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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 9/8/2009 12:36:18 PM
Well, summer is coming to an end. We have been doing a lot of little finish details on the house here and there. Started putting the deck up in the back. Basically, with the rough economic times and potential job insecurity for both of us, we have been only doing projects that we have the supplies for but haven't had the time for. Funny how that works, had the money but not the time, now have the time, but not the money! Murphy's Law I guess. We are in the process of finishing off the sofit. We have large overhangs for passive solar and saw some really nice finish work in Fine Homebuilding Magazine that I really liked. Les brought home used pallets from work, we took them apart, pulled out all the nails, chamfered, planed and stained the boards. This was a "free," except for labor, project.
Love seeing the finish details come together.
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 7/29/2009 7:45:24 AM
Can't believe that I am still finding stuff to post here! Guess that is what happens when you live in the house while you are finishing it. Been trying to spend some time having fun and not working, but still end up working pretty hard most of the time. The screen porch is finally done and we have been enjoying that quite a bit. The brook has been so loud this year with all the rain we have had, guess it is good for something. Now the hot sticky weather is here and my garden is loving it, but still raining a lot too.
We spent last weekend cleaning up a lot of the ice storm debris down near the brook, cut a few small hemlocks to improve the view but still left plenty of shade on the brook and cover enough to make the wildlife happy. We have had a brown bear strolling through our yard on a few occasions this summer. He is beautiful but a little alarming when he strolls by at 4:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon!
Anyway, here are some pictures of the screen porch and the brook.
Enjoy!
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| Love the little octagon details Les added! He is so talented. |
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| The screen door will eventually open onto the wrap around deck, once we get it wrapped around all the way! For now it is nailed shut. Except for a little cat door and stairs for the cats -- Les spoils our cats! |
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| This is the actual distance from the deck to the brook, you can see it much better than in the picture. |
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| Zoom in on the clean up and clearing we have done, still lots of trees for the wildlife! |
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| Leaving a buffer is healthy for the brook and the wildlife! |
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| Still have more cleaning and clearing to do at the lower end. |
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| This is why we picked this spot! |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 4/23/2009 12:43:38 PM
Wow! Can't believe it was Jan. the last time I posted. We did close with the bank after some haggling over details. Basically, I had written emails from the rep I was working with that confirmed that our permanent mortgage would be based on the original appraised value and that they would not order a new appraisal if we extended the construction period beyond the original terms. Based on that email, we extended and when it came time to convert to permanent financing, they ordered a new appraisal. We were so upset, we knew that given the steady drop in housing values, that there was no way we would come close to the original appraised amount. We were offered more money than we knew we could afford and stopped taking disbursements when we reached a level that would put us just under requiring PMI payments. The new appraisal basically put us upside down on the home value/mortgage value, which we knew it probably would. I fought with the bank and escalated it to a supervisor a day before the final closing. After explaining the circumstances several times, they came through in the end and offered us a great rate of 5% and waived PMI completely!! This was very fair and exactly what we were pushing for. So, thank you Chittenden Mortgage for making the good faith effort to make good on employee promises. We couldn't be happier (well unless of course housing values were back up where they were, but that will just take time).
Anyway, since then we have relaxed a little. We just recently (4/13/09) were blessed with a beautiful baby grandson. We have been continuing to do finish projects on the house and are cleaning up outside from the ice storm of 2008.
I have been tiling the upstairs shower. Here are some pictures with it ungrouted, not bad for amateurs I don't think. : )
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| No grout yet and still a few pieces of tiling to do. |
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| Again, no grout yet, all the ugly edges will be hidden once it is grouted. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 1/28/2009
Okay, back from a week vacation skiing. I have never enjoyed having time off as much as I did this past week. I could have slept all day and been happy, but the skiing was good and the company was better.
Anyway, we are down to the last room. The master bath is coming together. Les is working on putting together the tile tops to the custom vanity he has built. I saw a vanity online that I really loved, but it was very expensive, so we decided to copy the picture and make our own version. It has come out awesome so far and I love it. I have tiled the floor and started tiling the shower.
I even found some time to do the backsplash and tub surround in the downstairs bath as well. We have been very busy. The final inspections have been done and we are on our way to a permanent mortgage. That is a whole other story for another day. I am waiting to see if the bank decides to make good on its mistake, or if they are going to try and screw us. I will keep you all posted on the outcome.
Enjoy the pictures and it will be time for the final entry soon. It has been an amazing and exhausting journey.
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| Tile floor in master bath. We decided to match the grout with our decorative listello, not sure if I like it yet. |
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| We used this product Wedi Board suggested by the Tile Gallery where we bought our glass tiles. It is basically hard insulation covered with a waterproof outside layer. You can put it up like drywall, seal the joints and screw holes and tile right away, no waiting. We were going to go with the Scheulter method, but this looked much easier. |
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| Wedi Board |
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| Our shower panel has just come in. Four massage jets; can't wait to give it a try! |
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| Custom vanity one of a kind handmade by Les. |
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| Shower tile job is starting. I have combined a decorative listello with two strips of glass tiles to really bring out the colors. I like it! |
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| Really like it close up. |
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| We are using the glass tile in the bench and backlighting it from a light that Josh placed in the floor. It will make the shower glow : ) |
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| I really like it. |
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| Shower panel in place |
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| Built a little niche area to surround the panel. |
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| Backsplash in the downstairs bathroom. |
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| Tile in the tub/shower surround area. |
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| What a neck ache I ended up with. |
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| Especially doing the ceiling. I had to lay down in the tub to take this picture. |
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| Overall, I think it came out pretty nice. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 12/30/2008
I just looked back at the last entry and of course I must have jinxed us, my first sentence said "No stopping us now". Well the powers that be had other ideas, then came the Ice Storm of 2008. Our area was one of the hardest hit, and our house was hit pretty hard. Shortly after midnight on December 12th, a tree came through our roof, and branches took out the skylight (that I was dozing under an hour before).
