Brace Yourself, Winter is Coming

The Night King speaks the truth. Winter has come with a vengeance, dropping snow and freezing cold temperatures like Bran dropped from that tower in Season One. Harsh is the word.

Because of Mother Nature's torturous game, things have been moving pretty slow. Before the snowfall, a little progress had been made which includes the installation of the staircase (such a relief!), the installation of the garage door, and the framing of the screened porch. The septic system has also been installed. Unfortunately, the only place for it was directly in front of the house but there was no choice to be made so it is what it is.

I despise snow but this little cottage still looks beautiful in it.

The garage door was installed. It will have black hardware to give it that cottage look.

The installation of the stairs have to be the biggest relief of all. The kids always wanted to go upstairs to visit and show off their bedroom and I would have mini heart attacks watching them come up and down that ladder. I'm also very pleased with how the staircase turned out. I wasn't expecting it to be as open as it is. The wood on the treads is also very nice and will be perfect for staining while the risers will be painted white.

This house efficiently uses every inch of space and that includes the large storage closet under the stairs. That black hole is the door to the crawl space, which I'm told is very roomy. Since this post is already Game of Thrones heavy, let's just call this the Moon Door, shall we?

The screened porch has been framed in and the decking has been installed. There is still a lot of work to be done on this space.

These opening will have screens but we also decided to use the Eze-Breeze system. They are sliding vinyl panels, similar to windows that can be raised and lowered. They are also removable to give a full screened porch feel or left in to create more of a 3 season room. Since we aren't here full time, we liked the idea of being able to close this porch up completely and the Eze-Breeze will allow us to do so. I can't wait to see them installed.

The pine planks that are on the ceilings will also been on the upper triangle to the left. All that pine is sitting in the garage waiting to be installed. I'm thinking I might do a whitewash on the pine, very light. It looks like it will be quite the undertaking. I think it will be worth it. What do you think?

Because of the holidays, I haven't been to see the house in almost two weeks. Scott went up on the 26th to do some work and everything looks the same except for the fact that the plumber has been up there doing his thing. I can't imagine photos of pipes would make for a very exciting story but I'm happy to know we aren't at a full stop. I'm not sure what happens now with the dead of winter upon us, but at least we are one step closer to the reins being handed to us. That's when it will get fun!