design – Page 2 – Primm & Property

Posted on May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 by Emily

Day 203

Just over 200 days in and there is cause for celebration!

We have footers, y’all!

The weather has been uncooperative, per usual, so after a lot of back and forth, they decided to dig the footers and pour them all in one day to beat the rain. Josh and I headed out to the property after work/meetings just in time to catch the last few minutes of pouring around 6PM.

I could not believe my eyes when I turned onto the easement road and saw this machinery as tall as a skyscraper!

OK…slightly taller than the trees.

This is some major equipment.

John, our earthwork guy, inspecting everything.

This looks like ancient ruins to me so I’m glad someone knows what’s going on.

I’ll be honest. When they said they were pouring the footers, I had no mental picture of what that was going to look like. I’m not even sure I would have gotten it right on multiple choice.

I might have guessed they would look more like big blobs or squares of concrete rather than a strange concrete maze.

Good thing I’m not in charge of this operation.

Josh is much more familiar with concrete pouring so he was eager to check it out and walk dangerously close to the edge of the wet concrete.

Here he is walking through the hall into the dining room. I’m imagining many lovely, leisurely meals in that room, soaking up the golden hour.

After those lovely meals, we can head out to the front porch to watch the sunset. This is where the front steps and porch will be.

This terrifyingly narrow and deep trench is for drainage. Josh is a major drainage nerd so he was delighted to see this.

I was less delighted, but still appreciative of the water mitigation planning.

I still can’t believe this is real.

2020 has been the most bizarre year of our lives. Though we have had sadness and challenges, we have so much to be thankful for. Building our forever home brings us a lot of joy in the process and in the hope of many happy times to come.

Posted on December 8, 2019 by Emily

Day 52

We made some big strides this past week!

A few highlights:

We signed with our builder
The builder has begun applying for permits
The appraisal has been ordered for our construction loan

A few things to note:

The County takes septic permitting VERY seriously and has a checklist with no fewer than 8 different documents that must be submitted. They even require one of the documents to be notarized. I think applying for college might be easier.
Windows are still expensive, unfortunately. I got some more quotes this week and the series that offers the brass hardware I really want basically costs the same amount as a Rolls Royce.
Window selection still pending.

While in Virginia visiting family for Thanksgiving, we went to Thomas Jefferson’s retreat home, Poplar Forest. Since we are going to be building a traditional house with classical elements, I was taking note of all of the details.

One of the first things I noticed was the floor-to-ceiling, triple sash windows in the library that our tour-guide said were custom-made in Germany to match the originals. Given my recent Ph. D. level education in windows, I approximate that these cost at least five figures each.

I was also completely obsessed with the beefy trim. I haven’t seen baseboards built out like this before. I would guess these are 3″ deep, which means they had to build out all of the door casings as well. The chair rail was so thick that they notched it over the door casing. I will be showing this to our builder to emphasize how simple our trim work will be by comparison.

Lastly, I will be keeping this photo below handy if the codes department decides to give us any issue with our railing-less front porch that is less than 30″ off the ground. I, like Thomas Jefferson, don’t want a railing obstructing my view.

Until next time!

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Emily

Day 26

Well, it’s a good thing we’re not trying to break ground today because it’s a whopping 17 degrees Nashville.

We do, however, have a stamped site plan. Woohoo! I’m ready to move some dirt!

….rather, I’m ready to see some dirt moved!

Untitled

This is the area around the house and driveway that will be graded. To the naked eye, this area looks relatively flat, but from the garage side of the driveway to the front corner of the house, it’s nearly a 10 foot drop.

See that orange star I put on the site plan? That is the location of the tree that Josh’s truck is parked next to in this photo below (taken facing East). Looks pretty flat, right??

Meanwhile, final rounds of redlining continue on the house plans. We are 99.37% there, just catching little things here and there to tweak.

I love finding these notes from Josh. Can’t wait to see him discover other details in the house as it is being built!

Posted on November 4, 2019November 4, 2019 by Emily · 2 Comments

Day 17

Now that it’s November, it is time to get serious. We are SO close to getting things rolling on the house build. This week, we met with the bank to get the construction loan process going, which is NOT for the faint of heart. To my knowledge, they will need at least the following to approve us for a loan:

Paperwork detailing all of the money we have, have had, and will ever have
13 forms of identification
How many pieces of lumber it will take to frame the house, +/- 5
What color we intend to paint the dining room
Our first born child as collateral (I suppose we’ll have to offer Bu, the cat, at this time.)

That is by no means a comprehensive list. It may take us longer to get all of that together than it will to build the house.

In other news, during our car ride design plan review session on the way to visit family this weekend, we solved the butler’s pantry dilemma. The section of the house with the powder bath, pantry, butler’s pantry, and broom closet just wasn’t feeling quite right. My sister and brother-in-law suggested we get rid of the broom closet and enlarge the butler’s pantry so it is more open and inviting. Eugene (sister) said with the revised layout, she would love to come and mix drinks in that space. I agreed, because after all craft cocktails are more important than cleaning supplies.

In closing, I’d like to share a photo that will not be making the cut for our holiday card from our attempted holiday card photoshoot at the property this afternoon. We were hoping to catch the 5 minutes of Fall foliage in Tennessee as well as the golden hour lighting. There weren’t many leaves left on the trees and the sun was especially blinding, but we did manage to get a few good ones for the holiday card.

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Emily

Day 8

No major developments in the last few days. No builder contract signed (though in the works), zero utilities on the property, and nothing submitted to the county yet, but rest assured that I have nearly every last selection made for the finishes and fixtures in the house down to the grout colors. I also have all cabinetry and tile detailed to 1/16″ of an inch.

This is what I do for a living after all. I live in the world of interior design plans and detailing, tile, countertops, lighting, custom cabinetry, paint colors, trim profiles, and selection schedules and budgets. This has come in handy as we try to get a precise bid for construction. We will not need any of these items, however, for the better part of a year, but now I can sleep at night knowing which faucet is going in the hall bath.

Now that I have all of those things selected, detailed, and budgeted, I have moved on to deciding where all of our current artwork and mirrors will be going in the new house. At least 12-15 months ahead of schedule on that one.

This is what I do when waiting on other parties for things out of my control: I make lists, spreadsheets, diagrams, and design boards. Please send help. And wine.