I am so glad that we chose the construction method that we did. Had this been a traditional stick-built home, the tree would have been in the middle of the living room, if not through to the basement. The tree hit the house, broke through the SIP Panel roof, hit one of the beams and cracked it, but stopped there. It slid back down and came to rest against the side of the house and screen porch. What an unbelievable mess, we were stunned at the destruction to our beautiful home that we have been pouring our heart, muscle and hard-earned money into.
Not knowing what to do or if we could stay in the house due to structural issues, we called our builder Paul Freeman at 1:00 am and not only did he answer, he promised to be there first thing in the morning to look at the house. As promised, Paul from Brooks Post and Beam brookspostandbeam.com was there with his camera and assured us that they could fix it and would help us out, no questions asked!! He was amazed to see that everything held up so well considering the hit it took. He explained that building an octagon was probably the best thing we could have done. The energy from the hit was transferred around the complete house and minimized the damage. I looked and sure enough, every picture that had been hanging on the outside walls of the house had fallen down from the impact.
Believe it our not, our wonderful builders had us repaired like new in time for the holidays. They came out with the crane the very next week and removed shingles, then the damaged panel sections and carrying beam. Put a new beam in place, dropped in the new panels, skylight and roofed it again all in one week, in between two major snowstorms. The crew from Brooks Post & Beam of Lyndeborough, NH are our heroes!!!!
Just an FYI, we have Met Life for insurance and they have been great as well. They sent an adjuster out the following week while the house was being repaired and settled our claim very quickly. I highly recommend both these companies. Oh, and the bank had to extend us another month on the construction loan due to the loss of work time. We had no electricity for 7 days.
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| Glass from the broken skylight in living room |
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| Tree that hit the house |
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| Tree that hit house showing screen porch area where it came to rest |
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| Branches on the deck on the opposite side of the house where the tree hit, it was so huge it left its branches all around the whole house. |
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| ceiling and beam damage - Foard Panels and Brooks Post and Beam make some strong materials!!! |
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| Although unbelievably destructive, you have to admit it is amazingly beautiful as well. Nature in all its sparkling fury! |
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| storm damage and tree that hit house |
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| Silhouette of tree that hit the house |
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| View of destruction from front of the house |
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| Andrew at the crane standing ready with our new panels. |
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| Damaged panels coming off the house with the crane while Mark guides the process. |
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| R&T Electric checks the wiring before the new panels can go back on. The cute smiling one is my son Joshua. |
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| Brooks Post & Beam crew working together like a finely oiled machine : )
Did I tell you they are our heroes? |
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| Our new panel on the crane ready for installation. |
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| The new beam is put in place. |
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| The new panels being lowered into place, that was scary with the chimneys so close, but they did a perfect job. |
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| Done, except for some mudding, sanding and paint, we are as good as new, exactly six days from the day of the ice storm. And the award goes to........Brooks Post & Beam - best builders in southern NH. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 12/8/2008 9:26:27 AM
Okay, no stopping us now. We finished the sheetrock and painted the master bath Saturday and tiled and put the oak bullnose stair treads on Sunday. We did not tile the landing as it will have a medallion in the center and it was getting late fast. Like to take our time positioning and doing the detail tile work, another day and the epoxy grouting will be another day as well. Here are the pictures of this weekend's accomplishments. Even got a little holiday decorating in!
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| Looking into the master bath from hallway. |
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| Inside master bath looking out at the doorway to bedroom and back hall. |
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| Inside master bath looking out at doorway to hall. |
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| Looking down from top of staircase, during tiling process. |
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| Tile set, same view. |
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| Looking up at upper staircase from landing |
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| View from living room looking down over the railing. See the holiday decorations! |
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| Looking down bottom staircase from landing. |
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| Looking up from basement and entry door. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 12/5/2008 8:58:33 AM
Okay, so I've been very busy still. Our bank extended us to the end of the year. We finished the stone siding on the outside, still need to seal some of it, which really enhances the color; but that will be waiting until spring, way too cold for outside work at this point. The bank has waived the remaining outside work so we just need to have the inside done 100% to plan to convert from construction to permanent loan. Best of all, those mortgage rates keep going down!!!
The second bedroom is also done, we had company coming up from MI so they were our incentive to finish, they stated in the new room and said it was very warm and cozy. Now we have just about one month and one more room, the master bath. We designed and have all the parts made and stained for a custom vanity, just need to put all the pieces together. We were able to have the tile cut on a water jet at Les' work, so that was nice, the frosted glass bowls will sit in there nicely. We have all the tile and bought the last pieces at Tile Gallery on Amherst Street in Nashua. The owner was great, he really helped us pick out the tile and made some suggestions for backlighting some of the shower tile. We have built a bench and our wonderful electrician son put a light in the floor under the bench, the tile will be mounted on plexiglass with clear silicone so that the bench will glow through the tile, hopefully this will not only be very cool, but provide enough light.
