There is excitement in the air as we close in on our “move in” date. We haven’t struggled at all living in the motorhome for the past 7 months, in fact it doesn’t even feel like its been that long, but it will be great to get into the house. As a side note, Laura has also just uploaded a significant number of pictures to the Interior Main Floor and Pool and Patio galleries.
We won’t be 100% finished, but will at least have the bedrooms and living room substantially complete. The kitchen is mostly installed, just waiting on countertops and flooring. We called for the “pod” to be delivered and that was dropped off and is sitting in the driveway waiting to be unloaded. Laura is on trim painting duty this weekend following closely behind Peder as he gets it installed. The master bedroom carpeting was installed this past week, and looks and feels fabulous! So…if we can keep on task, we should be able to start moving in within the week!
There hasn’t been a lot to really talk about over the past 2 months or so…has it been that long? Ugh. Not to say we haven’t made progress, but the cold, rain and a bit of same old, same old means that I’ve been lazy about posting any updates.
But, now we have news! This past week, the framing, electric and rough plumbing was finally complete and we were able to request the inspection to give the go-ahead to do the insulation. Of course, the very next day we had the foam insulation company come in and spray the walls and ceilings. Of course, their work wasn’t quite up to Peder’s standard, so they had to come back the next day to fix the places where the foam didn’t quite expand enough or they didn’t shave the overflow enough to get it in line with the framing. That done, the inspector was called back to give us the thumbs up to start the drywall….so exciting!!
Another milestone hit — and huge improvement to the overall look of the house — was getting the new windows installed. However, this is another area where the product and job hasn’t quite met the quality control standard….even with Archie (dog pictured below) supervising the effort! Peder noticed that there were some small cracks and crackling in some of the frames and we’ve had Pella out a couple times trying to fix them in place, but it’s looking like they will end up having to come and replace a few. Not sure when that will happen, but no doubt will mean additional rework on trim and paint. But, for the most part, we think the new black-trim windows look fantastic!
In between some of the busy work, we were able to do some additional improvements to the yard and landscaping. First was the building of a mailbox structure. These are pretty popular in Northwest Arkansas and we felt with all the work we were doing to beautify the house, our mailbox also needed a facelift. We were able to get a mason who we had worked with for our pool surround in Centerton to come and design something for this house…and he did not disappoint! A full day of labor by the mason and a couple days for paint to match the house and the results are perfect.
The other landscaping was getting some plants added to the wall in front of the house and some shrubs/bushes along the fence to the side of the driveway. Hopefully we can keep the frost out of the night air so that we don’t lose any of the plantings. We also purchased some trees from a landscape center and hope to get them in the ground in the next week or so.
A final touch to the yard was the removal of the old and replacement with a new garden shed in the back yard. As we talked to a neighbor about removing the old shed, she indicated that her father might be interested in taking it versus us having to destroy it and haul it to the dump. This was an awesome all around solve and we were able to make that work. One day for them to haul it away and another day to schedule delivery of the new shed. We did paint it, again to match the black and white house theme, but in reverse colors. Peder is now working on building out shelving etc. to create a “she shed” on one side for Laura and garden/lawn equipment on the other side for himself. Behind the shed you can see the new privacy fence that was also installed. We figure the neighbors are thrilled because they all benefit from this improvement as well!
There was a time when Laura’s iPhone camera roll was filled with pictures of dogs and kids. Anymore, it is a jumble of design ideas. The Christmas to New Year break was filled with HGTV binge watching and now the weekends are planned around trips to home improvement and design stores. Adding a “living blog” to capture some of the early ideas. We are capturing more ideas on Pinterest (OlivePit2Perfect) as well.
I keep stressing out because it seems like we don’t seem to be making very much progress, but then I look around and we’ve touched so much. Guess it’s just that there is so much to do…something like trying to empty the ocean with a spoon?!?! We actually have quite a bit going on inside and outside over the past eleven weeks…
Peder has 95% of the main floor framed out, with only the kitchen ceiling and stairwell remaining. Working through bids on getting the HVAC installed so that should happen soon. Then we need to get the plumbing and electric done.
Halls and walls nearly complete!
All the exterior painting is complete and last weekend the garden walls in front of the house were power washed and painted as well. Huge improvement! The new windows are expected within the next 3-4 weeks and the new front door is sitting in the garage waiting to be installed. With a new front entry walkway put in, we spent a couple hours cleaning up the concrete overflow from the forms and filling in the edges with top soil for a finishing touch.
Peder “minding the gap” and filling in top soil along the new walkway…notice the new house numbers!
We’ve had Nate Patton from Top Knot Tree Services on site for the past two weeks doing a significant amount of tree trimming and removal. We had a couple dead trees and several more with dead branches overhanging buildings, power lines and the road. We probably have enough wood to have a fire pit going every night for a couple of years. However, our plan is to set aside some of it and then put a sign up offering it to anyone who wants to haul it away. We’ve moved a number of small trees in pots from Wisconsin to Centerton and now Rogers, and they are destined to get planted this Spring. One is a pine tree from our house in Fredonia and another a cedar from our lake house on Boom Bay!
Nate rappelling down after taking down overhanging limbs.
Super happy that we’ve had enough warm days to have Sand’s Decorative Concrete working on the pool, patio and front walkway. Pictures in the Pool and Patio Gallery provide a glimpse at all the work the crew has done — definitely required some heavy machinery. We are really happy with the work they’ve done so far.
One powerful jack hammer breaking up the pool patio
To make room for the big equipment to rip out the existing concrete patio around the pool, we had to take down the wooden privacy fence. Getting rid of the stained wood required a trip to the local landfill. Another adventure and some fun when we had to purchase ($10) individual hard hats and safety vests in order to safely unload the trailer. It was actually pretty cool watching the extremely large excavators and bull dozers outfitted with steel spoked wheels compacting and pushing the construction waste as folks unloaded it from their trucks and trailers.
This past week we finally received our building permit which officially marked the end of demo and shift to construction phase. We’ve settled into a routine where Laura walks the main floor of the house each morning to either disrupt or confirm Peder’s plans. The beauty of doing the work ourselves is that there really isn’t a penalty in the form of a change order if we make changes along the way. Instead, we are able to embrace iterative design.
These choices may be very simple, such as to paint or not paint accent bricks black. In this case, we simply painted one of the sills and confirmed this is the look we want. Worse case, we could just simply paint over it again in white or another color.
Painted one sill black and decided it was the way to go!
Other decisions may require a bit of imagination to envision how the space is going to look. This past week, we used a tape measure, blue tape, boards, and some foam insulation to help with visualizing the dining room space relative to future placement of our couch in the living room. Since this will be an open concept mixed space, we want to make sure we are maximizing sight lines and flow. As Laura ”sat” in various seats around the mock dining room table, we realized that where we had planned to open a wall to create easy access to the hall bath would better serve as a dry bar and side board area. Had we left the design as originally planned on paper, we would have been left with that awkward bathroom door in sight of the dining table.
Blue tape on floor and temporary horizontal board nailed to the wall mark the knee-wall, the pink foam board is the rough size of the dining room table. Board and level on the floor mark the “flow zone.” Tape measure ensures adequate accessibility.
Olive Pit 2 Perfect 