Drywall...

Our goal of hitting the ground running with drywall work this week turned into wishful thinking when we learned of a mishap with the crew that was scheduled to begin on Monday. Even so, this work began in earnest on Thursday, with a significant portion of the main level wall area covered by this afternoon. Even at this early stage it's quite a great feeling to see the transformation to living space begin!

The first eight feet of wall height has been covered throughout most of the main level. Ceilings will be sheathed before the remaining wall space is covered.

Outdoors, all but a few trim pieces of the metal roof work was completed, and good progress was made on the front and rear staircases. The latter has been quite the engineering project, but it's finally taking shape and should get us from point A to point B just fine! The front staircase itself is straightforward, but is incorporated under and within the porch structure, so clearances are tight, and some trial-and-error has been part of the process here, as well... 

Staircase to rear porch is admittedly more complicated than necessary!

Here you see how the front staircase flows up to the porch. With the porch being eight feet deep, space is a little tight alongside the staircase as you move from front porch to side (piazza!) 

Other exterior details like framing for the garage door openings, and construction of our monster-sized platform for the air conditioning units and emergency power generator, were in progress when we visited the project (that's builder-talk!) today. Like most everything else, these units must be raised above "base flood elevation", so the finished platform will more or less be at the same level as the main floor of the home, or about 17 feet above sea level!

This elevated platform is 16' long, designed to provide a solid (and dry!) base for two HVAC units and a natural gas -powered generator. The structure will be finished with louvered walls to match the rest of the ground level trim 

First garage opening is framed. As you can see the garage door will be set back somewhat from the outer face of the house.

Next week we expect all drywall will be in place and the "mud work" to begin by week's end. If all goes as planned the crew will also install cement-backer materials in the areas to be tiled. Most of the exterior trim carpentry should be completed, too, and if we're lucky the stucco guys will begin the process of finishing the concrete piers.

On the planning front everything is going well, but we need to make a few short-term decisions, like how we'll trim the outdoor fireplace. We've decided the chase will be finished in tabby stucco (an oyster shell surface), but hadn't thought about the transition from this surface to the metal fireplace surround. Details, details!!

Last, Bonnie is working with our designer to line up a furniture-shopping trip to Atlanta in May, so that's something to look forward to(?)

Two geese have taken up residence out back, despite the noise and distractions of construction. We hope they'll stick around a while. Ron named them Thanksgiving (L) and Next Easter!  

That's it for this week... hope you enjoyed our update!

Ron & Bonnie

Week 23 - Putting a lid on it!

This week we enjoyed some family time and meals out at two of Johns Island's popular adjective-plus-animal-name restaurants -- the Fat Hen, and Tattooed Moose. Both have great food in casual settings, located on wooded properties along Maybank Highway, one of the island's scenic main roads. Just down the street, a new restaurant called Krazy Owls opened this month, and is next on our to-do list!

Construction progress this week was good! The crew finished trimming out louvered walls on the ground level, worked out details on the rear staircase, made minor fixes here and there, and resumed painting at mid-week, despite some windy conditions. Paint work was focused on the upper half of the house, allowing for Thursday's start on the roofing without concern for possible paint overspray affecting the finish.

Galvanized metal roofing application is under way!

Galvanized metal is a durable, long-lasting traditional roofing material that is well suited to a coastal environment. We chose to leave the Galvalume aluminum-zinc coated roof in its natural silver finish to help reflect the radiant heat from the intense summer sun.  One potential downside to metal roofing is noise from falling rain (or worse, hail!), but we're hoping the spray foam insulation that lines the underside of the roof deck will help keep this in check!

One of the many little details that needed attention prior to drywall -- additional insulation under and surrounding the interior staircase

A picture of wind! It was pretty windy the first part of the week, and keeping doors shut was a challenge without any hardware to keep them closed!

As of this afternoon there was still a floor squeak or two that had to be eliminated around a truss that was relocated a few weeks back, and a couple of recessed lighting "cans" had to move a few inches in order to finalize prep for drywall, which will begin either on Saturday, or first thing next week.