Well, here are my recent pictures of the stone work, bedroom in construction and a finished bedroom shot as well. For all of you that emailed me to get this updated, thanks for the kick in the butt : )
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| Finished stone siding, this side has been sealed, which enhances the colors in the stone. |
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| Side all done and sealed |
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| This is the front door; again stone has been sealed here, just need to get the light back up at the door. One of those little details. |
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| This side is half sealed, can you tell where??? Basically up to the utility connection, the rest is unsealed waiting for spring. |
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| Garage side again - this side is unsealed. |
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| We only had a small amount on this side, where the vents are mounted. The rest will eventually be covered by the wraparound deck. Can't wait to do some cleanup and landscaping this spring as well. |
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| Construction on the second bedroom begins |
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| Just when I thought the mudding and taping was done. Still beats putting up stone siding any day. |
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| Those left over SIP Panels from Brooks Post and Beam sure came in handing insulating the basement.
http://brookspostandbeam.com |
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| Door goes in. |
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| Decided to insulate and sheetrock the rest of the walkout basement while we were at it. Given how cold the winters here in NH can be. |
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| View of the bedroom from the front door. |
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| What will soon be my stained glass workshop I hope. |
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| Here are the sinks and faucets for the master bath, at first I thought the faucet was too big, but once we put it with the sink it didn't look so bad. |
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| Les should go into hand modeling, don't you think??? Those hands built this house! With a lot of help from our friends at Brooks Post and Beam
http://brookspostandbeam.com |
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| Painted bedroom - we did move quick on this one. |
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| Used the leftover cork from our bedroom for the floor down here, had just enough to do the job. |
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| Love that bullnose corner molding. |
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| Done and even decorated. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 9/25/2008 10:23:01 AM
Okay, I have been very lax about posting, but with all the work we still have to do, I'm sure you all will forgive me.
We finally got our permanent Certificate of Occupancy (CO) from the town. We were really looking forward to taking at least a little break. Unfortunately, our mortgage company wants it done to convert from the construction loan to a permanent mortgage. We currently have a deadline of 11/1/08, but I just emailed them a list of what we have left to do, and there is no way the two of us (even with the help we get from friends and family) will be able to get it all done. I have been trying to locate anyone that can help me with hydroelectric, but there is a information vacuum in NH for this form of alternative energy. I did get a quote for solar radiant heat, not too bad. NH just passed a law to help homeowners pay, no funding yet, but hopefully soon.
Our latest project is applying stone veneer to the lower portion of the walkout. If this project doesn't kill us, nothing will. Once we start working over our head, the stone gets heavy and we have been working too late on the weekends putting it up, forgetting that there are hours of grout joint finishing and cleaning to do after the stone has set for a few hours. Found myself with spotlights outside at 8 pm scrubbing and brushing and washing down the stone. We just started applying a stone enhancer and sealer to the veneer, which brings out the color in the stone and should make it look really nice. I do not have any pictures of that yet, but here is what we have done so far. It is easy to tell where the joints lines have been cleaned and where they have not.
Now we know why masons make so much money, we are saving a ton of money doing it ourselves, but our bodies are definitely taking the brunt of it.
Wish us luck in finishing before the cold weather sets in. We have been very lucky so far. Rain for this weekend, so I will be tiling either the stairs or slating the breakfast bar wall. Pictures of that next week : )
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| First day at the stone veneer. Learning as we go. |
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| End of day one, learning the tricks of the trade. Not too bad, we are achieving the look we were gong for. |
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| Day 2 |
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| End of weekend. This took three weekdays and one weekend and we are just about done with 2 sides.
Silly me, thought we would be doing a side a day. WRONG!! Live and learn |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 7/22/2008 9:43:53 AM
Living room floor going in for CO. Kitchen floor all grouted, could barely lift my arms by the time I was done on Sat.
Stairs need to be adjusted and some railing balusters tightened up, but we are very close now.
Then we will see how tough the bank is going to be on us. I really hope we can just roll the construction into a permanent with where we are at now and take some time finishing up. It really has been exhausting doing almost everything ourselves. Live and learn, that is what it is all about.
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| Medallion at main door |
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| Kitchen Floor |
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| Grouted and done |
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| Wider view of medallion |
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| Looks better with no flash! |
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| see |
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| Closer look at deco tile border |
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| And even closer |
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| The cat is our inspector and she approves |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 7/15/2008 9:52:19 AM
Wow! Nothing like some flooring, a few plants, one picture and a bookcase to make it look like a real to-be-lived-in house. This is so amazing, never thought the day would get here. Have to thank the building inspector I guess, he said the living room floor needed to be cleanable, we could paint it if we wanted. I said no way, I have been dying to get the floor down and move all the construction stuff down to the basement; now I got my chance.
Decided to finish the kitchen floor all the way to the stairs. Now we just have to come up with a railing system to finish it off. Our temp one didn't meet code, so that will have to be finished as well.
Les is also working on the breakfast bar this evening to be able to extend the flooring the rest of the way into the hall toward the master bedroom. That will leave just the office to do, oh wow, not to have to go down to the basement to work and have a for-real office too!!! I'm unpacking and moving stuff in faster than Les can put the planks down : ) This is so exciting, did I say how totally exciting this was???
Finally a real house to live in.
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| Maggie approves, the rug has to go, but she can stay. We bought the flooring months ago from iFloor, they were having a huge sale and no interest for three years. Now we actually get garage space back too. |
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| Gotta love a man cleaning a floor : ) |
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| Ahh, who knew what a bookcase, plant and a picture could do. |
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| Wow look at those lines, looks great everywhere, fits nice and tight up to the gas stove hearth. Les keeps saying the big terra cotta wall cries out for a big screen TV, kinda have to agree it would look good there. |
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| Entryway medallion. The tiles are so big, I had to put four small medallions together to make a statement. That's okay, it came out great, can't wait to see it all grouted. Who the hell is going to grout this anyway? Is there a grouting fairy, I hope? |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 7/15/2008 9:39:51 AM
Well, we did manage to get away for a couple of days. But spent most of the vacation time working on the house. Hoping to get the permanent CO inspection done next Monday. Les has been hard at work on the decks and trying to decide how he wanted to tie the wraparound sections together. He decided on a sunburst pattern, lots of work and now he is going to have to do that at every corner. I'm so glad he still has creative energy left and doesn't just take the quick way out to get things done.
