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.

After the Holidays

On Boxing Day, I awoke with the cold Larry brought from SC. It was just the beginnings, so we visited with our friends, the Craig family, in Natick, MA anyway. That night, I really got hit with it. I was miserable all day on Friday: chills, coughing and blowing. You know the drill. I thought I would not be well enough to travel on Saturday and was feeling very stressed about it. I knew Larry really wanted to go because he wanted to be back on the lakehouse construction sight Monday morning. He had been away for almost two weeks.

Saturday came and after sweating the previous two nights, I felt better. I decided to forego taking down the Christmas tree as I had planned on Friday, and thought I'd do some laundry instead. I loaded my washer with clothes and detergent only to discover it wouldn't start. That was "the straw" for me, so I said, "That's it! Let's pack up and get out of here." I told our friend, Nancy in Annapolis who usually hosts us, that I was too sick to visit her, so we stayed in a pet-friendly Red Roof Inn instead in Roanoke, VA. We arrived at my brother-in-law's house mid-Sunday afternoon.


Monday morning, we made our first visit to the lake. My eyes lit up with the progress that had been made during the two months I was gone. I had been following demolition and construction remotely as best I could using the security cameras Larry reinstalled. But, seeing the job in person was so much better.

Yesterday, we met our brother-in-law, Ed, at the house and walked him through the renovation. He had not been there for many months, and although he follows this blog, did not "get" how extensive this project is. "Now that's what I call a strong roof," he commented. "I had no idea you were doing this much. It doesn't even look like the same place. It's not a cottage anymore; it's a house!"

The roof is completely covered in plywood now, and walking onto the covered porch into the house is so exciting. The entry porch is large and feels really protective. The entry to our new laundry room is outside off the porch too. I can  just imagine having a couple of Carolina rockers out there for the smokers, or putting the metal glider there that now sits in the yard under the Dogwood and Magnolia trees.

Laundry

When I walked into the laundry room, though, I noticed that the only window will be up too high. I can barely see out of it because there was a sixteen-inch cinder block "knee wall" built on the concrete floor onto which the framed walls were installed. I was up all night thinking about this high window. We joked about it, but I told Larry first thing this morning that they had to lower that window by a minimum of six inches to a foot for it to be useful to me. As it is, I wouldn't even be able to open it without the use of a step stool. This is unacceptable.

Living Room Looking Into Kitchen

We walked into the living room and it looks so expansive now with it's high ceiling and opening into what I'm now calling the sun room. The kitchen and living room ceilings will be at least twelve feet high.

Living Room

Walking into the sun room was also really amazing. It is a huge room; larger than the living room, and I can just imagine sitting in there, rocking and watching the water and my bird feeder/bath. The way the walls were constructed, I thought I would need more smaller windows installed above the larger window openings, but we really need to keep costs down, so I will let this go. Instead, I'll have Larry build a shelf above each window for pictures, vases and chatzkes. We'll use the same type of tile as the broken-tile mosaic floors in the rest of the house, but keep them whole for the sun room and laundry room floors.

Sun Room

Walking through the rest of the house, the bedrooms look so much smaller with only framing separating them, but perfectly adequate for our needs. The master bedroom will be a little larger and we also created a change for the master bathroom.

Larry suggested raising the outside cinder block wall by two blocks' width, and reducing the large window opening behind the toilet by at least one cinder block length. This window reduction will save money on the size, add a privacy wall, and allow us to buy a smaller sink vanity with a tall, narrow cabinet in the corner for linens. We'll mirror the entire wall behind the sink and install an in-wall medicine cabinet with a mirror for looking outside while seated. The mirrors will also make this small bathroom look much larger.

Master Bath

Over the bedroom area, we will now have a walk-up attic space, tall enough to stand erect. We'll have to move a twin bed when we want to pull down the stairs from the back bedroom ceiling, but that will be a minor inconvenience. I don't imagine having to go up there much anyway. We moved a closet in that room, but we can still fit a full-size and twin bed in there.

The small bedroom across the hall from our master will be more functional because we moved the door to the end of the room, closer to the back bedroom. This will allow flexibility of bed location. We'll install a covered-wire shelf system in its small closet, so a bureau will not be required. The master bedroom is also larger because we removed two closets in there. We could now have our queen-size bed facing the window overlooking the lake through the sun room. We also reworked the wall into the master bath to fit a single door instead of a double door.

