Inspiration Field Trip

Like most folks who are building (or are planning to build) a home, we have an idea file that consists mostly of pages we've torn from magazines showing the look we're aiming for with our house. Although I have a binder with plastic sleeves to contain this file, right now we have things piled all over the place (and a folder of bookmarks on the computer). And because we can never have too many ideas, we took a mini field trip last Sunday to the Lexington County Museum to look at houses that are similar to what we're hoping to build. The LCM is a collection of buildings and houses right in the heart of downtown Lexington. It's a really beautiful place.

Idea #1- Need to find/buy/build a joggling bench for our front porch. Read more about the Joggling Bench/Board here: http://www.oldcharlestonjogglingboard.com/history.htm

Idea #2: We've gone back and forth with our exterior color selection but I think we're 99% sure now that we're going with white HardiePlank and black shutters with a silver metal roof. Now that we've decided this, we've seen TONS of old houses just like that.

Idea #3: Just getting an idea about what outbuildings can look like. The LCM has tons of buildings around their property, including an oven stand, chicken house, potato house and smoke house.

Idea #4: Love this barn roof. We need a different barn to have this roof but it's great!

Idea #5: A pigeon house. No, we're not going to build a house for pigeons but I really like this structure!

Idea #6: Blue porch ceilings. We always knew we wanted blue ceilings on our porches so here's a picture. Another reason we chose Perry as our contractor is he asked during one of our initial meetings if we were going to paint our porch ceilings blue. That immediately told me he understood what type of house we were building.

Idea #7: This is basically what our house will look like, color-wise. I love how white with black makes a house feel established--and it's just classic!

In other news, the lumber should be delivered tomorrow and the framing will begin (barring any torrential downpours).

Short Week But a Lot of Foundation!

Yesterday morning (Tuesday) I stopped by the land to see what progress had been made on the foundation work. This was the first time that I've seen a crew working on site (other than the times we've been out there working). It looked like someone was building a house. Oh wait...that's us! We're building a house!

It was about 9:30 a.m. and the guys had already made a lot of progress. One of the coolest things for me to see was the string marking the height of the foundation (and where our porch will be).

The guys worked in teams to get the brick stacked around the site.

This afternoon (Wednesday, around 3:45 p.m.) we drove out to see how much had been done in a day. Here are the bricks...Ashley is a little concerned that they're pinker than he wanted. I think they're fine. And like I said, there's no going back on this decision!

We have foundation walls!!

Here is the view from the front of the house. Another thing we're a little worried about is how high the house may seem from down the hill. Ashley is already thinking about how he will backfill dirt and landscape to make sure you aren't overwhelmed by a brick foundation when you drive up.

This is the view from the back of the house-- master bath on the left.

This is a short week because of Thanksgiving--but we're really pleased how far the house has come. We have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season!

The Barns Come Home

Early Saturday morning Ashley, his dad and two of their employees moved the second barn to our land. Here is the barn, ready to go, sitting in the misty field. What an amazing picture!

Ashley drove his truck ahead of the truck hauling the barn. Even though they were out before most folks had had their breakfast, they wanted to be as careful as possible on the 5 mile drive to our land. Some drivers heeded his flashing lights; others sped by but quickly slowed down when they realized they were about to run into a barn!

And here the barn sits on temporary blocks on our land.

If you recall from my previous post, one of the other barns had already been hauled to our land on Friday. When I got to the land Saturday morning with the boys, Ashley and his dad were waiting on me to help decide where to place it.

 

Here is the barn, waiting patiently on the trailer.

 It was pretty rickety...needed a lot of bracing for the journey.

Backed into place.

Bobcat and CAT skidsteers in place to pick the barn up. 

Lowered to the ground...deciding what to do about the foundation.

One wall buckled when the barn was set back down.

After a little more work, they were able to fix the wall. But I didn't get a picture! I'll take one later. Both barns look perfect on our land--almost like they've always been there.

Check out the the video I made of the barn being moved! It's a little jumpy because I used my regular camera AND I was holding our very wiggly 7 month-old!

The other two structures were not able to be moved via trailer. We'll have to decide how we want to use them now that they've been dismantled.

Ready, set, go!

Wednesday the boys and I drove out to the land to see the actual stakes that marked the corners of the house. What a beautiful fall day--seeing our land in the fall and knowing next year we'll be there to enjoy it is a great feeling. Although this is the driveway that will be used for construction, our actual driveway (the pretty one, as I call it) is to the right.

Ah! Here's the stake! Just a small piece of wood with a nail in it. I was kind of surprised that it wasn't larger.

But when you see all four corners and the smooth dirt, it becomes much more clear where the house will stand. Thank you to my father-in-law for doing the final grading!

The pines will provide the border to our backyard. Ashley will thin them out later on.

Again, the fall colors are amazing!

Two days later (this afternoon) much more progress has been made. Cinder blocks for the foundation were delivered. Oh, the barn on the trailer? More on that later once its fellow structures arrive this weekend.