I have been tiling again, kitchen floor this time and we decided to add a decorative border around the whole kitchen, it has been a lot of work, but we really like the way it is coming out so far. Grouting this whole thing is going to be a hell of a job.
Well, at least this should be the last vacation we have to spend working. : )
Also, this work is much more gratifying than framing or taping and mudding. The finishing touches are what makes it all worthwhile.
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| Sunburst pattern to connect all the wrap around deck sections. Lots of work, but looks cool. |
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| New lighting going up for CO inspection. |
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| More lights. |
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| Callie likes the deck tie-in pattern too, she was out inspecting the quality of the work. |
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| Deco tile border. |
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| More creative work, framing in the screen porch ceiling fan. He has the octagon thing going everywhere! |
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| Love the sloped ceiling. Picture doesn't show it well enough, but looks very cool. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/6/2008 10:00:19 AM
Never thought the day would come!! The cabinets went in last week and the granite countertops went in yesterday. The kitchen has come together amazingly. I was very concerned because we had shopped cabinets at one place, granite at another, flooring and backsplash at another and then to top it off we added in a deco floor tile to go around the perimeter of the kitchen a few weeks ago.
TABLE OF STONE in Merrimack, NH did an absolutely fabulous job, they were very precise in their fit and believe me our counters were not easy by any means, they had to fit around our posts and beams. The installers Parker and Josh were excellent and very professional, they answered all of my questions and I really enjoyed watching them work, it was very fascinating to learn about granite. I would highly recommend this company, their prices were better than either Home Depot or Lowe's, and they had some great colors. We looked for the color we picked from them, but couldn't even come close.
WE LOVE OUR NEW Kitchen. Now I have to get going on the backsplash and flooring and Josh (mine, not TOS) needs to get the up and down lighting installed. Les will be finishing off the raised breakfast bar, we selected a remnant piece of absolute black for that; TOS could not install it because of the tight fit. The wall needed to be built after the lower granite counter was installed. They left the piece with us, and instructions, so Les and I will do that one ourselves. We loved TOS so much that we are going to go look at more remnants for the master bath vanity tops.
The cabinets are Wellborn and we purchased them through Norfolk Kitchens in Nashua NH. I worked with Paula Foley, and she helped us along nicely and encouraged us to go with our initial gut feel and do the lower cabinets the dark coffee stain and the upper ones the natural wheat. Turns out the counter is what tied it together so well given it has both colors in it. The pricing we very good and believe me, we shopped cabinets until we dropped, looked at online-put-together-yourself, pre-assembled online, went to of course Lowe's and HD, and a few of our local cabinet places as well. Norfolk Kitchens were the only ones who could give us exactly what we wanted at the price we budgeted and they gave us half off the installation charges. With all we have to do already, having someone else install the cabinets was a blessing.
Our back hallway is also finished, I tiled and Les put in our sliding doors that we got for $50 (regularly $250). I'm getting so I can't bring myself to pay full price for anything these days, I shop it like crazy and in the end, with enough wheeling and dealing, if you are patient and stick to your price, someone will make it happen to get the business.
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| Installing the microwave. |
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| Les having fun installing microwave, no really he is! |
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| Just cleaned the fridge, had to take the picture - Norfolk sending small filler for gap above fridge. |
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| Will have a black granite raised breakfast bar over these two cabinets. Highly recommend the large pot drawers - Love them! |
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| We saw a raised dishwasher on display and had to have it. No bending to get the dishes in and out, love it. |
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| Wider view. |
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| Luan countertops - can't wait for the granite. |
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| Wide sink view |
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| Now for the granite from Table of Stone in Merrimack, NH.
Here is the raised DW, the cabinet has no bottom rail, so it opens and is used like an appliance garage. |
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| Love the variations in the granite |
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| Even put the backsplash around the posts and did such a great job. |
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| Love the colors, it has a lot of mica, so it sparkles. |
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| Our sink is a black Moen and looks great in. Les just needs to practice his plumbing skills for awhile before hookup. |
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| The sink is the finishing touch, hopefully tonight. |
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| Only one small seam in the middle of the sink area, everything fit like a glove when they went to install, very impressive. |
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| Love the closeups. |
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| Stove view. |
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| Another closeup. |
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| Cutting in around these angled posts was very detailed. |
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| Real closeup of the breakfast bar area. |
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| Look at that fit - amazing.
Don't look at the cat scratching pole - Darn cats, maybe now that it is not just a big pole in the middle of the room they will stop getting a good run and competing on who can get the highest!
Looks like I have a little sanding touchup work to do. |
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| Again, cutting and fitting these angles so tight was amazing. Nice job highly recommend Table of Stone in Merrimack, NH. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 5/22/2008 9:43:38 AM
The finish work is much more rewarding than the framing and sheetrocking. Les is hard a work on the decks, screen porch and going a little nuts with the octagon stuff. We have put in some bargain pocket doors we got at Home Depot, regularly $250-$350, paid $50 - $125. Love bargain hunting. Cabinets due for delivery Friday morning to be installed Tues and Wed. Granite counters will be measured late day on Wed. It is really all starting to come together, this is so us, so our house, good thing it will be the last one.
Next week will be lots of pictures and updates. Temp CO expires on June 15th and bank will be looking to close by end of June, so the push is on. Can't wait until next month is over so we can relax and really spend some time enjoying it all.
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| Bargain Pocket door |
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| Love a bargain |
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| Les and the crazy octagon stuff - looks awesome, really love the detail he puts into everything. |
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| Screen porch getting railings |
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| Screen porch other side. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 5/12/2008 1:55:43 PM
Here is my latest project. The slate was a lot of work, but we are very pleased with the way it came out.
