The Hof Haus

Finished!!

Goose — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:48:42 +0000

Well, we moved in and are starting to get settled. The move was grueling and nobody ever wants to do it again. I would like to thank The Boyle School of Irish Dance for picking such a perfect week for their recital! My sister and I got out of one moving and one cleaning day off because of the dress rehearsal and recital! (hee hee!) We were awed by all the people who came and helped us moved in spite of the heat and the ridiculous amount of stuff we have. We are very surprised that they are still our friends!

I don’t think I will be posting anything more (maybe I will do the patio and the walkway which they are working on now), but if you want to see something in particular just let me know and I will try to post it.

Here is a picture of the house that I LOVE!

I think the sunset looks gorgeous!

Here is the picture of the other lone tree (not the one was cut down), that I took while I was at the pond yesterday.

Everybody is enjoying the new house. Much time is spent at the pond (trying to catch minnows which have infested the pond since last summer ). We hadn’t even been here two days when our former pastor stopped by and blessed the house. Perfect! We are looking forward to many good times with family and friends!

Filed under: The House, The Land Tagged: pond, sunset, tree

Our “Green” Decision

Goose — Sun, 30 May 2010 00:59:33 +0000

My Dad spent a lot of time researching solar panels and figured out that with all the grants out there, they almost paid for themselves. The panels are going to heat our hot water (don’t worry we have electrical back up!).

Here is a picture of them . . .

120 gallons of water was heated to 135 degrees today, all for free! I think this means we can take super long showers now!

Filed under: The House Tagged: green, solar panels

The Big Decision . . .

Goose — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:35:34 +0000

Granite!

Here are the pictures . . .

It is called Madura Gold.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: granite

Over and Done With!

Goose — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:30:42 +0000

Okay this is kind of delayed but they aren’t technically finished yet so I’m not posting super old news. All the paint is on the walls and all problems are resolved! The peachy color was the company’s fault and it was repainted. It is still a little on the peachy side but much better! We picked the same color for the mudroom as the library but kept the bathroom my green.

Here are some colors that I have not posted yet . . .

After much thought my parents decided to paint their bedroom blue, and this is the on they picked.

This is the color of my brothers bedroom and the rec room (or home theater room, my brother hopes!).

Filed under: The House

Everything and Anything!

Goose — Mon, 17 May 2010 01:07:54 +0000

There’s a lot happening and the driveway is always full of trucks, so I will try to catch up . . .

We put in wrought iron balusters instead of wood because we thought it looked less colonial and love the look of them.

Here are the mudroom lockers which are stained now but I never got a picture. The bottoms are open with a little ledge to sit on. It does not require much effort to put our shoes in. We like little effort. . .

Here are some of our favorite lights . . .

They aren’t really purple but since my brother took the picture (hee hee!) they look purple (I think so at least). They are actually outdoor lights but we think they look really cool.

These look kind of silvery, but when we turn them on we think they will look more amber . . .

We all LOVE this one! Another overstock.com treasure.

Funkomatic!

Here is the finished family room fireplace . . .

Another too short beam is repurposed as the mantle.

The cabinets were put in the kitchen. The counter tops were templated and will be here soon!

Filed under: The House Tagged: balusters, cabinets, kitchen, lights, lockers, stairs

Dirty and Clean!

Goose — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:47:15 +0000

The Dirty Part:

Soooooooo . . . would like to know where all the toilet contents go? Neither would I! But you’re going to find out if you keep on reading! (Mr. F, I know you’re going to like this part!) Don’t worry there is nothing inside!

Clean Part:

Hey, that wasn’t so bad! We’re talking about clean stuff though!

After two weeks of dirty (oops bad word!) water . . .

Clean water!

Filed under: The Land Tagged: septic, water

Thank You Mr. Bridges!

Goose — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:18:52 +0000

Dear Mr. Bridges,

Thank you for your beautiful, bargain “bluestone connection.” We love the porch!

Now we just need to get rid of those redneck pillars! Finally, we can complete the porch.

FYI, the bluestone came from a quarry which my brother had visited while he was at summer camp!

Filed under: The House Tagged: bluestone, porch

Paint, Doors, and Other Things

Goose — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:17:19 +0000

Since my parents thought my last post was lame I took better pictures of the trim. And if you really don’t care (like me!) just skip that part.

Here is another pic of the door, because some parts had been cut off before.

