Forget Halloween - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...until we can move in, which is pretty fustrating given the original date was July 15th. How can it possibly be 5 months late? Go figure.


Well, at least the driveway will be in.

Maybe!!!!!

It is not done yet.






Guess what arrived this week?

A blanket for our driveway to keep it warm. (or not)

or a guest house for our friends and family.











The highly sought after granite. There was one minor problem. One of the slab pieces had a big chip in it. Luckily, they had enough left over material to make a new piece.




They also have the 2nd coat of cabinet staining done. It's nice to finally have some color in the house. The granite is called Laurention green. It's very dark green with some black and quartzite in it. It goes nicely with the cherry cabinets.
The living room hearth and cabinets are in the final phase of staining.















Our painter, Eldon. He is the best!

This is the start of the storage shed. (Like we don't have enough storage.)It will be nice for yard tools, etc.

We have a bet with our bulder that we will complete the shed before the house is completed. Double or nothing.

Making Merlot

When the going gets tough - make wine.

Start with 110 lbs of grapes from our neighbor's vineyard, South Stage Estate Vineyard.
Owners-Larry and Bonnie.

Make sure the sugar content is 24-27. These are 26.5.
Clean and sanitary equipment is important. In this case, an old bathtub and a grinder that separates the grapes from the stems and leaves.
Have the appropriate supplies. You need a Refractometer to measure the sugar levels and chemicals to measure the acid content.

A glass of wine is also appropriate and enables one to do the above with the utmost precision.









We used our other neighbor's garage and general wine making facility. Artie has been making wine for years.


Very high tech.










And now, in go the grapes...
...out comes a sort of mulched grape mush sans leaves and most of the stems.
This is where you can stomp if you wish.

The next step is to cold store the grapes to get good color levels from the skins.
The final step is to press the grapes and then wait for the fermenting process.





















Here is a sample of the end product in the fermentation stage. It is called 'Artie's Special'.

We continue to creep ahead on the house as well as resolve ongoing challenges...

Here we have the driveway outlined for the concrete guy who may or may not be there tomorrow...

back to the wine...

Well, the good news is...

...the stucco is finally complete.




(click on photo to enlarge)
The bad news is...












...what is on the house does not match the chimney. The house is supposed to be the same color as the fascia which is the light board trim under the brown roof trim. Ah, the joys of home building.



The inside wood work is getting stained...















...except for the kitchen island which was made out of the wrong king of wood. It is supposed to be cherry. The cabinet guy made it paint grade. More joys....
We did have some fun last weekend celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Jerry's 60th birthday. The guy is amazing. He has run 3 marathons in the last three years.
More friends from the Jacksonville Inn and the Owner of Callahans which just burnt down.



Our favorite next door neighbors Larry and Bonnie.







It was a nice break from the joys of home building.





The limo man was off this week.

No Blog this week- We're Pooped