The stove is a Heat N Glo Paloma - found it at 1/2 off. It had been special ordered and customer couldn't use it where they thought they could. It's on a programmable thermostat so it will meet our bank requirements for heat. It is nice this time of the year not to have to start a fire before work to take the chill off, this kicks on just a little before we get up and there is no chill in the morning.
Here is Les' latest project:
When we were skiing in VT a few years ago we saw deck rails very similar to these and thought they were very cool. Later on while reading a Fine Home Building Magazine, we came across a plan to build these. Les has done some amazing work, we even had a little deck building/birthday party last weekend. No gifts, just lending a hand. It went really well and we got a lot done, thanks everyone who pitched in.
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| Linen closet -- next project for me to finish.
Les did the framing and sheetrock. |
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| Mudding painting, staining trim and tiling floor will be my jobs. |
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| Electrician to put down lights under shelves. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 3/27/2008 9:24:45 AM
Here are the master bedroom cork floor pictures. It went down pretty easy, and of course, building an octagon house, nothing is square; so there was a lot of cutting. Minimal damage to the walls, nothing a little joint compound and paint won't fix!
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| Put enough trim on to get the bed and bureau back in. |
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| Little wall damage - no big deal - look at that cork floor!!! |
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| More trim. Bureau goes here. |
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| Still need trim. |
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| nice job! |
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| We love our new cork floor - purchased at ifloor.com |
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| Heat grill is gravity-fed air from wood stove downstairs. Heats the entire home! |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 3/25/2008
Yeah! We officially have two completed and one very close to completed rooms. The walk-in closet in the master bedroom is completed, shelving and all. How nice to hang clothes up, close the door and have them out of the way -- and more importantly out of the dust of construction. Washer room is finished up too!
Master bedroom floor is in, we put down cork which is so soft and warm. Can't really decorate until all the dust-producing work is done, but it looks so good, just need the baseboard trim to be put in and then it is done. At some point in the future we will close off the upper walls with glass or awning windows to keep the sound out, but for now it is done as far as we are concerned.
A few more spots to paint on the ceiling, then it will be on to the back hallway and the built in linen closet and flooring will complete that area too. That will only leave the kitchen, master bath and living room/office. The kitchen is ready for cabinets if we could just find the right ones at the right price. Living room/office needs paint. Master bath, well that another story, not even sheet rocked in there yet.
Here are the latest pictures, I threw in a few of the tile that we got so cheap! The brown is for the kitchen back splash and the more colorful one will be the master bath shower and back splash.
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| Look, the closet. |
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| Clothes hanging up! |
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| Room for more clothes. |
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| Liked the multi-level setup. |
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| Thrifty, shoe rack is actually an old rack that went over a toilet that was going to go to the trash, cut down the legs and viola shoe rack! |
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| Kitchen ready for cabinets. |
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| Washer room done! |
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| Washer room with doors closed. |
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| Finished bedroom door. |
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| Light for back hall - on a sensor motion to eliminate need for three switches, code calls for one at every entrance into a room, the room is tiny and all those switches would be really stupid. Now we walk to the doorway and lights just go on! |
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| Lights go off too! |
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| Tile for master bath. |
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| Tile for kitchen back splash - bottom one, not the top one. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 3/10/2008 4:14:42 PM
Not that much to take pictures of right now. Got the tiling done in the master closet and laundry room, just have to grout and have Les put the baseboard trim on and we will officially have two rooms completed! Feels good to have something completely finished. We are so close on so many different areas, but just not quite there yet. Want to really keep pushing, spring is coming and we are going to want to be outside, not that there is a lack of work to do there either. Going to be fun putting in those 10-foot wrap around decks, can't wait to just get outside.
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| That's a lot of ceiling to paint! |
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| My cool new office light! |
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| My Aunt's wonderful paint job in the laundry room! |
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| Guess the silver turned out to be more like jail cell gray. ;) |
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| My first ever tile job. |
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| Ready for grout. |
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| Second ever tile job - Laundry room ready for grout too! Just a tiling fool. |
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| Gotta give Les some credit too - Good job on the shelves. |
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| New track lighting - Goes pretty good with the fan. So far we have managed to keep things pretty open up top. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 3/7/2008 10:09:03 AM
Boy, progress seems to have slowed to a crawl since we got in. Not because we have slowed, okay maybe a little, but not much. It's the sheetrock process that takes so darn long. Luckily we paid a friend and got a good deal to have him do all the exterior walls and the very high ceilings. We have decided that even though there is money left in the budget, we don't want to take anymore. We are comfortable with the mortgage amount where it is now, less would be better, but that's okay. So, that said we are doing everything ourselves now.
Sheetrock walls go up on the interior, tape, mud, sand, mud, sand, mud, sand, primer and then on to the next one and that doesn't account for corners!! Just very time consuming. The master bedroom is almost done, in the process of tiling the closet floor.
Almost all the walls are up except for the breakfast bar, we have been going in circles with cabinets trying to get a good deal, keep the cost low, but really get what we want.
We have bought all the main floor flooring at a one day sale at iFLOOR - 75% off prices for one day plus three-year, no-interest financing. Then, the local tile shop went out of business, got four rooms, kitchen floor and complete back splash, master bath shower, back splash and floor, back entry floor, downstairs tub surround, back splash and floor and only spent $1,000. It was nice high end tile, like $5.99 sq ft. reduced to .39 cents a square foot. Took 6 hours to put the order together, but well worth the time.
I will have to take some pictures this weekend and post.