More detail for the people who are interested. . .

The plinth blocks that are at the bottom of the trim.

The top of the trim, which is over the windows as well the doors.

The agonizing process of picking paint is over, so you can see the fruits now.

My room was a little brighter than expected but when you stand in there for a little while it grows on you.

This is exactly what I wanted but just imagine it way brighter and then add a neon glow to it. I don’t really mind it, the problem is it is also the color for the mudroom. Don’t know what were doing about that yet.

Then one of the colors which was supposed to be beige-ish turned out peach! Thankfully, the error was not ours and the paint company mixed it incorrectly(we picked out paint from a different company then had them match it).

Other than that we love all the colors, here are some pictures that I think are close to the real thing (the colors never seem to turn out right in the pictures, even when I turn the flash off ).

Look at the back wall in this picture, believe it or not the walls are the same color. That is the color for the first and second floor hallways.

I think this is pretty close to the actual color, which is an upstairs room and other places which I can’t remember.

The front door was put in recently.

Here is another door that we like.

My Dad thinks the window might be too small!

The unfinished retaining wall.

Here is another view which shows where it is in respect to the house.

Filed under: The House, The Land Tagged: door, paint, retaining wall, trim

A Few Things

Goose — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:51:52 +0000

Just realized it’s been THREE weeks since I posted last! Oops!

The fireplace with its mantel.

The garage doors. They are not very visible (only from the side) but my Dad loves that they are super insulated (something about the R factor?).

The porch was poured, it’s going to have a slate border where the indentation is.

My mom’s laundry room table which she loves!

The upstairs doors were put in and the trim was started.

They have finished priming and our moving on to painting colors. We designed lockers for the mudroom that will practically clean the room themselves! HA!

Filed under: The House Tagged: doors, fireplace, garage, laundry room, porch

Drywall

Goose — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:39:20 +0000

Drywall was started on Thursday of last week and will be finished this Thursday.

Here are a few pictures . . .

The dining room.

The Library.

My bedroom.

My parent’s bathroom which has water resistant drywall (along with all the other bathrooms).

Right now we are trying to choose paint colors. Ugh!

Filed under: The House Tagged: bathroom, bedrooms, dining room, drywall, library, paint

I Forgot!

Goose — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:47:17 +0000

Here is the picture Mr F requested of the view from an upstairs window. Hope you like it!

The Blue Ridge Mountains are on the left and you can just barely see the chapel on the far right.

(After I wrote this post I realized that “Mr. F” wanted a picture of the landscape not the view. Oops! I will get that next time, sorry about that!)

One more thing I forgot . . .

Drywall gaskets. The black strips that are all over, they prevent air leakage through the drywall. “This was the final energy conservation measure before drywall.” (That was my Dad. Could you tell? )

Filed under: Insulation, The Land

Insulation

Goose — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:20:38 +0000

Here is another very factual post about very factual stuff.

The insulation was finished a few days ago and it has taken me a little while to post it!

Here is are some pics of the process . . .

Mesh fabric (doesn’t look like mesh or fabric to me but that is what my Dad says it is!) was spread over the walls and stapled.

A hole is punched into the mesh fabric then the fiberglass is blown into the wall.

The finished product.

An airtight electrical box which we have all over the house (they are the little orange squares that are all around the kitchen in the pic above).

Filed under: Insulation

Siding

Goose — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:41:01 +0000

The siding started going up Monday. It actually wasn’t one of the original options that I posted but something else we picked because we weren’t to crazy about the other options. We all LOVE it!

Here is a close up . . .

Its name is “Harvest Wheat” (I know some of you are thinking now: “Wait! I thought that was the name of one of the options?!” Well I got the name of the other one wrong ). It looks more pink in the picture but it really is grayish.

Here is the amount that was accomplished on Friday.

Filed under: The House

Spray Foam

Goose — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:45:53 +0000

The spray foam was applied on Monday (I know I am behind). Here are some pics . . .

It was sprayed into the joist end bands (and for those of use who do not know what this fancy terminology is, I’ll just call it the ceiling!).

After the foam is sprayed.

Then the extra foam was sawed off.

The finished product.

Filed under: Insulation Tagged: spray foam

Inspections and More!

Goose — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:33:06 +0000

We passed framing, HVAC, and plumbing inspections today! The electrical inspection is on Tuesday, then we will start insulating the house.

