I am happy to report that we have made it through most of the punch list. There are just a few minor odds and ends to finish up. As such, I believe this will be my last post with the meter running on the house build. Let’s call it 600ish days from the time we closed on the property to the house being complete.
Not terrible. I’m just so glad construction-related items are done!
We have shutters!
And the columns were finally repainted!
The screened porch was finished just in the nick of time for us to host a little going away party for my sister and brother-in-law who are soon moving to California. Waaaaaaaaaaaah!
Just a little cocktail and charcuterie spread, naturally.
Bu was keeping cool on top of the cooler until the guests arrived.
I think he loves the screened porch even more than I do, which is really saying something.
The moonlight was so strong the other evening that I went up to my office to take a picture of the light hitting the house. I don’t know what happened here, but somehow the photo looks like an oil painting?!
I might have it framed.
Things have been quite picturesque on my walks lately. This is my blue heron friend that I see most mornings.
Last weekend, when my sister and I were walking, he took off from the pond and we watched him land on top of this tree. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
We’ve also had quite a showing of deer and turkeys. I can hear the baby turkeys chirping from inside the house when they’re out foraging. They are the tiny dots below the turkey on the right. I’ve seen as many as 20 at a time.
I met this fella on my walk yesterday.
Several of the neighbors have cut and rolled hay lately. Such a beautiful sight.
View from the front porch last evening.
And lastly, our garden is coming along. We have a few green tomatoes and many of the plants are over a foot tall.
Josh is so excited about this corn. I just hope the electric fence keeps the above pictured critters away!
We prepped and planted a garden. Josh did the prepping and I did the planting.
In addition to these seeds, I also planted a variety of tomatoes, peppers, and some speckled lima beans (my favorite!).
Things are progressing nicely as we’ve had a lot of rain. So far, the solar-powered electric fence is working well and keeping out critters.
Check out my beets!
This is the garden after two weeks!
If it were up to Josh, the entire garden would have been corn. We settled on 3 out of 12 rows being corn.
I’d also like to report that some of the shutters have been hung. Due to the weather, this process of hanging the shutters is going on three weeks long now and not even half of them are hung. And the painters won’t be back to finish the columns until after the shutters are hung and the screened porch is complete.
I can’t talk about it.
The screening of the porch has progressed more steadily. All screens are in and now we just need a few final trim pieces to finish it up. Please take note of the large horse fly that is *inside* the screened porch…
This photo was taken on a peaceful morning walk the day before my first brush with death since living in the wilderness.
The following morning, I was walking along our road, by the creek, when I noticed a turkey on the creek bank about 20 feet away. I was thinking to myself what a lovely moment in nature this was just as the turkey spotted me and then started squawking and flying right at me.
I began shouting in the deepest and most menacing voice I could muster and put my arms out wide as I backed up the way I had come. The turkey stopped flying when she was about 5 feet from my face but kept charging, flapping her wings, and carrying on until she had forced me 50 feet up the road.
She then retreated to the brush on the other side of the road opposite the creek, circling a spot about 10 feet from where she first spotted me. Evidently I had come between her and her babies though I didn’t know it.
I think I’ll be adding a whistle and some pepper spray to my keychain.
Home sweet home.
And, finally, our Starlink satellite arrived today! There is hope for better internet service.
A whole lot of nothing has happened construction-wise since my last post. We are still waiting on the following, which at this rate may or may not be done by the end of the year:
shutters to be hung
cupola to be painted and installed
porches to be adjusted and screened
porches to finish being painted
exterior paint touch up
floors to be touched up
interior paint to be touched up
window film to be removed and screens put in
a bunch of other miscellaneous items. Our punch list is two pages long
Since these items are out of my control, I have focused instead on furnishings and décor.
We took a trip to Kentucky a few weeks ago to pick up items from my grandmother’s house. The good news is all of this furniture is very sturdy. The bad news is it is heavy. The guys are smiling in this photo but they had a real time moving these pieces.
But, everything and everyone made it safely to our house.
These twin beds were my mom’s and aunt’s growing up. I adore them.
