The house is just about all "buttoned up". The new windows are in and all of the exterior work is done--except for some painting of the trim which may have to wait until May as it's too cold to paint. Yesterday it was 6 degrees at 8:00 in the morning! This picture shows the stairs going from the dining room up to the 3 upstairs rooms. We removed the old suspended ceiling and the wall that enclosed the staircase. Doesn't look like much yet, but it's getting there!
Great news on the flooring front--we've found someone who can refinish the floors and save the original fir! So the only new flooring in the house will be in the two bathroom areas.
The latest obstacle: a building moratorium. Apparently the previous owners did some logging a couple of years ago. When you log, you have to apply for a permit which includes placing a 6-year moratorium on building--presumably so that the area can be reforested. When they applied for their permit, instead of carefully calling out the area that would be logged, they called out the ENTIRE 400+ acre parcel--which includes the house! It was not a problem up until now because the county has not required permits for our basic remodeling. But we may have to put in a new septic system and our porch addition requires a permit. So now we have to jump through some more hoops to get 5 acres pulled out of the moratorium. Never a dull moment!!