I am very excited about the progression of construction at the lakehouse. So far everything is moving quickly. Bill, our GC, said things will slow down once we get to the subcontractor phase. I have chosen all the interior and exterior colors now. I just have to finalize a couple now that I've been to the house and can visualize more. We will be using mostly recessed lighting, but we are having fun researching ceiling fans, a dining area chandelier and mini-pendant lights for over the kitchen sink.

The exposed brick wall in the living and sun rooms will have to be cleaned and finished. The mason was a bit sloppy with mortar. But the brick walls will still be a pretty look. Even though new and old brick lines are obvious, we are convinced the new brick will age over time. Our GC suggested painting them, but I am not a big fan of painted brick.

We decided to cover all the exterior cinder block walls. We were going to save money by just leaving them as is and painting them, but there will be three different materials exposed that way. I think it will be too busy and will not pull the house's look together adequately enough. So, we decided to stucco the entire body of the house instead. We will paint it a goldish color, and install shingles on the gables that will be painted a dark red. We haven't investigated the cost of cement shingles yet, but they are also a distinct possibility since the gables are the only areas to receive them.

Sample Colors

Larry will also cover the entry porch columns in the SC Farmhouse style: narrow at the top, widening down to the ground. There are many styles for these columns, some involving brick half-way down, but I think we'll keep it simple and creamy white. These colors are like those of the gym I go to in RI, but we found a building in Chapin, SC in the same color scheme. Finding this building, cemented my desire to paint our house this way. It will be charming, and only just a little "loud". Like me. Right.

I plan to leave to head back north on Saturday. Larry will stay down here until Valentine's Day. He'll come north for about ten days. Then he'll come back for my spring concert, the third weekend in April. After the concert, we'll all drive back down here and stay for the duration of the project. Move back into our now new house on the lake and just enjoy it. Stay tuned.

P.S. We try to enjoy being in Columbia when we're in town, so on Saturday, we saw the Annie Leibovitz "Pilgrimage" photo exhibit at the Museum of Art. At the museum, we discovered that the City constructed a public ice skating rink in front of it. Lots of families were enjoying it, and I was impressed with how much has been done to bring people back to the once abandoned city center. The South is experiencing the coldest temperatures ever this week, just like the rest of the country.

More and more restaurants and coffee houses are being introduced to the place that drinks iced tea all year long. Sculptures are everywhere and this area in particular is becoming very "artsy fartsy". I love what's happening here, and already so much has changed in the twelve years Larry and I have been married. Amazing.

Renovations Before Christmas

Larry left to come to RI on Friday, but before he left more improvements were completed.

Roof rafters had to be replaced. The roofers installed 2x6's instead of 2x10's. Really? Anyway, the team of four guys replaced them quickly, and soon sheathing covered the rafters on both the main house and the back bedrooms. At least when it rains now, the interior will remain mostly dry.

New sunroom.

New sunroom water barrier.

The inspector approved all forms for two new concrete pads that will be floors for our laundry room and sunroom. The forms had to have fill and sand shovelled in to level them as a more drainable base for the hard, clay soil full of rocks that is the land that surrounds our house. Larry also built a form to extend our broken boat ramp that he cleaned up to prepare for the new concrete pad.

New boat ramp.

New laundry room and entry.

One of two huge concrete trucks arrived on Wednesday, and those southern "boys" had fun directing the pours, levelling the material and finishing it all off with broom sweeps for traction. Accelerator was added to the concrete to speed drying and curing time. A vapor barrier was installed under the sunroom pad with a footing of sorts on the entry side.

Only the entry pad took longer to cure than the rest. No accelerator was added to it. Larry shared a beer and a tequila shot with the last guy on site before he left for the Christmas break. This guy was waiting to broom finish the pads, and Larry had to get back to his brother's house to pack for his plane ride the next morning.

But, before leaving, Larry caught one our favorite visitors on the lake looking for food.

Work continues while we're away. I look forward to seeing all the changes in person when we return Sunday night after Christmas. On pre-New-Year's-Eve, we'll take a ride over, and I can meet the workers and inspect progress myself. The project remains very exciting.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy 2014!

Holiday Renovations

Lowest Lake Level

Not much has been happening at the lake house. Rainy weather and the Thanksgiving holiday slowed progress way down.  The up side is that Larry ordered all our appliances and kitchen cabinets, and most of it has been delivered. We're just waiting for the new washing machine.