Also, fun fact, this piece of furniture on the left is called a “chest on chest”. I thought my mom was “pulling my leg” when she told me that, but lo and behold, it actually says that on the tag on the back of the piece of furniture.
I’m waiting on the drapery hardware to arrive to install the buffalo check panels, but this is shaping up to be one of my favorite rooms.
We also picked up this church pew in Kentucky, which had been a fixture on my granny and papa’s carport my entire life (I’m sure even longer than that). I gave it a fresh coat of paint and it will go on the screened porch with the dining table (that I do not have yet).
In outdoor news, Josh purchased this monstrosity to collect rain. It too, will soon be painted black.
Out front, we started on the landscaping. Still much to do, but it does feel less like a job site and more like a home each time we plant something.
And my irises that I transplanted last fall from our old house are in full bloom by the driveway.
We got tired of waiting on the painters and exterior trim guys so we went ahead and put out our random assortment of porch furniture on the front porch so we can use it as the weather gets nicer. I got some new cushions for the sofa and chair that were from Josh’s bachelor life and painted the rocking chairs that were also on granny and papa’s carport for years. All of this will go to the screened porch once it’s complete, but we have been enjoying it in the meantime.
I installed my custom kitchen window treatments the second the were ready. I am in love with them. I found this fabric several years ago and knew I had to have it somewhere in the house where I could enjoy it everyday. They were a splurge, but I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Bu assisted with the shade installation.
There is still touch up to be done in the butler’s pantry and the wine fridge needs to be put back (it currently looks lovely in the middle of the mudroom), but I have put on the cabinet hardware and we are using it as a bar.
Bu got a little touch up – his first bath in his new sink.
There was some verbal protesting, but everyone made it out unscathed.
He’s always happy to be fresh and clean, but does not enjoy the process. I have similar feelings about working out.
Bu says please no more baths this year.
We’ve also had quite a bit of rain. We lost power and cell coverage for a while the other day. Wouldn’t recommend it.
As a result of all of this rain, Josh spends a lot of time spreading grass seed and putting down erosion control matting.
It’s about time to be thinking about our garden and all I want to do is plant things. All Bu wants to do is follow me out onto the porch.
Alas, due to MORE rain, my projects for today will have to be indoors. So I will be painting this bench, with Bu’s supervision.
I didn’t realize it had been a hundred years since I last posted. Sorry about that.
It turns out moving your home and business is not for the faint of heart.
Highlights from the past month:
we are in the new house
we closed on the old house
we survived
Bu is adjusting well (likely because he’s getting to sleep with us)
both Josh and I have received our first dose of vaccine
This is where we left off last…
March 12:
Who knew we could cram over two hundred boxes worth of stuff into a ranch house?
The weather had been beautiful all week and then, of course, the day of our move was rainy.
It took the movers over six hours to pack the two trucks. Somewhere along the line, they decided they needed an additional truck and accused us of accumulating more stuff because the estimator said we would only need two trucks. We assured them that, if anything, we had purged stuff. They sorted out the third truck, sent another guy, and by 4PM(!), we were headed to the new house. We bought them pizza and with renewed energy, they unloaded the trucks in half the time it took them to load.
Fun plot twist: we still hadn’t received approval on our final inspection at this point, so we couldn’t actually unpack, set up, and move in.
So, our house looked like this for the next week.
During that week, which I took “off”, I went and collected final items from our old house, hounded the builder to get things done to satisfy the inspector, set up a temporary office headquarters at my parents’ house, closed on our old house with a power of attorney for Josh, and moved in with my parents while Josh was out of town all week for work. Oh, and for kicks, I agreed to do a cleanse with my sister.
Our old house also did a cleanse and was unrecognizable with out our three trucks worth of stuff.
I will miss our view of downtown Nashville.
It was a great first house, which I bought planning to live there three-five years. Three rounds of renovation, six years, and a husband later, we sold the house to a couple who will take good care of it.
I will say, it seems like a lifetime ago that we lived there.
Because we live here now! We officially moved in March 20 after receiving approval on the afternoon of the 19th.
