The photo is not all the fancy, perhaps, but it is very nice to have second-floor access. As soon as the stairs were finished, I scampered up to take a look. (OK, in my state, I don't scamper. I waddle, or perhaps lumber. But I mentally scampered, anyhow.)
The stairs are all in place now, though as I mentioned before, there's still a lot of detail work to do on them. But the view from the front door looks pretty nice, don't you think?The soapstone wood stove will fit inside the "L" the stairs make, so you'll see that from the front door, too. It will make a nice focal point for the house, especially considering all the light that should fall on it from the skylight above and the big windows on the south.
Here's a view of the stairs from above. It's really nice that the decking on the stairs will match the flooring on the second floor. (They aren't the same color now because the boards used on the second floor have yet to be sanded on the top side.)
The east bedroom will eventually go here, but that won't be for a while yet. For now, the upstairs will be a storage/office/play area, while we do most of our living downstairs. Making the downstairs rooms livable will be our first priority.
Mary and Sofia also came up for a look out the skylights.They also discovered that they can drop scraps of wood down through the knotholes ... right into what will be our bedroom. Hmph. We'll have to work on something to block those knotholes.
Perhaps a well-placed canning jar lid:
This is that board I mentioned in yesterday's post. Nothing fancy, but it's got some granary charm to it, I think.Dave also found another board with Dad's handwriting on it:
It's a little tough to make out, but it says "64 oats" with an arrow pointing up to a line. Dave put it in a spot where we will be able to see it, if we go looking for it -- under the stairs where the pantry will be. Unfortunately, the arrow doesn't show up where it ended up, but we know what it says, anyway.
Here's where the pantry will be. There will be a door set back just a little ways from the post on the right. The pantry will extend back about to where the second set of studs are in the photo, and the area behind the pantry, until the landing, will be accessible from the bedroom. We're considering making that area into cedar-lined linen storage.It's not a huge pantry, but I think if we line it with shelves in an L shape -- just along the north wall and the back west wall -- we'll still be able to access everything in there and make good use of the space.
We've got another plan for the space under the landing. That will be accessed with a door on the west side, and the plan is to make that a little cubby hole for the kids' toys. Or the kids themselves can crawl in there. Either way, it's their space.
... We had a new "supervisor" on the job today.After running through the artesian pond, getting herself wet and muddy in the process, Blue decided to come in and plop herself down in the new house. We've got to work on that coyote-removal plan!
Blue came back later, too, when Don and Dave were working on installing the window on the north side. That might have been the fault of us women folk, as Blue apparently doesn't like the fireworks we were shooting off and came in for sanctuary, as you can tell from the photo:
That north window is now nearly in place. The bugs started biting too badly for them to finish, but they can get it done fairly quickly in the morning.
This window was one of our auction buys. It's a cute little window with those grids. It doesn't open, but there are two windows in the room, and the west window does open. That will hopefully provide enough ventilation.
Here's a closer look at the view to the north. Don't comment on the tall grass back there -- it's not our backyard yet, and at the moment, mowing back there is not very high on our priority list!... I survived another hot July day, which, despite my sweat arguing to the contrary, did not quite hit 90. It's forecast to be 89 tomorrow. I think I hear the swimming pool beckoning.
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