And now to the out of doors...

It has obviously been too long since I updated, but we have not been lethargic. Now that the inside is pretty much completed (I mean is anything ever actually finished?), we've turned to the out door work for which we chose to stay put this summer.

1. We’ve managed to finish up the patio, the initial funding of which came in the form of a Christmas present from Carol’s folks back in Dec 2024. This required the digging up of soil which perhaps has never been turned, was filled with stone, and was cement dry and hard. The framing is a simple treated 16’x22’- 2”x6” box held in place with 18” re-bar anchors with landscape cloth and about 5-6” of crushed limestone gravel. We edged it with boxwood and then the Mrs. went to work on decorating it with shutters from a friends yard sale and other decorative goodies. It serves as a wonderfully cool end of day point of relaxation after supper.

2. The next project, now completed, was the roofing (26 ga green metal 5v roofing material) and the board and batten siding of the garden/wood shed. We used T1-11 and treated 1x3 to match the house and stained it, again with the Ready Seal Walnut Stain I used on the house and have become such a fan of, in coverage, durability, and general ease of application (I used a brush and a roller). You’ll have to excuse the clutter on the back of the garden shed, but IT IS THE BACK AND WE DO NEED A PLACE TO HIDE THINGS!

3. We replaced the screen doors (which were a temporary fix early on) but found that even with the more expensive versions, additional modifications were necessary. It just doesn’t seem that they “make them like the used to.” But with some hardware to regulate the opening and closing, in addition to spring loaded hinges, and the application of a turnbuckle system and some cross members, I think we’ll be good to go.

So that brings us to two other projects yet to be completed, the first of which I certainly hope to get done before the snow flies and the other which will wait until next summer.

The first of these is the partitioning of the garden/wood shed (see #2 above) for a firewood storage unit. We have burned up to 9 full cords of wood a year but re increasingly relying on the use of our natural gas forced air furnace. With the insulating job done our gas bills (averaged on an annual basis are only $77/month which we feel very good about.

The second of these will be residing and staining of the former horse run in which is now a storage area for the mower and yard tools/implements as well as some other odds and ends, so, in short a barn. The paneling used to cover the sides has weathered well over the years but isn’t sufficient for a long term solution. The plan is to, again, use a T1-11 siding with a 1”x3” batten and stain it so that all the out buildings match. (It’s just a thing of mine that out buildings match!).

So there you have it. We’re staying busy attending to making this retirement residence and someday vacation residence for our children and grands, into something all can enjoy. Stay tuned, more to come.

 

And we're done!

 

Upcoming post...

• I've attached the last piece of trim work on cabin.  This initial two year project which turned into a 4 1/2 year project... 

• and maybe a little history on our location which historically was referred to (and still is by locals) as Christian Hill.

 

https://geodata.us/usa_populated_places/usapop.php?featureid=1197641&f=usa_pop_143

 

https://roadsidethoughts.com/pa/christian-hill-xx-tioga-profile.htm

 

https://www.roadonmap.com/us/how-to-get-to/Christian_Hill-Tioga_PA,populated_place 

 

https://www.travelmath.com/cities/Christian+Hill,+PA 

 

  

 

   

Finishing Touches...

While there still remain a few bits and pieces of trim work to do the majority of the renovations are complete. Sure there are a few trim pieces yet to be placed or replaced. And there is a door or two to set, but the finishing of the wall behind the wood stove is symbolic of wrapping this 2+ year project up.

At the top of the wall you might notice my grandfather's lumber saw.  I remember working with him cutting down trees with a two man saw that seems to have disappeared over the years. But this one remains.  While my generation was raised in the 1960s suburban sprawl, the saw is nevertheless symbolic of the traditions and love of the family for the more rustic and rural lifestyle, where hard work endured rather than long hours put in is valued, and personal honesty and integrity mean more than personal connections.

On the bathroom wall is a photocopy (I have stained with tea to look old and framed in a birdseye maple frame my father made) of a brochure for Coe's Screw Wrenches.  The wrenches belonged to one of Carol's great-great grandfathers.  We've decorated the entire cabin with toys belonging to grandparents and other antiques as well as wood carved items from the various countries in which we have lived and worked, as a reminder to our children and grandchildren of whence they've come. But I digress...