Had a local person contact me today that saw us on this site and wanted to talk. We told them we would be happy to share our experiences, good and bad with them. I know I would have loved to find someone local when I was starting out -- found this site too late.
Oh yeah, we got a gas stove that will run on a thermostat to satisfy the bank for the living room 50% off at Fireplace Village. It was a custom customer order gone wrong - we just keep shopping and finding deals. Just have to be willing to take the time. Lowes and HD clearance stuff always warrants a close look, never know what someone else didn't want.
Okay, pictures to come on Monday.
Mudding in NH, soon in more ways than one.
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 12/17/2007 1:37:53 PM
Well, we did it, we got in just before the big storm this weekend. Our electrician got all the kitchen appliances online and the lights are switched. We got our house number, 312. Can't believe I would be so happy to cook, do dishes, wash clothes, etc. We have all the amenities, running water HOT and cold. It's a big difference taking a long, hot shower vs. the trailer where you have to turn it on, get wet, turn it off, soap up, turn it on to rinse and that's all the hot water there was time for. Actually, at the end, the hose kept freezing up so we didn't have water at all.
We have walls, doors, some temporary flooring and it feels great. I just realized that Christmas is next week and I have done nothing except dig out the decorations on Sunday.
Here are some pictures of where we are. Hoping to have some visitors for Xmas, we are really liking the design and are anxious to see the kitchen with the cabinets in. We put up a few temp shelves in the mean time.
Boy, its been a long haul, but it is finally feeling like home and like it really will be all worth it in the end.
So those of you in the planning or just starting phases, hang in there, the feeling of accomplishment is incredible.
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| Here is the front yard in the late fall. |
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| Garage walls and ceiling were required for fire safety for temp co. |
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| Garage wall. |
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| All stairs must have child proof railings. |
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| We didn't have a wall, so we put the light switches in the railing - pretty cool idea. |
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| Appliances arrive. |
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| Gotta love them beams. |
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| Walls go up. |
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| Garage doors go in - they even had the color to match the Anderson windows. |
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| First snow was gone in a couple of days. |
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| Sheetrock and doors go in. |
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| Wood stove goes in. When this gets going, it actually makes the whole house a little too warm. The heat calls for our SIP, P&B came in at 52,000BTU. Gotta love free heat (except for the hard labor involved). |
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| We used up the extra scrap SIP panels to insulate some of the basement bays. |
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| Look at kitchen. |
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| Floor is temporary, $13.50 a box for sticky tiles is well worth the cost to get our Temp CO and move in. |
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| Just a little holiday decorating. |
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| Okay, so a little more. |
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| That's it, well maybe a tree : ) |
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| Thanks Mom, but now I can do my own laundry. |
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| Even happy to have boxes for nightstands. |
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| Les picked out the cool sconces. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 11/19/2007 2:27:45 PM
Well, our goal for getting a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) was Thanksgiving. It has gone from a full CO, down to just getting a temp CO which will be good for 90 days and then can be extended for an additional 90 days. That will get us through the winter and the bank construction loan needs to convert to permanent by April anyway, so that should work out well.
We found this great place in Hooksett, NH called Big Jim's for discount building materials, we got a vanity and one-piece soapstone sink top for $300, I couldn't get just the vanity for under $320 at the big hardware stores. They have slightly dinged doors. We actually got five interior doors for $150, and none had dings, one even had a glass window in one side that I am going to do mosaic stained glass on. What a find for getting stuff cheap, got to go often. The vanity is in the pictures below.
We are both walking around like zombies, get up, work full-time (when I'm not out 1/2 or full days for GC stuff) go home, work on house until 9-10 pm, eat quick sandwich, off to bed, get up and do it again. The weekends are worse, up at the crack of dawn and crawling up the hill to the camper by 9-10, I get happy that it is Monday so I can go to work and sit down!!! Even when you plan well and realize exactly what you are getting into, until you physically do it, you just don't realize how much time and energy it takes. We have not taken any time off since the foundation went in in at the beginning of July. Living in NH, we are working to avoid trying to survive the winter in the camper.
We heat the house while we are working with a little propane heater that puts out about 40,000 BTU. The designers kept telling us how little it would take to heat a SIP Panel home, but again, seeing is believing. PSNH came out this morning and hooked up our permanent service, for a monopoly, they are very good to their customers, I explained out situation in the camper and they really went to bat for us and got us what we needed and guided us along the way to make sure we did the underground work correctly.
The building inspector has turned out to be the best and biggest resource for building information, I make a list of questions and go talk to him or call at least once a week and always has or finds the information that we need. He was the one that explained about getting a temp CO, we had no idea about that.
Anyway, everyone keeps asking for updates, so I wanted to get the latest pictures up.
Big stuff coming in the next two weeks, garage doors from Raynor Door Authority, we were very impressed with their professionalism and pricing, they install tomorrow and had the exact color match to our Andersen windows. Son's Chimney Service is installing our wood stove (Morso 3610), I had originally gone with the the 2040 which is more contemporary, but the site evaluator said we should go bigger, the bigger size was actually less money so we went with it. Now I'm wondering if it will be too much given the little propane heater we have been using, guess we can always downsize and sell the bigger one.
I will post again next week when there will be more noticeable changes and let you know if we actually manage to get in! Wish us luck, or better yet, come by and bring your tools. : )
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| Siding is finally done. |
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| Framing on upper level almost done. |
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| It's not really crooked, just the photographer. |
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| Vanity and top from Big Jim's Bargains Hooksett, NH - great deals, nice guys. |
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| DSL Concrete did the slabs. Again, great price and great guys! |
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| Fresh air ventilation from Aldes - VMP-K circulates continuous fresh air and removes humidity and controls condensation and mold in SIP Panel homes. |
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| Drywall. |
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| Temporary staircase. |
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| Last windows and door go in. |
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 10/4/2007 7:47:03 AM
Well, it has seemed like slow going and Les is getting anxious to move on to something different than siding. He has just one more side to do.
