It FINALLY stopped raining!

 

Yes, but not before "reining" some serious havoc on my schedule and subcontractor management.  Since I last posted to the blog (over 2 weeks ago), it has rained almost every day.  I was originally scheduled to have the concrete poured for the upper driveway and sidewalks over two weeks ago, but the rain just kept coming.  This of course all started the day AFTER my concrete crew formed and back-filled the entire area with 6" of fresh North Carolina Gold Dirt/Clay.  This was all carefully maneuvered in front of each entrance to the house where the sidewalks and parking pad will be.  Then the rain started and that all turned to knee-deep mud and muck.  Having your house surrounded by a moat of thick mud/muck makes access nearly impossible without tracking tons into the garage and subsequently the interior of the house that is now approaching finishing details.  So, needless to say, I've been rather freaking out over the whole scenario over the entire period.

In addition to creating a gawd-awful mess, this also got things kinda backed up on work too.  The most heavily impacted was the landscaping.  Timing on the landscaping is critical because there's only about a 3 week window in September when you can put down new grass seed and have it take on a new lawn in this part of North Carolina.  Any sooner, it's generally too hot and dry and the seed will just die before it ever germinates, any later and the new seedling grass doesn't have enough time to firmly establish before a hard freeze and Winter hibernation, and it will die the next spring/summer due to being too fragile.  So this was a large impact.  We'll be ok with the front grass because it'll be sod (pre-grown "carpets" of grass), but the back/sides will be a bit of a gamble now with seeding.   It also impacted the other trades working full time in the house - Finish Carpentry, Floor Tile, and Cabinet install - not only from their personal access to the inside being challenged by the mud, but also because there were large material deliveries associated with this work that also needed to be able to back trucks up, unload and move materials in.  So, as you can see by these pictures, it was just a huge mess.

There's been a lot going on nonetheless.  This is not an uncommon occurrence in a construction project, and everybody kind of takes it in stride - except the GC/Builder (me).  I of course spent sleepless nights terrorized with thoughts of the whole house being ruined and all of the 'rhythm' of the construction process being thrown out of wack with deliveries coming and nobody there to receive, and tradesmen stepping on each others toes and everybody getting pissed.  The last thing you want is anybody in the house working pissed off.  In the end, it all worked out ok.  We have a sunny dry week ahead forecast, and the Concrete will go in on Monday morning.  The trim carpentry is moving along well, cabinet installs will be completed today, Tile flooring and bathrooms will be done by mid next week, and I'll be moving on to painting.  The next pictures that go up in the next blog entry should really start to look close to a finished product and might even have a flower or two and a pumpkin on the front porch!

Making the Turn to the Homestretch

It's hard to believe we're heading into mid-September already but we've certainly come a long way since March!  The past month's work has been filled with finishing up the exterior trim work and lots of planning and design on the interior.  The photo above shows the current look from the front with the stone and stairs done.  The bay window is now also trimmed out, although that was done after this photo was taken.  I've been spending a lot of time getting quotes and working with various new contractors on the next phases of finishing.  Even though we were 3 months away from completion, I had to lock in a landscaper for that work because the good ones book up way in advance.  Plus, if you want to plant grass or Sod in North Carolina - late September is the prime time to do that because you still get a good 2 months of warmth and sunshine but without the searing heat that fries fragile new turf.  I'll be putting down Sod (Grass rolled up on palets delivered by truck) in the front, and seeding the back.  I spent a number of contemplative minutes just standing across the street to decide how to do the front yard.  Right now, the view from there looks like the picture above, but when the landscaping work is done, all the ground brush will be replaced with some planned vegetation, a gentle slope up, with a few of the skinny pine trees gone.  We'll probably keep a big Maple out front and also the Elm that is hard to see here hiding behind the two skinny pines sticking up at the left-front of the house.  I also like to keep the large towering pines surrounding the house as much as possible.  They make good lightning rods, which is a very big deal here (NC is #2 in the country for Lightning strike deaths and houses getting torched from hits).   

The back of the house has been getting attention this month also from my supervisor Ed Anderson and his fine gentlemen from "HomeWize" ( http://HomeWize.biz ).  I am not ashamed to put a plug in for them here and say they do GREAT work and the deck is coming out beautiful! The covered part of the deck will be screened in - recessed into the house w/the french doors, exiting out onto an open deck that will wrap around the corner of the house to the covered rear entrance on the garage side.  The deck photos above show that work in-progress, with a closeup of the first "Chippendale" railing Ed and his guys completed on the right.  That design will go around the entire deck. You could also see the finished (but not yet stained) natural wood ceiling that will cover the screened-in porch in the closeup photo.  I'm looking forward to pulling out the natural grain of the wood with a basic varnish finish coat on that stain-quality "Tongue & Groove" ceiling.

Well, the picture of the guy on the utility pole out front shows the latest accomplishment, which is getting the main power line run underground to the meter-box on the house.  That signifies that most of the "construction" work is now complete, and the artistry, craftsmanship and finishing of the interior begins.  I'll leave you with the current picture of the entrance foyer from the inside looking out, because that will all change starting tomorrow, when the hardwood flooring contractor shows up and starts putting down the base and hardwoods in the formal areas.  It won't be long now! If you made it this far - thanks for listening!  :)