Despite the few fix-up items that needed attention, this weekend inspection crew signed off on all the rough-ins last Sunday!

Turning to finishing details, we took receipt of our first piece of plumbing hardware; the filler for the master tub. Being floor-mounted it's actually a pretty complex install, and we wanted to have the option to install sooner rather than later. As it turns out, it will be later, once we have the tub on site, so the plumber can get everything aligned perfectly when cutting holes in the floor (and probably the ceiling below, for access).

This tub filler came packaged with each piece stored in a soft velvet-like travel bag(?)  Maybe a sign that too much was spent on plumbing fixtures, but we're not asking questions here! 

We've let our preliminary interior paint selections sink in for a couple weeks and we're about 98% sure this is the palette we'll be going with... we've found it's really difficult to get a true color reproduction on a computer screen, but let us know what you think, anyway!

























Last, but certainly not least, coinciding with a series of organization changes at work, Ron formally announced (finally!) his intention to step down from his role at the end of the year!! Sounds like hedging, but more or less means retirement, but who knows??

Hope you enjoyed our update!

Ron & Bonnie

March madness is on...

It was really cold this week! Cold temperatures and rain earlier in the week hampered progress for a couple of days. The crew was unable to resume painting on the exterior this week, but we expect this will be a focal point for next.

Down below, however, wooden louvers -- hundreds and hundreds of 1x6 boards -- now enclose the ground-level garage and storage areas. Fabrication and installation of these angled slats were nearly complete as of this afternoon. We think they look great, visually anchoring the home to Earth!!

Louvers surround ground-level spaces. The concrete piers will have a stucco finish, and louvers painted a rich brown color called Cistern, another of the classic paints palette we've selected

The functional purpose of these open walls is to provide a path for flood waters to flow and, if needed, be sacrificed in a serious flood "event" by breaking away from the rest of the structure. This will help ensure that damage does not extend to the main level living areas, as might happen if the walls were an integral part of the home's frame.

Inside, minor repairs and adjustments were made in preparation for drywall. An example was the need to reroute two plumbing vents in order to avoid occupying the same space as wall-mounted light fixtures.

"Oops! Wanted a light there? No problem, we'll just reroute the plumbing!"

With a few additional small changes the interior will be ready for drywall. In preparation, the drywall sheeting and other materials were delivered today, and spread throughout the house as needed to make for an efficient installation process. If all goes well the drywall crew should start hanging these heavy 12' sheets by mid-week!

On the planning front, we finalized our cabinet specs, colors and layout. Shaker style cabinets throughout, with some variation in drawer style and color depending on location. The kitchen will feature a white cabinet perimeter and darker gray island, complemented by the butler pantry cabinetry of darker cabinets below and a single, dove gray cabinet above. We think it's going to look pretty sharp!

One of several diagrams showing the detail layout of cabinetry; this is the butler pantry area

Don't ask about how much time we spent deciding what cabinet we should select to hold our garbage can!!!

Last this week, we met with our designer at the flooring showroom we had previously visited (before we moved). The lighter oak planks we thought we'd be selecting were quickly nixed after some collaboration with our consultants! We're in the +95% confidence range now that we will end up with one of these medium-brown with gray tone floors; one being hickory, and the other an oak. If you want to weigh in, please do so!

Hickory?

Or oak? We've already seen that both can appear much differently depending on lighting, with these photos being among the darker looks we've noted

Next week, in addition to starting the drywall, fingers crossed, another crew is scheduled to begin the metal roofing installation, so it should be an exciting one!

That's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed our blog!

Ron & Bonnie

Cruising right along...

Insulation... done. Siding... done. Porch ceiling... done.

We've seen a lot of progress this week as things seemed to fall into place. The exterior of our new home is sided and trimmed, and as you can see is receiving its finish coat of paint. The siding is a warm gray tone called Quill; one of four exterior colors we're using from a palette of traditional colors that you'd typically see when visiting historic homes on the Charleston peninsula.

