7.30.09 Windows go in, framing is complete!
7.28.09 Front porch goes on!
7.24.09 Framing the garage roof.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Shame on me!
Was it really as long ago as July that I last posted on our blog?!?! OMG, I have a lot of catching up to do! I was getting lazy just adding photos to Snapfish...shame on me!
So here goes!
7.21.09 - roof trusses for house go on!
7.20.09 - 2nd floor framing in progress.
7.16.09 - 1st floor & garage are framed.
7.15.09 - deck is on!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Lots of progress!
Now that things have really started to move along, I am posting all of the photos we take on each visit (you can imagine its quite a few!) to a group room on Snapfish.com. If you would like me to send you the link to the group room just let me know. I'll continue to post progress photos on the Blog for those of you who just want an overview! :)
07.09.09 Progress shot...backfilled & ready for the deck & framing!
07.08.09 Progress shot...foundation drainage finished & ready to be backfilled.
07.07.09 Progress shot...more drainage and detail-work.
07.06.09 Progress shot...installing waterproofing, drain pipes for downspouts & foundation drains.
07.03.09 Progress shot...foundation poured & forms stripped from foundation.
07.09.09 Progress shot...backfilled & ready for the deck & framing!
07.08.09 Progress shot...foundation drainage finished & ready to be backfilled.
07.07.09 Progress shot...more drainage and detail-work.
07.06.09 Progress shot...installing waterproofing, drain pipes for downspouts & foundation drains.
07.03.09 Progress shot...foundation poured & forms stripped from foundation.
Happy home builders! :)
07.02.09 Progress shot...freshly poured basement walls with forms still intact!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
More from a busy week...
6.27.09 The forms are delivered for a bright and early start Monday morning! Walls should be up by the 4th of July!
6.24.09 Footers with stone -- ready for the walls!
6.24.09 Footers with stone -- ready for the walls!
6.23.09 Progress shot
6.23.09 We've got FOOTERS!!
~LK
6.22.09 Groundbreaking!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6.22.09
CBL Snyder Corp and their site man, Jim, started broke ground at 5599 Vermont Hill Road! In less than a full day's work, Jim removed all the stumps and buried them, pushed up 3 huge piles of dirt and topsoil, and stripped the site where the house and driveway will be. We couldn't believe all they did in one day. And that was just the beginning of a great week!
6.23.09 Progress Shot
I'm going to take a picture from this vantage point often so we can see the progression...neat!
Our Foundation Hole!!!
~LK
CBL Snyder Corp and their site man, Jim, started broke ground at 5599 Vermont Hill Road! In less than a full day's work, Jim removed all the stumps and buried them, pushed up 3 huge piles of dirt and topsoil, and stripped the site where the house and driveway will be. We couldn't believe all they did in one day. And that was just the beginning of a great week!
6.23.09 Progress Shot
I'm going to take a picture from this vantage point often so we can see the progression...neat!
Our Foundation Hole!!!
~LK
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Catching up!
As many of you have noted I'm long overdue in posting photos from our house project. I don't know where the time goes! We have been very busy since January clearing the land and finalizing the design details. It's finally spring and the land is returning to the lush and fragrant state that we found it in last year at this time. Here are some snip-its from all the man- and woman-hours we've logged out on Vermont Hill Road!
This shot is from last night (5/25). George (Dad K.), Keith and I worked on clearing the hill to the southeast behind where the house will be. With this clearing we can really start to see what a great view we will have from our kitchen windows and back porch!
We set up our chairs and the coffee table George made us in my "grove" yesterday to eat our sandwiches. This is one of my favorite spots on the land. I cannot WAIT to sling a hammock between two of the trees and take a nap on a lazy (I'm really dreaming here!) Sunday afternoon next summer!
We were not alone on the land yesterday..."Fawnie" was hanging with us. She (he?) still has her spots so we are not sure where Mom is... :( She let me get within 8 feet of her before she bolted to the next thicket. The next photo is her en route to new cover!
Run Fawnie! :)
We planted 30 baby pine trees on a Sunday in April. It was not a warm day - and not a quick project, of course. No joke - under Keith's strict instruction I used satalittes and GPS technology to strategically place the string for our rows (really). Then we measured exactly 15 feet between each tree, then dug the hole, then positioned the roots just so in the hole, then patted the dirt into the holes...to plant them! Average planting time - 10 minutes per tree. Miracuoulsy we were still speaking to eachother at the end of the day! And with every Keith project, it came out fabulous. A few more gray hairs won't hurt me - they are justification for my trips to the salon! :) On this same day, Uncle Bob and Aunt Gail came out to see the land and lend a hand. Thanks for visiting!!
