Disney's magical world of... granite

You guys, I think I've been to the weirdest place in Michigan. And I have only seen maybe 2% of Michigan - THAT IS JUST HOW WEIRD THIS PLACE IS. Yesterday Brandon and I met Steven at a stone yard to look for... well, stone. Yeah. We needed to pick out countertops for the kitchen, and also some stone for the master bathroom, which will be used for a bench cap and shelves in the shower. To find this stone yard, you head out into the kinda-boonies, find a random house on a random road, drive past it down a dirt track, and suddenly come upon this:

Yes, those are just slabs of granite and other types of stone basically scattered about in a field, behind a barn. Sometimes getting a closer view involved some serious bushwhacking.

Check out the crop of grapes growing over this pile of stone (click on the pic to make it bigger):

It is a good thing we trust Steven as our Designated House Genius because otherwise I would have been pretty sure that he was going to kill us and our bodies would never be found (although they would be potentially well-marked by hundreds of lovely ready-made granite headstones). Luckily we made it out alive, and even found a beautiful piece of stone that will work perfectly in the bathroom! We didn't find anything for the kitchen yet - we are hoping to find a nice dark soapstone - so we are heading out to a stone warehouse tomorrow morning. Apparently they have a larger selection, but fewer possibilities for wildlife sightings, grape harvesting, and rock climbing adventures.

Evacuate the dance floor

We actually evacuated the whole darn house not long after we arrived today, walked in, and took a whiff. I am not sure what the flooring guys put down, but the wood floor looked wet and it staaaaaank. It wasn't the final stain/sealant, because the peg holes haven't been filled yet and we haven't really discussed how we'd like it finished. Despite the stankification, it looks BEAUTIFUL so here are some shots I snapped quickly - you're welcome for me having sacrificed numerous brain cells for this effort. Hopefully they are the ones that are now playing this on repeat in my brain (you're welcome for that, too).

I am in looooove it is so pretty. The flooring guys did such a good job at interspersing the different widths and colors! In that last shot you can see the space they've left for the wood stove - it will be tiled (probably slate).

We also found our stair steps hanging out in the entryway:

Oh hey stair steps! You are going to be much more pleasant to walk on than the questionable 2x4s that have been in place during construction.

Sometimes our evening visits to the house take on a Nancy Drew-ish quality, when there is a perplexing mystery that we can't figure out. Today's mystery was this little mailbox house:

We have no idea what is going on with this. It isn't ours, but there it sits in the garage, being hilarious and random and kind of adorable.

Finally, there is some BIG NEWS from yesterday that I shared on Facebook, but haven't mentioned here yet: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A SALAMANDER. By which I mean, I found my first salamander at Turtle House. And was it a puny lil redback? (No offense redbacks, I do love you)... NO! It was perhaps the raddest salamander in Michigan: the eastern tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum. Those of you who know me will know that I pretty much completely lost my $hit, jumped around, squealed, and haven't stopped smiling about it for the past 24 hours.

This brings our property herp survey up to 14 species if I get to count the northern water snake (THAT I SAW SWIMMING IN THE RIVER, BRANDON). Here is yours truly completely geeking out yesterday... Yay!!! Tiger salamander!!!