Steve's apple orchard!

So another big accomplishment to note was the planting of our very own apple orchard! Ryan has always had a thing for apple trees and we love the idea of edible landscaping. We got a great deal on three different varieties of apple trees, Macintosh, Liberty, and Sweet Sixteen, from Gardeners' Supply in Burlington (a fantastic gardening supply store, by the way) and put them in the ground last weekend. The feat would not have been possible without the help of my sister, Sara, and father-in-law, Steve. He is a gardener extraordinaire and in honor of the hard work he put into the project, we have officially dubbed it Steve's Apple Orchard. The folks at Gardeners' said to expect fruit in about three years. I love thinking about picking apples from our own backyard and making lots of apple pies in our new kitchen...with our little guy :)

Metal roof, siding, and drywall

There has been a lot of work done on the house since I last posted--very exciting! The silver standing seam metal roof is now on and Scott, Tony, and Nick are beginning to install the Hardiplank siding.





Check out the lap siding. I think it achieves the old school farmhouse feel we were shooting for. Our fabulous builder, Bill, also crafted those great brackets (visible in the third picture) for us. They give the roof line such an authentic look. I'll get more pictures of them once the back wall siding is done. Scott is the master of the scaffolding (although it's a little freaky to see him three stories up...)




In other news, the radiant heat system is totally done and the house is a toasty 67 degrees. Good thing, too, because it was spitting snow yesterday. Who knew that it would get this cold this quickly? Ike (pictured below) from Howard Irish Drywall in St. Albans is doing a masterful job. The walls are so incredibly smooth. After they've sanded them down, we'll be ready for paint!


A couple of interior shots. In order of appearance...the dining room/kitchen area, master bedroom, master bedroom closets, nursery, home office, upstairs guest room, den/tv area in basement, drum studio.