There's always something...

Old House

The pups and I spent three weeks with Larry in SC, staying with my in-laws. I was nervous about this at first, but they made it easy. I had a very enjoyable time with them, and I think they feel the same.

New House

While I was there, the roof was completed and completely shingled. All the windows and cinder block walls were furred, and the laundry room window was lowered nine inches, per my request.

The builder noticed the new sunroom windows were lower than the living room holes, so they were raised to equal height. We are buying all matching window units for both rooms, so it is important they are the same height, like hanging multiple pictures on a wall horizontally. If they're not straight, you see it right away. Also, I decided we need two octagonal windows high up on the living room wall to bring in more light and break up what now is a huge solid wall on the gable end. The octagonals will be wide enough to fit inside the existing framework, and add a nice-looking architectural touch.

Body colors

I also decided on all the interior and exterior colors. We are going to cover the body of the house in stucco and learned that the paint color can be added into the material before it is installed, saving us money later by not requiring painting. The gables will have shingles on them and be dark red, complimenting the brick. The body will be a soft gold and the trim will be white.

Talking with the general contractor's son, who was filling in for Bill, our GC while he was sick, we decided to add a propane-fired backup generator as well. We will only need an 8,000 watt unit to maintain heat and air conditioning, the water pump, refrigerator and a couple of electrical outlets. We have a larger unit in RI, and we thank God whenever it kicks on. We also decided having a generator would be a good selling point down the road.

After we left Larry and returned back to RI, the mason closed in the master bedroom window with additional cinder blocks, making it more private and raised the chimney four and a half feet to be above the new roof peak.

We discovered a code glitch that just pissed me off. Because we built the new sunroom in its current location, there is no exterior wall in the master bedroom. The inspector, who also happens to be Bill's friend, told us he doesn't want to make us spend more money, but code is code and we have to have an escape window. Also, the size of the double-hung windows in the small guest bedroom and our new escape window are too narrow, so we have to spend more money for casement windows. This also means buying a third casement window, so the two bedroom windows on the back of the house match. I hate rules! I get why they are required, and wish they could be applied on a "case-by-case" basis as a general "rule of thumb". But...NOOOO!!!

So, Larry has been frantically designing and redesigning the bedrooms and the master bathroom. After seven rounds of designs, we finally have what we like best and what I believe is the best use of space for two of the bedrooms: the back guest bedroom and the master.

For marketing purposes, I think it is important to be able to fit a king-size bed in a bedroom. With our new design, this will be possible in one guest room and the master. The small guest bedroom is what it is, and moving walls to make it bigger just throws everything off. But two twins or a full-size bed fit adequately in there, so that has to be good enough. Our plan is to put covered-wire shelves and a small hanging bar in that closet, so a bureau will not be required.

Back Guest Bedroom

We removed the existing closet in the back guest bedroom and built a new one in a different location. Now with the code change, we had to remove that and put a smaller closet in the opposite corner to the bump-out in that room from the other guest room. Having these two small closet spaces mirror one another, divides the room into two spaces: a dressing area and a bedroom large enough to fit a king bed in two locations with one night stand, or a queen in two locations with two night stands. There would also be plenty of walk-around space in the room.

The master bedroom will now house an escape hallway with a new window.

Master Bath

With Larry's current design, there will be at least three locations for a king bed in there. The master bathroom design will feel bigger with a pocket-door on the escape hallway; the vanity and toilet positioned on the outside wall to the shower at the other end. This change leaves an entire wall for towel racks and maybe a larger mirror to reflect the outside window; making the room feel larger than it is.

We moved the master bedroom closet over several inches as well allowing us to move the linen closet to the front of the hallway, taking up part of that closet space. The linen closet will be narrower, but we will have cabinetry in the laundry room over the washer/dryer/sink where more linens can be stored.

All this just goes to show us, again, that even though you're building something, doesn't mean you can have what you want. Codes and other rules restrict the build in unforeseen ways. While we get angry and frustrated with the process, the upside of the lakehouse renovation is I think a better use of space than we had before.

Larry also measured a space in the new sunroom that will perfectly fit a twin bed for afternoon naps and an additional sleeping area. The sunroom will also nicely fit blow-up beds for large sleepovers.

All in all, we are calming down from the disruption of the latest code glitch. After all of Larry's hard designing work though, will have a better house. I think that, even though it is still a small house, it will be very marketable when we put it up for sale. Fingers crossed. Until that time, we will get lots of enjoyment out of it, and I cannot wait until it's done.