Week 28 - Walls are primed... (Take 2)

This past Saturday we had a chance to meet some future neighbors at our community's spring picnic event. It was a beautiful warm evening with steady breezes that kept the spring "noseeums", those impossibly tiny flying insects that bite Ron and leave everyone else alone, at bay.

Tug boat cruising by on the Intracoastal Waterway last Saturday evening

Plenty of progress was made on the construction front this week. Interior walls received their primer coat, and fiber-cement underlayment was installed on floors in preparation for tile work in the coming weeks. Outside, trim work, minor repairs, and painting continued at a steady pace.

A little primer goes a long way in the transformation process!

Fiber-cement tile underlayment in bathrooms and laundry provide a stable base for floor tile while protecting the wood sub-floor below

We did run into a problem this week that surfaced when our builder was confirming specs for the elevator. We learned the elevator shaft, or hoistway, is about 2" too narrow in one dimension to accommodate the standard cab size we'd planned for! Apparently this resulted from a last-minute change in the plans that affected the position of our stairwell, which in turn affected placement of a beam, which in turn…

Long story short, the amount of work required to re-size the opening would be significant at this point and add weeks to our timeline, so we're going to have a custom-sized, slightly smaller cab made to fit the space we have, and we will be happy!

Balcony off of the master suite is coming together

Shopping was the other big activity this week! A kitchen-full of commercial-like Thermador appliances is now on order, as is our hickory wood flooring, which happened to go on sale for palette-sized purchases this week! That saved about 25% off the already-discounted quote we'd been working with. As a result, wood flooring is the first (and maybe only) budget item to come in under plan!!

This is the hickory floor we've chosen. We just happened to discover it installed in a retail flooring showroom in West Ashley, and seeing it in person cemented the decision

We couldn't pass up a deal and loaded up on LED fixtures for our recessed lighting needs... reduced power consumption and long expected life of this new technology is pretty impressive! 

Next up, finalizing our interior door selections and getting the elevator situation in order are at the top of the to-do list.

That's our update for this week!

Ron & Bonnie

Haint Blue!

Big week this week! While the drywall crew continued the tedious process of finishing work on the interior, today the first of our porch ceilings was painted in that traditional soft blue referred to throughout the lowcountry as haint blue.

FYI, there's not a single "correct" haint blue. Colors ranging from those like the pale blue of our choice, to some more greenish in tone, can satisfactorily serve the purpose, which you probably already know is to ward off evil spirits, and repel insects at the same time! Really!!

First look at our much-anticipated haint blue porch ceiling (top)

A little history... Gullah culture believes that spirits, known as haints, can’t cross water. Symbolizing water, the application of the blue paint on porch ceilings prevents evil spirits from entering!

Haint blue is also believed to deter insects from nesting on the ceiling. Some say it's because they're fooled into thinking the blue paint is the sky! More scientific thinking say it's due to the fact that early paints were made with lye mixed in, which served as a repellent.

Just myths? Who knows, but this is an especially common practice in the historic homes around Charleston, and we thought it would be a fitting feature in our home, too!

Inside, drywall finishing work took priority over anything else. Dust is everywhere, but the end is in sight, and next week we should be seeing walls primed, if everything continues as planned.

This sums up the work inside this week!

This is the bookcase and entertainment feature wall in our master bedroom. We think it's going to turn out great, but look at that dust on the floor!

Outside we had a flurry of activity, with utilities connections being among the most prominent. Water, sewer, gas, and electric have now all been at least partly run underground, occupying several trenches that currently scar the surface of the property. 

One of a few trenches needed to accommodate underground utilities. This one is for the sewer line, which was the source of trouble last week when the correct location could not be found!

As soon as inspections are completed, next week, some light excavation work will get things looking better in short order!

Power!!  Well, not yet, but at least the main wiring has been run for the meter

Post caps are primed inside the garage and await installation on the staircases and balcony

On the planning front, this week we finalized our tile selections, and are currently considering options for interior doors. We have it down to two choices... both are traditional, simple Shaker design, with one being a 2-panel style, and the other a 5- or 6- stacked panel.

Looking ahead, we just learned the sales tax rate increases on May 1, so there's going to be a whole lot of credit card activity going on this week! We plan to purchase appliances, plumbing fixtures, wood flooring, and whatever lighting fixtures we've settled on, and anything else we can think of. A half-percent saved is a half-percent saved!!

The 16' HVAC platform is looking more presentable now that it's dressed in its subdued finish

Stacks of Durock and HardieBacker cement board will be installed next week to serve as base for the tile floors, shower walls, and other features

We realized after last week's update that we are fully six months into our build since ground breaking, and it's now just about a year ago that we bought the property. Design of the home started even earlier, so this is starting to feel like a marathon, but we're getting there!

This is about what Google Street View will look like in the future!

That's it for this week... hope you're enjoying this journey with us!

Ron and Bonnie

A week of ups and downs...

We started this week with the realization that our end-of-June target for a move to the new home is probably unrealistic at this point. End of July feels more likely, so we'll be extending our lease a bit to accommodate the new reality!

About the same time we were adjusting expectations on the finish date, we learned the construction crew was unable to locate the water and sewer hookup locations... this being after they dug up the asphalt drive, based on the markings made by the city officials who are supposed to know this stuff! 

