10/22- Here is the ceiling fan that is above the railing area in the upper level sitting room. It matches the one in the turret pictured a long time ago, but this one does not have the light kit. The steel on the fan works well with the steel floor.

The ceiling fans for the kids' room finally arrived. They were backordered in July and it took until now to get them. They are cool and the kids love them.

10/19- Here is more of the kitchen. Yes, the island is blue on purpose. The countertops are a darker blue, even though it is hard to tell. It is starting to look like a workable kitchen.

Duluth Weekend

We promised the kids when we were in Duluth in August, we would go again this year. There were so many people up there that weekend, we just could not do everything we wanted to. We went to Duluth over MEA weekend because the kids had Thursday and Friday off from school.

We went to the aquarium first thing because Isaac informed us we had to. "Mom we have to go to the acarimum first." I love how he pronounces it! Here he is touching a sting ray with Dad's help. He really wanted to touch it, but was scared.

Declan loved touching the sting ray and did it many times. I even touched it. I guess the stingers were removed and these are tame. It was cool! They are softer than you think, too.

We also went to Lake Superior Zoo. This very ugly snake is the sandbox at the kids play area. Now, for those of you who don't know, I am deathly scared of snakes. I gew up in IL where there are poisonous ones and never forgot. I cannot even read a snake book to the kids because I have nightmares. I know, I am sad. I was taking pictures of the kids with the snake, unwillingly and they begged for me to be in one with them. I started walking up to it and saw that eye looking at me and almost backed out. I sat there for 2 pictures and got out as fast as I could. I guess it is sort of like facing your fear.

Then I had to take these pictures! It is not going to be easy to scrapbook these pictures.

Aren't the fall colors at the zoo pretty? We were up there at the tail end of the fall colors and it was still beautiful. I can only imagine what it looks like at the peak colors.

Our other big adventure was going up the North Shore to Split Rock Lighthouse. Then we spent a couple hours climbing on these rocks by the water. It was chilly, but fun!

There was also many hours spent at the water park in our motel!

Wednesday October 15th

Here is a view of the house from Hole #11 again. You can see the deck and railing a little bit.

Appliances were delivered this day. I am so excited to use this washer and dryer. I dislike the set in this house big-time!

You can see the cooktop, black dishwasher, and then the steel fridge-freezer. The dishwasher and fridge are cabinet panel designs. The only thing that you can buy almost is stainless steel and I didn't want to deal with trying to keep that clean.

The masonry guys also got the front posts almost done. They had to order more rock to finish a couple sides of the posts. It looks really nice!

October 14th

The pieces for our railing finally came in and it finally qui raining long enough so they can get going on it. They aren't done yet, but it is working out well. It is essentially 3 different styles in one and I am so happy it worked out. You can sort of see the glass slats in between the black railing and their shape.
There is a countertop in our kitchen. The open space on the left is for the built-in fridge. The little one the second door in is for the dishwasher. The other one 2nd from the right is for our garbage can drawer.

And a countertop in the basement on the wet bar.

October 11th

Declan's wall unit has some doors.
Isaac's wall unit also has some doors and you can see the drawers on the floor in front of him.
The railing around the stairway in the upper level is also finished. You can also see the hardwood floors, but they are a bit dirty.

Our kitchen is also starting to take shape. You can also see some of the pantry storage stuff througn the doorway. The doorway to the left is our mud room that we will come in out of the garage.
Here is the wall unit that will be behind our desk in the office.
These shelves are on the opposite wall of the desk one and these are for my scrapbooks. They cannot be in direct sun so they had to be demoted from the library. The library in the turret is to the right of these shelves.

This is a pretty good view of the patio and its colors. We tried to recreate the turret shape into our patio. This part extends toward the turret past the deck. It is hard to take good pictures under the deck.
You can see part of the turret shape here and then what it looks like under the deck area. We may someday screen in part of this patio by the retaining wall.
Here is the little wet bar in the basement. The hole in the wall under the stairs is for our electronics equipment that we will have to use.

