Bonfire, Easter, and a finished porch floor!

We've had a fun week here at the house as the weather gets warmer and we're able to be outside more.  Over the weekend we had our annual family bonfire which helped us clean up the majority of the debris that came down from the trees over the winter; on Sunday there was an Easter egg hunt over at the Beehive; and this week our crew has finished the deck of the porch!  They are currently working on the porch steps.  Inside the house, painters stained the trim for the windows and the electricians have moved outlets, fixed a short, and are helping us light the brick arches.  Plumbers put in two new outdoor spigots for hoses.  Eliza has picked a color for her bathroom (Behr - Coral Bells), and the hardwood floor is finished in the family room and kitchen.  Lots of progress on many fronts!



Caleb, Prescott, and Scott lighting one of the bonfires
(Thanks to Annie Bartol for the bonfire photos!)



Hannah and Terry at the edge of a bonfire



Scott roasting hotdogs; Terry holding umbrella!



Bz (far left), Nadia, Jim, and Nick dining on hot dogs
in the 4-car garage



Repainting patio furniture with Prescott's help



Easter egg hunt at the Beehive



Caleb collecting candy



Preparing to put the floor on the porch





Flooring for the porch arrives



Putting trim on the porch



Mahogany boards going on



More boards going on



Porch floor finished and stained!



Starting to build the porch steps



Plumbers' drill



New outdoor spigot (that's what the drill was used for)



Dermot fixing a shorted wire



Jim relocating outlets in Eliza's room



Stained trim for new windows



Work, work and more work

Busy times, as usual around here.  Yesterday (Friday) saw the flooring guys start in on the family room (75% completed yesterday and they started back in at 6:59 this morning), Mike and his usual crew here, and Liam the plumber and 2 of his guys sawing, cutting and moving things around.  We've also had Laura's brother, Prescott, here for a few days doing Herculean work on ourdoor stuff and added to the mix yesterday were Hannah, Terry and BZ--lots of stuff got cleaned up around the property.  Today is cold and rainy but we're going to have the annual family bonfire--given the size of the burn piles they'll probably be able to see the conflagration from outer space!  More on that later..........



Floor tile in the kids' bathrooms



Reframing for new windows at the top
of the stairs on the third floor



Dermot, the electrician, and Liam,
the plumber, working side by side
on the the radiant floor heat
control panel...



The control panel...



Prescott working on jungle next to Elephant
Tree -- cleaning it up!



A beautiful cherry tree



Flooring on the family room!

Chris removing old paint from bricks in the kitchen



Prescott painting trim of
the one-car garage



Nice work by Prescott at the end of the drive!




Small clematis that will climb
up the old sign...



Scott and Terry doing some clean up



Bz and Hannah working on an old lilac



Radiant Floor Heat

This week we've had plumbers here putting in the radiant floor heat for the family room, kitchen, and mudroom.  We had some painters here today priming those same rooms.  And our regular crew has finished the roof over the dining room, taken down old plaster on two hallway walls and put new boards up, and prepared some windows that will be replaced.  Scott put in the final order for all remaining windows and doors -- that was a big job!  (In total, this house has 100+ windows and doors, most of which are being replaced). 



Starting to put down the radiant floor heat...




Progressing across the family room




Liam, the plumber, making more progress




View from the balcony




The other plumber, Dave, laying the "pipes"
in the grooves



Family room is finished!



Chris and Carl removing old plaster from
third floor hallway by main staircase...



Same area with new boards





Caleb standing next to a paint sample

in his bedroom "nook" -- he seems

to like a lot of color...



Look who was in a tree by the
four-car garage!  (Another
great nature shot by Caleb!)



The showers are tiled

Here is a rough progression of the master and kids shower, ending with a tiled shower in each location.

The start of the kids shower from a month or two ago.

Part way along in the shower in the master bathroom.

Mike putting the wonderboard in, which was followed
by the pink waterproofing.

Wonderboard in the kids shower.

The pink waterproofing material in the kids shower.

Same in the master.

Here is the saw which cuts the tiles.

The tiler begins!

The tiler finished--it was a FULL day, pretty much dawn to dusk.

Here is the finished product in the kids shower.

And then the wonderboard went down in their bathroom.

But before the wonderboard went down they cut access
points for the electrical feeds for the radiant floor heating.