The lake is at its lowest level this round. Larry can now walk out there in his tall boots and remove debris that has collected around the dock. He can also check our sprinkler system pipe and footing to make sure all is still well, or repair it if needed before the water comes back up in January. The lake level is at 350 feet now; "full pond" is 360. SCE&G (South Carolina Electric & Gas) keeps it at 358 feet generally.

The masons finally completed bringing all the house walls to equal height. New bricks were added and cinder blocks where required.

Larry has been alone in his "man cave" much of the time, but finding chores to keep busy. The latest, besides cutting down pesky Mimosa trees (they are SO invasive!), he evened off the concrete boat ramp.

The next chore will be to install forms to get ready for a new pour next week. Before evening out the top of our ramp, he found he had created a lovely map of the state of Virginia. He cracks me up.

 The plumber is there today. He and an assistant dug out the septic pipe with a big machine. Larry dug the same pipe out several years ago by hand to fix a toilet overflow problem we suffered with for years. He discovered that the pipe went up hill. Really? No wonder we had problems. Geez.

Drain pipes are being installed for the new washer and kitchen sink. The pipes will once again sit under the new laundry room concrete floor. A dry well will be dug next to the septic tank to take gray water from the washer, kitchen sink and new dish washer.

Roofing materials were also delivered today! Bill, our General Contractor, says work will begin on the main house roof immediately. Here we go!

The Latest and Greatest

No more interior ramp!

Brick wall addition

This is the final week Larry will be at the lake until Saturday. His bother takes the grandboys deer hunting and Larry has asked that he wake him up before sunrise so he can get on the road extra early. He'll stay in RI with me and the pups until the Monday after "turkey day", then head back south for a couple weeks. Then he'll come back north for Christmas. We'll both drive down with the dogs after Christmas and stay with his brother for a couple of weeks.

Interior kitchen roof

Larry trusts the workers he has gotten to know and like to do a good job while he's gone. Plus, he's hanging one extra security camera on the temporary electric pole so we can watch the roof get built on the main house. Today the masons are finishing up brick walls in the living room, and starting to reroof the pump house.

New Water System

Our new water system has been installed, but will not be activated until we are ready for water. They cleaned out the house and sealed the cinder block walls, so that it looks clean and white in there now. Our new water system is self-flushing which will cut down on the need to purchases filters. And, we have been assured it will also remove the iron and magnesium, so prevalent in the water now, as to allow us to actually do laundry at the lake when we are done.

Pump House

Larry purchased the natural hickory kitchen cabinets from Lowe's after designing the kitchen layout. Buying from Lowe's saved us about $3,000. He's also purchased the majority of our appliances and sinks from both Lowe's and Home Depot; taking advantage of early "Black Friday" deals, saving us many hundreds of dollars, and percentage discounts for using our HD credit card. The only appliance to actually get delivered to the lake house after he returns will be the refrigerator. It is the largest and heaviest item, so the closer it is, the better. The rest are being delivered to his brother's house and the "brothers" will get them to the lake when it's time.

Proposed Laundry Room

My talented husband also designed my new laundry room and we talked this morning about refinements for it like cabinetry for pantry space, and counter tops for folding clothes. We'll use propane for the dryer, stove and water heater to save on electricity. Our electric coop has very expensive rates. And, we decided to get a large propane tank to be located near the "shed" (garage) parallel to the fence separating our property from the neighbor's. We don't have any neighbors right now, but someday we will.

Kitchen Lighting Plan

Larry also sent me the lighting design for our new kitchen. It is the darkest room in the house, and lots of lighting is very desirable. We've been talking about exterior lighting, spotlights to keep an eye on the pups at night, and where switches should be located. There are so many small decisions to be made and planning for use of space required when doing any build or renovation.

My husband has done an excellent job planning, researching, and doing all the work of this project. All I've had to do is "sign off". I am happy about this. He is having fun kibitzing with the workers and making jokes at my expense like, "keeping the little woman happy". I could care less. They now know I spy on them on the cameras, and they think this is hilarious. The cameras and Skype keep me connected with the project and my husband, and that also makes me happy.

SCE&G (the utility company that owns Lake Murray) has been dropping the lake level over November. It will continue to drop until December and be left that way for a month. This periodic level drop helps to naturally curb invasive weed growth and in general aides the health of the lake. From this shot, the level should drop about another three to four feet! We will extend this concrete boat ramp up into the yard once the concrete trucks arrive for ease of backing the pontoon into the water.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

The Latest Demo News

Demolition of a house is quite the expansive process. As of today, the rest of the roof of the main house was removed.

