fireplace – Primm & Property

Posted on February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 by Emily

Day 475

I always tell clients that it’s that last 10% that just about kills you.

We are there.

The highlight of the week: appliances were installed.

Hello, gorgeous.

The refrigerator and freezer will have panels to match the cabinets.

This wall brings me great joy; however, it may be the most expensive wall in the house. Given that we will be out in the country and that the nearest restaurant is not close, we will be dining in most of the time and this fridge/freezer space will be essential to our survival.

My employees decided to check if the new house was serviceable by grubhub/ubereats/etc. because they frequently take advantage of such services at our current location.

Haha.

I got a real kick out of that. To be fair, they haven’t been to the property yet.

I squealed with delight when I saw the range. I can’t tell you how excited I am to fire up this bad boy.

Switching gears, one of our neighbors generously volunteered to build us a shared mailbox structure. It’s not at all what I would have chosen, but since it’s at the main road, I didn’t have strong feelings about it. The good news is, he ordered extra large mailboxes so packages will fit inside.

Back inside the house, the painters continue to cover things in tape and plastic.

While I know and appreciate that painting is 75% prep, I would like to see something painted the color it is supposed to be.

These closet shelves appear to be the correct color, my beloved limestone.

Fireplace surrounds are primed.

I’m dying to see the dining room painted. It will be a deep burnt orange.

Speaking of the dining room, I had been on the hunt for an antique dining table with many leaves so I could adjust it for up to 12 people. I hit the jackpot this weekend when I stumbled upon this estate sale find.

I snagged this triple pedestal, inlay top, 115″ long, 3 leaf table for $450.

It makes up for the wall of appliances I mentioned earlier.

Miraculously, the 5 piece top and 3 piece base fit in the back of my vehicle. All of these pieces are hanging out in the entry/dining room of our current home for the time being and Bu thinks they are for him.

In other thrilling news, the toilets have been installed!

You have no idea what an ordeal it is to get a decent toilet these days.

I sent Josh an update with pictures at my last site visit on Friday. 3 out 5 pictures were of toilets.

The master vanity is shaping up! Tower has been installed – though still missing crown – and faucets are in.

So glad the trim guys made a masterpiece of the attic stair pulldown that is located in an unfinished storage closet.

Lastly, Josh, Nate and my dad delivered the library built-in tops yesterday. They installed them, with the exception of one that can’t be installed until a gas shutoff is moved.

Have you ever seen such a look of pure joy?

Thank you, Daddy! And thank you, Josh and Nate, for assisting. Can’t wait until these bad boys are painted a deep green.

Hardwoods are being finished this week. We’re in the homestretch!

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.

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Emily

Day 250

Hey there!

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

The property adjacent to ours that has been for sale for quite a while now has a gigantic septic fence in place.
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.
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!

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

Screen Shot 2020-06-24 at 8.08.58 PM

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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…