My friend Paul who was gracious enough to lend his truck and strong back to the project.

The driveway end of the path.  It's hard to tell in the photo but there is a slight rise in the path.

The sidewalk side, we used some of the bigger stones here to fill things in nicely.

A nice low level shot to show the elevation changes.

Overall shot after the landscaping gravel was used to fill in the spaces.  Whole project took less than a couple of hours, probably the first time I have ever over estimated the time it took to complete a home improvement project.

Dragged my ladder out for this late afternoon shot.
I think my camera was struggling with the light reflecting off of the tumbled quartz pavers.

Tree!!!!

Behold, our sugar tooth maple arrives.

This looks like a fun job.

A really fun job, what a cute little backhoe.

Not too shabby for $50, thanks Bozeman Cost Share Tree Program!

Raised Bed Veggie GardenTac

I didn't have anyone to help me carry a completed raised planting bed from the garage to the backyard, so I assembled the sides in the garage and then carried them to the backyard for final assembly.

I assembled it upside down so that I could attach a wire mesh to the bottom of the bed to keep the gophers out.  Also took advantage of being outside by doing a little grilling.

It was pretty close to nightfall by the time I finished up.
I was just shoveling some dirt around the foundation when it started to pour.

Limei only comes out with the sun.

It was a bit of a stretch for her to get over the chicken wire, but she managed.

A job well done.

Time for Landscaping

We had 3 piles of dirt at least that big to move around.

Look at how smooth that dirt is... not sure what he's reaching for though.

The start of a tropical paradise.  Of sorts.

Potted plants enjoying the rays.

Starting to lay some rocks and get the path established.

Now we're getting somewhere.  Note my Dad taking a break in the background.  Slacker :)

Limei came out as soon as she heard the "P" word.  Plant ;)

And there it is, our finished rock walled flower beds complete with meandering path.  Now we just need to get something to grow in them.

The past couple of weeks have been insanely busy, there has barely been time to catch my breath.  The good news is that we are on schedule and we've gotten approval for the mortgage from the underwriter... pretty much.  Still some paperwork to round up for them, each request gets more ridiculous than the last.  Just need to promise them our first born son and sign our souls away to the devil and we should be in the clear.  

There's only one way to survive the final week of construction on a new house:
Chocolate Chip Cake and Ice Cream!

We finally got to pull up the dirty construction paper and see how our oak floor survived painting.  Thankfully there weren't too many hidden surprises.

The exterior painting is all done.  I took this after a day spent staining all of the wood on the front of the house.  Would have liked to get some pictures of that process but everyone's hands were too dirty to handle the camera.

I believe this is after one coat of finish on the floor.  You'll have to wait until the final walkthrough to see it in it's entirety ;)

Another one that I wish we had taken more pictures of - insulation installation in the crawl space.  It was pretty easy to do but really hot since we were insulating the radiant heat pipes.

Clean clean clean, those were the words of the day for Limei ;)

It was absolutely gorgeous this past weekend, I wish I had worn shorts.

Believe it or not this is my wife mere moments later.  She was not excited to be cleaning that day...

I think she had something more like this on her mind :)

And finally the shower door was installed yesterday, it really tied our bathroom together.  Coming up next - a video walkthrough!

Almost there...

Warm weather finally came, it's time for some paint!

First pic of the back of the house in awhile.
Lots of big windows to let in light and enjoy the view ;)

I was surprised to see the painters working this afternoon, the wind was gusting so bad that
it was blowing the plastic off of the house.  Apparently it came up out of nowhere and they had just finished up.  There's still a little trim to paint, and I'll be staining the wood this weekend.

Meanwhile inside the cabinets and countertops are mostly in.  The backsplashes for all of the counters were the wrong size :P

Limei checking things out.  She's really happy with the way things are turning out....

...as illustrated here :)

Trim in our master bedroom.

Trim in our master bedroom.

A long piece of trim is tacked to the top of the doors so that they will hold each other up,
leaving easy access for staining and finishing.

Sanding between coats of finish.

We had to lay all of the doors down for the final coat of finish,
it was the only way we could get it to spray on smoothly without running.

After a long day of wrestling with the paint sprayer on Saturday.  For obvious reasons it's not a good idea to take pictures while actually painting.  Got it all done though ;)

And the cabinets are going in next, along with electrical and plumbing.

More Floor

Not in the house guys!

It's not often that you open your front door and find someone raking cement.

The tar paper gets cut off right at cement level.  The camera didn't pick it up, but you could see the cement steaming.

Ted with the drum sander, a very loud and obnoxious tool if there ever was one.

Ted stained the entryway first.  It looked pretty good, but we ended up putting a second coat of an ebony stain on the darker rings to get them to stand out more.

I got to help wipe the stain, but as you can see Ted's hands were a little messy to take any pictures of me working, but work I assure you I did.

There's something magical about stain, I'm really glad I got these pictures of it being applied. You can really see the wood coming to life.

This was done late the night before so the stain has had plenty of time to dry.  It's lost some of it's sheen, but will be getting it back with the finish.

An around the corner shot as we were walking out the door.  It's a beautiful floor, I think it's really cool how different it can look depending on how the light is hitting it.