We knew the foundation had been dug but we were surprised that it was poured!

Seeing the actual beginning of the house made me think about what it must have been like for pioneers to arrive to a plot of land, set up camp, and then labor to build a home out of logs or other materials. In the midst of that process, I'm sure they were full of similar anticipation, wondering what their lives would be like on the land they had chosen.

Recycling Barns

Although we're building a new house, we're consciously trying to make it look established on the land. And because we envision using our land to raise our boys, animals and a garden, we're starting to think of our land as a farm. What completes a farm better than a barn (or two or three)?

My in-laws have been on the hunt for old barns or outbuildings that we could move to our land (they're experienced in this sort of thing, having moved several structures to their past two houses). As luck would have it, Robert (my father-in-law) found a farm that is going to be turned into a subdivision (I always hate to see this happen, but that's another post for another day). A stand of barns is going to be demolished unless someone wants to move them. And the best part? They're free!

We took a look at the barns this past weekend. They're MUCH bigger than I thought they would be. And honestly, I'm nervous that Ashley and his dad will be able to pull this off. They will, I'm sure, but it's going to be more work than they originally anticipated.

Barn A (below) is practically a two-story barn, attached to another barn by a three-bay shed.

Barn B (below, in the back) is also large. The three-bay shed is also pictured.

 

And Barn C is probably what I think of when I think of an old farmhouse with a garage out back.  It's the smallest of the three and should be able to moved on a trailer. The other two will have to be dismantled (too tall to go under power lines) to make the move to our property.

We're not exactly sure how we'll use all of these structures. Right now the plan is to use the three-bay shed as a garage near the house (if it seems sturdy enough once it's moved--we don't want a roof on top of our vehicles!). We'll use one barn for our animals (we plan to have chickens and rabbits, along with our dog and cat) and supplies. Another barn may be used for our gardening shed. And the other? Who knows! If nothing else, our land will have character and we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we recycled barns that were built in the 1930s.

As a side note, I found this interesting web site about a man in Pennsylvania who recycles barns, while also promoting their preservation: http://www.barnsaver.com/

Brick Basics

Over the next couple of months, this blog will be focused on construction progress and our product selections. Building a house involves a ton of decisions, as I've mentioned earlier (land, plan, and contractor). Now we're onto materials!

This past Friday we went to the Boral Brick Showroom to look at our brick choices. We walked in at 4:20, with both boys in tow. Because we knew the store was about to close at 4:30, we cut to the chase with the salesman and explained we needed to select a brick for the foundation and chimney of a farmhouse. We wanted something that had a rough face, varied in color, and looked like it would have been used a long time ago. The salesman immediately pointed out two samples, Scarlet Oak (below left) and Autumn Blend (below right). Then he explained we also have to decide our brick size, modular (above left), princess (above right) or queen (not pictured).

We're committed to making our decisions and moving forward, rather than lolly-gagging around and over-analyzing our choices. So we decided on the Autumn Blend brick. We'd like to use the princess size (Perry is checking on the load capacity for that size and will let us know). Now if all of our future choices will be this easy!

Signing the Deal...Contractor Chosen!

As expected, the contractors' bids took longer than a week and when they arrived, they were as varied as the men themselves.

Contractor A sat down with us and reviewed his numbers, which he had written on a yellow legal pad. We talked about houses he had built in the past and he reiterated that he was ready to get started on our home.

Contractor B submitted his bid via email. Seeing the bid typed up helped because he included specifics, such as allowances for doors and window brands. We weren't able to meet with him in person because our schedules conflicted.

Contractor C submitted his bid last (also via email) and it was the most detailed.

Before we met with Contractor C, we decided we would would not spend time going back and forth with the various contractors to get them to match each others' prices. After dealing with the negotiations of selling our old house, we wanted to leave that part of the process out of this experience. We're ready to build our home.

From our first round of meetings, I felt like Contractor C was the type of contractor we needed because he seemed to understand the look of the house we're building. Of all the contractors, he had the most ideas for materials to use and features to include. I told Ashley as long as we felt comfortable with him during our second meeting, I was fine to have him as our contractor.

Choosing a contractor is a little like choosing a date. We're going to spend a lot of time with this person and we need to have someone with whom we can communicate easily. We need to feel confident in his work and also like him as a person because this is going to be a relationship that lasts for several months.

Our meeting with Contractor C was laid back. After reviewing the bid, we took him out to our land to see the lot. As we watched our oldest son play in a mudhole, Ashley and I looked at each other. We were ready to make the decision. We've always said we wanted our boys to grow up having land to play on. The longer we waited to decide which contractor to use, the longer it would be before our sons could enjoy the woods and dirt.

It took another week to get the final details of the contract ironed out...but as of yesterday, we have signed the contract to have Perry Bumgarner (Contractor C) build our house.

Our next step is to finalize the construction loan with AGSouth. Perry estimated that it would take approximately 5 1/2 months to build the house once he has the green light to begin. Exciting!