One year ago today

Wow! One year ago today we bought the property. 

Here is a picture of the build site from that weekend:

Much has changed since then.  The site above now has about 28 yards of cement in frost walls for the house and garage. 

For a close-up look, here is the outline of the kitchen bump out, taken about a week ago:

And the area now, with the frost walls up:

This is an up-close shot of the two-car garage foundation.  We'll be putting in a smaller tractor garage later.

Sinks and Wood Boiler

We have found the perfect kitchen sink!  It is a stainless steel Kraus farmhouse sink/faucet combination -- what a monster of a basin!  The countertop in the picture below is very close to the color we'll have.

 

For the bathrooms, we'll also go with Kraus sinks and faucets but have chosen a Black Glass Vessel sink that will sit on top of the vanity, thus raising the sink a bit higher.

At long last, for those who have been wondering what an outdoor wood boiler looks like:

This will be used to heat water that will flow through our radiant wood floor system and also heat the hot water tank (for showers, laundry, etc.).  This will significantly reduce our dependency on electricity and will eliminate the need for an oil or propane tank.  More about the particulars of the wood boiler to come.

Earthquake rumblings

We just felt a rumble from the 4.0 (corrected 10/17 per updated info from USGS) magnitude Earthquake just west of Hollis Center, Maine which is about 85 miles SW from us.   The US Geological Survey has a great website www.earthquake.usgs.gov that has real-time earthquake info.  We guessed what it was a couple of minutes before the website content was updated and confirmed our suspicion.  Fortunately our house will be built on ledge which will reduce the potential for impact from such rumblings.

Foundation beginnings

Here are results from the first week of construction work.  The first picture shows the footprint of the house (the rectangle in the distance).  We have a nice base of ledge below where they dug out the house area.  The excavator told us that the house isn't going to go anywhere, thanks to all the good rock underneath. 

The pink line shows the kitchen bump out.  This will give us extra space and sunlight in that important room.  The bump out is about 9'x2.5'.  This will be where the kitchen sink looks out to the southeast.

Concrete footers are next up on the schedule.

Yellow Birch (betula alleghaniensis)

Paper birches are more common on the property than their cousin, yellow birch.  However, the yellow birch has many excellent virtues.  Like paper birch, yellow birch has peeling bark that's shiny.  When young, yellow birch bark has nearly a bronze color.  Later, the color becomes yellowish and silver in spots.

Yellow birch is more hardy than the delicate paper birch.  Its wood is harder, too.  Yellow birch is a great fuel wood.  One of the best things to start a fire with in all of nature is bark from the birches. 

Below is a yellow birch picture, taken in June.  The sun helps to see the interesting color on the bark.

Plans include putting lots of yellow birch seed into a cleared area that was recently brush cut.  The birches are prolific seed trees.  They have to be, since most of the very small seeds don't germinate successfully.

Yellow birch, a great resident of Hardwood Hermitage.

Excavation has begun

A big jack and an excavator were working on the property today.  They were digging out the area for the house and the garage.  The piles of rocks are truly amazing! We love the Granite State!

Our floor plan is done! 

Stihl 362C-Q does the job

Sunday was our first day working with our new, really powerful chainsaw, the Stihl MS362 C-Q.  Our old Stihl chainsaw is now affectionately referred to as PeeWee.  The much bigger saw cut through big logs without much effort at all.  We now have lots of 2' or 3' birch, maple, and some oak pieces cut and stacked.  We'll cut them shorter and split them later.

It's a lot of work, but very gratifying.  But if you've worked with a chainsaw, it's good to always remain on alert for kickback, uneven ground, or other hazards.  It's not a tool to be taken lightly.  That's why we bought protective chaps made of Kevlar.  It's like wrapping your lower body in a big bullet-proof vest.

Here are  a few pictures of the progress we made.  Not all of the progress, mind you.  We did a lot more than this!

Before

After

Appliances and More

Now on to information about how we will heat our home and the appliances we have chosen.

Hardwood Hermitage will be an Energy Star certified home heated by radiant floor heat powered by a Central Boiler Outdoor Wood Boiler. This will also heat our hot water and reduce out dependency on electricity (which is very expensive here in the North Country). 

Although we will also have solar panels on the room (about 4.7kw system), we won't be "off the grid" as we are not quite that brave!  BUT, we do expect to sell electricity back to the power company during summer months to offset our usage during winter.

We will have a Jotul F370 wood stove with our American Olean tiles (not as pictured here) as the hearth and on the wall (up 4').

 

Our kitchen appliances will be black as follows:

Cooktop	30"	ceramic	GE	PP989DNBB
Dishwasher	34.5h x 23 7/8 W x 27.5 D	43dbA	Kitchenaid	KUDE60FXSS
Refrigerator	29 7/8 W x 29 D x 68H	24 cu ft	LG	LTC24380S
Wall Oven	30"	electric	GE	805-551; Model JKP30DPBB

 

  

 

 

 

The Washer (WT4870CW) and Dryer (DLE4870W) will be LG in white.

Peak Fall Colors

Fall is in full swing here in the North Country! 

 Looking NE from build site

 Looking West from driveway

Looking East down driveway

 View from the road looking NE

Granite State of Mind

We just love this YouTube Video:    Granite State of Mind

lyrics at: http://lybio.net/super-secret-project-granite-state-of-mind-jay-z-the-ssp/parody/

We have a Contract!!

This afternoon, we signed the contract with the builder!!!  We are both excited, nervous and yes, a bit stressed about this huge undertaking that is now in the next stage of implementation. 

To catch you up on what we have been looking at over the past few months, here are some of the materials that we have chosen for the house (floor plan to be posted soon).

• Roof:  Ameri-Cana Black Standing Seam black metal roof
• Siding:  Smart-Side Lap Siding in 5" widths; Pelican (medium Gray); http://www.lpcorp.com/smartside/lap/
• Windows: Pella (casement, awning and fixed) in Eldridge Gray
• Outside Trim: Black
• Decking: Azek Kona  http://www.azek.com/azek-deck/color-selector/
• Floors: Anderson Hickory Forge Rushing Bellows (5" width)  

• and American Olean Highland Ridge in Autumn color in 12" tiles

• Inside doors and Trim to be pine stained in Golden Oak

Coming Soon:  appliances, wood stove, etc.

Our first rough log piles

In case you were wondering...here are  some photos of the trees that we had cut down..once the new chain saw comes in (and the weather clears up), we'll get the branches cut off and then the logs cut to length and split.