Return of the Pines

photos: left - view from entrance to fireplace and kids' rooms. The large openings on the sides will be sliding doors to the front and rear patios. Right (vertical orientation) - view toward entrance and kids' loft. Kitchen will be on right - master bedroom is to the left.

I love our house right now.

I probably love it more now - with all the bones showing - then I will when it is done. I love the skeletal feel of the framing, the shattered view from room to room, the space for imagining what it will look like when it is done. And the thought that perhaps we just shouldn't quite finish it. Not put too much stuff in. Lose the curtains. Skip the rugs. Forget about making the beds. A step above camping but maybe just below really and truly civilized.

Sounds fine to me. But - pictures. Everyone wants pictures. And as much as I love the house now, it just refuses to photograph. Kind of like Dexter. He's got a lovely smile but you'll never see it. Not in a photo anyway. Not even with a bribe.

I'd like to tell you to just imagine with me but reluctantly I'm posting these photos. Mostly I want to show you the beams. These are "our" beams -- cut from the three lovely white pines that stood right in the middle of our house site. Kind of like our version of the head on the wall. No stuffed game here - just some dead wood. The trees have come home.

Other stuff has been happening at the house. Our well water was tested and is just fine. We have a garage and little retaining walls and today the windows and doors are to be delivered. They'll go in next week. The big pile of red Carolina clay in the back will get leveled and the rain water cistern will be buried in the front when the final grading gets done. I think siding and the roof follow shortly and then perhaps the house will cooperate for photos.

We've been making progress on settling in as well. The kids started school last week. Among the firsts -- Bella goes to pre-k all day (she does NOT want me to pick her up before the other kids go home), Dexter takes a bus to school (which I love and he does not), and there are more kids in 4th grade in his new school than were in the entire population of his old school. And I have finally found some running partners. So now I'll have company if I meet a bear.

Meanwhile, California is burning, again. Our old hiking spots have gone up in smoke and our friends are locked indoors. It's lovely here -- cool, crisp and fresh. Like the first crop of apples showing up at the farm stands. I feel just a tad guilty.

Come visit! I'll bake a pie.