Windows, doors and roofing

Colonial Slate roofing shingles, windows and front door. Click on photos to enlarge.

View from NW. Only a door will be on N side of cottage. Small deck will be at door. Wrap-around deck will go across back of cottage under kitchen window one day.

Our favorite view of cottage is from S. Huge picture window, bathroom, porch, kitchen, loft, basement windows, and double doors at walk-out are all in.

Porch will be living room and where dogs and bird will be housed. Window to right part of country kitchen. Siding and through-the-wall AC visible in photo.

Picture window from inside of cottage.

Sleeping loft. Framed-in area is half bath. Windows are on knee wall. Sitting in a chair, you can look out windows and see lake.

Basement will be family room/wine-making area. Will also be wine cellar. Home theatre system will be here. Double doors leading to walk-out and one of windows are shown. Framed in area is utility room. Washer, dryer, water softener, hot water heater, pre-filter system, pressure tank, sump pump, reverse-osmosis system will be in there. Basement will be themed and finished later.

View from kitchen window of sun setting over Timber Lake.

Vent free gas fireplace. Ours will be dark brown ceramic.

Met yesterday with Rex to discuss plumbing and electrical issues - what goes where, placement of electrical boxes, where to turn on which lights, etc. Told him Bonnie had purchased a vent free gas fireplace. Let's see if we can upload a photo of it. Yep, got it. This fireplace will have a remote to turn it on and off and will work w/o electricity. It should heat the entire house if we have the ceiling fan in the country kitchen pushing the warm air down. This is really a nifty little unit that Kathy really loves.

Kathy is making arrangements with Rex's cousin, Andy, to deliver a 500 gal. LP gas tank. The fireplace and cooking stove will be LP gas and we are hoping to take advantage of the lower gas prices right now to get the tank filled. We are also hoping to only have to fill the tank once a year. It will depend on how much we use the fireplace to heat the cottage. Right now it would be cheaper to heat with it as opposed to the Hydro-sil baseboard heat we are going to have installed. (They have silicon running through their tubing as opposed to water.) Here is some info on these heaters:

Inside the heater case is a sealed copper chamber filled with a harmless silicone liquid that will never spill, leak, boil or freeze. It’s permanent. You will never run out. Running through the liquid is a proportional watt hydroelectric element that is only being supplied a proportional amount of power on an as-needed basis. When Hydro-Sil is turned on, the silicone liquid is quickly heated, and with its heat retention qualities, continues to heat after the Hydro element shuts off.

Bonnie ordered the cement siding for the porch and got the whitewash brick that we both liked. That will add some interest to the house. Maybe we can upload a photo of that. Let's see. This will go below the front door, on the three sides of the porch. There will be access at both ends of the porch so that we can store garden tools, hoses, etc., in the space under the porch. We will need to level the dirt under the porch in the spring, put down a vapor barrier, and then put down some stone. Sounds like a project for Kathy. And speaking of hoses, it was decided yesterday to put an outside faucet on the N side of the house near the garden, another near the walkout basement, and a freeze-proof pump near the vineyard.

Fiber cement siding - whitewash- by Nichiha.

We need to purchase the vent fans for the bathroom, the ceiling fan (52") for the country kitchen, the outside lights and interior lighting. Also need sinks and toilets. Guess what we will be doing this weekend? We both hate picking these things out.

Bonnie is getting estimates for insulation and may have made a decision about that. After Rex is done roughing in the electric and plumbing and it has passed inspection, the insulation will be next. This will give Mike, Ryan and Adam a breather. They put the windows in earlier this week on a day that it rained all day. They had to take extra clothes to change into. Then Mike had Ryan and Adam roofing yesterday. Felt sorry for the boys on the roof in such cold weather. Had to take advantage of a day it was above freezing. Mike was concerned the shingles would break if he roofed on a colder day.

No well yet. No septic tank. Still too muddy to put in the tank. Don't know what the delay is with the well.

The dishwasher will be delivered next week. We will pick up the water heater, reverse-osmosis system and microwave next week and deliver them ourselves to the cottage. The water heater could be a trick and we aren't certain how we will get that in a car or if it is even possible to get it to fit. May have to ask for help or rent a vehicle.

Bonnie's new HD TV is incredible. We are currently using only a small inside antenna and get quite a few channels. The HD channels are excellent quality. We will eventually put up a tower so we can bring in more free stations. In the meantime, as promised, AT&T has brought 3G to our area which includes the farm. We have the service but do not use it. It will be our internet when we move and we need to figure out how we can run two computers on one card at the same time. Another job for Kathy.

Still need to get John Battershell to the farm to measure for the cabinets. Haven't ordered flooring yet either. So much more to do.

People still drive by the cottage slowly, sometimes stopping, to have a look-see. Haven't seen Denny and Barb for a while. Must stop down this weekend to see how they are and check up on that new grandbaby!