Emily

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Emily · 2 Comments

Day 357

Greetings! Happy Fall.

It’s been nearly 3 weeks since my last post. The reason for this is partly because we’ve had a lot of other things going on, but it is largely due to the fact that not much has been happening at the house.

The plumber saga dragged on for several weeks (injuries, surgeries, no shows…excuses, excuses) which has set us back nearly a month in getting our rough inspections complete so we can move on to insulation and drywall. They did finally show up this week and are almost finished (hallelujah!).

Tubs are set and water lines have been run…

Though I was not shy in expressing my displeasure about the pace of the interior progress, I have been delighted by the exterior progress.

We have porch floors!

And siding is almost complete. I have submitted the exterior finish schedule to the builder in preparation for the painters to start in a few weeks – bye bye, yellow!

I am so excited about the screened porch, I can hardly stand it.

I am in love with my door and window trim. I could stare at it all day. And I plan to, once the screened porch is finished.

We’ve also had some good progress on the grading. The Chia Pet dirt mound has had quite a haircut…

…and has been transferred to the front of the house to smooth out the slope around the driveway.

We arrived last Saturday for a meeting with our builder and upon inspecting this, Josh insisted we make an emergency trip to the CO-OP to pick up more seed and erosion control mats for this section.

Lawn crew reporting for duty.

My dad came to help the next day. This is like an acre of dirt.

Grass is starting to come in on the hill by the garage we worked on a few weeks back.

Just for fun, one day when my dad and Josh were off chopping down trees on the other side of the property, I decided to test out parking in the garage with my dad’s giant truck. Kath was a good sport and rode the 37 feet from where the truck was parked in the driveway to the garage, and then she got out to help direct me so I didn’t crash into anything. It took a 27 point turn for me to get into the first bay. So, I’m thinking a) we need to widen the driveway and b) I will be parking in the second bay if I get a vehicle larger than my small SUV.

Next time, I intend to try this exercise with my current vehicle. Stay tuned for the results. Oh, and for house updates.

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Emily

Day 337

Not a whole lot of progress at the house this week, unfortunately. Tradesman are slammed in the Nashville area, which is not good news for our house build, but it is good news for being able to pay for the house build, since both Josh and I work in professions related to construction.

We did get 8″ of rain at the property last Sunday, according to our neighbor. This helped to get the grass going. See it peeking through the straw matting?

They finished the first chimney this morning and are about 1/3 of the way done with the second. I am hoping they finish it this weekend so we can get the roof on next week and the bulk of the exterior trim and siding finished. That will be a HUGE deal to have the house looking fairly complete from the outside.

The siding and trim on the dormers is complete and I am SO PLEASED. It looks a little funny now because some of the material is white and some is beige (it will all be painted the same color), but I love all of the layers of detail. I’m a bit of a trim enthusiast as you can tell by my dormer detail from the plans:

Josh and I spread some more grass seed and erosion control matting this morning.

There was a different crew working on the chimney than had been there before and one of the guys came up to me and asked if I might have some mixed fuel for my weed eater (which he must have assumed we had in the truck) that he could borrow for his saw. I told him I didn’t have any, but if there was any on site, it would be in the garage.

I thought this was kind of odd, but then it occurred to me that he thought Josh and I were the lawn crew.

I did not tell him otherwise.

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Emily · 1 Comment

Day 331

Well, well, well…

We have a well!

I stopped by for a quick site visit this week and this was happening in the backyard.

It amazes me that they can do this all in one day.

Mostly because of what they charge for this.

Nonetheless, I am THRILLED that we have a well, and therefore, a water supply. We are waiting on the official report, but our builder told us that they were somewhere around 140 feet down and getting 15 gallons per minute.

Continuing the exciting infrastructure tour, Walt, our builder, is seen here pointing to where the propane tank will be buried behind the garage.

And, lastly, here is the electrical thinger. It will have a cover and we can plant some shrubs strategically to block it from view as you come up the driveway.

We’ve been watching Yellowstone, Longmire, and now Justified lately so I am really feeling my 10 gallon hat shadow in these photos.

In other news, we have exterior doors! Front door…

French doors from the living room to the screen porch. I have a thing for French doors so these make me especially happy.

Kitchen door to the screen porch.

I’m also obsessed with transoms. There will be many throughout the house.

OK, back to the exterior: John graded the hill by the garage and it looks approximately 1 million times better.

They also put in the gravel driveway up to the garage, which means, were there not a bunch of supplies and bathtubs in the garage, I could park in the garage!!!

I will be doing this the first chance I get.