View of the wraparound front and side porch through our Grand Oak

The beadboard panels installed on the porch ceilings will soon be sporting a coat of blue paint, which is supposed to help ward off evil spirits... more on that another time!

As an aside, we learned today that the side porch on a home in Charleston is properly called a piazza...

Inside, insulation everywhere... not just the exterior walls, but most interior walls and between floors, too!

Fiberglass batts will provide sound damping between rooms, as well as an insulating blanket around the home's perimeter

On the planning front, we made some big decisions this week. The most expensive -- a bath tub. The most stressful -- where to place a $1 plastic electrical box!

This modern Italian interpretation of a freestanding tub will provide some nice contrast to the otherwise traditional surroundings. It's made of a volcanic limestone resin, which besides sounding cool, is supposed to hold heat well, too!

We also met with our designer this week to review interior color selections and think we are 95% there; soothing grays with greenish or bluish undertones, depending on the light, prevail. Comments welcome! We may still make some adjustments, but the overall theme and core of the selections seemed surprisingly easy!!

Not final, but getting there...

Next week, we'll turn our attention to the wood flooring. We're gravitating toward lighter to medium shades of wide-plank oak throughout the main level, but haven't been able to pull the trigger... too many choices! And then there's the cork flooring that someone would like to see in the Study :-) 

Hopefully, some assurance from our advisor will help lock down the flooring and other decisions quickly.

Here the inspector checks the security of supporting framework for the overhang protecting the doorway to our bedroom balcony... pass!

As we weigh options on finish details, next week the crew will prepare for drywall inside while progressing with paint and trim on the outside.

The latest batch of materials delivered to the job site -- lumber for the louvered walls that will surround the perimeter of the lower level.

Sometime in the next week or two, we'll also see our louvered walls (ground level) built, and the galvanized metal roof installed over the flexible weather barrier that is currently in place.

That's it for this week... hope you enjoyed the update!

Ron & Bonnie

March, already!!

We were both away on separate trips this week as the final rough-in details were completed, allowing for successful inspections for plumbing, electric, gas, and today, the framing!

When we stopped by this afternoon to meet with the builder, we could see it was clearly crunch time... we're scheduled to have insulation installed on Monday, so making sure everything is just right now will help avoid any costly fixes as we work our way toward drywall in the coming weeks.

Inside, the crew was taking care of minor repairs, like replacing a section of subfloor that was damaged previously, and building out soffits that will top off built-ins around the fireplace.

Thanks to the need to move a floor truss, our upper-level subfloor was sporting two of these "trap door" openings to replace material that was damaged in the process

Quite a few crew members were crossing paths today. Add some ladders, odd pieces of lumber, compressors and nail guns banging away just for fun... don't get caught in the crossfire!!

Outside, work resumed on siding and trim, but a miscalculation left that team short on material mid-week, so another batch of cement clapboards was ordered, and just delivered this afternoon. This work should be completed next week, along with exterior staircases and other trim details.

View from rear corner of the home. Siding is about 90% complete as the week comes to an end. Posts and railings were trued and bolted down where needed.

We're still unsure about the whole-house standby generator, but we'll at least have some gas and wiring rough-in work completed to support one. We need to do a little more homework first, determining things like how it can be shut down if needed, knowing it will be on a platform 10' off the ground, along with the heat pump units (they all need to be installed above base flood level)...

Who knew when you say "white" cabinets you'd have no fewer than four to choose from, not to mention variations for different glazes available with each! Then there are the grays... we're going to use gray on the kitchen island and butler pantry cabinets, maybe even a couple shades!

Last for this week, we just received color samples for our cabinets, this afternoon, and our designer sent us a couple of paint palette suggestions by email. We'll be meeting in person next week to review the latter, but from first look we think this may end up being an easier process than anticipated! We'll see!!

That's it for this week.

Ron & Bonnie