Well, we now have less than a week until we make our final trip across country for the foreseeable future. This trip comes with mixed pain and pleasure, as we are excited to settle in our new home and see all of our friends again, but are sad to leave the east coast where all of our family is and to leave our barn in a partially unfinished state. We are working hard, though!
Since out last update, quite a bit has been accomplished. The most notable and exciting is the installation of our cabinets by our carpenter, John. He did a fantastic job, and the kitchen is starting to acquire a 'kitchen-y' feel. It is still a little empty without appliances, but we will soon remedy that problem once we finish the floors. There will be little cubbies above the shorter upper cabinets, so imagine small, lighted and tastefully decorated spaces where you currently see empty spaces.
Also high on the list of accomplishments is the staircase. It is yet to be stained, but John installed treads, risers, handrails, newel posts, balusters and trim. It looks amazing! The balusters that you see are the ones Grandma purchased for us, and I love the wrought iron look. The swirly pattern in the center is called a 'basket' and really completes the look, giving it a very fashionable look but still keeping it rustic.
The hardwood floors are completely installed, and we have just finished most of the sanding required before we can stain. After a great deal of trouble, we were able to sand them down enough that all the grade marks (the wood is cabin grade or grade '3', so each board had a little '3' marked on it in wax pencil) are gone. The biggest sign of our progress this last week is the tile. We have finished tiling the bathroom floor and the shower walls, and both await grout. We are almost done with the kitchen tile(the heating blanket is to keep the floor warm, it is below freezing many nights here), but in true McGehee fashion we came up about 10 tiles short, so we will have to make a Lowe's run tomorrow to pick up another box. We also started to lay slate in the corner where our wood stove will sit, I am especially looking forward to seeing that finished as the slate will sit in a small area we cut out of the hardwood floor, under the stairs in the triangular area, and about eight feet up the wall. It'll look amazing!
One of the biggest, most time consuming, and most daunting tasks we have before us is painting the exterior. About eight years ago when we first built the barn, we stained it with a weathered barnwood color. It gave it a grayish, old look which was great for the many years it sat without attention, but now we are seeing the need for something different. So, we bought a very, very high quality exterior polymerized paint. It is so thick, that we have to hand-paint the whole house. Yuck! It is especially difficult because the highest wall is about thirty feet high, and with our 28' extension ladder we can only barely reach, even standing on the second or third rung from the top. The entire process has taken a long time and we have had to do a lot of pressure washing to remove old stain, priming (which, thankfully, we were able to do with our paint sprayer) and repainting. The primary color is 'English Tea', a gray color, and the trim is an off-white color(I'm not sure exactly what color it is, Chelsey says I'm color-blind). The very light color you see is the primer. It is coming along slowly, but Lord willing we will get it done before we leave!
On a very positive note, Chelsey and I are wrapping up several of our classes this semester this week. All of our classes were 12 week courses, so we are able to finish up our A12 classes this weekend, and our B12 classes in about another four weeks. That is a huge sigh of relief! It has been difficult to juggle school and working as much as possible on the barn, but we have now completed most of the task, and with flying colors, too!
Well, writing has been fun, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading. We promise to update often our adventures in Colorado, surely to include great amounts of school, skiing, and other interesting activities! Now, to figure out how to post pictures to the blog. If you see them, then you'll know I figured it out...
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