Tile, Stone, and Green All Over

04/28: Back from Texas and here's what I found! Stone put up on the front of the garage, the dry stack looks great. Everything that is supposed to be this shade of green has now been painted (including the porch ceilings and garage doors!). The remaing beige that is showing will eventually be painted a darker shade of the same green color.

On the inside; a little more progress on the master bath, closet, and laundry room tile. It's mostly all in place but still needs grout. The new back door which is the correct size has been delivered but not installed.

04/28: This gentleman was working hard out at the land this evening. When I arrived he was finishing up filling in the trench that contains the power lines and water pipe.

This is a gorgeous picture that Sara took on Monday.

See the storm clouds and rain rolling in trying to overtake the sunny sky?

WOO HOO, less than three weeks until Sara graduates and Josh, Susan, & Coop come home for a week! We're pretty darn excited around here!

Stacks of Stone

04/26: Drove out to the land today (by myself - Mom and Pop are both out of town) and found stacks of stone for the exterior of the house all over the place. In front of the house, in piles, on the sides of the shed, in straight rows - everywhere. Looks like they have it all organized to start putting it up soon!

Hopefully this rain holds off so all that stone can go up on the house - Sara

Brown Dog

04/24: Bobby's had a busy week picking up tile from multiple Lowes stores in multiple cities and unloading it at the house. The painters have primed the entire inside of the house with Sherwin William's Universial Khaki! And they've put the top coat on the master bath, closets, and laundry room. 04/24: Here's the master bath partially tiled. Looks great!

Oh, and Bobby, if you're reading this at Table Rock, Daisy figured out the fence is gone! But she wasn't gone long and it's the perkiest I've seen her in months!

You've Got to Caulk Before You Run

04/20 Lots of caulking going on today!

04/20: And some painting too (yes, that's the same color as our current home!)04/20: And the garage doors were installed!

Pictureless Monday

Sara did a really great job posting while I was out of town last week (thanks sweetie)! While in Texas I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel each evening to check the progress pictures. This post pales in comparison to her colorful commentary.

The drywallers have been busy. On Friday they blew the knockdown ceilings in both the house and shed. Today they did the final sanding so the walls are super smooth and the floor is super dusty! They'll be priming the inside walls tomorrow which means we have a tight deadline to get those colors picked out from Sherwin Williams. This evening Bobby measured for all the stone and tile. Tomorrow he'll order the stone and pick up tile at Lowe's, it may take a couple of trips to get it all!

The contractor expects the power to be connected tomorrow or Wednesday.

Hard to believe it's been only 34 days since they poured the slab! WOW!

Rock and a Hard Place

04/15: Last night (with the help of two trusty sidekicks, Jerry and Pat) the stone mantel was hung by the chimney with care. Pop's engineering worked out and it looks great. In other good news, it made it through the night (we checked on it this afternoon) without pulling the wall down - it is a heavy, heavy chunk of rock!

Also, yesterday the mudding and the finishing of the drywall was completed in both the house and the shed - it now looks like the insides have stripes!

Mom comes home tomorrow! It's been fun 'guest blogging' - Sara

Dust Bowl

Dear Readers, I apologize for the lack of pictures for this entry (Pop and I were very busy today).

So, I came over to Mom and Pop's after a full day of work and class to find a very, very, very dusty Pop (and Daisy - she is worn out!) working hard in the driveway. He was working on a stone fireplace mantle for the new house since the inspectors nixed the wood one. What exactly does this entail? A 285 pound Colorado ledge stone (54 inches long just in case you were wondering), a strong saw, a rental drill from Home Depot, multiple tools pulled out from the garage, large bolts, cement glue, and a lot of rock dust. But it was well worth it since it will look wonderful against the stone wall surrounding the fireplace - I promise pictures of the mantle by tomorrow!

House news - first coat of mudding was completed on the drywall in both the house and the shed (apparently by 1:00 ... the quick pace continues).

Well ... that was probably the most bland Lonesome Duck entry in the history of Lonesome Duck! I will spice it up tomorrow - Sara

While mom is away...

Beware: GUEST BLOGGER!

(Mom is away on a business trip to Ft. Worth, Texas, for a whole week, but have no fear the updates will keep coming - thanks to me!!!)

04/11: Roofing was finished on both the house and the shed yesterday. The two roofers stayed late, late, late to finish (even working in the dark)!

Here is the completly shingled roof peak over the front door:

04/12: Today the drywall scrap was cleaned out of the house and some prep work was done to the drywall getting it ready for mudding. The corners were covered with 'corner bead' (according to Pop) and there were lots of boxes of joint compound stacked up in the living room.

