River Camp Dock

Here's a picture of a floating dock we built for the river camp. 8'x8', will see how well it works as the water levels change.

Alpaca Shearing

Alpacas were sheared yesterday, took just a bit over an hour! No
spitting and not much crying. Matt Best did the shearing again for us
this year and all went well. It's a cold week here with temps in the
30's at night so put coats on the boys when we shut the barn for the night.

Salt & Pepper Box

Donna wanted a Salt &  Pepper box to set by the stove- made this one up
on the CNC machine. The lids are walnut from a neighbor's property and
the box body is oak from our house in Leesburg.

Cheese Press

Made a cheese press and made our first cheese. It's a farmhouse cheddar
that will need to age for about 45-60 days before it's ready.

Drywall Plaster Started

First coat of drywall mud and tape has been applied- will put on
additional coats over the next few days. After the plaster is done,
we'll install all the interior trim and hang the doors before getting in
the paint crew.

Drywall Hung

The drywall was hung in the new house over the Easter weekend. A husband
and wife team did the work over two long days.

House Exterior

Here are some pictures of the outside of the house which is all
completed except for the garage doors which hopefully will be installed
next week.

House Basement

A lot of work has been completed on the house, not as many pictures!
These are shots of the basement and garage area. Well pumps and pressure
tanks are installed and the main electric panel is wired. Most of the
HVAC is done and the rest should be completed in the next week or so.

Interior Framing and Electric

Lots of progress last week on the house. Interior walls are completed
and 90% of the rough in electric wiring. Most of the wires are in as
well. Plumbers are due here on Monday if the weather cooperates to start
the rough in plumbing. Here are some pictures including the front door
and bay window- these won't be installed until the front concrete porch
is poured so they don't get splashed with concrete.

Smoked Salmon

We bought a smoker and have been enjoying ourselves. It's a Bradley
Digital 4 Rack unit. Used small pucks made from sawdust in various wood
types for the smoke generation. Everything has been great so far, last
night, we smoked a salmon fillet. Great flavor, very flaky and stayed moist.

Metal Roof Installed

Our contractors installed the metal roof for the house last week. Here
are some shots as they worked.

Kitchenette Cabinets Completed

Finished up the cabinets for the kitchenette next to the theater room.
Finished and installed the wine & glass rack this morning. It was a fun
project!

Kitchenette Nearly Done

Grouted the tile and installed the sink in the kitchenette- moved the
popcorn machine and fridge back in so ready to use! Still have a wall
rack to make and going to add a door to the one cabinet that is
currently open. Don't like the look of the open cabinet. Here's a picture.

Kitchenette Tile

Got the tile on the counter top for the theater kitchenette, room is
almost usable again.

House Backfill

Excavator was able to get the backfill around the house completed
yesterday. Came out better than expected. Will have a nice driveway and
will also have access across the back of the house to the road so we
won't have to have such a large area to turn a car around in the yard. Here
are some pictures. First one shows how I had to clear out the snow that we
had shoveled out of the house in to the basement hole- needed to be cleared out
to put down the final gravel and make sure it didn't settle when the 5 foot high
pile of snow melted. I did cheat a bit and got my small backhoe in there to remove
most of the snow and just had to finish with a shovel.

Front view

Easy access to yard from front porch

Easy access to garage

Cabinets Installed in Kitchenette

Cabinets mounted in the basement kitchen area next to theater. Seem to
fit okay, just have some final trim work, installing the sink and
plumbing connections, and then a counter top to finish. Need to get some
handles for the drawers in the cabinets as well. Most likely will make
the counter top from tile as I have a bit of this from previous
projects that should work.

Truss View from Inside House

Here are a couple of pictures from inside the house once the trusses
were set. Hard to recognize anything but this is looking from the back
sliding glass door in towards the kitchen/stairwell.

 

A lot of wood!

Trusses Set on House

Got a break in the weather today and we were able to get a crane in to set
the trusses on the house. Job went smoothly, only took about 3 hours to
get them all in place. Temperature started about 9 degrees but had warmed to 35
by mid day.

We used the same local crane company, D & B, that we used when we did the
guest cabin.