 

Back to the woodstove wall. As previously mentioned (in this prior post) we used a faux stone which provided better adhesion to the cement board than natural stone would.  It's called Valley Forge Fieldstone. We used a mortar type of caulk between the stones to mimic the mortar look we wanted and left a smaller space between the stones than is usually the case in such applications.

But another real blessing in all of this was the kindness that capped off our finishing touches.  Just the other day, a local person I've grown to respect deeply dropped a very generous almost 2 facecords load of the most beautiful hickory, cut and split.

The blessing of rural life is how much people care for each other.  Back at the beginning of this post I mentioned the rural lifestyle. There are those that will never get it.  They'll refer to us as hillbillies whether were flat-landers or not. They'll accuse us of living in such places as this to avoid the "real life" of cities and suburbs.

But my response is always a - "Nope. We're not hiding. We're not avoiding. We're living an authentic sustainable life which few city dwellers could EVER endure and will likely NEVER understand. It's culture shock sustained for them. 

We can live on what we get, and rejoice in how the Lord provides without the nonsense of "entitlement." It was 12 degrees this morning.  I lit a fire (greenhouse gasses be cursed) sat back to enjoy a cup of coffee and praised the Lord for His Gracious Mercy.

Hallelujah. Amen!

 

As we enter the homestretch...

 

As we settle in for the winter here at the Halleaday Inn we are reminded of the tremendous blessings that have transpired over the years And yet so too are we mindful of the responsibilities those blessings bring, the primary one being stewardship.

We're entering the homestretch of this gift with which the Lord has blessed us. And we are indeed thankful for the work that we've already been able to accomplish.

After our respite from this work, with travel, we have started back up. Most recently we have gotten more done on the living and dining room ceilings.

As has been mentioned before we maintained the OSB ceiling sheets to keep with the "cabin" look, painted them an oyster white, and added battens to hide the seems.

We still have some minor  work to do, such as this spot (picture to the left) over the dining room table where I still need to add a plate for the lighting fixture before adding the final batten, but since we were entertaining around the holidays we held off...we'll finish this portion off when we address the other and final trim matters...

Next was the wood stove/fire wall.  I'll save you the pictures and just mention that we first installed the cement board leaving an small 3/4" air cavity behind to help mitigate the temperature between the cinder block exterior wall and the  cement board without the use of insulation.  I'm not sure if a professional contractor would agree with this decision or not, but hey, my house, my way, eh? We then used a sakrete quickset mortar mix with an adhesive additive to further quicken the set and applied a Stonecraft Industries faux stone appropriately named Valley Forge Fieldstone. We couldn't be happier with the outcome.  We installed the stone with a thinner than traditional space between stones out of personal preference.  Again, there are some trim pieces that still need to be applied but given our holiday obligations at home and in the community, this will wait until after the new year.

And finally, the Mrs. has added some seasonal decorations as well as some family-related pictures and other decor on the shelves over the windows and some of the walls.

Other additions have include (slightly apparent in the bottom of the first picture above and to the right) in a dark pumpkin or "peppery" color to match the accent walls in the kitchen and near the back door.

 

Upcoming projects include finishing the framing around the doors, building another 12" planked fir (outhouse) style door...yes, we want a "CAMP" look :), and finishing up the trim work to complete the project...all after the first of the year and hopefully before our departure for Africa (see previous post).  In the meantime we pray you will have a blessed Advent (Dec 1-24) and Christmas (Dec 25 - Jan 6) season.  May the Blessings of the Lord be abundantly evident in all aspects of your lives...

 Soli Deo Gloria!

 

 

 

Farewell to Facebook...

(as a reminder all pictures may be enlarged by double clicking on them)  

As I prepared to close my Facebook account and encourage folks to stay in touch via this blog, it occurred to me that it had been 5 months since I had updated it.  Well, there's a lot of water under that bridge so hold on.  I'll try to be brief.

The last posting on this blog found here has, as it's last picture, the kitchen and front entry way with a hint of what was coming.  I had gotten as far as putting some furring strips and foam board insulation on the walls in a portion of the living room.  The living room/dining room areas would be the last major endeavor and that would include putting battens on the ceiling and painting the OSB.  Readers of this blog will recall the manageress/designer's desire to created an ecclectic residential cabin look which maintains some of the more interesting aspects of this former "Snake Pit Rod and Gun Club" property.

