Here is the new drain for our shower. It is a drain made especially for concrete floors with floor drains. Evidently, concrete can pull away from a drain pipe leaving a crack between the concrete and the drain pipe, down which water can find its way.

This drain has a flange that extends out to the sides within the concrete. If the concrete shrinks away from the drain grate, water would flow down and be trapped in the flange and channeled back into the drain—very slick.

The plumber has mortared it in so that when the concrete is poured the drain stays level. The top is covered with duck tape to protect it from concrete.

The windows for the house arrived and have been stacked in the barn. They have pine frames inside and coated aluminum outside. I am not enthusiastic about the color of the outside since it is much darker than I expected. Once again, having a small sample caused confusion regarding color value.

Oh well, I am hoping that once out in the relentless light, they will seem lighter and more what we wanted.

I never could understand how people ended up with some of the choices they did when building a house, but now I get it much better.

I am pretty sure that this huge window goes in the living room. Here they have it stacked with the inside frame showing. The frames will be stained a pale turquoise and the trim around the windows will be painted turquoise, but not quite the same color as the stain.

In front of the window is the all-house vacuum which is also being stored until we need it.

I caught a shot of a few of the birds that seem to fly over nightly. They must be going up the hill to bed down in the trees above us. This flock is very small compared to the huge one I saw the first night. They are definitely birds, not bats, and make a terrific whirring noise as they fly over.

If these are what I think they are, they are non-native sparrows and are a tremendous problem in the state. They travel in huge flocks, gleaning crops and competing with native birds for food. However, it is an amazing sight when you see these massive flocks flying.