Future Otter Hockey Players

Hockey has started in our house. At registration the association was selling old jerseys because they replaced some for the upper levels. We could buy them for $5.00. My kids were very excited when I brought them home a Fergus Falls Otters jersey. They will get their team jerseys in about 2 weeks, so they are wearing these until them. This is Declan showing off his jersey. He moves up to Mites this year for 7 and 8 year olds. This will be our first year with the kids practicing at different times. But their open skating times are for Termites and Mites so they can do those together still.
Isaac is still a termite this year for 3-6 year olds, but he will be on the upper level of termites this year instead of watching his brother at that level. He is pretty happy!

October 9th

They finished the railing on the upper level that open to the office below. You can see the turret on the other side with the steel floor.
I am standing on the steel floor taking this photo looking towards the hallway. To give you an idea of the layout, the master bedroom is off to the right. Isaac's bedroom is directly to the left and Declans is past the doorway to the right. That doorway you can see in the back is their bathroom. Tell me this railing does not look like one giant playpen!

I am standing in the office looking up at the railing and upper level in this photo.

The guys put plastic over the pation that they alraedy poured because they are getting ready to pour a different color this time.
Here are the guys pouring it. The truck is off to the back to the photo and they brought the concrete over to here by wheelbarrows. This patio is under our deck off the kitchen area. Our family room in the basement is where the patio doors are for this.
He stains the concrete before it comes out of the truck. That way if it ever chips, it will still have the right color in it. The finished product to come.......

Isaac Field Trip

Oct. 8- Isaac's class went to the fire dept for fire prevention week. I helped keep track of 27 kindergartners with 2 teachers and about 3 other parents. It wasn't too bad and I think kids were really good. The firemen also did a great job keeping their interest when they were teaching about fires.
They let all of the kids get in this firetruck and we took pictures of all of them for his teacher. Isaac loved the fire station and is still talking about it. He is the farthest to the left in the maroon sweatshirt.
You can kinda see Isaac in the middle in the maroon and the fireman by his class talking to them. He was great with the kids!

Oct. 6

The wine cellar door is finished and ready to be opened and stocked. Okay, the inside isn't ready, but it sure looks like it from this angle. Hefe is Jeff's nickname given to him by his brother and good friend. He designed the etching on the door and we had a company here in Fergus etch it for us. It turned out really nice and he is excited. We have more exciting plans for this sitting room outside the cellar, but you will have to wait and see.

Jeff is standing inside the cellar in this photo.

The lights were finally installed by the mirror in the master bathroom. Please pretend you don't see all the garbage from the guys. I cannot control that.
Our landscaper got a lot of stuff done this past weekend. This is the landscaping in front of the house. I would take a picture down the side of the house that he finished, but it is all mud from the rain this weekend.
Here is the steel floor finished product that was installed today. I guess each piece is about 150 lbs. to carry up the stairs. You are looking at one piece in this photo and there were 13 total for a total weight 1532lbs., not counting the cut outs. Jeff recruited 3 guys from Innova to help carry them up the stairs and all the guys were exhausted. We were going for a celestial shapes (stars, planets, comets, etc.) cut out of the steel to give you an idea what you are looking at.

Here is the floor from the library level through the beams.
It look more cool from below, but we are please at how well it turned out.
Since the hardwood was finished last week on the main floor, Bruce was out today starting on the kitchen cabinets. He has most of them built in his shop and installed them at the house. It is really starting to look like a kitchen now!!

Sept. 30th

This picture was taken from our deck looking down on the forms for the patio underneath. We are going to have this patio stained in 2 different colors with this shape. We were trying to recreate the turret shape in our patio. It will look cool and I think they are pouring the concrete today.
Here is our front sidewalk from the door to driveway.

We will now have air conditioning, well next summer.
Here is the finished fireplace with all the rock. It turned out really nice and we are very happy.

Fireplace with door installed that leads to the office/library. To give you an idea of where things are, the yellow to the left is part of the kitchen paint color and the patio door to the deck. The opening beyond the beautiful blue garbage is the dining room. We are going to have a table and chairs by this fireplace where we will eat most of the time.