progress – Primm & Property

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Emily

Day 318

Today marks one year(ish) that we went under contract on the property. My first folder of photos is dated 08-30-2019, so I thought I’d do a little photo comparison of then vs. now.

Rolling pasture…

Gravel driveway in progress. Mostly a muddy mess. All that is dirt now will return to grass soon.

Though it looks like we have torn up the all of the grass from some of the other angles, this one shows that, relatively speaking, we have left much of the property untouched.

See, not so terrible!

All of these little blobs in the yard are trees that will hopefully grow to be big and beautiful.

Josh is pulling out weeds around them.

This view has changed quite a bit!

Stepping inside for a moment: doesn’t this look like some sort of modern art installation??? Our electricians are very artistic with their wiring.

OK, back to our grounds tour: we were able to park up in front of the house on the gravel driveway!

One of the things we had to check today was the proposed location of the well, as indicated by those 3 tiny, white flags to the right of the tree grouping. Evidently the man from the well company “witched” the well location in just 20 minutes. He told our builder that this process sometimes takes an hour. I am very sorry that I was not present to document it.

Also, Josh cracks me up in this photo.

Back towards the house, our chia pet dirt mound continues to thrive. I’m about to fire up some of the heavy equipment on site myself if this thing doesn’t disappear soon.

The weeds in the septic field are as tall as I am. I turned to Josh to ask him what this lovely white and purple flower was and he quickly informed me that it is “trumpet vine”, which is highly invasive, and, therefore, undesirable.

Darn.

Peeking through our tree line, we can see where our neighbors have cleared a spot for their home. We’ll probably be able to see their house from our house in the winter, but the tree line is dense enough to keep our lots private.

Coming along!

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?!

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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.

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…

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Emily

Day 221

We rolled up on Memorial Day to find that the block work was complete!

One day soon(ish), there will be a lovely front porch here, inviting you in as you come up the driveway.

(sigh)

We had the full crew on for inspection: Josh (left), Nate (middle), and Eugene (right).

It was HOT, so while I walked the perimeter, Eugene sat in the shade of the front tree, supervising me. The guys had moved on to cutting down a tree.

The dirt piles keep moving and flattening as John continues the grading, so this was as high as I could get. Looking good!

Next, it was time to “walk through” the house, which Eugene was kind enough to document for me.

That crawl space access is already coming in handy; however, this is the only time I ever plan to use it personally.

Walking through the kitchen…

…envisioning the island.

…sitting at the island.

Old habits die hard.

Next up, garage and basement floors will be poured!

Posted on May 24, 2020May 24, 2020 by Emily

Day 219

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.

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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.

He is going to love the screened in porch.

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Emily

Day 167

It’s really happening!

I got butterflies as we turned onto our easement drive and saw the big pile of dirt in the distance.

Have you ever seen such a beautiful sight?!

(*Fighting back tears*)

This is where the garage will be.

And guess what? We will actually PARK in the garage, unlike the other 99.3% of Tennesseans who have garages and never park in them. I don’t understand it.

That looks like fun!

But, I will say, after reviewing the SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN 10 second videos our trail camera captured from the first day of moving dirt, this is a very VERY monotonous process.

Though having seen many a hot mess of a construction site, I think our guy is very methodical and trying not to disturb things any more than necessary.

Please cross your fingers for clear days so we can make good progress!

Posted on March 15, 2020March 15, 2020 by Emily

Day 147

Well, we’ve owned the property nearly 5 months now and all we have to show for it is some temporary orange fencing around the septic fields.

Oh, and we also have some animal planet worthy trail camera footage.

To be fair, we have been doing a lot behind the scenes so that when things do start, they can move efficiently. I have selected and specified nearly every detail in the house down to the door hardware. We may even be ready to order the windows next week!

The things that excite you when you’re an adult…

Also exciting is the fact that the earthwork guys should be there this week to start moving dirt, especially given all that has happened here in the last couple of weeks. Since my last post, we’ve had another 47 inches of rain, a devastating tornado that came within a mile of our current house in Nashville, and coronavirus hysteria has set in.

