OK, we have most of the house painted, and it is an ongoing ordeal. In the living room, we have Olive 3 by Laura Ashley. It is a pretty color, but I'm afraid it's too dark. I'm contemplating changing it to Olive 2, which is one step lighter.

In the downstairs bathroom, we have French Bistro in Kilz brand. It is much, much brighter on the wall than we expected it to be. The color is not accurate in this picture because the flash is on. It looks much more intense when you're in the room. Once again, I'm thinking about changing it to a lighter color. Whatever we do there will also be in the utility room across the hall.

Finally, we have Amaryllis Yellow, also from Kilz,

in most of the rest of the house (dining room/kitchen, hall and landing, upstairs bedrooms). It's a little "yellower" than I wanted, but it's too big an area to repaint, so I'm trying to embrace it. The color has been the most stressful thing so far.

We had a cedar post fence built around the yard. It's almost finished. Here are some pictures, including one of the garden gate and one of a stile or walk-through at the back corner of the yard. It's a little tight curve made from posts. People can walk through it, but cattle can't.

Here's the porch ceiling, which was covered with boards last week. We plan to paint it.

Here are some pictures of the rock work, along with the siding, and the fireplace that was just started yesterday:

Here are a couple of pics of our doors. The first one is in the dining room. The second one is the kitchen door and is identical to the front door except not as wide. They are Simpson wood doors.

Well, it's been about a month since we updated the blog, and lots of things have happened. All the exterior doors are on, most of the siding is up, a lot of painting is done inside, about half the rock work is done, the fence is almost finished, the fireplace was started today, and lots of other little things. Here's an overall picture of the house today:

Three small stained glass windows were installed this week, including one that is a transom over the front door (the first one). The other two are located upstairs in the bathroom and bedroom. They are really tiny. This is the only size windows we could put there because of how the roof on the one-story part of the house hits the upper wall.

Also, we got several little things finished up inside this week to get ready for sheetrock. For instance, they put this insulation in the attic (areas that couldn't have the blown kind). The sheetrockers are supposed to start on Tuesday.

Siding started this week. It's been delayed because we were waiting on the doors, but they were able to start on one side of the house where there aren't any doors. The siding is prefinished white Hardiplank (6 ¼). There is unfinished trim around the windows, which we will paint to match the siding. Here's a picture:

We finally received two of our doors and got them installed. They are fiberglass, which will be painted and/or stained. We haven't decided yet. These are the doors on the back of the house, where they are exposed. All the other doors, which are under covered porches, will be wood. (They still aren't here yet.) Here's a picture of one of the two we got in:

Well, we finally have a little bit of progress on the house. There has been a major delay getting our exterior doors, which also delayed starting on the siding. So, there's been very little change in the house for over a month.

It is starting to pick up now, though, and we had several materials delivered today. One major thing that was completed this week is the first part of the blown insulation. Here's a picture.

An old bathtub I am planning to fix up and use in the house. I got it on ebay.

Here's a picture of the heat and air unit, which is in the attic. It has a frame around it for a little closet. Also a picture of the attic room with window:

Here's a close-up of the upstairs porch and a view onto it from inside. It will be closed in around the bottom and have a railing.