The deck is in... the dock is in... the ducks are hanging out...

We were very pleasantly surprised when we got to the lake tonight to find that the lakeside deck and dock are in... There is still a railing to go on the deck.... and stone in the middle of the deck which is where the firepit will go... And Sara, of course, now talks to the ducks as well... the ducks wanted SunChips... but we only had Tostitos... but we did learn the ducks know the sound of a snack food bag opening...

Logs are getting stacked

More good progress... you can see the logs getting stacked...
This is the view through the soon-to-be kitchen doors...
Looking from the roadside entry straight through to the lake side view...
View of the house from Main Road... The windows that you see on the right will be the dining room and billiards room.
Lake side view, but from across the lake.

Floor joists are in, plywood for upper floor is down, backfilling started

The floor joists are in, the plywood on the upper floor is laid... and backfilling started.

Floor drain pipes are in (Sara is standing in the garage pointing towards the media room...

View from near the road...

A picture of the progress from across the lake...
And we are anxious to get moved in... so we put in some chairs and a fire pit near the shore :-)

Why we chose this property...

Hopefully these pictures will give you some insight into why we are building in Shickshinny... Sara got into the water today (the water was quite warm) although the lake bottom is rocky and hard to walk on... so looks like we will need some water socks :-)
There's always wildlife around... these ducks have been there every day for the past couple days... we are expecting to attract many more animals once we actually move in...
The geese are nice - thankfully they are staying off our property though!

More progress - floor joists are almost done....

You can see things starting to take shape now... the garage doors are shown here... and the floor joists are being put in.
When we were at the site... looked like they were about 75% complete w/ the joists... you can see the windows and door for Michael's office in this picture.
Sara with the happy look... and you can now start to see Michael's view from his home office.

We have a mailbox!

OK - so a small milestone - but Sara and I put in the mailbox today... we have "test letters" on their way to determine if the service is working properly before we start processing all those fun change-of-address forms for our mail.

More progress - foundation is poured

We stopped by the lake tonight... more good progress. Foundation is poured. I guess the forms will come down on Friday or Monday.


And it is looking like a real job site now - heavy equipment and a Job Johnny.

And the water is plenty warm...

Info on the town of Shickshinny

In case you'd like to learn a little more on the demographics of Shickshinny, PA.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Shickshinny-Pennsylvania.html

Footers are in

Sara and I stopped by the lake tonight... more good progress. Footers are completely in... gravel fill is in. Now they go to lower level concrete walls.


Also getting an idea of what the view from my home office will be :-) minus the drainage pipe of course...

Ground has been broken

Just wanted to let folks know that ground has been broken for our new home on Lake Shickshinny. Sara and I stopped by the site on Friday, June 6 and were pleasantly surprised to see that a hole was in the ground and the masonry contractor was ready to start pouring footers on Monday, June 9.