We put the doors in. The first is a slider which will exit from the kitchen onto the deck for outside dining, the second is a set of French doors that will open from the living room onto the screened-in porch. These are Andersen doors and they slide, glide and open so smoothly, it's amazing.
Everyone wants pictures, but somehow a sewer ejector in the basement didn't seem exciting enough, but here you go. The rest is the rough-in plumbing for the basement/walkout bathroom. The plumber suggested putting in a mop sink on the outer bathroom wall for my stained glass workshop and I said definitely, that way I won't ruin a perfectly good bathroom!
Cement slabs are scheduled for pouring on Monday so those will be the next pictures and hopefully the final siding pictures will be coming next week as well. Then we will move all the workshop stuff to the cellar and start building the interior walls. Looking like our tentative CO date might actually work. Here's hoping the weather continues to cooperate with us.
Oh yeah, we have electricity now!!!! We also just got the heat fixed in the trailer, so we are more comfortable and no one has to trudge down the hill to shut off or turn on the generator. Josh also hooked up the well pump to the temp service so we have running water full time as well. Boy, are we spoiled or what? ; )
Photos
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 9/17/2007 9:01:25 AM
Three days vacation time and some relatives (Thanks Dick and Gloria) have helped us to get the house at least 1/2 sided. Les has been working hard and doing a great job at the siding. He is so good at this building thing, and of course does not give himself enough credit. The proof is in the results and here it is!!
Photos
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 8/22/2007
Wow, time does fly, and once the construction is off and running, there isn't much time for blogs and picture posting, please forgive me. It is late August and we are currently having the roof put on, the windows are in and doors are next. We are using felt as a house wrap (recommended by Foard Panel) with home slicker (Cedar Breather) over that before putting on the v-match siding. The rush is on to get it weather tight, then our CO goal date is Thanksgiving. Check back to see if we really make it, or if we are freezing our tails off in the trailer. At least we are on site now with inspected septic and well, waiting on PSNH for some power and running off a generator. I'm sure I won't have time to post most of the pictures that I have taken between the end of June and now, but here is where we are. If anyone would like to see pictures from certain building points or dates, just let me know and I'm sure I have a picture of it, including putting the 34' travel trailer at the top of the huge hill it now sits on, that was a stressful day!
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/27/2007
Well, still on schedule, unbelievable. The walls were poured and the forms will come off today. We will be going over with our wonderful son Josh to waterproof the outside of the foundation tonight in the 90-degree heat. That should be a really fun job! I definitely recommend True-Form for getting the job done!
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/26/2007
I have never seen a foundation built before. We hired True-Form and they had a great price and worked into the evening last night to get our wall ready for inspection this morning. Once they are inspected they will pour and then the forms come off on Wednesday. Then it's up to us to waterproof and have the inspection done once more before back filling can be done. We are having the subfloor and framing materials delivered on Friday. Next week is vacation -- putting in a subfloor. I have to admit it is the weirdest vacation I ever thought I would take. Here is True-Form working furiously to pull it all off for us this week - Thanks to Ben and his crew, or in this case crews! I highly recommend these guys.
Took some time to explore the lot and found this stand of mountain laurel in full bloom!
Photos
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/18/2007
Well, we finally have something concrete to show for all our efforts -- pun intended!! The footings were poured later in the day on Friday, I saw the concrete truck coming up the street as I was going down and back to work. I had hoped to get some action shots, but no luck this time. Maybe Monday if they pour the walls. We are very excited, now we just need the bank to get on board.
I find that I walk around holding my head a lot lately, it is either going a mile a minute, or hurting from too much thinking. Hopefully I'm not doing it because someone screwed something up!!!
And Aunt Lou -- it is supposed to be a small house, we are downsizing after all. Don't worry, we will save room for you too!!
Photos
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/15/2007
Ran over on my lunch hour and they were just finishing up and waiting for the concrete truck to come and pour. I was hoping to get there while they were pouring for some action shots, but no luck, I passed the concrete truck as I was driving back to work.
Here are pictures of the footings with rebar. One shows the rebar sticking out for the electrical ground. My grass is coming in nicely behind the retaining wall to stabilize the bank. The mountain laurel is in bloom!! Also, how could I possibly skip taking more pictures of the brook?
Photos
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/15/2007
Okay Dad, now that I finally got you onto the Internet, lets hope that brand new PC has Acrobat installed so you can open this file. Here are the house plans. We have redesigned the kitchen with a kitchen designer at Milford Lumber. The first picture makes it look like a tunnel, but it is really quite open. Notice the raised dishwasher on the left side of the second page. We loved this idea, saw it at the showroom. The dishwasher basically has a drawer under it so that it is raised up and you do not have to bend to put the dishes in! Seeing this is the home we plan on staying in forever, the older we get the more we will appreciate it.
Enjoy!
FilesThigpen Final 070607.pdfOur New Kitchen.pdf
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/14/2007
Went over to check out the forms and see it before the concrete footings were poured. Received call from building inspector at 4:00 pm (wasn't scheduled until morning). He had made it over to take a look and is ready to approve for pouring. Apparently the foreman thought it was ready, but it is not. The 20 feet of rebar for the electrical ground was not in place. The inspector left a report to install and call after installation. So here it sits, ready or not?
The flat area where the bulldozer sits is where we plan to park the travel trailer for the remainder of the construction.
