Furnished, But Not Finished

Captain's log: supplimental. I don't know how we got this far without a Star Trek reference.

A transformation takes place from sterile dwelling to home as you hang pictures, and lay out furniture. Though we're still unpacking boxes, here are just a few pics of the furnished house. There is no way I could truly give you a feeling of the beauty in which we now have been blessed to live, but perhaps you can come away with a little taste of the final product. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home!

We're finally in! After many last-minute gymnastics, we're finally living in our dream home. In order to satisfy the inspector, we had to make some real-time adjustments in the hand railing in the stairwells, and sign a bond to have some landscaping corrections in the back yard.

The electricity was turned on the same evening, but a dead short was discovered in the AC, so we spent the night with the windows open. The short was corrected the next morning, so we're in business.

What have we learned from this experience? If you can't afford to go substantially over the budget, don't start. Unless you're willing to take more time than you expected, spend more money than you can afford, and stand more stress than you think you can, have someone else build the house for you. Managing, or co-contracting a home is not for the faint-hearted.

Thanks so much to the friends who patiently listened to our struggles and complaints day after day without running the other way when you saw us coming. You’ve heard more than you ever wanted to know about our construction process.

Thanks also, to the extraordinary help, faithful moral support and encouragement from our families. Thanks to my wife and daughter, who worked like pack mules side-by-side with me every step of the way, as we logged in untold hours of sweat equity.

Was it worth it? Drive on by our place some evening. And as your car crests the hill, look over to your right. Yep. That beautiful structure, unique in its appearance, awesome in its design, majestic in its stature, basking in the warm yellow glow of its many lanterns, is ours. It’s hard to believe it’s finally ours.

Dream House

Taking the camera from the air conditioned car to the muggy atmosphere Saturday morning made the lens fog up. This un-retouched photo truly looks like the dream we had pictured throughout the building experience.

On The Lighter Side

Our electrician finally put power to the lights, and some of the outlets. Much more convenient than running 100-foot drop-cords all over the place.

We've been leaving most of the outside lights on at night, and it makes the house look like something you'd see in a magazine.

Is it really happening? Is it all really coming together?

Roll Out The Barrel

The barrel ceiling above the Jacuzzi in the master bath is complete. It's made from pine tongue-and-groove flooring boards. Though vaulted, instead of a barrel, the ceiling in the main foyer is made the same way.

Some Assembly Required

Much has been accomplished this week:


Hard wood floors...

Granite counter tops...

Coffered ceiling in the keeping room (made from old cedar barn beams my boss gave me)...

And garage doors.

Home Grown

The columns are finally in place. Seven on the front porch, and one inside. These 9" x 9" posts were cut from pine trees felled from the property during clearing.

Fan Club

Now that the ceilings have been painted, the electrician has begun to hang ceiling fans and light fixtures. Most were from Lowes, an Alabama exclusive shopping boutique (yeah, right), but some from a Richard's Lighting on Pratt Ave.

Drive-Through

Okay, it's actually a walk-through, but the master shower will be fabulous!! It's about 3 1/2 ft. by 10 ft. with a glass door on each of the two sides. Three shower heads on the main wall, two regular and one rain head, and one of those hand-held, goose-neck thingies over one of the two corner seats.

You've seen tile that is in multiple pieces attached to a webbed backing to form a 12" square? Carol chose one with little 1" x 2" rectangles of black granite. She's having them cut the webbing so we have 1" x 12" strips to be used as an accent boarder, adding continuity to the black granite vanity tops. Genius!! Andy Gullion's team is going a great job.

Two on-line photos of the original house in Atlanta

Our shower in the works

Members of The Cabinet

We selected Fowler Cabinets to built all the cabinet work: kitchen, laundry, shelves around fireplaces, desk in the study, and master and guest bath vanities. Rocket City Granite will do the counter tops in Labrador Gold, a black with some brown splotches.

Just A Trim, Please

We had a guy lined-up to install the trim molding, and hang the interior doors. But after only a couple of hours (not consecutive you understand) he decided he was spread too thin and wanted to put us off till...well, just put us off actually. So, with some help from one of our daughter's co-workers, we began to hang doors. The show must go on!

We have subsequently found a trim guy, who also lays hard wood floors. Both trim work, and HW floors will be at very competitive pricing. I dropped by another flooring job he's working to get a first-hand look at his workmanship. Looks like we'll be happy with the outcome.

Rolling Our Own

We had 15 skids of Bermuda grass delivered on the 7th. Since we don't live in the front yard, and having a dog we don't want to track mud through the house, we elected to lay the sod in the back.

We have some great new neighbors in the back, as they have come over twice to help lay sod. Even at that, it took about a week of evenings to get it all down. We'll probably have the front hydro-seeded-- you've seen this blown on the side of the interstate highways.