Having the hill graded meant it was time to seed and straw. This was our project yesterday morning. Here is Barry (my dad) loading up the erosion control matting at the local Farmers Co-op. I predict we will be back here many times over the next few decades.

My Dad and Josh did a fine job getting all of the matting and straw in place.

My job was to spread the seed. The workers did not know what to make of this. One day, I show up in business casual attire and am telling people what to do. The next day, I am wearing yoga pants and a fedora, spreading grass seed.

I like to keep them guessing.

The masons are almost done with the first chimney.

And they have started on the second.

We REALLY need them to finish the chimneys so the roofers can finish the flashing and put on the roof.

My other order of business yesterday was to paint some samples for the exterior.

I LOVE this color. It’s Benjamin Moore “Limestone”.

The exterior is coming along. I can’t wait to see the whole thing painted!

Posted on September 6, 2020September 6, 2020 by Emily

Day 324

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

We spent the bulk of the day at the property yesterday.

Josh wanted to mow the septic field to make it easier for installation of whatever is required for the septic system. I don’t really want to know the details. I just want it to work.

Meanwhile, as the guys were working on the exterior trim, I was available to answer questions.

At first, I think they were annoyed that I was there. But after a little while, they started to come and get me to ask questions and make sure they were lining up all of the trim correctly.

I think it also helped that I had brought them donuts.

I spent a lot of time drawing and detailing all of the trim and I am thrilled to see it come to life!

On the other side of the house, the masons were starting to brick the living room chimney. Hopefully they’ll be done with the two chimneys in about a week.

It had been a little while since we had a family site visit and tour so we decided to have a picnic and invite the quarantine pod:

My sister and brother-in-law both drive mini coopers, which don’t stand a chance on our easement road as it is currently quite rugged due to construction traffic and lots of recent rain. Consequently, these two parked their car up at the top of the road and hiked the quarter of a mile to our house. Here, they have just arrived from their journey, sporting full hiking apparel and their backpack beach chairs.

This just cracks me up.

Kath and Grandmother also made the pilgrimage, in sportier ensembles. They arrived by Jeep, which could manage the road just fine, and dropped them off at the garage.

Julia and Nate hadn’t been in awhile, so we gave them the extended tour. Here they are practicing being overnight guests, with Julia in the shower and Nate…taking care of business.

After the tour, we had our inaugural fine dining experience at the house. We set up folding tables and camping chairs for a picnic lunch in the dining room. This made me so happy. I can’t wait for many more meals in this room, though hopefully with slightly upgraded furniture.

After lunch, Josh continued to mow and my dad did some weedeating around the fence. I had brought some irises from our current house that needed to be divided and replanted.

I planted 20 or so by the fence, to the left of our driveway entrance. In 6 or 7 months, they should be blooming as we drive up to the house!

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Emily

Day 318

Today marks one year(ish) that we went under contract on the property. My first folder of photos is dated 08-30-2019, so I thought I’d do a little photo comparison of then vs. now.

Rolling pasture…

Gravel driveway in progress. Mostly a muddy mess. All that is dirt now will return to grass soon.

Though it looks like we have torn up the all of the grass from some of the other angles, this one shows that, relatively speaking, we have left much of the property untouched.

See, not so terrible!

All of these little blobs in the yard are trees that will hopefully grow to be big and beautiful.

Josh is pulling out weeds around them.

This view has changed quite a bit!

Stepping inside for a moment: doesn’t this look like some sort of modern art installation??? Our electricians are very artistic with their wiring.

OK, back to our grounds tour: we were able to park up in front of the house on the gravel driveway!

One of the things we had to check today was the proposed location of the well, as indicated by those 3 tiny, white flags to the right of the tree grouping. Evidently the man from the well company “witched” the well location in just 20 minutes. He told our builder that this process sometimes takes an hour. I am very sorry that I was not present to document it.

Also, Josh cracks me up in this photo.

Back towards the house, our chia pet dirt mound continues to thrive. I’m about to fire up some of the heavy equipment on site myself if this thing doesn’t disappear soon.

The weeds in the septic field are as tall as I am. I turned to Josh to ask him what this lovely white and purple flower was and he quickly informed me that it is “trumpet vine”, which is highly invasive, and, therefore, undesirable.

Darn.

Peeking through our tree line, we can see where our neighbors have cleared a spot for their home. We’ll probably be able to see their house from our house in the winter, but the tree line is dense enough to keep our lots private.

Coming along!

Posted on August 29, 2020 by Emily · 1 Comment

DAY 317

It has been another week dedicated to electrical wiring, plumbing piping, and HVAC ducting.

Are you still there?

Just thrilling.

