Day 281

Some things have happened at the property this week.  Let me fill you in:

I noticed last weekend that we had a rather significant framing issue upstairs.  Not a structural one, thankfully.  In fact, the house is built like a tank, with more lumber and hurricane ties than you can imagine.  No, the issue was regarding measurements.  I realized the issue when I walked into the master bath and the vanity wing wall was partially obscuring one of the windows.  Per my plans, this should not have been the case.

I started investigating.  Come to find out that the guest room had been framed over a foot too deep(!), thus throwing off every wall upstairs east to west.  Mostly notably, the master bedroom was 10 square feet too small as a result.  No bueno.

I did my best not to have a “come apart” (as they call it here in the south) and started documenting everything for the builder.  I was particularly wound up over this because my plans are not only to scale but also dimensioned.  I can forgive an inch here or there and realize there may have to be an occasional adjustment, but variations of more than a foot simply will not do.

Good news: I noticed this while still in the framing stage and not as we were trying to move in furniture.

Bad news: I was the one that caught this.

Good news: It can be fixed and our builder is on it.

Bad news: Nearly every wall in the main part of the upstairs has to be moved.

Good news: We will not be charged for this.

Bad news: It will delay us about a week.

I had two 2-3 hour site meetings with the builder this week to go through everything and mark what needs to be corrected.

I should have brought snacks.

OK, now onto the next critical item: the kitchen cabinet color.

It is well-documented that I am my own worst client.  While I can be incredibly decisive with selections and decisions for my clients’ spaces, the same cannot be said for my personal spaces.

I have painted this poor door sample with 5 different colors and then my own custom blends of these colors to get the color just right.  Let me just say that neutrals are complicated because they can take on various undertones depending on what time of day it is and what kind of light is hitting them.  My struggle was that I liked some better in natural daylight and the others better at night with incandescent light.  In the daylight some were taking on a fleshy undertone (which I am absolutely allergic to) and at night the others took on a green cast.

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My cabinet guy will be delighted when I tell him he has to paint match a 50/50 blend of 2 colors, one of which is at 75%.  Here is the winning combination:

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This is the same color on the whole door.  See how different it looks in light and shadow?!

While the cabinet color took an inordinate amount of time, it took me about 45 seconds to make the call on the roof material.

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Back to regularly scheduled programming and progress photos:

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They put on the underlayment for the roof and some of the flashing.

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They started on the dining room chimney.

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They have done some more digging around the garage, though there is still a bit to do.

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Josh and my dad laid out where the 4 rail fence will go along our shared property line.

They have their work cut out for them as they put in this fence next weekend.

I will be providing supervision and snacks.

 

Day 274

Well, as predicted, things have ground to a halt on the house.  Nothing happened at the house this week that I could tell, unfortunately.

I met with the cabinet guy yesterday to go over the kitchen and master bath cabinetry.  Though it will be months before any cabinetry is installed, just the thought of it makes me so happy.  As an interior designer who designs a lot of kitchens, and as someone who thoroughly enjoys cooking and baking, I have put more time into perfecting this kitchen than perhaps any other space I’ve ever designed.  I can’t wait to be in this space, whipping up a new recipe (likely from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook) for dinner with my family.

Probably about 6 more months until that’s a reality.

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I’ll just be over here at the corner of the property, dreaming about gatherings of family and friends until then.

In the meantime, Josh and my dad have been working on securing the perimeter. Josh discovered that our neighbor along our tree line was perhaps unclear on the actual boundary of his property.  We’re giving him the benefit of the doubt, but as he was clearing his entirely wooded property, he cleared almost 20 feet onto our side of the tree line. So, over the course of the past two weekends, Josh and my dad have put up metal stakes and wire along the property boundary to help make it clear.

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Not the most beautiful thing, but effective.  It’s hidden by the trees from our side.

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Along that same side of our property, past the tree line, there is another neighboring property that has recently sold.  We spotted some markers we think indicate a building envelope so we are being proactive and planning a four rail fence along that shared boundary.  It will tie into our neighbor’s fence on the West side of our property, shown here:

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As they say, good fences make good neighbors.