I have some random pics of different things . . .

Do you want to see our front door? It’s pretty cool!

Pretty cool!

The real one is currently in the warehouse.

Here is my brother after school and no sports to help get rid of his energy (he was being really weird and hyper!)

Don’t you love the look on his face!

After I took these past two the drill bit fell off!

Now for a different weapon . . .

He looks like an angry axeman!

Okay, you’ve probably seen enough of my brother with his lethal faces so I’ll stop now.

The next picture is not weird at all (I’m sure you’re happy!).

My favorite hallway with beams.

The library beams.

Filed under: Framing, The House Tagged: beams, door, electrical, Framing, HVAC, inspection, library, plumbing, upstairs hallway

What To Do?

Goose — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:19:52 +0000

We have this really cool chandelier that has an orange glow in our current dining room but we can’t think of a place to put it. We opted not to have a dining room in this house and it does not really go in the eat in area. We have had it in every house we have ever lived in.

(My Dad wanted to change the bulb and have me take another picture!)

It is from my grandfather’s house in CA.

He had this picture painted of his house by a local artist. You can see the glow from the chandelier in middle window.

My question is: what should we do with it?

We were thinking about taking it apart (the bulb part comes off) and using it as four pendants. Any suggestions? Please let me know!

Here is a detail of one of the pendants

Filed under: The House Tagged: dining room, lighting

NOT Slacking

Goose — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:26:26 +0000

I just wanted to let you all know that I am not slacking! There is really nothing exciting going on! Plumbing and electrical rough-in, electrical walk-through and lots of other boring stuff that is necessary but not interesting. This is all mostly the snow’s fault. I wasn’t able to get out of the house for a week! Supposedly, we are going to have 18-20 inches of snow on Monday! Don’t know if that’s true or not, hoping it’s not because I’m tired of snow! Update: We are not supposed to get any snow, or even rain. Big difference!

I wrote this yesterday and never posted it, but now I have a question for you . . .

What color should our siding be? Here are the options . . .

Regular

Close Up

The pictures are not great so I’ll describe them for you. A: Aged Cedar is kind of reddish, B: Harvest Wheat the less dark color is kind of grayish, and C: Vanilla Bean is a little darker and creamier than Harvest Wheat.

I will not tell you my thoughts until I have at least 5 suggestions, that means you have to answer (you too Mrs. M! )

Filed under: The House, The Land Tagged: electrical, plumbing, siding, snow, weather

Lots and Lots of Snow!

Goose — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:36:40 +0000

The snow fell very heavily here. We think it was around 2 1/2 feet! It was falling from 10:00 a.m. Friday till 3:00 Saturday. My Dad, brother and, I walked to Mass yesterday morning because our road hadn’t been plowed yet. It seemed very long!

Here is a pic showing how much snow fell . . .

We are supposed to get 7-14 inches tomorrow and possibly more on Thursday. Everybody is getting tired of snow, except for my brother who has been off of school since Friday.

My dad shoveled a path to the new house today, while he was waiting for our driveway to be plowed. It took him two hours!

Filed under: The Land Tagged: blizzard

Stairs, Windowseats and More!

Goose — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:23:38 +0000

The upstairs stairs were put in and guess how many window seats we have . . . SEVEN! That way we have lots of beds for family and friends!

Here is a pic of the stairs, then you may see our multitude of window seats.

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . you can see our many window seats!

The library window seat.

One of the family room window seats you can kind of see the other one on the right side.

The window seats in the master bedroom. For kids who are afraid of the monsters under their beds!

The window seat on the way to the upstairs. I thought I took a picture of the basement window seat but I didn’t.

And here is the promised pic of the library fireplace . . .

Here is a pic of the dining room . . .

It is snowing right now! We are supposed to get between 20 and 28 inches of snow. Luckily, the house is sealed up!

Filed under: Framing, The House, The Land Tagged: dining room, fireplace, snow, stairs, windowseats

Firplaces and Stairs

Goose — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:04:00 +0000

The fireplaces and the basement stairs were put in.

That is the family room fireplace. It is the same as the one we have now and it gets really hot. I did not get a picture of the Library fireplace but will get one soon.

The basement stairs from the top floor. The stairs to upstairs are going right on top of these. I think it is going to look pretty cool!

Filed under: Framing, The House Tagged: basement, fireplaces, stairs