They used the template provided by the tub manufacturer to cut out the tub deck.

Unfortunately, they did not consult me on placement before they did this and the cutout is too close to the windows. But that is easily fixed.

Though I’m glad we will have adequate ventilation in the house, I cannot wait until it’s time for drywall and all of the ducts and returns are out of sight.

I’m sure it’s all very efficiently run, but this ceiling looks like a hot mess to me.

Meanwhile, outside, part 1 of 27 of the electrical to the house has been inspected and approved so John has filled in a section of the ditch wide enough for a vehicle to pass over. He also started spreading gravel up the rest of the driveway while I was there. It was exciting to see the beginnings of the circle drive!

We’ve also been working hard on finalizing orders this week as raw materials seem to be skyrocketing in price.

We’ve been trying to pick our spots and make some trade-offs to stay in budget. The herringbone brick floor in the mudroom and the heated floors in the master bath are on the chopping block. My dear husband offered to start driving for Uber Eats so we don’t have to give up these features. I’m sure he’ll have no problem squeezing that in between working a full-time job, getting his MBA, and building a house.

We decided on #1 red oak instead of select, which has no knots and less tone variation from board to board. Josh and I agreed that we’d like a little more character in our hardwood floors and this was a good area to save some money. This showroom sample has no stain on it so it’s much lighter than our floors, which will be stained dark walnut.

Though the hardwoods will likely be installed in the next month, they will not be stained until the very end of the build, so it will be a while before we get to see the full effect.

Our builder and I had a long meeting yesterday to finalize exterior trim, siding, columns, and garage doors, as well as interior trim, doors, transoms, stair parts, and miscellaneous millwork.

As I was double-checking the door quote today, Bu decided to make himself a little napping Bu-rrito in the house plans. He stayed like this for over an hour. I’ll take it as a sign that he’s excited about the new house.

Posted on August 24, 2020August 24, 2020 by Emily

Day 311

Our moat is working well and keeping delivery trucks at bay. (sigh.)

They were trying to deliver our exterior doors in this picture, but unfortunately our plywood bridge here was not going to cut it.

It is strictly a pedestrian bridge. A very small pedestrian bridge, for very small pedestrians.

I safely crossed the bridge several times; however, I will be very relieved once the electrical has been inspected and approved, and the ditch can be filled in. I am hoping this will happen tomorrow.

Somehow, these bricks showed up for the chimneys…

Inside, there has been progress on the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems (MEP). At our site meeting, I walked through with the builder and the electrician to verify placements.

The electrical foreman’s name is “Country”. Now, when our builder told us the electrician “Country” was coming, I had in my mind that this man would look something like Blake Shelton. “Country” is neither tall nor cowboy-like. No, in fact, he is a stout, hispanic man who is about my height, which, for the record, is 5′ 4 1/2″.

Because I had very detailed electrical layouts for him, which I assume made his job easier, we are now best friends.

Now taking suggestions on what my construction nickname should be.

“Country” and his crew have been busy wiring the upstairs.

(This is my husband Josh in the picture. Not “Country”.)

The HVAC guys have most of the ducting in place.

And we have some plumbing! These are drain lines for the mater bath sinks.

Kath has hot and cold supply lines in the guest bath! She’ll be tickled.

These nooks in the mancave and studio came in handy for all of the HVAC.

Just a few more pieces of plumbing to put in. (yikes!)

I give them an A+ for organization.

And they finally remembered to frame in the basement access!

I took a class in Phenomenology in graduate school and for some reason this photo reminds me of a spa we studied in Japan. It was all about a sensory experience with light, touch, and sound.

OK, time to end the interior tour.

Out front, our baby volunteer trees are starting to grow. Just another 50 years or so until they’re as tall as the others.

Hopefully the house will be done by then.

Posted on August 18, 2020August 23, 2020 by Emily

Day 304

We are in the not so sexy stage called “rough in”. It is during this stage that they put in the guts of the house, which are critical for it to function, but not the most photogenic.

The electricians were placing all of the housings for lighting and putting in switch and outlet boxes. My electrical plan was so detailed that the electrician only had 3 questions for me. Not bad for several hundred components, if I do say so myself.

It is always my goal to leave absolutely NO room for interpretation when it comes to electrical plans. I’ve seen far too many switches *centered* on large walls across from the entrance to a room.

Not in my house.

Electrical panels boxes, easily accessible in the garage.

Slightly more exciting than the electrical, they’ve built the tub deck for the master tub.

I’m hoping they will enlarge the opening for the tub or the cat will be the only household member able to use it.

They’ve started on the roof as well…which will be super handy once they have it complete.

