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Let There Be Light(s)

Steve is living out on the property from Monday mornings through Saturday evenings lately - working long, hard days on the new house. Meanwhile, the hours/minutes of daylight we experience each day are steadily decreasing, and that was beginning to hinder his evening work. Therefore, he was excited when he had made enough progress on the electrical to do this back on September 11th:

He just flipped the switch, and the lights came on! Look, Mom, it works from the switch on this side of the kitchen, too!

He felt it was one of those watershed moments that had to be captured with photographs.

Those light bulbs are screwed into temporary fixtures on the kitchen ceiling. Have I mentioned that we are no longer going to have a peninsula/breakfast bar extending from the area where Steve is standing in the last photo? The plans call for that, but I was never really that excited about it, as I thought it may make the area between that and the dining table a little too narrow for my taste. When we put paper templates of the kitchen cabinets on the floor, I realized that I do have enough room for a small island instead of the peninsula. That made me very happy. So, the two bare bulbs you see in these photos mark the locations of the two copper pendants that will hang over the island. The third copper pendant will hang over the kitchen sink. We'll also have four recessed lights in the kitchen, and we'll eventually install some under cabinet lighting. 

We already found a nice slab of butcher block on sale for the island counter top. Since we'll have lots of wood in this house, I will probably have Steve build the island out of maple or pine instead of the black walnut we're going to use for the other kitchen cabinets. Then, I'll paint it - not sure what color yet, though. The possibilities are endless!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Insulation Epilogue

I mentioned in a previous post that the spray foam insulation made the house feel different as far as temperature was concerned. However, the insulation also made the house feel different in another way. It seemed to give more definition to the rooms - maybe because the walls feel more solid. When the interior walls were first framed, the rooms felt smaller to us. Now, it seems like the rooms have transformed into larger spaces - even though the interior walls are still open. Strange, huh? The ever-morphing house! Of course, the white color of the spray foam on the exterior walls probably has something to do with that larger feeling, too. 

After the insulation mess was cleaned up, Steve took some more photos for us. Here's a shot from the kitchen looking into the dining area.

The next photo shows a window in the dining area and the window above the kitchen sink.

Next: Looking from the dining area - through the great room - and into the master bedroom.

The doorway to the basement, the stairs leading to the loft and the front door/foyer area.

Looking from the great room into the master bedroom.

The big master bedroom closet - love it!

From the master bedroom - through the great room - and into the dining area.

Moving up to the loft, here's the view into the guest bedroom (above the master bedroom).

Next, another shot of the same guest bedroom.

Now he's standing near the doorway of the previous guest bedroom - looking toward the other guest bedroom (above the kitchen). The guest bathroom doorway is on the right.

From the same area - but looking down into the great room.

Lastly, looking through the wall into the guest bathroom.

It's getting really exciting now, as Steve has started some of the tongue and groove pine installation on the walls. Watch for photos of that in an upcoming post! (I know. I'm a tease.) 

Gotta check on some flooring for the guest bathroom today, and I'll be going out to the property again this afternoon - doing the last of the work on the project I've been working on for the new house.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Insulation Installation

Well, a migraine ended up sending me back to bed yesterday and completely derailed my plans/life for the day. Hate it when that happens. My head is still sort of in La-La Land today, but I wanted to get this posted for you. I already had the photos chosen, edited and watermarked, so I just needed to get them on the blog with a little text about the insulation.

The crew from Superior Polymer arrived on a foggy morning with their truck.

They pulled the hose into the house

and went to work.

Most of you have probably seen how this spray foam works on TV. They spray it on and it expands to fill the corners and crevices. They did the walls first.

Then, the crew started trimming the foam to make it flush with the studs.

There's lots of waste.

The guys said if anyone can ever figure out what to do with all the leftover material, they could be rich.

 

After the 1st floor walls were finished, they continued on to the remaining exterior walls and rafters.

Here's a shot of the ceiling in the Great Room.

Here's the ceiling in the loft.

 

You can see the shower in the 2nd floor bathroom in the following photo - covered in protective plastic. The crew shot spray foam between the shower wall and the exterior wall of the house, so that area is also insulated well.

Here's one final shot of the loft area - looking past the bathroom on the right and into one of the guest bedrooms.

We could immediately feel the difference in the house. It's cooler on warm days and warmer on cool days - probably the smartest money we spent on the entire project.

Another one of the projects that Steve was working on during the time the insulation crew was in the house was a new home for Cocoa.

Her home is well insulated, too.

We put aside some pieces of siding and some roof shingles, so her home will match our home. So far, she approves.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday

Wow! I've had a busy week. Besides working in our Calumet basement on something going into the new house, I went out to the property to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority of my day yesterday was spent running errands. I'm going out to the property to work again today, but I'll really try to finish another post about the spray foam insulation tomorrow. 

In the meantime, here's a peek at another little change at the new house. This is how our front porch has looked for a long time.

If you look closely at the front porch in that photo, you'll see a sheet of OSB that was used as temporary decking. It wasn't nailed down; it was just sitting there. When the crew was inside working on the spray foam, Steve used a bit of that time to do this.

He installed the real decking. Ignore the coffee break chair. Oh, also ignore that extra board you can see in the next photo - sitting on top near the front edge. The ends of the decking boards haven't been trimmed yet either, but that should happen in the next week or two - along with the construction of the front steps. 

We have cedar to wrap the posts, and Steve will install wood on the peaked "ceiling" of the porch. Staining and railings are also obviously a necessity, but those things may have to wait until next summer. Cocoa approves of the new decking. She likes to relax out there when the front door is open.

I wish I had a better photo of our "Hamilton" door mat. Carrie made it for us quite a few years ago, but she intended it for the new house. It finally made it!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Breaktime

I had intended to blog more about the spray foam insulation today, but other things interfered with my schedule. It's breaktime at the moment, so I thought I should explain.

There's a gentleman who lives nearby who sets up a produce stand about 3 miles from our Calumet house. We've been stopping to purchase tomatoes, zucchini and apples for the last few weeks. However, Steve decided to take a chance on the sweet corn on Saturday, and we enjoyed it for dinner on Saturday and Sunday. It was fantastic! When you find a good local source of sweet corn, you have to buy more to freeze. Right? So, guess what I've been doing today?

OK, the corn wasn't on the original schedule today, but something else was. I've been working on a project for the new house in the Calumet basement tonight, but I won't share it with you just yet. Breaktime is over!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.