We picked a cold night to see what the night view is from our new front porch. The picture is fuzzy, but the  best I could do under the circumstances, which means putting the camera on the handrail and trying to hold it steady during the exposure. It was just below freezing, the coldest temperature we have had so far during this extraordinarily warm fall.

We, or rather the various trades, have made significant progress on the house. The plumber says he’s ready for the rough inspection. I think the heating and air conditioning is also ready. The electrician wants to check with the well driller before he says he’s ready. I also need to check with the framing contractor to see whether he thinks he’s ready. If so, maybe we can get all the rough-in inspected before Christmas.

If we pass those inspections, I can start insulating the walls. I plan to do that myself, as much to make sure it’s done right as to save money. The electrician recommended choosing a contractor to install the garage doors so he can put the low-voltage garage-door sensor wires behind the sheetrock. Once that’s done and the walls are insulated, we’ll get a sheetrock crew in.

But before we get sheetrock, I have to decide what we’re going to do about installing a wood-burning stove. I imagine that it will be easier to install the chimney, or parts of the chimney, before the attic is closed in by sheetrock. I also want to install a blower and ducts from above the stove across the attic to the master bedroom and bathroom so we can get some of the heat from the wood stove into those rooms. Part of that will also be easier without sheetrock.

The framer sent a crew to clean up debris around the exterior of the house and clean and sweep the interior. We now have a nice, big pile of construction debris that will have to be hauled to the landfill.

The framer is supposed to provide the exterior painter. I expected him to start last week, but he didn’t. Of course we had rain last week; that’s probably the reason. We picked out a color called Hunter Green. It’s a fairly dark green, one that I think will be appropriate for a woodsy setting. Even though I’m 100 percent with this choice, it is still a little outside my comfort zone. It will be interesting to see how it looks.