First night on board!

Greetings on Memorial weekend to everyone! Giving a few thoughts to the men and women of the generations before us who personally sacrificed for what we as a nation hold dear.  And thinking of the new young American men and women around the world on the front lines tonight,...thank you for your commitment.  Driving from McLean to Lake Anna, we pass through two major battlefields of the US Civil War (Chancellorsville and Wilderness) and I always reflect on the courage of both sides, while dreading the cost in huge battle casualties (Wilderness: US killed & wounded - 18,000, Confederate killed & wounded, 10,800).  Just some memorials on this day...

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So, we are moved in, having spent the Memorial weekend at the house!  Kinda like luxury camping while we figure out what we need and what we forgot that a brand new house needs. Continuing to wrap up the details of the house finishing and the grounds refinement.  We were rained out last week on gravel delivery for the driveway, so hoping for gravel and hydro-seeding this week...

First time seeing the house at night.  The 17-year cicadas are incessant during the day with the droning squeal, but fortunately calm down at night.

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Camille getting in some early evening archery practice with her recurve on the future front lawn...she's very good, I don't recommend crossing her.

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We pulled "Phantom", our Jet 14 sailboat (built the same year as me, 1967) out of the winter underbrush.  Here, after a wash down, she is poised to enter her new protective home in the basement.

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A view of the "boathouse" basement.  This side of the basement will eventually be the workshop and tractor area, with the boats moving to the other side of the basement once we get the other double-doors installed.

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We are turning-to on the bedroom paintings in order to get the carpet installs underway.

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Next: landscaping & driveway

Phase I almost complete!

With the interior fairly complete (Phase I), our minds have turned to the surrounding grounds.  We received our Certificate of Occupancy last week, but unfortunately could not spend the weekend at the house due to Jenny's and Camille's commitments.  Just a few items to finish up inside the house: stove vent, stove backsplash, a repair to a chipped master bath sink.  Roof gutter and downspouts should be scheduled for next week.  Jenny, Camille and I are painting bedroom doors and trim so that we can call in the carpet people for the three bedrooms.  Outside, Ed Benes directed Randy the excavator on the final grading all around the house and we should be ready for gravel to finish the driveway base.  With that set, we'll schedule in the hydro-seeder to try and set a lawn for erosion control and basis for future landscaping. Not a lot of details to show this week, but some outside shots:

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The two back house corners with the steeper slope are the areas of concern.  Some future landscape walls may be needed to best control runoff and ease of maintenance.  We also have a plan for water barrels fed from the downspouts, at these corners.

Here's the front view as of Friday with some initial driveway stakes in place.

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And here is a photoshop version of the image above, showing final driveway layout and initial lawns.

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Approaching the finish line...

One of my favorite movies is "Little Big Man" with Dustin Hoffman.  And in the last few weeks of this house construction project, 'little-big' is the name of the game:  some things are big and appear little, and some things are little but appear big.  We're not down to the details, we're inside the details.  Now that I've confused you, let's recap the past two week's progress:

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Hickory floors were sanded and natural stained several times, resulting in a great depth and warmth both on the floors and stairs.

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The fireplace stone received a final grouting. Jenny requested a warmer grout that really matched well with the veneer stone.  The cedar mantel and supporting cedar corbels are in place as well.  And above, the great room fan is installed and operational.

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Kitchen: Practically done, appliances in place and hooked up, cooking with gas!  Island footing area to be worked, IKEA provided wood toekicks with the stainless steel cabinets, can do better we think!

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Stove double-oven in place.  Exhaust hood in place but will be vented outside.  Stainless steel backsplash will be added on the wall between stove and hood.

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Screened porch, now screened!

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We wanted to go with typical frame-type screened doors for the front and back but all the Home Depot reviews were horrid, so we selected storm doors with screen panels, I don't think it detracts from the look and its definitely more solid.

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1st Floor guest bath.

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2nd Floor guest bath. Picture mirror is on the way to complete...the picture.

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2nd Floor guest bath shower details.

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Cabin room, we love this room, great light!

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Master bath shower area, rain shower head overhead.

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Master bath tub area.  Tub deck toward the back. Shower area to the right. Circle window on the left.

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Front view after final trim painting.  Next up:  driveway improvements and hydro-seeding of the dirt areas.  Final inspection scheduled for this week, looking forward to spending days there instead of hours....

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