Handy because we arrived yesterday to check on things just in time for a torrential downpour. Conveniently, they had just dug the ditch for the electrical lines, which runs right across the middle of the property, between the house and the driveway and all the way around to the back of the garage.

We put Barry’s truck in 4 wheel drive and hoped for the best.

On the bright side, I got some good wide angle shots of the house as we slid through the mud all the way around the house.

The electrical ditch basically had the effect of a moat. So, now we know what that’s like in case we ever want one.

For now I think we’ll stick with fences to secure the perimeter.

Speaking of, my dad and Josh have almost finished the fence. It’s looking mighty fine!

Posted on August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 by Emily · 3 Comments

Day 297

Nearly 300 days in and it’s been a big week!

At my site meeting with the builder Friday, there seemed to be dozens of people working. Some were framing, others were putting in windows, and then John was out on the bulldozer moving dirt. I’m not entirely sure that some of them weren’t paid actors to make me feel like there was major progress happening. It worked.

The first major item I discovered was the driveway. It has been graded up to the level Josh specified with a fresh layer of gravel. Compared to what it had been, it was like driving on glass.

The second major item: windows!!! They are all in and I couldn’t be happier not only to see my pretty windows, but to see the views again from inside the house.

We have also gained a dumpster. Less exciting, but it means things will be happening.

I’m obsessed with these windows in the library. I had originally planned for 5 here, but when I was reining in the budget, I cut it to 3. Though you’d be hard-pressed to convince me there is such a thing as too many windows, I think 3 feels right here.

Several items of note in this photo:

windows
the raised hearth
there is a chimney and it is the correct size

All of the framing issues upstairs have been corrected. This is the spot where it all fell apart a few weeks ago.

Many walls have been moved to achieve the specified measurements and alignments in each room. Please note here in the master bath that the vanity wall no longer obstructs the windows and that the hall and doorway into the bathroom are now centered on the windows as intended.

Now I can sleep at night.

Chimney take II. Now that the chimney has slimmed down, my shutters will be able to lay flat against the exterior wall.

The lovely library windows again. I am also in love with the small window to the left of the dormer. I put it in to tie in with the windows in the mudroom clerestory on the front of the house.

The driveway up by the garage is looking better and better as John continues to dig it out.

And you might be wondering where all of this dirt is going?

To the front yard! John is getting pretty close to the final grade up against the house.

And who is that off in the distance?

That would be Josh and my dad, continuing to work on the fence.

Yesterday morning, I gave my mom and grandmother a guided tour of the house, highlighting all of the structural updates and furniture placement thoughts. I fielded questions at the end, which led to an in depth discussion of stair parts.

I was stalling to avoid fence duty.

But, alas, I was summoned to put in something on the order of 500 screws to be sure the boards were well-secured to the posts.

Though I own many power tools and am not afraid of a little DIY, we will be hiring out the fence on the other side of the property.

Josh finished putting in the last few hundred screws today. Meanwhile, I sat in the dining room and finalized a detailing document for the builder with diagrams and notes about things like plumbing fixture placement, countertops, tile layouts, and cabinetry coordination. It’s currently 36 pages.

This was my fancy setup.

I never thought I’d be so happy to have a $5.98 folding chair from Walmart.

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Emily

Day 290

Well things have improved slightly in the last week.

They have corrected the bulk of the framing issues and are tackling the final items.

The dining room chimney is FINALLY underway. I have asked about this 147 times because it’s such a critical element to the look of this side of the house.

Speaking of chimneys, they have framed out the fireplace walls inside – woohoo! This is in the dining room on the other side of the wall we were just looking at.

This is in the living room.

You’ll notice, we are missing the chimney here. A chimney had been built, but upon inspection of the measurements, it was not the right size.

The chimney is being rebuilt.

That’s all I will say about that.

Some good news: we can now walk down the basement stairs somewhat safely.

More good news: they’re almost finished moving the dirt for the driveway so we’ll actually be able to park in the garage.

There is still a lot of dirt to move. Our chia pet dirt pile is thriving in the backyard.

Meanwhile, in the front yard, Josh, my dad, and my brother-in-law were getting our 4 rail fence started.

I think the only reason they agreed to do this work themselves was so they could rent a skid steer.

If 2020 were a fence…

Don’t worry, they got it straightened out and set in concrete.

Looking much better!

Still a long way to go…

The guys also worked along our easement road, digging ditches to help with the water runoff issue so that there will be a road left by the time we’re ready to move in.

I’ve been recruited to help with the fence project next weekend. Please send help.

Primm & Property

Author: Emily