We were all set to head out to the new house and see the progress this morning when we discovered black ice at our current house.
Better safe than sorry – but I really wanted to see the hardwoods all finished!
This is the stain sample I approved earlier this week. Classic. Timeless. I love it.
Painting is inching along…I’m loving the richness of the trim color. So much better than stark white.
This is our builder, Walt. He’s a good guy.
He does not know that I have this blog.
I cannot wait to get rid of all of this plastic and tape! Though I do appreciate the thorough prep work.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, packing continues. I’m trying to stage most of the boxes upstairs in the middle of the house. Consequently, with the furniture against the wall, the dining room looks like a waiting room.
Bu is waiting for us to tell him what is going on.
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!
Our shower valves have blankies so they don’t get too cold.
Master vanity is in. The tower and fronts will go on after the countertop is installed.
Butler’s pantry cabinets installed by yours truly and my A-team (Dad, Josh, Julia, and Nate). I’m already plotting to paint these cabinets, the walls, and the trim a deep, moody color.
And laundry cabinets. The trim guys will build laundry basket cubbies in the middle so I can have a big folding surface along this wall.
The farm sink will be Bu’s spa. He’s excited…not.
I am just smitten with the brick floor in the mudroom, the tall baseboards, the dutch doors, and the transoms.
But, the true love of my life is the kitchen.
I’m dead.
I can’t even.
Ok, back to the progress report.
Stairs!
Newel posts and balusters. Our base newel post is massive and I love it.
The top of it is almost as big as my head!
Outside, the porch ceilings were going in and the gutters and downspouts were being installed as I was leaving this morning.
We have officially entered the stage of interior finishes.
Translation: pretty stuff is going in.
The library is packed with all of the interior doors that they started installing today.
We have a lot of doors.
Master bedroom and closet doors…and master bath tile waiting patiently to be installed tomorrow…
And my Dutch doors! Can’t wait to see these in the mudroom. The trim guy sent me into a panic this morning when he called to asked where “the doors that are cut in half” go. I was about to tell him “back to the supplier” until it occurred to me that he was talking about the Dutch doors.
The trim guy and I also went over my transom details today. I’m *so* excited to see these go in. Major new old house detail.
They are getting ready to start on the trim, an element that can make or break a house. This, my friends, is not an area to skimp on. Case in point: we are doing 9 1/4″ tall baseboards downstairs and 7 1/4″ tall upstairs. Merry Christmas to me!
Other exciting things: floors!
The hardwoods are in (though they won’t be sanded and finished until the end (which is a good thing because I would be the floor scratch police otherwise)).
A peek into the kitchen from the rear hall. Cabinets coming Saturday! This view will look quite different in a week.
I can barely contain myself.
The mudroom brick floors are in. The grout will really take it over the top, but that won’t be happening until there is heat in the house (which is still a few weeks a way thanks to county electric nonsense).
Last exciting thing for the day: guest bath floor! I am a sucker for a classic basketweave.
I’ll be back out to Meadowcrest tomorrow to meet with my door hardware guru and to see other developments on the door, trim, and tile fronts.
Stay tuned for rapid fire updates over the next two weeks!
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.
Not a whole lot of progress at the house this week, unfortunately. Tradesman are slammed in the Nashville area, which is not good news for our house build, but it is good news for being able to pay for the house build, since both Josh and I work in professions related to construction.
We did get 8″ of rain at the property last Sunday, according to our neighbor. This helped to get the grass going. See it peeking through the straw matting?
They finished the first chimney this morning and are about 1/3 of the way done with the second. I am hoping they finish it this weekend so we can get the roof on next week and the bulk of the exterior trim and siding finished. That will be a HUGE deal to have the house looking fairly complete from the outside.
The siding and trim on the dormers is complete and I am SO PLEASED. It looks a little funny now because some of the material is white and some is beige (it will all be painted the same color), but I love all of the layers of detail. I’m a bit of a trim enthusiast as you can tell by my dormer detail from the plans:
Josh and I spread some more grass seed and erosion control matting this morning.
There was a different crew working on the chimney than had been there before and one of the guys came up to me and asked if I might have some mixed fuel for my weed eater (which he must have assumed we had in the truck) that he could borrow for his saw. I told him I didn’t have any, but if there was any on site, it would be in the garage.
I thought this was kind of odd, but then it occurred to me that he thought Josh and I were the lawn crew.
It has been another week dedicated to electrical wiring, plumbing piping, and HVAC ducting.
Are you still there?
Just thrilling.
They used the template provided by the tub manufacturer to cut out the tub deck.
Unfortunately, they did not consult me on placement before they did this and the cutout is too close to the windows. But that is easily fixed.
Though I’m glad we will have adequate ventilation in the house, I cannot wait until it’s time for drywall and all of the ducts and returns are out of sight.
I’m sure it’s all very efficiently run, but this ceiling looks like a hot mess to me.
Meanwhile, outside, part 1 of 27 of the electrical to the house has been inspected and approved so John has filled in a section of the ditch wide enough for a vehicle to pass over. He also started spreading gravel up the rest of the driveway while I was there. It was exciting to see the beginnings of the circle drive!
We’ve also been working hard on finalizing orders this week as raw materials seem to be skyrocketing in price.
We’ve been trying to pick our spots and make some trade-offs to stay in budget. The herringbone brick floor in the mudroom and the heated floors in the master bath are on the chopping block. My dear husband offered to start driving for Uber Eats so we don’t have to give up these features. I’m sure he’ll have no problem squeezing that in between working a full-time job, getting his MBA, and building a house.
We decided on #1 red oak instead of select, which has no knots and less tone variation from board to board. Josh and I agreed that we’d like a little more character in our hardwood floors and this was a good area to save some money. This showroom sample has no stain on it so it’s much lighter than our floors, which will be stained dark walnut.
Though the hardwoods will likely be installed in the next month, they will not be stained until the very end of the build, so it will be a while before we get to see the full effect.
Our builder and I had a long meeting yesterday to finalize exterior trim, siding, columns, and garage doors, as well as interior trim, doors, transoms, stair parts, and miscellaneous millwork.
As I was double-checking the door quote today, Bu decided to make himself a little napping Bu-rrito in the house plans. He stayed like this for over an hour. I’ll take it as a sign that he’s excited about the new house.
Primm & Property 