Yikes, has it really been more than a month since my last post? Sorry ’bout that, friends. But once the house was finished–well, finished enough to move in–there was just so. much. to. be. done. And after we moved, and found ourselves surrounded by stacks of boxes and mounds of trash and haphazard collections of stuff (oh good lord, so much STUFF), we just weren’t inspired to take any photos.

But we’re finally unpacked, and the last of the trash has been hauled away, and the knick-knacks have been pared down. . . So we’re pretty much photo-ready! After we take a deep breath and relax with a long exhale, I’ll post some pics of the finished house.

In the meantime, here are a few random shots from the last several weeks.

Just some of the many, many boxes. Stacked outside. In the rain. Nothing like torrential downpours to get you hustling to unpack.

Top priority: getting the TV hooked up in time for the World Series.

Next priority: Finding some dry firewood to get a raging blaze going.

Thankfully the kitchen boxes were well-labelled and we quickly found the cast iron skillet & other supplies to make our first breakfast. Oh, and you like my system for guiding Lev on where to unpack stuff?

Max was super happy when we finally found his bowl (and when the sun came out).

The garden keeps supplying beautiful bouquets.

And it continues to deliver flowering surprises. . . According to the gardener, this camellia hasn’t bloomed in years, so it’s especially nice to see it welcome me home!

Oh, did I forget to mention that (in addition to all the other challenges of finishing this job on schedule) the construction crew had to prepare for torrential rain all week? Buckets of rain. Every day. Rain like we never see in Napa this early in the year.

But man, they figured out how to work around it. They tarped the whole back deck area, so they could finish laying the decking. And they brought in a huge awning to set up their tools under. Nicely done, guys.

As the rain blew in on Monday, this is how Max spent the afternoon while I packed a few more boxes:

Nicely done, Max.

And as we hunker down for another week of wet stuff, here’s an uplifting rain tune for packing/unpacking:

https://youtu.be/h0jayHV5VOY

As we were in the midst of the final, frantic push to finish Butterfly House in time for moving weekend, I had to fly to New York for work. As I geared up for my trip I became totally stressed about being away during such a critical time. But once I was in the air jetting east, I realized that the travel was a good thing. Forced to let go of control, I had no choice but to place my trust in the contractor and his subs, and focus on my day job. I’m sure if I had stayed in town, I would have been completely unproductive at work, and tempted to be at the house all day–and probably accomplish nothing more than getting in the way.

A couple reports came in from the superintendent on Tuesday–things were going well. But then radio silence. I imagined the worst. There was SO MUCH to be done this week. When I last saw the house on Monday, there were no countertops, no plumbing fixtures, no appliances, no bedroom cabinet, no tile on the walls in the kitchen; only half of the light fixtures were in; the painters had barely finished prep inside (nothing inside had actually been painted).

But apparently, the crew kicked some serious ass this week. As I headed home from New York, Lev was on his way back up to Calistoga from San Francisco. And thank heavens for in-flight WiFi–photos from Lev have been rolling in. Looks like we’re in great shape!

So, from 36,000 feet, here’s the latest report.

We have a kitchen: Appliances are installed, tile is in place, countertops are set, and we have a sink & faucet. Jesse, the master cabinet installer, is still putting finishing touches on things, but it looks terrific:

Remember the knotty pine walls, and the dark feeling they gave to the living and dining rooms? Those walls are now bright white, and it’s going to make such a difference in the light quality:

The bedroom drawer/cabinet looks great, too. It looks a little funny on the bed side in this picture, but once the bed’s in place and the reading lamps are installed, I think it’s going to be brilliant. (The top cubby is for magazines/books, and the lower cubby has power and USB outlets in the back for charging phones & laptops overnight.)

Here’s the “boot bench” we added to the front porch:

The last pic for tonight is a little bit sad. With all the rain and wind we had this week, the beautiful maple tree has dropped almost all its leaves already. We barely had a chance to enjoy its spectacular fall color. Oh well, we’ll appreciate it that much more next year.

More beautiful fall blooms in the garden. Some big fat bumblebees, too.

Apparently this house won’t get done without some major DIY effort. When the carpentry crew flaked out on Sunday, Lev jumped in and worked all day as the Superintendent’s assistant. They built some beautiful oak door trim and a frame for the kitchen window.

The dining room light fixture finally arrived. It’s a groovy wood fixture designed by David Trubridge, called “Kina.” Apparently “kina” is the Maori word for “urchin,” which inspired the shape of the light.

I knew the fixture would need some assembly, but when I saw how small (and flat) the box was, I began to worry. . . And when I opened the box and saw its contents, I definitely worried. 40 pieces of zig-zag wood, more than 300 little plastic fasteners, 20 sets of tiny plastic nuts & bolts. For sure, this job needed some wine:

Once we got going, it wasn’t so bad. Very zen.

The thing got pretty big:

But I think the finished product will look great in the new dining room!

At our site meeting this morning at Butterfly House, this was the misty view from the kitchen window. I’m looking forward to making my first breakfast in front of that view on October 30!

Good gracious, work is moving fast! Every day at the house is a flurry of activity–multiple subs trying to get work done; the job superintendent acting as orchestra conductor, traffic cop, and cheerleader; and me and Lev trying not to get in the way. All this chaos is a good thing, because suddenly September turned into October, and we are going to be moving into this house by October 31–whether it’s done or not.

Closing in on the exterior paint color was harder than expected. More trips to the paint store for samples, more paint-outs:

But we finally settled on one, and when you consider the “before”. . .

. . . When it’s done, the “after” is gonna look so much better!

Moving inside, there’s a bunch of different work going on, and it’s all horribly messy. Every surface is covered in a layer of fine construction dust, and everywhere you turn you risk stumbling over building materials, boxes of plumbing and electrical fixtures, tools, hardware, and trash. I’m trying very hard to ignore the mess and focus on the glimpses of what the finished project will look like.

Tile work in the bathrooms is about 40% done. The bathroom vanity cabinets are installed, so the countertop sub was able to template those counters and get to work. (The doors and drawer fronts aren’t installed yet, so you’ll have to imagine the vanities with oak fronts)–

The tile layout for the master bath shower turned out to be pretty tricky, so the tile sub laid it all out with a “practice” run on the floor in the bedroom. I think it looks pretty cool!

The steel surround on the fireplace is in, too. I’m loving this before-and-after contrast! Here’s the before–

And here’s the after–

The kitchen cabinets arrived today, and the installer was still working hard at 5pm when I arrived. But he called it a day not long after–time to get home and put the Giants game on! Not much to see in pictures (yet), but the cabinets look absolutely fantastic–the craftsmanship is impressive.

And finally, another garden surprise–a beautiful dahlia.

I can’t wait to see how much progress they make by the end of this week–at that point we’ll be two weeks out and counting down every day. . .

Another beautiful surprise from the garden last weekend–

Well, at least six shades. We worked hard to narrow down the choices of exterior paint color to three “dark” greys (for the walls) and three “darker” greys (for the eaves and facia board). We wanted shades that worked with all the nature that surrounds us. So here’s Lev comparing shades of grey to one of the majestic old trees–

These greys all look slightly different, right?

Yeah, well, here they are as samples painted on the house–

They all look exactly the same. [sigh] Back to the paint store for more samples. . .