Update

Hi followers,
          Sorry for the lack of updates recently.  Our work has died down a bit as we have done almost all we can this winter before needing to do plaster work to keep going.  For example, our pantry needs the walls finished before we build the shelves, and the back hallway needs the walls finished before we build the closets.  For the first time in a year, we have been relaxing a bit more!  Here are some pics from the last couple weeks though:

The top temperature is the greenhouse temperature and humidity and the bottom is the interior house temperature and humidity.  This was on a partly sunny 30 degree day without any heat source in the house.

our orange tree has lots of buds and blossoms

tomato plant and potatoes

snap peas

lime tree has lots of new growth

Starry Night room furnished

Starry Night room furnished

Starry Night room furnished

Lemon tree with sooo many blossoms!  They smell really good!

lemon tree blossom close-up

lemon tree blossom close-up

Ellie wishes she could be allowed in the greenhouse!

We moved the couch to open up the space a lot

don't mind the mess

I love this room, especially when it's sunny 

Woo hoo, new 4-ft window washer/squeegee!  We only have  22 large (floor to ceiling) glass windows to wash (x both sides) on the interior glass wall and around 40 (x both sides) on the exterior wall... no big deal.

new star lamps from my mom for The Starry Night room

Wine bottle chandelier complete!

More doors, painting, and pantry-work!

Chad and I have continued to chip away at projects around the house (despite dark rainy days where we just want to cuddle up and watch a movie!)  Here are some of the projects we've been working on lately:

me laying the pantry tile floor with free tile from Best Buy in Rochester, NY!

grouted

Our living room needed some help where the wall met the floor.  I took the extra thin-set from tiling the pantry and touched up the floor, then painted it all the way down to a nice crisp line on the floor!

orange tree starting to blossom!

lemon tree has lots of blossoms!

Chad's latest door: the Starry Night room's door

the back of the door

Sunshine Room door

Starry Night room door

Sunshine room entryway

Starry Night room entryway

trim in the family bathroom

painted the Yager wall above the hallway doorway

More Interior Updates

Chad's been making the doors for the bedrooms and bathroom and they're turning out beautiful so far.  My mom visited this past weekend and helped us paint our bedroom.  We painted it gray... I know that sounds weird because the cement was gray, but it evened out the tones of different applications of cement (some of the water used was dirty and there were patches) and we decided to stick with the gray because our room's color scheme is like a silvery/blue/dark wood.

First, though, I totally forgot to put up a picture from when Nick, an apprentice from the build, visited us last weekend.  He was so thoughtful that he brought us a housewarming gift... a well-planned custom-made shelf with scrap pieces of all of the different types of wood that went into building our house.  The end product is really cool and we can't wait to find a place to hang it.  Thanks Nick!

the bathroom door Chad made

inside the family bathroom

Chad getting creative on his 2nd door

door to the sunshine room, the room we named because of the yellow, orange, and red bottles in the wall and eventually a giant sun on the east wall

another back door shot of the cement branches

my mom helping us paint the bedroom

finished closet wall

finished main wall... looking much cleaner than it did before we painted

painted bottle wall

our bedroom: new shiny coat on floor, bathroom and closet wall in background

bathroom/bedroom bottle wall lit up

nice new shiny floor

Sunshine Room door (exterior) in place

interior side of the Sunshine room's door

northern view of The Sunshine Room

northern view with room lights off and hallway lights on

southern view of The Sunshine Room

meanwhile our bed (and Koda) were temporarily in the Starry Night bedroom

northern view of The Starry Night room... floor in and grouted!

Starry Night room with room light off and hallway light on