roof – Primm & Property

Posted on October 24, 2020October 24, 2020 by Emily

Day 371

We have passed the one year mark of owning the property. Closing day seems like 100 years ago and last week at the same time. This feeling is only compounded by the roller coaster 2020 has been.

I know you’ve been on the edge of your seats since the last post, waiting for me to try parking my car in the garage. Last weekend was the big test, and though it was much easier to maneuver in my car than in my dad’s enormous truck, I did send some feedback to our landscape architect/site planner (my husband) that it would be really helpful to widen the driveway about 3 feet.

I have not yet received confirmation on this change order…

We have a roof!

The exterior is looking more and more buttoned-up each day. The painters are slated to start this weekend (yay!). The last big impact item will be finishing out the porches with the columns and ceilings. We are waiting on the front porch classical columns to arrive in the next few weeks. Though these toothpick temporary supports are necessary at the moment, they are sort of killing the vibe.

Without the appropriately scaled supports in place on the front porch, I think it looks like house has an overbite. Don’t worry, we’ll be putting in 16″ diameter columns to correct this.

I had a lovely open-air visit/picnic with friends that I hadn’t seen in person since March(!). This is my friend Jessica and her 14 month-old daughter Sophia. Sophia has literally doubled in age since I last saw her.

Sophia was a little skeptical at first, but she quickly made herself useful inspecting the plumbing. She also had a grand old time walking through walls and limboing under electrical wiring.

After the interior inspection, we had some lunch. Sophia was committed to getting the full porch experience, insisting on sitting in her mom’s chair and watching the neighbor’s horses.

We decided to walk off lunch and take a grounds tour. The roof is looking good from the treeline!

We have some new gravel to make the circle drive continuous. However, there are still several piles of material in the way keeping the “circle” aspect from being useful. I’ve watched many trucks attempt backing down the one section of the driveway and it’s never pretty. We have many bent pieces of rebar driveway markers to prove it.

Looks like the grounds crew’s efforts are paying off! This verdant patch here is all new growth, sewn by yours truly.

Yesterday, after my site meeting with our builder, I decided to put up some paint samples of the colors I’m considering for the porch ceilings.

Approximately, .02947 seconds after I took this picture, I was chasing after my samples across the porch. A storm was about to hit, thunder was cracking in the distance, and sudden wind gusts were sure to make my paint selection efforts futile. (Though frustrating at this point in time, sitting (safely) on a porch as a storm approaches is maybe one of my favorite things in life.)

Since the house is not painted yet and this yellow color of the raw Hardie siding will most certainly influence how these colors read, I should know better than to be doing this at this point in time. But, as I have mentioned before, I am my own worst client and I refuse to listen to myself.

Bearing in mind that the siding and trim will be very close to the color of the windows and that I am going for the “haint blue” ceiling effect to keep the evil spirits away, which color do you vote for? Left, top, or right?

Posted on August 18, 2020August 23, 2020 by Emily

Day 304

We are in the not so sexy stage called “rough in”. It is during this stage that they put in the guts of the house, which are critical for it to function, but not the most photogenic.

The electricians were placing all of the housings for lighting and putting in switch and outlet boxes. My electrical plan was so detailed that the electrician only had 3 questions for me. Not bad for several hundred components, if I do say so myself.

It is always my goal to leave absolutely NO room for interpretation when it comes to electrical plans. I’ve seen far too many switches *centered* on large walls across from the entrance to a room.

Not in my house.

Electrical panels boxes, easily accessible in the garage.

Slightly more exciting than the electrical, they’ve built the tub deck for the master tub.

I’m hoping they will enlarge the opening for the tub or the cat will be the only household member able to use it.

They’ve started on the roof as well…which will be super handy once they have it complete.

Handy because we arrived yesterday to check on things just in time for a torrential downpour. Conveniently, they had just dug the ditch for the electrical lines, which runs right across the middle of the property, between the house and the driveway and all the way around to the back of the garage.

We put Barry’s truck in 4 wheel drive and hoped for the best.

On the bright side, I got some good wide angle shots of the house as we slid through the mud all the way around the house.

The electrical ditch basically had the effect of a moat. So, now we know what that’s like in case we ever want one.

For now I think we’ll stick with fences to secure the perimeter.

Speaking of, my dad and Josh have almost finished the fence. It’s looking mighty fine!

Posted on July 26, 2020July 26, 2020 by Emily

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.

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:

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.

Back to regularly scheduled programming and progress photos:

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

They started on the dining room chimney.

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

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.

Posted on June 28, 2020 by Emily

Day 255

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.

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

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.

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

(The dirt piles are temporary.)

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

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.

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

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!

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

We headed up to the office next. Josh approves.

Barry was studying all of the details of the framing.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Emily

Day 247

Hi, it’s me again!

More framing progress to report over the last 24 hours.

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.

Our greek revival cottage is taking shape!

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

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

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

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!

Posted on June 20, 2020 by Emily

Day 246

I 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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!