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.

Screen Shot 2020-07-11 at 1.20.59 PM

Here we are practicing social distancing.

Screen Shot 2020-07-11 at 1.21.58 PM

Discussing the front porch…

Screen Shot 2020-07-11 at 1.22.57 PM

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

Screen Shot 2020-07-11 at 1.20.05 PM

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 243

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

IMG_5257

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…

IMG_5265

… 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.

IMG_5271

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.

IMG_5278

My kitchen!

2

Which will eventually look like this!

But probably not for 6 months…sigh.

IMG_5289

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.

IMG_5286

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.

IMG_5294

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.

IMG_5282

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.

IMG_5267

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.

IMG_5302

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.

Screen Shot 2020-06-16 at 9.35.43 PM

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.

61341509472__9C89F6E2-148D-4EF7-8779-668535565ADF

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

61341613875__D6526197-94D9-43CB-A050-EE0D296CC83F

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.

IMG_5153

They were pouring the garage slab as we arrived.

Maybe I should ask them where they got their boots…

IMG_5169

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

IMG_5158

At least I didn’t step in wet concrete…

IMG_5155

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

IMG_5163

This makes me so happy.

IMG_5151

This forecast makes me and my shoes even happier!