Regarding the tornado: Many people around us have lost their homes and businesses, which certainly puts into perspective how lucky we are to be safe and to have a roof over our heads. The night of the tornado, we had just minutes to wake up and realize what was happening, grab the cat, and get into the basement as the tornado passed us. The large trees in our backyard were swaying back and forth 30 feet, but thankfully, we were spared any damage.

Though I was ready to nix the basement in the new house for budgetary reasons, now I am really glad Josh insisted we have one. The homes near us that were destroyed were almost identical to our current house. All of them had basements and everyone in those houses survived because of that. Pretty much everything above grade was flattened. I still get chills thinking about it and I know that compared to what these people are going through, being delayed in building my new home while I have a perfectly intact home is really not a big deal. So, we are prepared to be patient and to help however we can.

Next topic: coronavirus. We are self-quarantining as best we can. I will be working from home and avoiding as many meetings as possible. I have requested that Josh work from home for the foreseeable future, too. His company did a trial run Friday and as far as I’m concerned, it went extremely well. It seemed to me he got a lot done and was able to eat a proper lunch. Let’s keep it up!

Thankfully, the population density around our new property is so low that the chance of running into another human being while onsite, or within 5 miles, is next to nothing. With these statistics in mind, we ventured out earlier today to check up on things.

Earlier this week, during his meeting with the contractor and the earthwork guy, Josh determined that the tree directly in front of where the house will sit is actually a pecan tree. Now, I was pretty sure that we had decided to eliminate this tree (and plant many others in its honor) due to the fact that it would be smack dab in the middle of the parking pad and be far too close to the house for comfort. Well, evidently my landscape architect of a husband has had a change of heart and as of now we are trying our darnedest to save this tree.

He limbed up the tree with his chain saw. Here he is surveying his work.

While he was doing this and dragging the large cut limbs away, I was reviewing the trail camera footage in the comfort of the truck.

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Pardon the glare, but these people are well past the highly visible “no trespassing” signs on the trees to their right and left.

One of these folks was also observed on camera several days prior, scoping things out. It’s going to be awkward if these people are our neighbors…

Screen Shot 2020-03-15 at 3.43.15 PM Not sure who this was past our Fort Knox gate, but if he/she wants to leave his/her truck for us to use, that would be super in exchange for trespassing. Thanks.

Then there was a rogue group of turkeys fanning their tail feathers…

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So, I know I’m partial, but I think this is the cutest shot, with my husband, Josh (middle), the earthwork guy (left), and our builder (right), all walking along as dudes discussing moving dirt like it’s no big deal.

I’d like you to know that Josh is extremely proud that “earthwork guy” is now a part of my vocabulary.

Posted on February 2, 2020February 2, 2020 by Emily

Day 106

Let’s start with some excellent news: Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow!

This is a big deal when you’re hoping to break ground in the next few weeks.

Speaking of that, I got really excited earlier this week when I received an email that said “construction permit approved”. I forwarded it to Joshua with roughly 1,000 exclamation points. He texted me to gently inform me that that approval was not what I thought it was. Had I taken the time to read the next two words in the email subject line, I would have seen the words “conventional system”, which refers to the type of septic system we will have. This was an email confirming our septic permit approval, which we knew had been approved several weeks back.

Oh well.

Another email came through this week that said “Permit decline reasons”. As excited as I was about the previous email, I was equally deflated upon receiving this one. It turns out the “decline reasons” weren’t really for anything we could have anticipated. We had carefully reviewed all checklists and submittal requirements before we sent in our plans, but the county likes to come up with additional items because they can. We ran into this earlier in the process with our plat so weren’t entirely surprised.

Thankfully, we should be able to satisfy these additional requirements, and hopefully get our building permit any day now.

Patiently waiting….

In the meantime, we drove out to the property Friday evening to review where the house had been staked by the surveyor as we had indicated it on our site plan. We are really trying to save the tree that is in front of the house. The driveway will run between the tree and the front porch so we wanted to make sure there will be enough clearance. We decided that we’ll need to limb up the tree a bit but that we should be able to keep it. Whew!

