progress at the land

End of the driveway lean-to is complete:

A cedar post and chain gateway. It's nice to have some security, since we don't yet live there. I've been really enjoying searching through the forest for fallen cedar trees, and harvesting them for things like these posts. There are so many, and they're all beautiful. The most exciting project in the near project is a cedar dock on the pond, utilizing a lot of the funkier/livelier posts.

Got the roof on the pottery studio - the rest of it probably won't happen for a little while, but it feels protected enough now to sit:

The septic system is complete. That was terribly expensive, and we have found it depressing and frustrating that you HAVE to have a septic to be allowed to have a permitted home. I'd much rather design and install a greywater system, in partnership with a composting toilet (both of which we intend to do), and just eliminate the need for the septic system.

The most exciting news of the past week.... GROUND-BREAKING for our home! It doesn't look very exciting - just holes for the pier footings. But to see it starting to be realized is an emotional high like no other.

rebar in the footings...

I need to pour the footings, and then set these pier forms onto the footings and pour the piers...

And another little shed that will be a temporary kitchen, and long-term wood storage. Two of the walls are just stacked pallets (which will eventually get board-and-batten siding). Pallets are a good resource with which to build quickly and inexpensively.

blue blue blue!

The cottage "makeover" is almost complete, aside from deciding on what to do with the floor (tile, I'm guessing). The client chose a Sky Blue pigment for the interior lime milk paint, and it ended up changing the look and feel of the place quite a bit! I must say I miss the earth tones, and would prefer a yellow or reddish pigment if it were my own building, but it has been neat to see this building that I know so well transformed and vaulted into its next stage of life (I hope that in 10 years I can re-visit the site, and do another week of maintenance).

I'm am quite pleased with how the exterior maintenance turned out. I think the cottage looks great in white:

A creature!

The interior stonework around the woodstove had looked shabby ever since we finished the building - the stones never got properly cleaned off, and they ended up getting grouted with a clay mixture to seal up cracks during the winter... they just weren't looking very grand, as they had when they were originally stacked. So they got cleaned up, the grout lines were painted with the milk paint to cut down the dustiness, and then the whole area was sealed with a stone sealer. Now they look fresher and have a more deep, saturated look. A satisfying update!

I finally installed a desk, after 4 years of needing to - I didn't get any good shots because of how harsh the light was at the time of day that I had my camera out.