THANK GOODNESS for GREAT NEIGHBORS!
This is what family is all about...
In early May after his back healed from his own house projects, Rick and Kelly and their new baby puppy Miley came out and helped us with some more clearing near the road. Kelly and I stocked the fire while Rick and Keith decided which way to drop one of the trees that had to come down from along the driveway. In between two monsoons we got a lot done! Thanks so much to Rick and Kelly for sparing an afternoon in the midst of their project! 
Every so often another neat item shows up at the land. First "Bucky", the target deer from George and Joyce's backyard, showed up to stand guard. Then the "Home" sign showed up to point the way to our new house. More recently George has been creating a new line of furniture cut directly from nature! His tree stump end tables are perfect for enjoying a PB&J and hot tea on a cool spring day! They go perfectly with the latest edition; his tree stump benches (shown in an earlier photo). And top off a hard day's work with a swing on our tree swing (not shown)! 
This shot is from last night (5/25). George (Dad K.), Keith and I worked on clearing the hill to the southeast behind where the house will be. With this clearing we can really start to see what a great view we will have from our kitchen windows and back porch!
We set up our chairs and the coffee table George made us in my "grove" yesterday to eat our sandwiches. This is one of my favorite spots on the land. I cannot WAIT to sling a hammock between two of the trees and take a nap on a lazy (I'm really dreaming here!) Sunday afternoon next summer!
We were not alone on the land yesterday..."Fawnie" was hanging with us. She (he?) still has her spots so we are not sure where Mom is... :( She let me get within 8 feet of her before she bolted to the next thicket. The next photo is her en route to new cover!
Run Fawnie! :)
We planted 30 baby pine trees on a Sunday in April. It was not a warm day - and not a quick project, of course. No joke - under Keith's strict instruction I used satalittes and GPS technology to strategically place the string for our rows (really). Then we measured exactly 15 feet between each tree, then dug the hole, then positioned the roots just so in the hole, then patted the dirt into the holes...to plant them! Average planting time - 10 minutes per tree. Miracuoulsy we were still speaking to eachother at the end of the day! And with every Keith project, it came out fabulous. A few more gray hairs won't hurt me - they are justification for my trips to the salon! :) On this same day, Uncle Bob and Aunt Gail came out to see the land and lend a hand. Thanks for visiting!!
THANK GOODNESS for GREAT NEIGHBORS!
Our future neighbors are amazing! They have helped us more than we could ever imagine future neighbors helping with a crazy undertaking like this. Besides George, Chuck has been our most faithful helper. He cut down 20+ of our "big" trees and made it look like a piece of cake! Growing up around a saw mill taught him how to handle a saw with ease and we are so grateful for his expertise. As a realative rookie with a saw, Keith would still be working up the courage to tackle the big ones! THANK YOU CHUCK!
This is what family is all about...
Even with everything that Steve has going on, he found the time to build us the very first structure to be placed on our land! He built us this shed out of pallets, tarp, and a scrap bathroom door from Spring Garden. So cool! He surprised us with it on a sunny afternoon in April when he delivered it. It's perfect for storing our tools, lawn chairs, etc. And he built so we could store the 4-wheeler in it if we wanted to! Brilliant! Thank you Steve!!
A firey welcome to the neighborhood!
We are very lucky to have had many visitors and helpers at our land! On a Saturday in April Mikie Z. came out to help us clear and burn more brush. He and George assessed the largest of our piles from last fall and quickly determined that it was best to burn the pile in place, as-is. This was not our normal procedure. Every other weekend we started a fire in another location and fed it with brush from our big piles from last fall. But not this weekend! George and Mike dumped on the old oil, thru in a few pieces of newspaper, and lit it up. With in minutes the pile was fully engulfed and ROARING! It was crackling so much that Chuck and Kathy could hear it across the street! We ended up running around the fire for the next half hour putting out mini firest that started to spread! Fortunately we contained the fire but it was questionable at a few points! Burning the woods down would have been an interesting way to join our new neighborhood!
We are very lucky to have had many visitors and helpers at our land! On a Saturday in April Mikie Z. came out to help us clear and burn more brush. He and George assessed the largest of our piles from last fall and quickly determined that it was best to burn the pile in place, as-is. This was not our normal procedure. Every other weekend we started a fire in another location and fed it with brush from our big piles from last fall. But not this weekend! George and Mike dumped on the old oil, thru in a few pieces of newspaper, and lit it up. With in minutes the pile was fully engulfed and ROARING! It was crackling so much that Chuck and Kathy could hear it across the street! We ended up running around the fire for the next half hour putting out mini firest that started to spread! Fortunately we contained the fire but it was questionable at a few points! Burning the woods down would have been an interesting way to join our new neighborhood!
