inside / outside

inside: the first floor walls are mostly primed save a few places the drywallers need to attend to, and the concrete floor polishing has begun. our floors have been covered with black protective paper for months and it's just lovely to say hello to them at last. first a rough grind to expose aggregate. (these pictures were taken at this stage.) the final polish and seal finished up tomorrow. all the polishing hubbub did a number on the primer, so it's not lovely and white anymore. but no worries, the final top coat of paint will make it all dreamy again.

the floors have cracked, as expected. our options were to have it laid in tiles... and perhaps still expect some cracking. or to let it crack organically, which is what we opted for.
a little built-in imperfection and perhaps a reminder for me to just let things go.

we're waiting on interior window trim and trim pieces that go along the floor. and then, some of my sun-starved plants may just have an early move-in day. we store our house plans in the fireplace. no reason.

outside: we started putting up the barn wood siding. each row takes a bit of planning as it's all been reclaimed from local barns and every piece has 100 years of imperfection and patina.  this may well have been one of the most satisfying days of house building as we finally started to see the final look come together. at the end of the day we cracked a few beers and stood around admiring our work, it was almost comical.

my favorite thing is the way the old wood seems to change color from different angles. dark and moody from one direction, light and almost driftwood-like from another. the offcuts will become heat. i like that part, too.

i just want to say thank you for following along this little journey. it's been a long and fascinating learning process for us, and at times quite frustrating. but it's been so nice to be able to share it with you and hear your feedback. truly grateful to have you all here, i really am.

xo. r