Progressing with challenges!

Well, if it ain't one thing it's another, so we had another hard week because of illness this past week.  I was only on half speed for the first half of the week-- fighting the microbe that drugs have now freed me from -- whew.   And for the second half Sebastian relapsed to his bug state with fever and sore throat.  Then I had to get a case of the same, So, sniffle sniffle and sneeze,  barely a four day work week.  Ugh. 

Early in the week we finally got backfilled.  I was lazy with the camera that day, so the pics are of the results, but not of the process. 
 "Backfilling" means the moat that has been all around the the house got filled back in with the dirt that had been removed, so that the basement is now really a basement.  Of course, given our tremendous slope,  it does protrude on northeast side:

but still,  we can now move ourselves and materials in and out the door openings withoutcrossing the moat on a bridge.  
More importantly,  we've reached a new level of being able to feel how the house will interact with its surroundings.   Jennifer has yet to see it -- she's on the road home from Ohio right now, but I'm pretty happy with how it has changed things.

Here's what will be the sliding door to our outdoor terrace for eating and having company:

 
Speaking of change, the weather had changed now, and we are WET.  In honor of this, now that the earth moving got done,  we also added "hog fuel" all around the site.  It's really just largely ground wood chips, blown all around the work site.  So far it seems like its going to be life changing , in terms of clods of mud on the boots, and ultimately into the house. You can see it in this pic --  it's a big improvement .

We did go up some, despite all the poor health.  The filling in over the windows is painstaking.
Here you see the diing room window seat and the living room windows beyond.  


 And look carefully at what's starting to peek out above the mobile:  



Pretty awful, huh!  Looking at this, you'd never guess houw beautiful it is here.  The big leaf maples are dropping their really big leaves and walks with the dog are especially fun:  



See you next week!