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/6/2007
Finally - we can pick up our building permit this Friday. We have the lot cleared, man what an undertaking that was. At least we will have firewood for at least a few winters. Plus, we had some of the larger trees milled to use in the house-building process. After much research, we have selected Hammersmith Post and Beam DBA S.P. Brooks located in Lyndeboro, NH to do the post and beam and panels. They specialize in post and beam with SIP panels and everyone we mentioned post and beam to said they were the best around. We have met with them and they have many years of experience and have been doing SIP panel before most people even heard of it. There are many homes in the area that they have done many years ago and the owners we have talked to had nothing but great things to say about them. The cellar hole is dug and ready for the concrete work. Here are the choices that we have made so far:
John Brayshaw is the person that we chose to hire to mill the trees into lumber. He is out of Warner, NH. They were able to get all the sawing done in one day. We highly recommend him!
Post and beam with SIP panels done by SP Brooks. Radiant floor heat (hoping to do a tankless hot water heater and solar with propane backup if funds allow).
We will also have a contemporary wood stove in the living room. Seeing as the house was designed to be half open, it should heat the first level fine. The design work done by Hammersmith Designs DBA S.P. Brooks has been so helpful and responsive. They readily incorporated any changes we asked for and made some very good suggestions for using the space most efficiently. Their houses are so energy efficient that the propane company doesn't want to give us a 300-gallon underground tank because we will not use enough to justify the cost!
The house will be an octagon-shaped ranch with a full walk-out basement. Two bedrooms, two baths once complete.
We are putting the hydroelectric on hold until after we are in. Just too much to deal with right now and there is a very large information vacuum out there on micro hydro.
Most of the building products we will use will be green, low VOC, etc. This house is so tight that we will need to put in a heat recovery/air exchange system for fresh air.
I am attaching some of the most recent pictures.
The rock is our love seat rock that sits on the hill and looks down onto the dam and brook. The excavator found it and asked if we would like to keep it and of course we said yes.
This has been quite an adventure so far and I have to say in hindsight that all the delays and what seemed like hold ups, were all beneficial. Our driveway is over designed and we have had no problems with flooding, the entire upper half of Burton Highway washed out, but not our driveway. We were basically forced to slow down which allowed us the time necessary to do some additional planning.
As far as IndyMac Bank is concerned, we will not be using them for our financing on the project. They locked us into a pre-payment penalty at the last minute on the land purchase, and now they are only offering us a terrible one-month LIBOR loan that will jump to almost 9% in the first month of construction. They say they would give us a good rate on the final mortgage product, but can't quote a rate now and offer no guarantee as to how high it might go. We are gladly parting ways with them and my advice to anyone thinking about using them is to be very cautious. They say one thing and do another at the last minute when the deal hangs in the balance. They played on our emotions and this lot was just too perfect to lose.
Ocean National has offered us a low fixed rate mortgage for the construction period with one close and a guarantee that the rate can only go up 2%, so it is capped and if the market rate is lower we get whatever the going rate is, but have the benefit of the cap. They are more than willing to work with owner-builders. I will let you all know how the draws/inspections and construction loan process unfolds.
We are so excited and when I go out to the site on a warm spring day now, there is no place that I would rather be. This is truly our final destination and where we want to retire.
Happy Building to all,
Barbara
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 1/25/2007
Can't believe that it is 2007 and we have still not broken ground. Hopefully this will happen next week. We discovered after purchasing our land that it resides in a watershed overlay district. Our lot is very sloped and the only level area was within the 200-foot setback from the brook. After a long process and lots of money spent on plans and engineering, we received a 25-foot variance into the watershed district. Then we discovered that the watershed district has a slope ordinance and because we did not get the 50-100-foot variance (only 25 feet) we will be disturbing a greater than 14% grade. Back to the engineers for an erosion-control plan for our driveway. That took a few months and lots of money as well. We finally received approval and applied for a driveway permit on January 17, 2007.
Just when we thought it was safe, yesterday I received a call from the Highway Agent and the driveway does not meet his specs. It must slope down and away from the road at 1" per foot for the first four feet and must enter the road at a 90-degree angle. He did give us preliminary approval to start construction, but back to the engineer and more $ will be involved I am sure.
During this time we have gone from building a cedar kit house to a SIP house to an ICF house. We have settled on the ICF with post and beam inside, and have contracted for our very expensive "subdivision"-standard driveway for our little 1,256 sq ft octagon home. Boy, never knew excavation was so darn expensive.
Will try to keep the journal updated now that we may really get building !!!
FilesMap A Lot 64.pdf
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 5/16/2006 6:59:44 AM
Closed on the land yesterday. We were planning on living in a trailer on site, but just found out it will need to be hooked up to a septic system. Now we have to investigate putting in a septic before construction begins. Also looking into using hydroelectric. Lots of planning to do and a house to sell -- that is the focus now.
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Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 5/9/2006 12:20:08 PM
Well, here goes nothing. We put our house on the market and have signed the contract on 20 acres in Wilton, NH. We are planning on doing most of the work ourselves. Have been in touch with the wonderful people at the NH Sustainable Energy Association regarding "green" building. The soil scientist from Meridien Land Services suggested we do hydroelectric. We are building along a brook that has a dam nearby. We will need to speak with the dam owners to get permission, but we are hoping that seeing as they have run their production business "Frye's Measure Mill" off of hydro since they started, they may be open-minded to allow us to tap into their dam's spillway.
Lucky for us we know a lot of people in different construction fields and so far have someone for excavation, foundation (ICF), septic, electric, plumbing, insulation, and roofing. Wish us luck, I'm sure we are going to need it.
The lot is gorgeous with 1,200 ft of frontage on Mill Brook on Burton Highway. Beep and wave when you go by and see us pulling our hair out!!
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