We have gravel down as the base for the back patio. It gives a rough idea of the dimensions (about 60 feet long by 8 feet wide) with a cutout partway to keep the master bedroom section a little more private. I am including a picture of the gravel that will underlay the front porch first, that is a bit smaller, about 4 feet wide and 20 feet long.
Front porch: The paved portion will extend a couple feet beyond the overhang. It will give us a little more flexibility with traffic patterns and keep cars from accidentally hitting the uprights! Not sure what those short beams are for…
My apologies if you try to look at the pictures in “biggie size” and get them on their sides and stretched out. I am not sure why my cellphone takes such odd images!
Back patio: Looking south. The first window is the kitchen, you can see the gas line coming up and the excavated area for a flowerbed. The second window is the master bath, under which I will plant some screening flowers and such. Eventually I will enlarge the patio by the bedroom with pavers and seating… someday!Back patio: looking north, the sliding door is the dining room. To the right of the photographer is the propane inlet, a water spigot and the edge of a little planting space up next to the house to help divide the public and the private portions. There will be about a 4×8-foot walking space connecting the two sections.
Inside, our wonderful plumber has installed the system for heating! It does water as well as the actual heat for the house. I can hardly wait to get it up and running. I took this picture to help me draw a schematic so I can remember how it all works. It is SO tempting to turn some of the levers already!
The heating system. I was surprised how compact it all is, fitting in less than 28″ square. The unit below is a “boiler” (hot water tank) and up above is the on-demand heater that lets water for tap use get nice and toasty. It will be very good to be warm, and to NOT wait three minutes for hot water in the master shower!
And just so you know, here at the beginning of February we have proof that Spring is just around the corner. These bulbs were underneath some construction debris that had been tossed on top of one of the flower beds behind the house. The rest of the flowerbed is pretty well toast, but these beauties (daffodils, I think…) are going strong!
The bulbs are coming up between the wood scraps. They are at the end of a gray cement block — light greenish-yellow now, they will be dark green in another week and hopefully bloom in about two weeks after that!
I will be extremely busy this coming week — hopefully I’ll make it out mid-week for a little bit. Otherwise, look for an update next weekend!
Comments
One response to “The Week Just Past”
rose
all i can say is…wow…wow….and wow again. your lovely big windows are going to be such a blessing. and all that lovely flat area around the actual house…..so well thought out, kathleen. aren’t daffs amazing? we are continually surprised by the resilience of them, the way they push their way up through and amongst some incredible barriers.
Leave a Reply