We’ve made some more progress on the house. Here’s a couple videos. The narration didn’t get picked up so you can’t hear my great descriptions. As of now, 95% of the framing is done, doors and windows are in and skylights are framed but not installed. The A/C guy has started putting in the new system and the plumber and electrician are supposed to get started this coming week.
Things are really moving along finally. Here is some eye candy for ya…
We have about one more week of framing left. We ended up having to tear off the whole roof: rafters and joists, nearly everything. I think our house is going to end up being only 10% original.
We’ve taken down part of the fence behind the pool and started working things out back there. I had a suspicion there was some fill brought in back there because I could tell the trees were buried a little. Turns out there’s 2′ of trashy fill on top of the original grade. Not sure where this is going to lead, but there is definitely more work back here than I originally thought.
Hello all! We have some exciting news to share and thought we’d get back to blogging so you don’t miss anything. As you may know, Amanda and I bought a foreclosure about five months ago. We have been watching this house since October of 2010, so nearly a year later, construction is going to begin! We’ve pulled the trigger with our contractor, Matt Davenport, and he is going to start demo work on the back room as soon as permits are in hand. Should be Monday or Tuesday. Just a few days after the demo starts, the foundation repair guy will get going. He will be repairing the existing foundation, not pouring the new section. We have to wait a month or so after the old foundation is repaired before pouring the new to give the old a chance to settle and make sure there aren’t going to be any issues. Timing on the waiting period worked out perfectly since we’ll be on vacation for two of those weeks.
After we get back, there will be a two-week calm before the storm of the remodel gets going. Here’s how we hope things will go:
There’s a lot of detail missing there, but this is our basic, hopeful timeline. If we get in before Christmas we’ll consider it a success.
Our neighbor to the North (left side if facing the house) has agreed to sell us a small sliver of her land! We’ll get an extra 50′ of breathing room. And, most importantly, we’ll be getting about half a dozen old growth live oaks! Yay! Here is a survey that shows our lot and the new chunk we’re getting =>
Here are some photos Amanda took today as our “Before” shots:
Our landscape designers have done our first round of design concepts. We’ve met with them a couple times and requested some changes that we should be getting back next week. Here is the first sketch they did for us. The changes aren’t really dramatic, so this gives you the rough idea. We’ll post the final landscape design plans in the next blog.
Here are some photos I’ve collected over the last year or so as design ideas for the landscape:
While we were in Pittsburgh last week we saw a news bulletin that an airplane had crashed into one of the IRS buildings. Our good friends Chrissy and Craig had a way too up-close vantage point. I got this email from Craig that day:
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We haven’t been blogging much lately, but there has been plenty of stuff going on to catch up on. So, here we go…
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It had been way too long since we visited the Cross’ up in yankeeville. What a marvelous adventure it was! Here are a few of my favorite video clips from the trip:
We rung in the new year as it should be done. With a toast of champagne watching the New York Times Square countdown. And, to ensure our good luck and prosperity we had the traditional new year’s dinner including black-eyed peas and spinach.
We’d be happy ducks if every week was as wonderful as this one. Amanda and I were off Thursday through Sunday and enjoyed a wonderful weekend of cooking and hosting family. Thursday (Christmas Eve) started off with some food prep, and Amanda put the finishing touches on our house for Christmas.
What a great weekend we’ve had! Saturday, we cooked a good ole Southern breakfast – biscuits from scratch, bacon, gravy, and eggs. Later in the evening, we attended a neighbor’s house party followed by some UT game watching at Lynn and Briana’s house. Sunday morning started with another big breakfast at Taverna with Chrissy and Craig. This was our first time there for brunch – YUMMY! Keith and Craig had the breakfast calzone (eggs, chorizo, sausage, bacon, mozzarella, potatoes), I had the crab meat eggs benedict, and Chrissy had the crab meat frittata. In my opinion, you can’t really beat dollar mimosas and crab meat with eggs benedict. Read More
Last weekend, Keith and I attended Lizzie and Khanh’s wedding festivities.
The rehearsal dinner was at Dart Bowl. I bowled the game of my lifetime and Lizzie and Khanh awarded winners (and losers) with home made bowling trophies. Khanh even made Lizzie an extra special “Most Beautiful Wife to be on November 14, 2009″ award.
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