Behold the Library!

Well, the shelves actually, unstained and still in Jake's workshop, but not for long. Don't they look glorious?

        I always swore that if I were ever lucky enough to own a home it would have a dedicated library -- even if I had to sleep on the porch. This is going to be grand.

Since Cindy wants kitchen pics...

...Cindy gets kitchen pics. The cabinets are done and are finally being installed, as you can see. The section under the window is going to be the sink and stove area. The fridge will go against the wall between the two cabinets there. The floating section attached to the pillar will be a butcher block area.

        Upper cabinets will be installed at some point soon in the kitchen building process.

Wood

Just as the downstairs is all slate flagstones, the upstairs is all wood. This is just after the stain was put on when it's still wet.

The Snowfort Progresses Apace.

The fireplace is just about done. Now I have to consider what might be worthy enough to sit on, and hold its own compared to, a mantle piece so imposing as this one.

        The actual firebox looks a bit small, until you scroll down and remind yourself just how huge the mantle piece is, to get a true sense of the scale of this thing.

        The third annual Clockwork Retreat is going to be held here, at the new house (mostly because I feel so broke after buying this thing that I can't justify a trip just now). Many interesting conversations will be held in front of this fireplace, baptizing it just right in thoughtful ideas, advanced storytelling theory, and a reasonable modicum of boasting and bragging.

It's all about Flagstones.

This is the floor for the downstairs half of the casa nova. Between this and the fireplace, it's pretty clear I'm going for just a hint of actual castle in the old, "A man's home is his castle," imperative.

        The upstairs by contrast is all wood. No carpets. I never liked wall to wall carpet. Area rugs, yes. Carpeting no.

There's a big fire coming...

And it's going to be in this fireplace, which is really shaping up nicely. Note that the huge mantle piece that was featured below is now in place.

Sure it looks big, but the camera adds ten pounds.

This is either the huge block of wood that is going to become my fireplace mantle, or the stick I'm going to beat Sturges with if he ever tries to come visiting.

        But seriously folks, the fellow shown here is Carl (or is it Karl?) the Amish cabinet maker who's building my kitchen cabinets and library shelves, and providing the mantle piece. Pretty cool, huh?

Big update: I have been told by Stacy, she who is overseeing the finishing of my house, that I got the name wrong. The Amish fellow who is making my cabinets and bookshelves and such is named Jake, not Carl -- or even Karl. How I got Carl from Jake I cannot begin to fathom. And, as if that wasn't enough, this isn't Jake in the picture. It's his number one son named Raymond. Boy do I feel uninformed and un-authoritative.

Snowfort

This is what the new house looks like today.

The Fires at Story Creek

The contractors are moving along rapidly now. Here's the framing of the wood burning fireplace that's going into the living room. The finished fireplace will be real stone, matching the stone floor.

        Stacy Sinner, the wife of my long time Army buddy Mike Sinner, is overseeing the finish of the house while I'm wintering (for my last winter) in Las Vegas. It's several degrees below zero up there in Minnesota. It's so chilly here in Vegas that I actually had to consider putting on a longer sleeved shirt the other night to venture outdoors.

        When she's not doing custom house completions, Stacy is the Director of Adult Corrections for Olmstead County. This makes her the second highest Olmstead County law enforcement official behind the sheriff. Mike is the Director of Juvenile Corrections for the same county. I'd like to imagine they first met during a prisoner transfer, when a dangerous juvenile offender who reached the age of 18 was being handed over to his new digs.

Story Creek

This is the creek that borders one long curving edge of the property. It's not actually named Story Creek by the way. It's one of the many branches of the Zumbro River. I'm told in the spring and summer its high enough for canoeing and such. We'll see. But there are fish in it. Getting to do some trout fishing without leaving one's property -- now that's a nice day. Just on the other side of the creek you can see a hint of the limestone cliffs that border the far riverbank. So, even though I will have neighbors, they're all up on top of the cliffs (access by a different road) and don't really impact on one's sense of solitude.

        This year's Clockwork Storybook retreat will take place here -- a week of writing, fishing, walking in the woods, outdoor bonfires in the fire pit, indoor bull sessions in front of the fire place.

The House at Story Creek

While visiting friends in the wilds of Minnesota I found the perfect house on some wooded acres bordering a river (I call it a creek, but my friends insist it's a river and I just haven't seen it at full swell), so I bought it.

        I'll be moving there after it's finished. The outside and major construction is done, but the builders left the floors and walls and such unfinished so the buyer could have it finished to suit.

        The yellow carpet things are burlap and straw coverings being rolled over the newly planted lawn to protect it from the coming winter -- which I understand is in full howl right now. I think I might call the property Story Creek, since I'm just enough of a fuddy duddy old romantic to think that houses, even modest ones, should have names.