So back to the Living Room walls... a part of the issue we faced with this project has been the reality that when it was originally built, it appears that different folks put in efforts at different times and with different levels of motivation.  We found both 1/2" and 3/4" furring strips and 1/2" mixed with 3/4" insulation so that required replacing a number of pieces before adding the second layer of insulation.  With the outside siding work and the inside work we're at about an R-17 to 19 which is sufficient in this application.  As per the rest of the house this was covered with pine tongue and groove.

This treatment, along with the basic cement block construction gives us 9" deep window sills which we both agree really bring it up a notch.

So the almost finished product seems to work pretty well.  We have placed an order for the stone which will go behind the wood stove...

 

 

 

 

     saavy folks might remember these

              doors from this post 

 

I am still a bit flummoxed with the front and rear entry doors.  Neither was installed plumb, although they are level.  It also seems that little thought was given to the finishing of the door jam so there's a 1 inch clearance on the free side and 1/2" on the hinge side...so finishing those will be a challenge, but for now...we can entertain!

As to the next step, we've chosen a manufactured stone veneer called "Valley Forge" Fieldstone produced by Stonecraft Industries. The order has been placed and we're just awaiting pick up. We'll likely use the same color in a "Cobblestone" form for the exterior foundation and the chimney, but that's on next year's project list.

 Next up will be a report on the wood storage shed under continuing construction...it has served to house all of the lumber and will serve, when we're done with the major house renovations, to store the outdoor furniture and Carol's bicycle during the winter months...

I still have a few tweaks, like finishing upon the ceiling battens, but just for review:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mostly, kinda', sorta'...

And the kitchen is mostly, kinda', sorta' done.  Battens have been cut, oiled and installed on the ceiling. The countertops arrived perfectly cut (although the backsplashes were all 4" too long so some onsite cutting took place).  But all-in-all the Kitchen Manageress is quite pleased.  We chose to go with quartz after the laminate was made wrong and a new order was going to cost more than granite or quartz.  The color is called "Sienna Ridge".  We thought it would have a bit more rust coloring in it but are satisfied that it is neutral enough that a beige or a gray paint color will also work with it. (No, I am not repainting...yet.)

 

The  Manageress-Designer wanted to maintain an eclectic sort of camp/fancy look so we used rough cut 2"x2" white pine lumber for the structure and OSB for the open shelving.  (The open shelving is really nice for accessibility.)

Today was spent hanging pictures and other such important finishing
touches.  I used a couple of drawer slides for the garbage bin/compost bucket shelf so that it slides out and in for ease of access.  I still have to add another one for the dog food.  And the Manageress-Designer still has plans to hang a curtain in front of the section immediately under the industrial sink.  So as I said at the beginning, its mostly, kinda', sorta' done.  

The one more significant change (in my mind) was a resizing of the island counter top.  The former butcher block was 38" deep by 8' long and the new piece of quartz is only 25" by 8' long so we'll have to see how that goes next time we serve buffet style.  I think there will be sufficient space.  The positive side of shrinking the depth of the island counter top is that it gives us more room in the kitchen for folks to stand around and talk which is always a good thing.

With the open concept kitchen/dining/living areas it's helpful to have different conversation areas.

Saavy folks might also have noticed I have done some more painting on the ceiling. That involves two things: 1. the Manageress-Designer being gone for the day; and 2. moving furniture. So, it's a bit at a time.  The glossy bright white and the fluorescent lights were just a bit much! So we're going with a Oyster White eggshell finish.  And I was able to tweak the budget a bit to get the first wall of the living room's furring strips and insulation in place, so...

Now that March has come and a new "budget season" has begun, it's time to do some living room work.  Stay tuned!

 

Hurry up and wait...

So after three months of material back-ordered, confusion on the style, etc, the counter tops finally arrived at the local "Big Box" store...and were made incorrectly.  A part of the order included 2, 2'x4' sections with 90 degree straight edged end caps and a half-round bullnose edge on each of the 2 long sides to be used for the kitchen islands.  They came in with the half round bullnose long edge on one side and an unfinished edge on the other...

After another four days the Big Box store through which we ordered the items still has not received a call back from the manufacturer.  And because the custom project had to be paid in full in advance, we have no option but to take a full refund and cancel the order (not a choice we want to make) or we wait...

In the meantime I put some fancy-shmancy OSB covers together for a work surface... as we "hurry up and wait." (HOPEFULLY,to be continued, soon.)