Our week began with this hole in the asphalt drive, which was supposed to uncover the water and sewer hookups that were actually located at the other side of the property!

Fortunately, Ron remembered seeing markings on the original site survey (made when we purchased the lot last April) and, sure enough, we found both this afternoon when we met with the builder. They were all the way at the opposite side of the lot, buried under pine mulch in the front landscape!!

On the construction front, things went much better! Inside, the tedious process of taping and mudding the drywall continued. It's hard to say how much more will be needed, but our guess is this will continue through most of next week.

This is pretty much what everything looks like at this point!

Whoa! This is about a 30' drop down the elevator shaft. We figured if we need to cut corners somewhere we can just build a dumbwaiter with a simple rope and pulley system to get our groceries to the main level!

Virtual tic-tac-toe game framing passes inspection!

Outdoors, the rest of the first coat of paint on siding, trim, and now the louvers down below has been completed, and we had the exterior doors being hung down at ground level as of this afternoon. We really like the Cistern color of the louvers, and we're considering whether this should be offset with a slightly lighter shade on the piers, once they've been stucco finished, or keep a uniform color throughout.

Buckets and buckets of drywall "mud" are waiting in the queue for application next week. In the background you can see the Cistern color of the ground-level louvers, and in the foreground some post caps for the outdoor staircases await installation.

On another up note, the front staircase was rebuilt and looks great!

Same view last week looked like a bomb hit this area of the porch. The rebuilt staircase and surrounding walkway now look great!

Next week we'll be under the gun to get our tile selections pinned down. Otherwise, we're looking forward to attending the official Rushland Plantation spring picnic next Saturday, and the opportunity to mingle with the new neighbors!

Practice makes perfect... welcome to our home!

Our Grand Oak as viewed from the upper level guest porch. Two trunks, two shadows!

View of the home from the front. Not exactly the street view, which is obscured by trees and foliage, but from just inside the landscaped area

Rear-side view of the house from across one of the community ponds. We're liking it!

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

Ron & Bonnie

A cool field trip to cap off the week...

All around a great week that included a short visit from snowbirds Mom and Dad as they made a stop on their springtime journey home to Ohio. Once our new place is ready for guests it will serve as a good stopover point during their semi-annual migratory trek!

We capped off the week today with a Friday afternoon review of interior door options, and a field trip with our builder to visit a really neat lumberyard and local brick manufacturer to select materials, including beams for our kitchen ceiling, fireplace mantles and surrounds, and shelving for a couple of locations including the butler pantry and bookcases.

Ashley River Lumber Company is a one-of-a-kind lumberyard filled with slabs of lumber and reclaimed planks and beams. Upon arrival it took just one look to believe we had an overwhelming task ahead of us, but our builder had clearly been there many times before! He quickly and efficiently led us through dark barns and a dusty field to track down the perfect bald cypress beams and cherry planks that will be milled to our specifications, and soon become part of our home.

Just one small section of the Ashley River Lumber Company "showroom"

These cherry planks will be milled to create a beautiful fireplace mantle and bookshelves

The size of these cypress beams is not apparent in the photo. They are more than 16' long, and will be rough-sawn into eight smaller-dimension beams that span our 16' wide kitchen area. A single smaller cypress beam will serve as mantle for the outdoor fireplace on our rear porch

On the heels of our successful lumber excursion we made a quick stop at Boral Bricks in Summerville and chose a rustic worn brick to serve as the surround for our family room fireplace. The fireplace chase will be wrapped in shiplap, and the mantle and flanking bookshelves milled from the cherry planks we found at the lumberyard. 

As we settled on the brick selection, it occurred to us that this may be the one item that actually comes in on budget, so it will be something to celebrate!!

Back at the house, terrific progress was made this week by the drywall crew as the transformation into living space accelerates. With just a few areas remaining, the main and upper floors are nearly fully sheathed in sheetrock, and the tedious process of taping and "mudding" has begun. Ceilings on the ground-level garage area were also hung today, leaving the elevator shaft and shower surrounds as the main surface areas remaining to be covered.

Just a cool picture looking into our family room!

The coffered ceiling in the study begins to take form 

Leftovers! The trash container is full and not scheduled for pick-up until Tuesday, leaving some temporary messes to manage inside

Outside, trim work continued, including the finishing details of the metal roof installation today. Meanwhile, the exterior stairs continued to put forth challenges. Thankfully, the staircase to the rear porch now looks great, and can be checked off as complete. The front... not so much! After struggling with the original layout, and a meticulous builder who wasn't satisfied with the first attempt, the crew ripped out the material, including all of the porch decking and framing that surrounded the staircase, and started over!  We're confident they will get it right, and the extra effort to make it so is appreciated!

This is what you call a do-over!

We'll have to remember to tie our ladder to the house the next time we plan to ascend a 40-footer on a windy day!!

This is the first aerial photograph we've seen of our construction project! We discovered this drone shot in a real estate ad for a building lot that's currently for sale around the corner. Neat!

This coming week we'll finalize plans for our furniture shopping trip in mid-May, and decide on our interior door style, while the construction crew works to complete the drywall surface prep and exterior details.

That's it for this week. Hope you enjoyed our update!
Ron & Bonnie