I am happy to report that we have made it through most of the punch list. There are just a few minor odds and ends to finish up. As such, I believe this will be my last post with the meter running on the house build. Let’s call it 600ish days from the time we closed on the property to the house being complete.
Not terrible. I’m just so glad construction-related items are done!
We have shutters!
And the columns were finally repainted!
The screened porch was finished just in the nick of time for us to host a little going away party for my sister and brother-in-law who are soon moving to California. Waaaaaaaaaaaah!
Just a little cocktail and charcuterie spread, naturally.
Bu was keeping cool on top of the cooler until the guests arrived.
I think he loves the screened porch even more than I do, which is really saying something.
The moonlight was so strong the other evening that I went up to my office to take a picture of the light hitting the house. I don’t know what happened here, but somehow the photo looks like an oil painting?!
I might have it framed.
Things have been quite picturesque on my walks lately. This is my blue heron friend that I see most mornings.
Last weekend, when my sister and I were walking, he took off from the pond and we watched him land on top of this tree. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
We’ve also had quite a showing of deer and turkeys. I can hear the baby turkeys chirping from inside the house when they’re out foraging. They are the tiny dots below the turkey on the right. I’ve seen as many as 20 at a time.
I met this fella on my walk yesterday.
Several of the neighbors have cut and rolled hay lately. Such a beautiful sight.
View from the front porch last evening.
And lastly, our garden is coming along. We have a few green tomatoes and many of the plants are over a foot tall.
Josh is so excited about this corn. I just hope the electric fence keeps the above pictured critters away!
We prepped and planted a garden. Josh did the prepping and I did the planting.
In addition to these seeds, I also planted a variety of tomatoes, peppers, and some speckled lima beans (my favorite!).
Things are progressing nicely as we’ve had a lot of rain. So far, the solar-powered electric fence is working well and keeping out critters.
Check out my beets!
This is the garden after two weeks!
If it were up to Josh, the entire garden would have been corn. We settled on 3 out of 12 rows being corn.
I’d also like to report that some of the shutters have been hung. Due to the weather, this process of hanging the shutters is going on three weeks long now and not even half of them are hung. And the painters won’t be back to finish the columns until after the shutters are hung and the screened porch is complete.
I can’t talk about it.
The screening of the porch has progressed more steadily. All screens are in and now we just need a few final trim pieces to finish it up. Please take note of the large horse fly that is *inside* the screened porch…
This photo was taken on a peaceful morning walk the day before my first brush with death since living in the wilderness.
The following morning, I was walking along our road, by the creek, when I noticed a turkey on the creek bank about 20 feet away. I was thinking to myself what a lovely moment in nature this was just as the turkey spotted me and then started squawking and flying right at me.
I began shouting in the deepest and most menacing voice I could muster and put my arms out wide as I backed up the way I had come. The turkey stopped flying when she was about 5 feet from my face but kept charging, flapping her wings, and carrying on until she had forced me 50 feet up the road.
She then retreated to the brush on the other side of the road opposite the creek, circling a spot about 10 feet from where she first spotted me. Evidently I had come between her and her babies though I didn’t know it.
I think I’ll be adding a whistle and some pepper spray to my keychain.
Home sweet home.
And, finally, our Starlink satellite arrived today! There is hope for better internet service.
I didn’t realize it had been a hundred years since I last posted. Sorry about that.
It turns out moving your home and business is not for the faint of heart.
Highlights from the past month:
we are in the new house
we closed on the old house
we survived
Bu is adjusting well (likely because he’s getting to sleep with us)
both Josh and I have received our first dose of vaccine
This is where we left off last…
March 12:
Who knew we could cram over two hundred boxes worth of stuff into a ranch house?
The weather had been beautiful all week and then, of course, the day of our move was rainy.
It took the movers over six hours to pack the two trucks. Somewhere along the line, they decided they needed an additional truck and accused us of accumulating more stuff because the estimator said we would only need two trucks. We assured them that, if anything, we had purged stuff. They sorted out the third truck, sent another guy, and by 4PM(!), we were headed to the new house. We bought them pizza and with renewed energy, they unloaded the trucks in half the time it took them to load.
Fun plot twist: we still hadn’t received approval on our final inspection at this point, so we couldn’t actually unpack, set up, and move in.
So, our house looked like this for the next week.
During that week, which I took “off”, I went and collected final items from our old house, hounded the builder to get things done to satisfy the inspector, set up a temporary office headquarters at my parents’ house, closed on our old house with a power of attorney for Josh, and moved in with my parents while Josh was out of town all week for work. Oh, and for kicks, I agreed to do a cleanse with my sister.
Our old house also did a cleanse and was unrecognizable with out our three trucks worth of stuff.
I will miss our view of downtown Nashville.
It was a great first house, which I bought planning to live there three-five years. Three rounds of renovation, six years, and a husband later, we sold the house to a couple who will take good care of it.
I will say, it seems like a lifetime ago that we lived there.
Because we live here now! We officially moved in March 20 after receiving approval on the afternoon of the 19th.