It was discovered that bricks must be removed in the living room to create a hole for the new sliding glass door out to the new sunroom that brings the wall "to code". Apparently, the demolition guys went crazy with brick removal!

Before cleanout.

Replacement bricks, mortar and machines to mix it have all been delivered. Masonry work proceeded today and seems to be going well.

The pump house is all cleaned out and repainted inside to clean it up. Our new water system is being installed on Friday. After the installation, the roof will be rebuilt on the building. Larry had to wrap the pump in a tarp to try to protect it from twenty-degree weather coming tonight. He is the only one thinking about exposed pipes that could actually freeze.

It is very cold in SC right now. Larry had to buy fleece clothing and long underwear for his days sitting next to the heater in his "man cave" designing our new kitchen. He continues to send links to Home Depot and Lowe's Department stores for appliances for me to peruse and approve. In the most recent iteration of his kitchen design (yet to be viewed), the dishwasher is on the left side of the sink. Plumbing pipes need to be moved and consolidated in order to be efficiently run down the wall to be able to use the existing drain. I don't fully understand all this, but then, I'm not there to see it either.

Tonight he'll send me the laundry room design too. I can't wait to see his latest and greatest.

Demo Continues

Letting go of control over how a house renovation happens is hard. But Larry is doing a great job of keeping me "in the loop" by texting and emailing pictures of the entire process. There is no internet at the house anymore, so watching the goings on over the security cameras is not possible any longer. Not only does he keep me abreast of the demolition, he also sends updates on our plants and the critters that we have grown so fond of.

A lizard still crawls on the floor amidst the debris and chaos, while a new (to us), very large, red spider visits our dock. It feels like our wild friends are keeping track of the progress with hopes of continuing to invade our space when we're done. "Sorry, kids, that won't happy anymore. You must stay outside from now on," I tell them telepathically. I'm sure our family and friends who come to visit will be happy about this change too.

The roof is off all the bedrooms and the living room now. Steel trusses had to be to be cut off with a torch and slowly lowered to the ground crew for removal outside. The demolition team discovered, however, that once windows and now the roof were removed from our brick living room, those walls are not very stable anymore. Framing has to be built back in to the window holes for added support, and wood braces were added while the trusses were being removed. Mortar is old and cracked, so our mason is repairing it, and adding concrete to the holes in bricks for added structural support. The place is a mere shell of its former self. Larry feels a little sad by the change, but I remind him that we are breathing new life into the house. It is more of a rebirth than a death.

Now the dumpster is full, so demolition cannot continue until it is replaced with an empty one. So, today they are trenching for new plumbing pipes and maybe power lines between the pump house and the main house. We belong to an electric co-op, and MCEC (Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative) will have to come move the main house power off the outside wall to the temporary pole that was installed recently. We also decided this morning that we will have another trench dug, which our builder tells us MCEC may pay for between the transformer and the house, to move electric power under ground.

We decided in the last few days to remove our utility closet in the kitchen. The main circuit-breaker box in that closet will move into the new laundry room because the house has to be rewired anyway. Our builder discovered the wiring powering the house and hidden above the kitchen ceiling was old and spliced. This new knowledge sent shivers down our spines for the potential fire hazard they posed unbeknownst to us. Thank you, God, for protecting us all this time. With the utility closet gone, we gain a little more useable space in the kitchen, and it becomes more aesthetically pleasing.

Larry has done lots of research into our bathroom renovation purchases with pricing and web links for me to look at. I am taking a trip to Lowe's to look at a vinyl shower stall with glass door, granite counter tops with sinks, and vanities in person today. He also got two plumbing company quotes for our new bathroom purchases to compare with Lowe's pricing. We assume our builder will be able to get additional discounts to save us more money as well.

I have to admit that my husband knows my taste pretty well, and I like what he has chosen for me to weigh in on so far. And, I admit that I have no problem letting go of control over this process. Because I trust what he has chosen so far, I feel included and good about the proposed final look and feel of our renovated lakehouse so far.

One decision he convinced me of this morning, also, was to not frame over a window from our current living room into the new sunroom, making it a solid wall. Instead, we will add a frosted glass panel. This panel will allow in light, but add a little privacy to the new room. I was concerned that if we decided to put a television in front of it as the only usable wall in that room, the shadow would be unattractive. I can always just hang sheers over it like we used to and will do in the rest of the room. We'll see once it is done. I'll be redecorating the place, and it just won't be the same. This kind of change is a really good thing.