 

Day 267

It’s been a slow week at the house so I decided to check the trail camera footage for anything good.

Screen Shot 2020-07-11 at 1.27.28 PMThere are dozens of videos of this man carrying in stacks of 2x4s like this one.  He must have shoulders of steel.  Each time, he gracefully managed to carry over 100 pounds of lumber as he walked the plank into the house.

Though there were 100s of videos, other than Mr. Hulk here, there wasn’t much of interest.

We did catch a few moments of our site meeting with our builder last week.

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Here we are practicing social distancing.

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Discussing the front porch…

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Going over all of the exterior trim details with some very helpful hand gestures.

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Josh and I are peeking out the dining room window here because in the middle of our meeting with our builder and the HVAC subcontractor (who were standing across the room inside) one of our neighbors starting screaming/yelling her dog’s name.

Now, normally this sort of thing wouldn’t send me into a panic, but this dog is trained as an attack dog.  When we first met him, our neighbor had to hand us a treat to feed the dog so he would know that we were on the “approved” human list.

Another important piece of information here is that, when I was 3, we were visiting our neighbors who had a dog named “Fudge”, who was completely harmless but about 10 times my body weight at the time.  He came bounding over to say hello to me and I promptly climbed my dad like a tree.

So, I immediately started to think about how I was going to scale the roof in the event the dog was charging toward our house.  Since we don’t have doors or windows yet and the car was 50 yards away, the roof seemed like the best plan.

This went on for several minutes and we still had not seen the dog.  Our neighbor then switched from yelling the dog’s name to yelling what I thought was “I have a treat”.

I chuckled and then realized she was actually yelling “retreat”, which seems like an intense dog command, so I quickly resumed plotting my ascent to the roof.

Several minutes later, she stopped yelling and we still hadn’t seen the dog so we assumed he had indeed “retreated” and we went back to our fascinating conversation about heat pumps vs. dual fuel systems.

 

 

 

 

Day 255

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Looking more and more like a house each time we visit!

We headed out this morning to see the progress and were delighted to see that framing is nearing completion.

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The wrap covering all of my beloved windows is really killing the vibe.

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Also killing the vibe is the master bedroom windows not being centered under the roof ridge.  I noticed these were off when they first started framing the second floor walls. Our builder assures us this will be fixed at the end of framing.

I’m counting the minutes.

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At least the view is still nice from the inside, which will be our view as we wake up.

(The dirt piles are temporary.)

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I’m so excited about all of the dormers and sloped ceilings in the bedrooms.  Super Cozy.

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This is the view from the back bedroom, through my closet, through Josh’s closet, and through the master bathroom in the middle, master bedroom on the left, and bonus room on the right.  I realize this will not be a view once the walls are drywalled, but it helps to get a feel for the layout upstairs.

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I call this to your attention because most views upstairs look like this, which is basically a maze of 2x4s.

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I did get this shot of one of the critical axes upstairs from the guest room, through the main stair hall, master hall, and into the master bedroom.  I’m standing in the master bedroom and my dad is in the guest room.  Hi, Daddy!

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They have really cleaned things up downstairs.  I am standing in the kitchen, looking into the entry and the living room.  Feeling good!

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We headed up to the office next.  Josh approves.

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Barry was studying all of the details of the framing.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…

Day 250

Hey there!

IMG_5583I stopped by for a quick visit between meetings the other day and saw many interesting things as I turned onto our easement drive:

  1. The property adjacent to ours that has been for sale for quite a while now has a gigantic septic fence in place.
  2. The “For Sale” sign had been taken down, so this sale is likely really happening and we are getting some new neighbors.  We were secretly hoping the seller would give up and offer to sell it to us and our existing neighbor for a fraction of the cost.
  3. Due to the odd shape of this lot and the gigantic septic field in the middle of the lot, I have no idea where they will place a house.  I really hope it’s not a big factor in any of our views.

On a more positive note, I spot a chimney!