Our satellite internet was installed nearly one week later, which meant I was basically living in 1992 until then.
(still waiting on them to put on the shutters and finish painting the exterior – which is killing me)
The screened porch is framed, awaiting a few adjustments, and then it will be painted and screened. I can’t wait to use this space, especially as the weather improves! Though, as you can see in this photo, we’ve had some extreme weather lately.
A week into living in the house, we had record levels of rain and flooding, accompanied by some of the brightest lightning I’ve ever seen and sizeable hail.
Thankfully, we made it through without damage.
Most mornings look like this, with the sunrise gently waking us. No, that’s not fog, it’s the window film that is still on the outside of our windows.
It’s on the punch list, along with 82 other items.
Still some final interior painting to finish up…
The butler’s pantry is going to be one of my favorite spots in the house, but right now it just looks creepy.
The rest of the house is coming together, with Bu supervising all of the unpacking from a comfortable perch.
Getting reacquainted with all of the upholstery…right after I had cleaned it.
These chairs will go in the library (inherited from my parents’ house) and the rug from our old bedroom is too small, but for now they are helping to make the living room feel like a real room.
Approximately one hundred of the two hundred boxes were kitchen items. Window treatments are in the works!
The dining room is feeling a little sparse. We need six more chairs to fill out the table, but we used it for Easter and it was perfect for social distancing!
The laundry room is being put to good use. Bu assists with washing and folding each load.
Tonight will be Bu’s first night in his room and not in our room. Yesterday, we assembled his new cat tree, which we thought did not come with instructions until we had it 80% together and then the instructions somehow materialized.
I’m convinced Bu was sitting on them.
Taking his new tree for a spin. I had to order a “large cat” tree with perches large enough for Mr. Seventeen pounds.
I guess it’s time to move his sign from the master suite to the pet suite. Hopefully the punch list will be wrapped up soon and we’ll no longer need this sign!
It’s been nearly 3 weeks since my last post. The reason for this is partly because we’ve had a lot of other things going on, but it is largely due to the fact that not much has been happening at the house.
The plumber saga dragged on for several weeks (injuries, surgeries, no shows…excuses, excuses) which has set us back nearly a month in getting our rough inspections complete so we can move on to insulation and drywall. They did finally show up this week and are almost finished (hallelujah!).
Tubs are set and water lines have been run…
Though I was not shy in expressing my displeasure about the pace of the interior progress, I have been delighted by the exterior progress.
We have porch floors!
And siding is almost complete. I have submitted the exterior finish schedule to the builder in preparation for the painters to start in a few weeks – bye bye, yellow!
I am so excited about the screened porch, I can hardly stand it.
I am in love with my door and window trim. I could stare at it all day. And I plan to, once the screened porch is finished.
We’ve also had some good progress on the grading. The Chia Pet dirt mound has had quite a haircut…
…and has been transferred to the front of the house to smooth out the slope around the driveway.
We arrived last Saturday for a meeting with our builder and upon inspecting this, Josh insisted we make an emergency trip to the CO-OP to pick up more seed and erosion control mats for this section.
Lawn crew reporting for duty.
My dad came to help the next day. This is like an acre of dirt.
Grass is starting to come in on the hill by the garage we worked on a few weeks back.
Just for fun, one day when my dad and Josh were off chopping down trees on the other side of the property, I decided to test out parking in the garage with my dad’s giant truck. Kath was a good sport and rode the 37 feet from where the truck was parked in the driveway to the garage, and then she got out to help direct me so I didn’t crash into anything. It took a 27 point turn for me to get into the first bay. So, I’m thinking a) we need to widen the driveway and b) I will be parking in the second bay if I get a vehicle larger than my small SUV.
Next time, I intend to try this exercise with my current vehicle. Stay tuned for the results. Oh, and for house updates.
I can barely concentrate on anything else at the moment because I’m so excited about the framing!!!
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…
… 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.
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.
My kitchen!
Which will eventually look like this!
But probably not for 6 months…sigh.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Still quite a bit left before she looks like my rendering, but well on her way!
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.
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.
Primm & Property 