Our satellite internet was installed nearly one week later, which meant I was basically living in 1992 until then.
(still waiting on them to put on the shutters and finish painting the exterior – which is killing me)
The screened porch is framed, awaiting a few adjustments, and then it will be painted and screened. I can’t wait to use this space, especially as the weather improves! Though, as you can see in this photo, we’ve had some extreme weather lately.
A week into living in the house, we had record levels of rain and flooding, accompanied by some of the brightest lightning I’ve ever seen and sizeable hail.
Thankfully, we made it through without damage.
Most mornings look like this, with the sunrise gently waking us. No, that’s not fog, it’s the window film that is still on the outside of our windows.
It’s on the punch list, along with 82 other items.
Still some final interior painting to finish up…
The butler’s pantry is going to be one of my favorite spots in the house, but right now it just looks creepy.
The rest of the house is coming together, with Bu supervising all of the unpacking from a comfortable perch.
Getting reacquainted with all of the upholstery…right after I had cleaned it.
These chairs will go in the library (inherited from my parents’ house) and the rug from our old bedroom is too small, but for now they are helping to make the living room feel like a real room.
Approximately one hundred of the two hundred boxes were kitchen items. Window treatments are in the works!
The dining room is feeling a little sparse. We need six more chairs to fill out the table, but we used it for Easter and it was perfect for social distancing!
The laundry room is being put to good use. Bu assists with washing and folding each load.
Tonight will be Bu’s first night in his room and not in our room. Yesterday, we assembled his new cat tree, which we thought did not come with instructions until we had it 80% together and then the instructions somehow materialized.
I’m convinced Bu was sitting on them.
Taking his new tree for a spin. I had to order a “large cat” tree with perches large enough for Mr. Seventeen pounds.
I guess it’s time to move his sign from the master suite to the pet suite. Hopefully the punch list will be wrapped up soon and we’ll no longer need this sign!
Things are not moving as quickly as I would like given that we’re trying to move in in five(!) weeks.
However, a week ago, we were still missing one appliance prior to our pending installation. But, late this week, I received some excellent news that this piece had come in. For reference, we ordered our appliances in August.
They are supposed to be installed Monday, February 1. Woohoo!
Meanwhile, the painters have been priming and the plumbers have been putting in the trim pieces.
The painters left me some samples. I like the one on the right. Can you guess what this is for???
Barry D. has finished and delivered all base pieces for the library built-ins.
They are in position to be installed.
Today, we delivered 2 of the 4 tops. They are gigantic. Barry is very serious about this and unsure as to how we are going to transport the remaining 2 (largest) tops from his shop to the library.
Meanwhile, I’ve been packing away at our current house. I ordered a lot of boxes and they are filling up quickly.
Shelves and cabinets are not seeming to empty quickly, however. There is still so much to pack.
The cat is very proud of himself for getting up onto the empty shelves…
Also, I think I need a new phone. Photo quality is quite poor.
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.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that, in just a few days, almost all of the block had been laid!
Here they are finishing up the back of the house and then the only section left is the front porch, where my dad and Josh are standing on the right.
John has been spreading out the Pride Dirt Pile so it’s harder for me to get up high enough and far enough away to get everything in one shot. I had to use the panoramic setting to capture this, which is a little bit distorted, but you get the idea.
Though I can barely contain myself in anticipation of framing, seeing this step has been extremely exciting!
That L-shaped thing on the left will be our screened in porch. I’ve never had one of these before. I predict that we will spend a great deal of time on that porch, safe from all of the mosquitos and critters that will eat you up out here.
Also, please note on the left, Barry (my dad) taking a picture of me standing on a pile of dirt taking a picture.
Now, when we are not on the screened in porch on the back of the house, we will most likely be on the front porch, which will be right here.
I have the rocking chairs ready to go for the minute the house is complete.
The horses next door are largely disinterested in the construction.
So, this is the second time in my life that I’ve gotten to be part of the building process on a personal level. The first time was when my parents built a house outside of Philadelphia when I was 4.
You might say, that’s where it all began, or at least where it became clear, that I would wind up in a career related to construction and design.
Last year for my birthday, Josh put together some still shots from a home video circa 1992 of me supervising on the jobsite at my parents’ house. I was sporting pink sunglasses and an ensemble I can no longer pull off.
Josh did get me a new pair of pink sunglasses so I could recreate the inspection vibe when the time came for us to build our house.
Well, the moment has arrived.
Josh brought the ladder so I could climb down into the basement.
The view from below.
Here I am several decades later, sporting my pink sunglasses and assessing the situation.
On our way home, the same way that we had come just a few hours before, there was suddenly a tree all the way across the road. Josh maneuvered around it and then he and my dad tied it to Josh’s truck so he could pull it out of the road.
It’s always an adventure out in the country!
Speaking of adventures, we have been practically camping in our current house for the past week because our refrigerator decided to stop cooling. Thankfully, it has since been fixed and we had 7(!) days left on the warranty. Always the optimist, Bu was making the most of the temporary setup and had found himself a great spot for lounging and watching the squirrels in the front yard.
Primm & Property 