These flags do not photograph well and it’s hard to tell much about the shape of the house, but we verified that edges and corners were in a good spot. You can see the tips of the tree branches we were discussing on the left.

You can also see Josh photobombing my lovely shot as he was carrying my chair so I could practice sitting on the front porch.

photo credit: Joshua, from the living room

There’s the tree again, this time on the right side. We confirmed that the west-facing front porch is in a great spot. This was an overcast evening, but I can’t wait for many spectacular evenings on the front porch, watching the sunset. I think our realtor thought I was a little nuts, but when we were searching for a piece of land, one of my requirements was that the front of the property had to face west so we could have this setup.

I cannot wait to be sitting on the actual front porch!

On our drive into the property, we spotted a new structure underway at one of the neighboring properties:

I have construction progress envy…

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Emily

Day 101

Greetings!

Well, the house isn’t done yet…or started for that matter.

We did, however, close on our construction loan. Our plans have been submitted for our construction permit and we’re hoping to get the green light this coming week.

Though there’s not much to see just yet, we still make regular visits to the property to check on it and collect the footage from the trail camera.

After reviewing last week’s footage, it seems we aren’t the only ones eagerly awaiting construction to start:

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Hiiiii….

Screen Shot 2020-01-26 at 2.05.13 PM This is the second time we have seen this truck. If there’s a next time, I’ll be running their plates and sending them a note with the blog URL.

This is also the second time we’ve seen this little guy/gal:

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The first time we saw him/her, Josh had reviewed the footage before I did. I asked him if there was anything noteworthy and our conversation went something like this:

J: “A few vehicles, a coyote, and a house cat.”

E: “A house cat?”

J: “Yeah, a house cat.”

E: “As opposed to what? A leopard? A lion? A bobcat? Isn’t it just a cat?”

J: “No, you can tell it’s a house cat.”

This went on for a while and we eventually determined that while I would categorize all domestic felines as “cats”, Josh grew up with farm cats that lived in the barn and did not come in the house so therefore just “cat” as a descriptor is a little too vague.

I am assuming this critter’s full figure is what led Josh to determine that it is clearly a “house cat”.

Hopefully by the time the house cat returns, construction will be underway!

P.S. This is not the first time the term “house cat” has come up in our marriage. When shopping for shampoo to bathe our (house) cat, Bu, all the pet store had was “show cat” shampoo. Josh rolled his eyes and exclaimed, “We don’t need “show cat” shampoo, we just need “house cat” shampoo!”.

Posted on January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 by Emily

Day 83

Well, 2020 is off to a strong start!

Items of note:

We close on our construction loan next week.
Our septic permit has been approved.
We should have everything together to apply for our building permit by the end of the week.

We drove out to the property this past weekend and Josh poured concrete markers for the property corners. I helpfully supervised from the passenger seat of the truck and documented the process:

Our new equine neighbors decided this was pretty interesting and came to the edge of their paddock to see what on earth we were doing:

They pretended to eat hay when I caught them checking us out.

After the second property corner was poured, they lost interest.

I don’t typically go all the way to the property corners to take photos so it was neat to capture this angle from the front corner. You can see a sliver of the easement road on the right where our driveway will start, our gorgeous, orange septic field fence to the left of that, and then finally, a little farther to the left is the location of our future house, as indicated by the giant green arrow.

I decided I really like this angle and I think I will make a point to take photos from this angle throughout the building process.

Let’s keep those permits coming so we can break ground soon!

Posted on December 29, 2019 by Emily

Day 66

Big development over here! Our future septic fields have been fenced off!

As Josh said, “This is really exciting to see something happening on the property.”

We took my parents and grandmother out to see this exciting progress last weekend.

Here’s my mom, Kath, inspecting the fence. She loved it.

We are now waiting for the county to inspect this septic field fence and give us our septic permit, after which we can then apply for our building permit. Fingers crossed!