Second Thanksgiving

This is the second Thanksgiving of our project. Thankfully, we are almost done with the interior and not far from being done on the landscaping.

Early in November, while we were visiting the grandchildren in Texas, Mike and Nate installed the base boards, the bar rails and the south door portico brackets.

This past week, we finally got the remaining wood panels installed on the bar. We enlisted Bob (cabinets) to do this as Our Mike has been very busy with other projects. Mike did spend a couple of days working on installation of the porch steps and Tiger wood railings. This week, he built the railings for the second floor porch and said he hoped to be finished on Monday. We have started a punch list for things that still need to be finished before we wrap up his part of the project.

This past week the masonry people finally showed up and completed the work they started a couple of months ago. They mortared around the hearth and mantel inside and around the outside vent. They also ground out the red mortar between the sunroom limestone sills and re-mortared using a gray colored mortar which will blend in better.

While Mike was here on Tuesday of this week, he helped me mount the television into place above the fireplace mantel. It only took two attempts to get it right. I got the TV hooked up with the coaxial cable and the HDMI cables. While I still need to put ends on the Cat5 cable, so we can hook the TV up directly to the router, we have been using WiFi without any problems. A couple of weeks ago, we moved the cable modem and router from the second floor to the first floor butler's pantry. This improved the WiFi performance in the sunroom and garage significantly, but the performance on the second floor has suffered. I am considering installing a second router on the second floor as an additional access point.

Bar Rails

Portico Brackets

Final Door Panels Going Into Place

Bar Is Complete

TV In Place Above Fireplace

Outside Plants Brought In Before First Hard Freeze

Brugmansia Still Blooming

Tiger Wood Rails

The landscaping has been continuing erratically over the past month. Before we left for Texas, I told John that the pond had an apparent leak. While we were gone, he and Todd found a leak around the bottom drain. John said the pond nearly drained itself indicating a leak near the bottom. Since we returned, we refilled the pond and, while better, there still appears to be another leak. Within two days after filling, the level in the pond dropped about 2". Over the next four days, the drop was only about 1/2". This indicates there is still a small leak near the top. John said he would find it.

The Hornbeams are installed along the east fence, the Serviceberry, Hydrangea and Dogwood are on the berm, the Azaleas are around the red maple on the west fence, the Canadian Red Cherry is behind the pond. The areas to be sodded have been and a lot of walnut mulch has been put in. There are still a lot of muddy areas on the berm. We are still discussing just what else will be planted this year. We believe we will ask John to install some combination of Japanese Falsecypress, evergreen Azaleas, weeping Japanese Red Maple, Russian Sage, Karl Foerster (feather reed grass) and perhaps a red (and/or yellow) twig dogwood.

We have decided to install a Zelkova in place of the Red Maple at the southwest corner of the chess board. John has not found a nice one yet. This is a medium to large, slow growing, upright branching deciduous tree.

It does not appear that much, if any progress, has been made on the exterior lighting. John promised he would work with Wally to have it done before we return from our next trip toward the end of December.

We are also making progress on the plan for the area behind the pond and the sixteen surplus pavers left over from the chess board. T has decided on using them as a sunken patio. There are eight red pavers, seven beige pavers and one broken beige paver. She has decided on the following pattern,

It will be situated between the walkway on the east side of the garage and the neighbor's east fence.