ADVANCE! ADVANCE! ADVANCE!

We've reached the hardest part of the project: it feels almost done causing increasing fantasies of it truly being done & images of living in it, almost done is relative meaning there's actually a fair amount still to do, and we're tired of working on it in nearly every available moment. But we are committed to a November move in so we keep on keepin' on. Current tasks are plumbing for Kirk and painting and other finish work for Cheryl. Jayne makes a periodic guest appearance to function as helper to a job needing 2 people or to sling a little paint and then she's off to much socializing with new friends she met doing the show Hair or to work on her 2 college classes, writing & history or her voice work.














In the interest of getting a living space quicker we decided to go with temporary countertops in the kitchen. On the left is Kirk's handiwork in using some used laminate pieces and filling in with a wood section made from the beautiful pine used throughout the house. On the right is an old interior door cut down to form a section of counter, papered with Paper Illusion to look like stone and polyurethaned to help it last for a while.

The middle of September saw red letter days at Anam Cara when our 800 lbs wood cookstove was delivered to the end of our drive and hauled to the house by Kirk & Ollie, our tractor. The next day the guys came with our heating wood stove and installed both beauties in the house. Here's to being toasty & cooking without fossil fuels!


















This is our water boiler to provide hot water to our radiant floor, which is our backup heat, and our domestic hot water until we get our solar hot water put in. Above is the bathroom vanity Kirk made with the vanity top that arrived with both corners broken. Still waiting for another we'll go ahead and use this one temporarily if need be since the damage doesn't affect its functionality.










This is the prep sink. It's handmade from copper in Mexico. The cabinet is handmade from white pine by Kirk in Maine. Our approach has been to use frugality as our guiding principle and then to here and there accent with something more expensive.

Stairwell to the right with Brian's pine sheathing handiwork and an antique light fixture we've been moving around with us for years.







We take time out to notice the beautiful New England autumn all around us. We all celebrated together our first fire in the wood stove. Kirk & Cheryl celebrated their 30th anniversary with dinner out and a dozen gorgeous white roses. And we'll be gathering with friends, the Weyer family, at their off-grid house for Thanksgiving. So we're not completely obsessed with housebuilding.

By the way, the inspiration for the title came the retired general in the movie "White Christmas". Being big movie buffs, we tend to think in terms of great lines from movies.