(en)Closure

Brief update for those still following along. We've been taking process photos but the film has not been developed yet (our digital cameras were MIA). Below are a few more recent images and we hope to supplement them with some more in-between shots a little later on. For now, the house is enclosed. All doors are in and interior framing is essentially done. The roof is insulated and spray-foamed. There's some miscellaneous framing still left on the exterior. We even have kitchen cabinets fresh from IKEA on site, though it will be a couple of weeks before we are ready for them.

The doors are covered with "protective" films inside and out which Andersen boasts will help keep the windows protected and make painting easier. The problem is that the film stops 1/4" from the frame meaning that painting is no easier; unless you want a 1/4" wide paint strip around your windows.

Morning light in the shower.

The ceiling is complete. The cutout running perpendicular to the ceiling joists will be a recessed light trough.

Radiant tubing.

General Update

No pictures to accommodate this post. Not because progress hasn't occurred but because we have been a little scatterbrained over the past couple of weeks. First, a brief update on construction. Photos to follow hopefully in the next couple of days. The house is fully wrapped in the WallShield and the windows are all in. Skylights are in and watertight and the roof is finished except for final trimming and flashing. It's rained and there have been no leaks so far for those concerned. We had a brief setback on Friday in that the door rough openings were tight at the head so all r.o.'s had to be enlarged. Anne and I ripped rigid insulation down for the ceiling this weekend and got a little over half the ceiling stuffed before we ran out of foam. When that is complete we will have another inch or so of spray foam added to it for the air and vapor barrier. The roof over the bedroom deck has been mostly framed. That is where we are as of yesterday. But yes, August 31st came and we are still not in our house yet. But we're closer.

In other news, we have been moving all over the place and are now settled in at Richard and Lorraine's house to which we owe them a huge thanks for putting us up. The dog loves it up there and the cat will join us this afternoon. To get to this point...

Our lease was up August 31st and the moving frenzy started on Wednesday. A moving van was unavailable until Friday afternoon (and it was an hour-and-a-half away) so we could only move stuff using Anne's father's pick-up which he was kind enough to let us borrow for a while. Anne returned on Wednesday and we made a few trips on Thursday. We continued to pack stuff but it was a gargantuan task. I drove to Bangor to get the van and we started loading it. Around 7:00 the Collins' and Rob and May Krieg showed up to help us move. We finished loading the van but couldn't quite get everything in so Rob, Josh, Kari and I drove over to the storage sheds to unload it. Everyone else continued to clean our house. We got back around 10 pm and everyone was pretty tired. The house was half clean but there was still some stuff left to move plus the trash and stuff for the dump. We pushed the old sofa off the deck and loaded it into the truck. We sent everyone home at that point as it was getting late. We owe all that helped a huge thanks as we never would have pulled it off without them. Anne continued to clean and I continued to load. Henry showed up and helped us load the truck with stuff for the dump. We had three cars and did the shuffle to get one to the place we were cat-sitting for the weekend. We went back and I took the trash and dumped it and took the van to the storage sheds to unload then drove it back to Bangor. I returned back to Bar Harbor at 7 am and Anne had just finished cleaning. We got a little sleep then Anne drove the cat to Brewer to be boarded and I drove the truck to the dump to toss a lot of stuff.

We then moved to Dan and Nancy's cabin in Trenton on the water. A lovely spot with beautiful sunsets; thank you very much Dan and Nancy. We spent a week there before shifting to Angela and Kenny's for a couple of days and then moving into Richard and Lorraine's place where we shall stay until the beginning of October when we will move into our house. We are deeply indebted to all that helped us either moving/cleaning or providing a place for us to stay. Thank you.