We're home!

We moved in on Dec. 15 and the first month in our new home passed quickly! We had less than a week in the house before heading to California to spend the holidays with Leah's family. We were away for 8 days and enjoyed relaxing, exploring Napa Valley and San Francisco, and spending time with family, but were also thankful to have 5 solid days at home after our trip to unpack and move in. We absolutely love the house and neighborhood--everything is beautiful and we feel very lucky to be here.

We christened the house with our annual holiday wine party, which we postponed until January 10 so that we could host it in our new home. We warmed the house quite nicely with 70 good friends here. With the arrival of snow, we are also enjoying being able to simply walk out the door and cross country ski in the fields in our neighborhood.

We hope you'll enjoy this video which documents our housebuilding process from start to finish. A huge thank you to Heather Jackson, Jackson Built who designed and built our beautiful home! And, thank you to Glenn Jonsson who sold our former home and facilitated the purchase of this home. And, thank you to all of the family and friends who took care of us throughout this process, whether it was giving us a place to stay, feeding us, entertaining the kids, unpacking endless boxes, or just simply giving us a good laugh when we needed one.

And, some photos of the finished house! There's still some work to be done in the spring: looming and seeding the lawn, paving the driveway, painting the exterior doors garnet, etc.

Dining Room

Living Room

Upstairs "bonus" room - now a playroom and TV room

Centuries old barn door leading to study

Mudroom #1 (near side door) with mail center

Mudroom #2 - near front door

Ollie's room

Elliott's room

Master Bedroom

Part of master closet

Master bath

Master shower

Kids' bath

Kid's bathroom

Skiing in our neighborhood fields (you can see the peak of our house in the background)

A chilly week brings a finished fireplace

Our built-ins are complete and the newly finished floors look fantastic! We've had some very cold nights recently and can't wait to snuggle by the fire! 

Less than a week to go!

First dinner in the house! A family picnic on the floor in the study. We needed to stop by and check on things after a busy afternoon of swim lessons and thought it would be fun to enjoy dinner while at the house.

Our cherry top was installed on the island. Soon it will be oiled which will bring out the red cherry tones. Other recent additions to the kitchen include: appliances, stainless steel pot filler, kitchen faucet, and kitchen fan.

Yesterday the subway tile backsplash was installed.

Wainscoting in mudroom is now painted.

Kids' bathroom pedestal sinks. Next steps: backsplash and mirrors.

Master bath sinks with backsplash. Mirrors on their way!

Stairwell lights.

Winter Wonderland!

November 27, 2014
Thanksgiving day brought us 8 inches of fresh snow. The views as we drove into our neighborhood were breathtaking -- rolling snow covered fields with beautiful snowy balsam trees scattered throughout. Our neighborhood used to be a Christmas tree farm, so there are quite a few perfectly sculpted balsams that have grown tall over the years.

Big sky! 

Cedar shakes started going up on the barn.

December 1, 2014
Today the granite went into the kitchen and master bath. We love it!

Master bath granite and one of the two sinks.

An impromtu ballroom dance party in the kitchen.

We have railings and banisters!

The heaters are now in. We installed European wall hung heaters, which are very energy efficient.

The furnace went in too. The manifold is impressive, it's like grand central.

That tiny box on the wall is our furnace. All of the men who visited our house this week spent a lot of time in this part of the house enjoying all of the pipes and knobs.

Elliott chilling on the porch.

Elliott enjoying a snowy snack break.

Ollie's new hideout under the porch.

The back deck went on this week, off of the dining room. This is the view of our "bavarian forest" from the deck. We can't get enough of the beautiful snow covered trees!

Two and half weeks to go!

The crew is focused on finish work now that we are two and a half weeks away from our move-in day (Dec. 10!). It's very exciting to watch everything come together!

Our farmers sink arrived this week. We love it!

The crown moulding is going in.

The preliminary structure for the island was built. It will soon be a large cherry farmer's table.

Our mantle was installed. It's a reclaimed board from an old barn. Barn boards were also installed above the mantel; they will soon be painted white.

The kids' bath is now tiled.

Master shower tile

Banisters are starting to be installed and the treads went down on the stairs.

The outlines for wainscoting have begun. Soon much of the downstairs will have wainscoting.

The ceiling of the porch was installed.

Cedar shakes are starting to go up on the garage and shed.

The septic was installed and they've begun bringing a lot of fill into the lot to level it off with the road and bury the septic. More fill is on its way!