We Have Digits!

Though the house plan is not our design, we have put several of our own touches into our soon-to-be new home: labor intensive basement wall waterproofing, and floor tile laying, building of the back deck railing, making our own cedar window shutters, much pouring over choices of colors and textures, and our custom mahogany front doors. Another such personal touch was set in place this week, as our home's address stone was laid.

We're At The Home Stretch

Though not a long list, much has to be accomplished in the next four weeks: hard wood floors, carpet, paint, trim and doors, installing plumbing and electrical fixtures, and grass of some kind. We can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Quite A Drive

Once again, our builder has saved us money by locating another economical, yet proven subcontractor. This time for concrete work. Our drive was begun by the sub we've been using from the start, but the majority was completed by a crew at half the price!

Down On My Knees

With a firm deadline of the end of July (mostly because the rental house we're currently in is being sold then) we've stepped up activity in completing the house. Carol, Pam and I, along with much help from Carol's parents, have worked all week laying the floor tile throughout the house. 18" in the kitchen and utility areas, 13" in the guest bath, and basement bath, and a dramatic dark slate 13" in the powder room. Carol and I both took vacation this week in order to get this done. I've spent so much time with my knees on the hard tile floors, the feeling has gone out of them. The up-side is, I don't have to worry with knee pads!

We are hiring professionals to do the master shower. I do not want that to leak.

In my ignorance, I expected to lay hard-wood floors this week as well. No such luck. Back to the pros here as well.

Look Up Pier

Much has been accomplished this week by the stone crew. Front steps have been built, the front porch is complete with flag stone, and the stone piers, soon to support massive wooden columns, cut from pine trees felled from our lot, have also been finished.

Finally, A Green Thumb

We have historically had a tough time growing plants. This was a shocker! We cut a small tree trunk for a temporary mail box post, and the darn thing is growing!! Maybe this is a good omen of flourishing in our new home.

In The Gutter

Gutters went up in two days. Since the surface area of the roof is pretty substantial, a pretty large amount of rain has to be managed, so they installed over-sized gutters and down-spouts. We went with the same color gutters as the rest of the trim. We went with dark brown down-spouts that virtually disappear as you look at the house.

Rocking The House

Sheetrock has finally begun to go up! This is always a major milestone in watching the house take shape. To me, this make the house appear larger than it previously did. Before, you could stand at one corner of the house and look all the way to the opposite corner, making the far side appear to be, well, not quite so far. Now that the sheet rock is in place, you have to walk down the hall, pass the stairwell, walk through the kitchen and lodge room, then right through the alcove to the master bedroom, and left into the master bath. WHEW! Passing all those rooms and features give you a more realistic impression of how far it really is from one end to the other.

Things Are Shaping Up

We had a lot of heavy equipment on the lot last week shaping the grounds. Much consideration was given to ensuring rain water is routed around the lot, and away the house.

In addition, several trees were removed that we should have taken out in the beginning. But without leaves on the trees in the winter, we only suspected they were ugly. Now with leaves, we're sure they are.

There is still a lot of work to be done to get grass growing on this acre.

I'm All Flushed

The septic tank and field lines were installed a couple of weeks ago. Instead of the many linear yards of small perforated pipe I expected, they used a method that is only about three years old. Three-foot diameter half-pipe allows for about a 40% reduction in length.

They've Really Blown It

Insulation is complete. We had cellulose treated with borax blown into the exterior walls, and fiberglass bats hung everywhere else. The treated cellulose costs a little more, but is fire retardant, and pest resistant, as the borax is poison to them.

We had the band room in the basement insulated on exterior walls. We'll have it double sheet rocked for sound proofing.

We need another County inspection, then we can start sheet rock. Once that's up, we'll feel like we're in the home stretch.

There has been a lot accomplished since breaking ground the day after Christmas.

Signing-Off

On the 8th, we finally received the long-awaited approval letter for our retaining wall from the engineering firm (see April 13 entry). I immediately forwarded the letter to the Madison County Inspection Department, and received their response--signing-off on our design, and allowing us to continue construction.

WHEW! This was not only holding up completion of our retaining wall, but landscaping the front yard, finishing the driveway, and front steps as well.

In reality, if this is the only major speed-bump we hit in the building process, we will have done pretty well.

One If By Day....

We're able to begin hanging exterior lighting. Carol chose a georgous, and large lantern for the main entry. Smaller versions of the same style hang above each garage bay.

Twins

With the siding being completed around the front of the house, we were able to hang one of the faux shutters below the master bath window. We tried to make it look as much like the photo of the original house in Atlanta as possible. Our builder gave us an "atta-boy!", as it turned out pretty well.

Theirs

Ours