Ellen calls it 'The House'!

Not 'the land'. Not 'the lot". Not 'the home site.' Our structure is now officially called 'The House,' because Ellen can see rough openings for windows and doors. It may be a wee bit drafty at the moment, but here's an updated tour of the house.

Here's the view to the front porch from the guest parking area.

And the flip side....from the front porch to the guest parking area. We believe this was either a carport or the original foundation. One of our neighbors may be able to tell us someday. Either way, it makes an ideal place for you to park your car. We elected to keep the old limestone wall, considering it a nice feature. Two more stairs will be cut into the slope and the path will curve to the right in this shot to the front door on a gentle incline.

From the front porch looking toward the master bedroom. The offset of the master bedroom at an angle to the rest of the house was one of the features of the floorplan that we really liked. We originally had an identical angle for the garage, but changed that slightly to accommodate the site. Keeping the original design would have required a taller garage foundation, creating the need for more concrete, fill, etc. Since the small difference didn't materially change the basic look or impact function in any way, we opted to save a little money on this to spend on other things that have more impact. Lord knows there's plenty of those.

Looking at the house from the front and left of the porch, you can see the entrance to the mudroom(section that joins the house to the garage) and the area where the kitchen and pantry will be located. Your bedroom is in this section too, at the rear of the house. You'll have full deck access right from your bedroom to enjoy the evening mosquitoes in solitude if you wish.

and the garage...largely filled now with the base rock fill. They plan to pour the slab next week. The apron and driveway will remain rock, unless Ellen hits it big with the lottery, or Mom finally wins the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes after 40+ years of diligent effort and endless correspondence with magazine salesmen.

Continuing around the garage to the back, you can see the window and door openings that have excited Ellen. A portion of the deck off the great room will be covered with a timber frame structure provided by Riverbend. You can see the concrete footings that will anchor the supporting columns for those timbers.

This a shot of the walkout entrance. We asked the excavators to flatten an area we can use for a back yard. They did a nice job. The camera makes it look bigger than it is, but we're very happy with the size and way they blended it into the rest of the slope. We just gave them a general idea and they nailed it. I'm standing approximately where a firepit will be someday.

A closer view of the walkout framing.

The area below the master bedroom. This is intended to be a workshop one day, hence the access door.

And so we finish the tour of the house with a view of the access lane I can use to drive around the back and get to the shop door. Making this a rock lane wasn't in the original budget, but if it isn't too costly, we may do that.