Besides nearly starting a three-alarm fire :), Mike was a huge help with additional clearing and loading up wood for stacking. Thanks Mikie!
In early May after his back healed from his own house projects, Rick and Kelly and their new baby puppy Miley came out and helped us with some more clearing near the road. Kelly and I stocked the fire while Rick and Keith decided which way to drop one of the trees that had to come down from along the driveway. In between two monsoons we got a lot done! Thanks so much to Rick and Kelly for sparing an afternoon in the midst of their project!
Every so often another neat item shows up at the land. First "Bucky", the target deer from George and Joyce's backyard, showed up to stand guard. Then the "Home" sign showed up to point the way to our new house. More recently George has been creating a new line of furniture cut directly from nature! His tree stump end tables are perfect for enjoying a PB&J and hot tea on a cool spring day! They go perfectly with the latest edition; his tree stump benches (shown in an earlier photo). And top off a hard day's work with a swing on our tree swing (not shown)!
On one of the warmest days in early May, Joyce brought Grandma Krug out to see our land! She came out and sat in the lawn chair and soaked in some great VT Hill sun while she marveled at all the manual labor going on! We are so glad Grandma was able to join us on this afternoon!
And last but certainly not least is the newest addition to our "toys". Our very own John Deere! Thanks to Mom and Dad P. we are now the proud owners of this tractor that served my Mom very well for mowing and plowing many years. Dad found us a super brush hog so we could keep the brush and weeds down on the other 7 acres around the house! Dad delivered it on a beautiful Friday evening in late May and had some fun starting the brush cutting for us! It works so well to clear out the undergrowth and tall grass that makes our land nearly impassable by midsummer. THANKS soooooooooooo much Mom and Dad!
So that's the latest from Vermont Hill! Stay tuned for much more to come. Now that we picked CBL Snyder as our builder, it's only a matter of time before the REALLY fun pictures and adventures start!
~LK
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Draft House Plans!!
This is the front elevation of the house we hope to build! Our designer, Holly, has been so great to work with. She took our ideas and made them real for us. Of course, being the detail-oriented engineers we are, we've been tweeking the plans. The really exciting part is I know we are going to be thrilled with the end result.
We are currently awaiting estimates from a builder to see where we stand in reference to our budget. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't have to go back to the drawing board altogether!
~LK
More land clearing snip-its...
Pink sky at night...our view due west (towards the road)
These photos are from three other days we worked on the land in December and early January. Our last day out on the land was 1/4/09. Since we're having an "old fashioned" winter around here with consistent cold and snowy weather, the snow has taken over -- and we have to do all snowmobiling we can while the conditions permit! Wanted to share these photos...perhaps our last until spring!
This one is of Keith wrestling some vines out of our trees...
Steve and I joined in the fight...and as you can see, the vines nearly won!
Never underestimate the ingenuity of a German...especially George Krug! When he couldn't get the brush to burn as well as he hoped he brought out all the stops. His 'fire-building supplies' included some standards like kindling (dried all week in the basement) and newspaper...and some specialty items you don't normally find in use on a vacant lot in the middle of 80 acres like a fan! Yup! He wired up a small fan to a car battery so he could get enough air on his fire! Now that's determination! :) Our future neighbor, Chuck, also lent a hand to get the fire going. If you aren't handy enough to wire up a fan, a leaf blower will do in a pinch!
George is also known for his unique attention to detail. Along with "Bucky", our very own deer who guards the property when we aren't there, he brought us a sign to point the way to our future home. Nice touch!
There are so many neat things about our land. For one, a friend and former colleague, Rita Markel and her husband Lew live about 1 mile away! Another excellent feature is the undeveloped park we have just a few hundreds yards away. It's called Hunters Creek park and it's known by the locals as a great place for hiking, cross country skiing (although not for the faint of heart), mountain biking and just enjoying nature. On January 4th Rita and I ventured into the park to check it out. She and Lew have logged many miles in there but it was my first time in. This is a photo from the trail we hiked. It is BEAUTIFUL in the park - breathtaking even! I feel so fortunate to have something like this just steps from our home. I can't wait to check out more of it! You can find out more about our park and view a map at http://www.hunters-creek.org/.
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