Here is the corner bead on the arches to the front door and to the guest bedrooms:

Also, the scratch coat was put up around the kitchen window on the outside of the house. Now it is ready for the stone!And to wrap this entry up - a complimentary picture of "the view" (love that blooming redbud!)

Well, I hope this meets Lonesome Duck standards (hurry home Mom!) - Sara

Remember the Alamo

No disrespect meant to any Texas natives who may be reading this post but when the fireplace was built Bobby thought it looked a bit too much like the Alamo! I didn't really "see it" until Friday night.......... ...when at the George Strait concert while he sang his song "Texas" they showed a montage of pictures from Texas and of course the Alamo was shown. And you know what, I saw it then too, our fireplace did look a lot like the Alamo!

Bobby had talked to Mark & Eric last week and asked them to un-Alamo the fireplace, the resulting new design will allow us to have a longer mantle! It will have to be a stone mantle though since the inspectors say a wood mantle would have to be 6.5 foot from the bottom of the fireplace box because of the heat output of this model. That would be a 7.5 foot tall mantle, a bit high don't you think!

As you can see from the picture above the drywall has been hung! A crew of two started on Friday and worked all weekend completing the job today! Love the look of the vaulted ceiling in the living room. Today was a cleanup day, we headed out in the morning and picked up lots of scrap wood and other construction trash and had a big bonfire which of course was Bobby's favorite part of the day, ask Sara to tell you about the aersol foam insulation can!Wish I would have got a picture of the fire when it was at it's highest! It was quite a sight to see!

So Much Progress Inside & Out!

04/08: Hooray for sunshine that dried up all the mud! Roofing is progressing nicely thanks to Mr. Roofer who may be wondering why I'm taking his picture.

Check out the front door and windows! And the prep work being done for the stone! 04/08: Here's the front door from the inside. Love it, love it, love it! Bet it will look really good once the cardboard is removed! Insulation was put up today too!


04/08: Arches from the living room into the entryways to the bedrooms and front door. A nice surprise touch added by Eric the foreman of the framing crew who was also the architect who drew up the plans based off the 8.5 x 11 inch plans we found on the internet!

Don't they look great?


04/08: Sliding glass door from master bedroom to back porch! Looking forward to the future when you all can come join us and spend some time on that back porch!

And I almost forgot to mention...drywall was dropped off and put in each room readied for the drywallers to begin work tomorrow!

Rain Delay

The rain continues to fall in Lawrence. Sigh..........

Even with the rain there has been some progress out at LD Acres the last couple of days. Yesterday the windows and doors were delivered and installed. Douglas County inspectors came today, and found only a couple of small things to be changed.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

04/01: Firebox installed.

04/01: Furnace installed. This made me smile, the furnace guy left us a permanent note on the filter size and a reminder to change the filter monthly! He even included the date! He's waiting to install the hot water heater until the house is secured!

04/02: Good Friday. Lots of rain in the morning. Rough-in electrical work started. Cabinet, granite, & sink order finalized and paid for at Home Depot. Kind of a funny story, Home Depot called the bank to verify the check, apparently a new teller answered the phone and wasn't sure what to do since the check was for $11,000 and there was only a $15 balance in the account. Luckily the lady was there to explain to her that it was a construction loan account and to OK the check. Still she was glad to see us when we came in with the documentation for the draw! While we were in Baldwin at the bank we had lunch at a small family diner named Cordoba's. Josh used to go there for lunch when he worked for the Baldwin Junction vet clinic. They have really good hamburgers and homemade pie too! We may become regulars once we move!

04/05: Laundry room. Some kind of fancy contraption for mixing the hot/cold water.

04/05: Heavy rains this morning. The chimney and other vents that go through the roof were completed, nice shiny vent pipes visible now (sorry no picture).

The picture below is the electrical switches for the lights in the master bath shower and closet.

Lots of wires everywhere!

I Hear the Train a Coming

Instead of hunting for eggs at our house this morning we went hunting for steam locomotives! Bobby had read that this UP steam locomotive would be traveling from Topeka to Lawrence this morning so we drove out to Lecompton and waited and watched it go by in all of it's glory! Impressive machine!

No Fooling

04/01: April Showers! Shower installed in the smaller bathroom.

That black tubing hanging down is flexible ductwork, who knew they had such a thing! The fireplace was installed today but I accidentally deleted the picture, oops! Furnace was installed, no picture of that either, what a photo slacker! Roofing delayed while the plumber finishes all of the venting that requires holes in the roof (you can see the master bath vent in this picture). Bobby met with the contractor and they marked the location of all of the electrical outlets, phone and cable outlets and finalized light and ceiling fan locations. And last but not least, the power company put in two new poles on the other side of the road and one on the frontage of our property. "Our property", I still get a kick out of realizing we are landowners!