Tree Placemark

This post is for my benefit: like a bookmark in time so I can look back and see how things were...

My favorite tree died this spring.  An elm that succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease.  It was right in front of the house, so beautiful and shady.  Years ago Clancy and I decided where to build the house based on the placement of that elm tree.  We knew it would likely die from DED before it got too old, but I was hopeful.  I thanked God every year that tree leafed out in the spring... and I mourn its loss.  But we have plans to remove the dead tree and plant another tree in about the same spot next spring.

Below is the other elm tree that was located right outside our back door.  It also gave us lovely shade.  Again, we expected to loose it eventually to disease, but storms took it first.  It lost a huge portion of its top last year in a severe storm, and just the other day it lost another significant portion.  It will be removed this winter.  We'll plant something else there, but put it a little farther away than this one was.

Here is my favorite walnut tree that a friend gave us as a seedling.  We must have put it in the perfect spot because it has grown by leaps and bounds.

Here is the other walnut sapling we planted at the same time.  It was a bit smaller to begin with, but it is in a very shady spot and I think it might need more sun to really take off.

Last, but not least, our great old white pines along the shore.  Most of these trees are doing very well.  The oldest and biggest one (far left) is dying off quite dramatically at the top.  It is a common problem in white pine.  So I also thank God for every year I have with this grand old giant.

My other tree photos wouldn't load today so I will post a sequel soon.

Sunbursting With Happiness

For my dear friend, Kim, who was wondering how the house-building was coming along.  We are nowhere near finished.  But we are making progress.   :)

With the help of our good friend, Chuck, something happened yesterday that I have been looking forward to for many years...

The sunburst that Clancy designed and I painted was finally mounted at the peak of our South gable.

I love it. 

I love the colors. 

I love how Clancy managed to capture the idea I had in my head. 

I love its three dimension-ness.

It makes me happy to look up and see that this detail of our dream house has become a reality.

Speechless

Last Sunday, Clancy finished installing the maple flooring in my kitchen. This was his birthday present to me, or so I thought.

I got busy vacuuming up the mess because our good friend, Gail, had just called to say she'd be over a little after noon. Clancy and I had decided a while back to hire Gail to build our cabinets, since she is an excellent cabinet maker and we love to have things in our house made by friends. I assumed Clancy had asked her over to take the measurements against the new flooring while he had the temporary sink-cupboard pulled out.

When I switched off the vacuum and walked through the kitchen to say "Hi" this is what I saw:

Gail and Clancy installing the exact cupboards I had drawn sketches of, over and over, for years.

I was undone.

It is a very humbling experience to realize people love you and care about you, want you to be happy, and were listening to you when you talked about your dreams.

This is the new cupboard that will hold the sink. We still have to install the counter top, the sink from the house I grew up in, and the hinges on the cabinet doors. (The first-choice hinges didn't fit because the wood used for construction was thicker than modern cabinetry.)
My dad gave Clancy the wood-gorgeous clear white pine. Clancy successfully conspired to have the cabinets built and he supplied the materials. Gail made the cabinets in record time. And even though I intend to paint them a creamy white, I think they are beautiful already. (the walls are not really electric yellow-more of a butter yellow)

Words cannot express how thankful I am to the friends and family in on the surprise. My mother took care of the boys the whole weekend so Clancy could get the floor finished in time. I did wonder about that, Mom. Selena kept the secret. Gail was absolutely silent. :) And my dear Mom-in-law gave me a new sink faucet for my birthday to celebrate the progress on the kitchen. You are all too good to me.

Even though we've been too busy this week to make any more progress on the kitchen, I sit on the floor in there every day, just admiring the beauty of what is to come. Needless to say, the dogs and their scratchy little toenails are drawn like magnets to the unblemished new flooring. They know they are not supposed to be in this room. But the kitchen does have the best sunshine in the house.

North Side-Completed!

Here it is...the north side of the house with all of it's siding. Woohoo!

We worked in the light rain yesterday to finish the last bit of siding and repair the fascia.

The scaffolding was too high for our ladders so Clancy had to crawl in and out of the bedroom window. He reminded me of when we were actually building the house...we used to tromp in and out of any window hole on the second floor. There was also a huge pile of sawdust inside where the boards got cut.

It seems like a snail's pace to get the siding finished. But we've come so far. To get a better perspective it does help to look back at where we were last year at this time.

Onward to the South Gable Peak!

North Side-Continued 2

We almost made it up to the gable peak last night. But not quite. There are about 6 boards left to go. Clancy stained most of it by the light of a large halogen bulb while I made pancakes for our late supper.

Heavy rains moved in early this morning. We have some pre-stained boards we can hang if the conditions under that peak are not too wet. The piece of fascia that blew down in a storm can be reinstalled. Then we can remove the scaffolding and celebrate one more side completed.

(Except for the tiny amount needed to frame the front door. But that can't be completed until the door frames are put in. We hope to achieve that this fall still, but the larger areas are priority right now.)

North Side-Continued

Well...we've had some delays. The weather didn't cooperate this weekend for us. Reinforcing the scaffolding also took a lot more work than planned. But you really don't want to be that high up with a support hanging by one nail.

This morning I had to run to town to get another gallon of stain. This afternoon I used the sunny weather to pre-stain a bunch of long boards. When we work on the peaks it is nice to not have to return to that height to stain everything.

Last night, Clancy called me out to see the view of the house shown in the second photo. I cried. It was the first time in all these years that I have seen this angle of the house with siding and without scaffolding. I think it looks beautiful-even with the construction mess.

North Side

This is the north side of the house as of noon today. Winds are gusting up to 30 miles an hour so Clancy is taking a bit of time to add reinforcement to some of our scaffolding. Hopefully by this evening I can snap a photo that shows some progress. Rains are supposed to move into our area by tonight.

South and West

Here's what the house looked like on Thursday. We've done quite a bit more work to the North side, which you can't see from this angle,since then. I'll take a picture of that when it's finished.

Success!

I love this photo of Dolce. It was taken the first year she lived here. She looks so serious, which is misleading: in fact, Dolce is a lovey-dove.

Today I started staining the siding that was hung yesterday by Chuck and Clancy. Thank you again, Chuck, for all you have done to help us with our house. I began at 9 am. When Clancy got home from work around 11am, we put up more siding. By 3:30pm, when it started to rain, we had the entire west end of the house sided and stained all the way up to the peek of the gable! WooHoo! Clancy would call out measurements and install the boards, while I cut the boards and ran them up the ladder to him. We made quite the pair: he's very afraid of heights and I get vertigo easily. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. We pushed ourselves to finish the staining and all the details because we knew we'd never convince ourselves to go up there again once we came down.

I would have taken a photo to share if it hadn't started raining. Thunderstorms and showers are likely tomorrow as well. Won't be able to side until it dries out. Then we have to shimmy up another one of the gables. I'm not going to think about it until I have to.