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A little imagination required, but can’t you see it coming to life?!

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The chimney was really exciting to see.  There is another one on the opposite side of the house that is more for looks and balance.  This one here is a wood burning fireplace in the living room, but the dining room and library will have ventless gas inserts.

I love fireplaces.

It’s hard to imagine wanting to have a fire right now because it’s almost 90 degrees and 80% humidity as I write this.

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No worries, though, because I can just lay down in the puddles on the floor to cool off.

It’s sort of a panicky thing to see water like this on the interior of your house even when you’re still in this rough stage of framing.  The good news is there are no windows and doors on the house at this moment in time so there will be plenty of time for this to air out and evaporate.

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There’s that gigantic septic field fence from the other side.

As soon as I saw this, I told Josh we may need to go ahead and put up a fence along the shared property line…

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Back to the progress! Check out these dormers taking shape.  The bedrooms are going to be so cozy.

Though I know we have to have it for waterproofing, I really detest this paper they are putting on in a somewhat random fashion.  It is very distracting and they are covering up the window openings.

I can’t wait until we can cover it up with siding and put in the windows. I’m hoping at our meeting tomorrow, the builder will tell us this is happening very soon.

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I like this view because you can’t really see the ugly paper.

Also, it cracks me up that it looks like our house is hiding behind the tree, somewhat unsuccessfully. Sort of like when my cat sticks his head under the sofa and thinks you can’t see him.

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I turned around from my vantage point and admired all of our little “volunteer” trees that have sprouted up.  Hopefully some of these will make it to be big trees someday.

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As I was leaving, I spotted a work truck at the edge of the other property adjacent to ours.  It is entirely wooded and we have about 40′ of woods between us, but we haven’t see a soul or any evidence of human life on this property the entire time we have owned our property.  A little strange that literally the same day that the other property looks to have something happening on it, this one does too.  We went from feeling like we were out here by ourselves to all of a sudden having a bunch of activity.

Looking into that fence tomorrow…

 

 

 

 

 

Day 247

Hi, it’s me again!

More framing progress to report over the last 24 hours.

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We had a family site visit yesterday afternoon while my aunt was in town.  It was neat to give the grand tour and walk through each room.

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Our greek revival cottage is taking shape!

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The office is feeling really good and looking like a disco in the afternoon sun.

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As they add the sheathing, it frames the views and I just can’t get enough.  I’m all about the views.

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The second floor is still quite the maze of framed walls and temporary supports.

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Here’s Josh looking out the dormer window in the back bedroom.  I’ve always loved dormers so each room on the second floor has one.  I might have gone a little dormer crazy in the design, but I think they make the rooms cozy and add a lot of dimension to the exterior.

We have some rain in the forecast, but I’m thinking framing might be complete by the end of the week.  Stay tuned!

 

 

Day 246

IMG_5405I think there has been more progress in the last week than in the last 8 months combined!  I can barely keep up and I’ve been out there almost every day this week to check on things.

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Yesterday, I stopped by during lunch and ate my salad as I watched them finishing the roof over the garage.

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They were also starting on the mudroom/laundry roof that is one of my favorite features of the house.

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They were even starting to put the wrap (might have a more official name?) on the house.

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The second floor was almost completely framed.  I stood where the bed will be in the master and looked out the window at what will be a peaceful view to the east.

(I very intentionally situated the master bedroom so our bed could face east and the sun can gently wake us as it rises.)

(I’m a nerd.)

I also had a moment in my closet (not pictured).  By today’s standards, it’s not huge, but it will bring me joy to have all of my things in one place.  It also brings me joy that my husband will have a separate closet that I need not set foot in.  We have very different closet maintenance strategies.  I will leave it at that.

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While on the topic of things that bring me joy, this nook here at the back of the office will be Josh’s mancave.  I’m very happy for him that he will have a mancave.  I’m also happy that it’s as far away as possible from the rest of the house so I don’t mistake sounds from Josh’s movies/video games for an actual threat to our safety.

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A little off-topic, but this is on our drive up to the property and it just makes my day every time I drive by it.

