UPDATE: New posts to come

Susi and me in Santa Elena, Yucatán, Mexico in March.

The past five months have been a whirlwind. One of the casualties has been this blog. I can't say that I am certain I will continue forever, but as long as there is work being done on the house I will make occasional posts. The fact that there haven't been any posts is indicative of the pace that work has been progressing here. Since we moved in (late November) work has slowed to a crawl. This has been a mixed blessing. Up until the move-in date I was practically killing myself working on the house to get it ready: lots of long weekends and late nights (see this post for example. Of course I had help, too, from family and friends.) The result was that when we DID finally move in the house was done ENOUGH that we could live comfortably in a state of incompletion. The down side was that once we moved in I could no longer work nights (kids tend to wake up when you run power tools...) and the mortgage payments kicked in, necessitating Susi getting back to work on available "free days" like weekends and my holidays. So I pick away at jobs as I can, trying not to stress too much about the details.

Here is a summary of what I have been able to accomplish in the five months or so that we have been living at BHB:
- hang all interior sliding doors and pocket doors (they still lack finish and hardware...)
- finish laying all floors: slate tile in entry way and front hall, kids' bathroom/WC, wood floor downstairs hallway, guest loft (I still have to get the coin-grip rubber flooring down in the laundry room).
- sand and finish all wood floors and stairs/railings
- build top for fireplace/wall in living area
- build office (rough, but functional at this point)
- continue to sheathe over the OSB panels with barn board (I'm REALLY getting sick of this job; and I am not even half way)

We are now trying to figure out what to do about the outside. It's currently a mud pit and looks awful. We have little money to spend, but really have to address the issue. We have long-term plans for landscaping which we cannot afford to implement at this time so we will probably just try to get some grass growing to hold everything together, give the kids a place to run around, and keep the neighbors from petitioning for our expulsion from the 'hood! I think we are close to moving on this; I will post some pictures when we do.

Overall, we are so pleased with how everything is turning out (everything save the debt, that is...) The kids are really happy here and are rapidly developing a neighborhood gang of children who love spending time together (outside!) There are kids all over the place, and some for every age range from 9-10 year olds down to 2 year olds. Everyone has a buddy. Happy kids=happy parents, right? As for the house, it has exceeded our expectations on every level. We had our architect Noah of Jasonoah Design-Build to the house this weekend for his first visit since we moved in. It was really rewarding to walk around with him and explain all the ways in which the space he and his partner Jason designed for us WORKS. And it really does. The house is comfortable, spacious but not big, relatively easy to keep neat and clean, and is just a beautiful space to live in. Sure there are some bugs to work out still, but even in it's unfinished state it is a pleasure to live in. All in all, we are very, very pleased.

So, those within driving distance, we are still planning on inviting you for an open house one of these days. No, we're not waiting until the house is "done", life just seems to get in the way. At this point I think we are shooting for the end of school, late May, early June. Once we land on a date, I will send out invitations. But don't feel you need to wait till then; we love hosting and showing people around, so give us a call and come on by. The barn door's always open for friends and family.

More to come soon...