Up on the Housetop. . .

             . . .and just in time for Santa because we now have shingles on the roof!

But not so fast, Mr. Claus. . .even though this house has shingles on the roof and two fireplaces, it has no chimney.  So I guess you'll just have to use the new front door. Its 8 feet tall and pretty wide for all those goodies in your bag.

(Unfortunately, Santa still needs to be careful because the porch has yet to be built.)

But  at least Santa will have no trouble finding us because we have the only gray house on The Ridge. Most of the homes are all done is darker colors or all brick.

     Speaking of gray, can you tell which shade of gray we decided to paint the house by these photos?  Just in case you can't tell. . .it was number two! It was the one in the middle that had the green undertones. That was H's first and only choice from the three color choices and after I saw it with the stone and bricks, I pretty much had to agree with him.  Most people who voiced an opinion, went with number one (it had the brown undertones).  Hope you are not disappointed, we certainly aren't! The areas on the house that are not painted, like the front and side of the garage, will be all stone.  Most of the brick work is on the back side facing the lake. See the coupla sitting on top of garage? The copper roof is still being constructed.

     With the roof shingled and all the doors and windows in, we are officially "dried in" as the builder would say.  The insulation is in the walls and the drywall is in each room waiting to be installed.  The hold up right now is the Audio-Visual man who H met with, and decided on what, where, and how all the electronics would be. He is also doing all the security work on the house.  All his work needs to be done before the drywall is installed. He was supposed to start work this past week while we were in Atlanta, but so far he hasn't been there.  Wonder if the below freezing weather has had anything to do with it? Meanwhile, this is what things look like inside.

      It is now a lot easier to start seeing room sizes.  The insulation helps to close in the room so you are not  looking throught the framework and getting a false reading on the room size. 

      The electrician has finally finished his first part.  As I said in an earlier post, we added more recessed lights and ceiling fans after going through the house with him. The orginial house plan called for about 50 recessed lights, the electrician said the most he had  ever put in a house was about 80. . . our house has 109!  If you are gonna want more light, this is the time to do it, I guess. The kitchen alone has 12 plus the three pendants over the island, not to mention the under cabinet lighing. . . guess we could always use the kitchen for an operating room!  We also added five more ceiling fans for the deck, terrace and the Croft which were not in the plans. 

    The weather should warm up on Thursday and hopefully building can resume. . . it is just too cold outside for the subs to use their hands for any detail work. The only problem with warm weather coming in, it brings the rain.  (I know, I know that we left Northern Virginia because of the freezing weather, rain, sleet and snow during this time of year. . . but, the big difference here is this will go away in a day or two and warm up again, she says hopefully.)  But at least they can get the drywall up on the inside and stay dry.

    We still can't believe how fast things are going and will be more surprised how fast three months will fly  by in the new year, if, in fact we can move in somethime in March!

     We are now deciding on the stone work for the retaining wall that separates the terrace area and the grassy area that leads down to the boathouse.  Our choices are:

 OR     

     One has more gray, the other has more brown. This has got to be a lot easier to pick out than the stone for the house was!

     This may be my last post before Christmas because of the weather and what may or may not get done at the house before the Christmas break. H and I will travel to Memphis to celebrate Christmas with H's mother, and Rosanne and her family.  Liz and Jarrett are traveling to Austin, Texas to celebrate with his parents and his brother and family. H and I were able to exchange gifts with them while in Atlanta last week. Since they were going away, they decided not to put up a tree and decorate their home as elaborate as last year. But it is Christmas time, and one needs a tree to put the gifts under. 

A tribute to "A Charlie Brown's Christmas"



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     We loved it and the special time shared with them and  our "granddogger", Savannah. She's thanking Papa for her new Virginia Tech collar we gave her! Go Hokies!

   So in case I don't send another post, Merry Christmas and Much Happines in the New Year from the both of us here at the homesweetalabamablogspot!