we bought our house yesterday

Yesterday, we went to the bank and paid off our construction loan with a new home loan. It's a big relief to have that done. Now, we have just the usual homeowner things to do - landscaping, fences, garden, etc, etc, etc.

The floor finishing is still in progress. It's taken a lot longer than we expected - it was supposed to be done in about 3 days, but that was obviously a gross underestimation. Hand-scraping the floor is a lot of work. There is one guy working on it today (Saturday) and there will be more working on it tomorrow. I'd give it another week to have it all scraped, sanded and coated. Then, we can move furniture in.

our floor has been located!

Our floor went missing sometime mid-to-late last year. We figured it couldn't have gone very far - what with it being a floor and all. It turns out that it was right there underneath a thin-to-not-so-thin veneer of various substances which would fall under the general classification of "dirt".


All we had to do was hire some guys with a large reservoir of sweat to come and meticulously/painstakingly/time-consumingly scrape off that veneer. Man, this is hard work - I'm glad I didn't try to convince Betty that it was something I could do "when I had some time" (that's husband code for "slim chance I'd ever get around to it").

dirt work is done

Those huge mounds of dirt from the foundation and septic system excavations are gone. In their place, we have ground which is contoured such that water flows away from the house when it rains (not that it ever rains in Sequim). This wasn't particularly easy, since the house sits low on the landscape. We also have a berm which is intended to keep our dogs from seeing and barking at cars which drive along the lane (not that Bear or Sadie ever bark). Also, Mike (who did the dirt work) instinctively implemented pattern #126 "Something Roughly in the Middle" with the large rocks which were dug up during the excavations.



Although it's been contoured, the soil is very poor (i.e. mostly clay). There was some topsoil, but not very much. We'll probably buy some bales of hay from our neighbor and spread it all around so it will seed itself. In time, it will look like the rest of our field (foreground).

Betty is back on the scaffold

We rented a 10-foot scaffold so Betty could finish sanding and oiling the logs before the floor finishing happens. (It's shakier than it looks.)