The big news is that the sheetrocking, including taping and sanding, is DONE! I had hoped we would be closer to finishing by New Year’s Day, but it is great to reach this milestone in the project.

All of the doors and windows are in except for the new basement door and a French door between the sunroom and the “garden junk” room. They tore out the old basement stairs and replaced them all in one day. Before that I had to take a huge step down from the kitchen level to the old back entry level while hanging onto the new doorframe, stepping down about 19 inches, to reach the top of the old basement stairs.

The coming of frigid cold weather before the concrete was poured means that the outside concrete work will have to wait until spring. The enclosed porch concrete floor is not done yet but now that all the outside windows and doors and insulation are in and we have some heat in there I hope it will soon get poured.

The porch roof that matches the barn roof is done; the roof of the new second story room is also done and they patched the shingles into the existing roof so it is hard to tell where the old ones end and the new ones start.

The nice wide platform to reach the front door is so much more convenient than the round cement steps that were there before.

We love our new arched doorway from the kitchen to the dining room. This mirrors the arch between the dining room and the living room. Next up are choosing the paint colors and getting the birch cabinets delivered (once the old wavy kitchen floorboards are covered by a new level floor). It will be a light and bright kitchen.