Headed out again today to see if the main roof is on!

 

 

 

 

Day 243

I can barely concentrate on anything else at the moment because I’m so excited about the framing!!!

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But, first things first: Check out our driveway that has been graded up so there’s no longer a pond in the middle of it. They also put in a massive pipe specified by my dear husband who does not mess around when it comes to proper drainage.

I had been parking at the very beginning of the driveway due to it being impassible in my short SUV.  Next time, I will drive on up and park in front of the house…

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… right by the front porch!

They are starting to put in the floor system for the second floor.  The room above the front porch is the guest room.  Kath (my mom) will be so delighted to see this as she is eager to stay in her suite.

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They put in the stairs to the future headquarters of my design firm. The way things are going with COVID-19, it sounds like I will be subletting some of my office space to my husband.

Ok, back to the tour.

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My kitchen!

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Which will eventually look like this!

But probably not for 6 months…sigh.

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This is the living room, which overlooks the front porch and yard.  They had somehow missed one of these windows in the first round of framing, but they quickly got it added in after I brought it to their attention.

I’m sure I’m their favorite already.

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Though I planned for all rooms to have lots of light and pretty views, I am particularly smitten with the view from the dining room.

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I am also a big nerd about sight lines and axes.  This is the view looking the opposite direction of the previous photo.  Once all of these lovely temporary supports are removed, there will be a sight line down through the hall and out the windows of the library on the back of the house from the dining room table.

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The L-shaped screened porch that wraps the back and side of the house will have an uninterrupted view of the tree line.  Though right now, these temporary supports are really killing the mood.

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Here’s another angle showing the screened porch and those library windows I’ll be able to see through from the dining room.  I foresee spending a lot of time on this porch.  So does our cat, Bu.

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And this is the beast from her widest angle.

This house has been in my head and in my heart for so long that is really surreal to see it come to life.

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Still quite a bit left before she looks like my rendering, but well on her way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 238

So, they were supposed to pour the garage and basement slabs Monday or Tuesday.  The weather was uncooperative (thank you, Cristobal) so that didn’t happen.  I decided to drive out to the property on Tuesday between meetings on the off-chance that it wasn’t raining there and there was concrete being poured.

It was raining heavily.  And there was no concrete being poured.

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This photo was taken shortly before I stepped out of the car and my foot was nearly swallowed whole by the mud.

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This was after 10 minutes of cleaning.

There was only so much I could do with a roll of paper towels and a travel size bottle of hand sanitizer.

Also, did I mention I was between meetings?  As in, after this I had another client meeting?

Thankfully, I had a pair of flip flops in the car.  Hopefully that is the first and last time I will wear flip flops to meet a client.

Moving on.

We had an early morning meeting with our builder today and we were pleasantly surprised how much had happened since the shoe incident on Tuesday.

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They were pouring the garage slab as we arrived.

Maybe I should ask them where they got their boots…

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The also poured the basement steps today.  The basement slab will be poured tomorrow.

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At least I didn’t step in wet concrete…

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The lumber was delivered yesterday (on schedule!) and they got quite a bit done in one day.

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This makes me so happy.

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This forecast makes me and my shoes even happier!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 226

Well, the weather has been spotty and as a result the concrete guys are behind.  So, no slabs were poured this week as hoped.

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They did apply some lovely waterproofing.  Though black is normally one of my favorite colors, I’m not loving the look here.

Good thing it will be covered up by dirt before too long.

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John was there this morning working on the grading by the garage.

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There’s still quite a bit to grade on this side so we don’t have to drive off a cliff into the garage.

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I found a new pile of dirt to take pictures from.  To me, it looks like our house is made out of giant legos.

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Oh hey!

I caught Josh drinking his coffee on the front porch.

I think this is the first of many thousands of cups of coffee he will enjoy on the front porch.

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On our way out, we noticed one of our neighbors seems to be drilling a well.  We will be doing this too at some point soon.  

Still so many things left to do for our house to be complete, but we are making progress, slowly but surely.

But mostly slowly…