There hasn’t been a lot to really talk about over the past 2 months or so…has it been that long? Ugh. Not to say we haven’t made progress, but the cold, rain and a bit of same old, same old means that I’ve been lazy about posting any updates.
But, now we have news! This past week, the framing, electric and rough plumbing was finally complete and we were able to request the inspection to give the go-ahead to do the insulation. Of course, the very next day we had the foam insulation company come in and spray the walls and ceilings. Of course, their work wasn’t quite up to Peder’s standard, so they had to come back the next day to fix the places where the foam didn’t quite expand enough or they didn’t shave the overflow enough to get it in line with the framing. That done, the inspector was called back to give us the thumbs up to start the drywall….so exciting!!
Another milestone hit — and huge improvement to the overall look of the house — was getting the new windows installed. However, this is another area where the product and job hasn’t quite met the quality control standard….even with Archie (dog pictured below) supervising the effort! Peder noticed that there were some small cracks and crackling in some of the frames and we’ve had Pella out a couple times trying to fix them in place, but it’s looking like they will end up having to come and replace a few. Not sure when that will happen, but no doubt will mean additional rework on trim and paint. But, for the most part, we think the new black-trim windows look fantastic!
In between some of the busy work, we were able to do some additional improvements to the yard and landscaping. First was the building of a mailbox structure. These are pretty popular in Northwest Arkansas and we felt with all the work we were doing to beautify the house, our mailbox also needed a facelift. We were able to get a mason who we had worked with for our pool surround in Centerton to come and design something for this house…and he did not disappoint! A full day of labor by the mason and a couple days for paint to match the house and the results are perfect.
The other landscaping was getting some plants added to the wall in front of the house and some shrubs/bushes along the fence to the side of the driveway. Hopefully we can keep the frost out of the night air so that we don’t lose any of the plantings. We also purchased some trees from a landscape center and hope to get them in the ground in the next week or so.
A final touch to the yard was the removal of the old and replacement with a new garden shed in the back yard. As we talked to a neighbor about removing the old shed, she indicated that her father might be interested in taking it versus us having to destroy it and haul it to the dump. This was an awesome all around solve and we were able to make that work. One day for them to haul it away and another day to schedule delivery of the new shed. We did paint it, again to match the black and white house theme, but in reverse colors. Peder is now working on building out shelving etc. to create a “she shed” on one side for Laura and garden/lawn equipment on the other side for himself. Behind the shed you can see the new privacy fence that was also installed. We figure the neighbors are thrilled because they all benefit from this improvement as well!
Olive Pit 2 Perfect 