Saturday, January 15, 2011

From a Distance. . .

     I named this post From a Distance because, due to my elective surgery this past week, that is how I will be viewing the house site for another week or two. H is on his own as he talks with the builder about the things WE talk about, and he is also in charge of the camera. Just a side note about Hargrove photography:
I shoot from the hip, so to speak, when it comes to taking pictures. Anything and everything I see. If it's not good or not centered, I delete it and take it again. I'm not saying that's good or bad, it's just how I take pictures. They are more candid that way. H, on the other hand worries about the little things, like its there enough light, is the angle right, or is the subject centered, and then he decides whether a certain view is blog worthy. So with that being said, there might not be as many pictures in my next few posts.
     Since my last post, there has been much more brick work done on and around the house. The photo of the brick work in my last post was sent to me by the builder. They started it right after we left the site. Up until then all I had was a couple of photos of the stacked brick.



I was able to capture a photo of two of the brick layers tossing the brick to each other as they stacked the bricks around the house that they would use. My photo does not do them justice. I really tried to catch a brick in motion. Trust me, they really had a system going and were able to get the brick spread out in a short amount of  time.

Most of the brick will be around the foundation in the front of the house and on the back facing the lake. H did get this photo of a finished side of the garage  to show where the brick meets the Hardy board siding.

     I understand the brickwork had been postponed for a day or two due to the weather. The frigid cold temperature draws the moisture from the mortar and could cause cracks.  (The things one learns when building a house).
    The main reason H went to the site was to check out the retaining wall. It is dry stacked and the cold doesn't affect the stacking process. The "stackers", on the other hand, might have a different story.
    To refresh your memory, the retaining wall is needed on our site to enable us to get from the terrace down to the boat house. There would have been too much of a drop off unless we "terraced" it somewhat.
There was no official plan for this but as the site was escavated it was decided we would do this. The highest part of the wall may be 4 1/2 to 5 feet high, I am told. The sides gradually go down on both sides of the house. The guy who we contracted with, to do the wall, is a landscaper and we left the rest up to him. This is what he did and we are very pleased.


I had no idea what the retaining wall would look like, but I was delighted to see this. So was H, but he may have had some idea what was happening. I can already see a couple of urns with plants either on the bottom steps or at the top. The top ledge which will be flush with the ground and will need some plantings so no one will wander off the edge.There is several feet from the terrace to the top of the retaing wall. The landscaper will submitt a bid to H for the landscape work that needs to be done after the house is built.(Sure miss lawnboy.)  The steps lead down to the level that the boat house is on. There will be a sodded area at this level. Have plans in my mind for a flagpole to fly my flag that was flown from the capitol on my birthday. (Thanks to my darling daughter Liz.)

     Does this view give you an idea where the wall starts from the terrace? The terrace floor goesfrom the lower level door out to the soon to be columns holding up the upper deck. We plan to use that area a lot!
      It wasn't long after H returned home that we got a call from a man asking to submit a bid on building the seawall at the waters edge. We want it to match our neighbors as much as posssible so it will look uniform around the point. As you can surmise from that phone call,we have not had any problems getting the work done as needed. The economy is such that people call you asking for work or at least call the builder to ask, when do you want me to come? This has been a lucky break for us. Not one sub has not shown up for work due to deer hunting season either!  Good news is this means the house will be build sooner that espected, bad news is that decision time is getting closer and closer. The trim man is ready for paint colors after the hardwood floors go in (probably next week).
    The decorator asked that we get a sample of the paint color, paint a poster board and take it fromroom to room. This will help us see the color in its different light. Our builder said, heck! we'll just paint the sample color on the wall in each room and we can make our decision that way.
       So that is where we are as of today. I still need to make color choice for all the bed rooms but have decided to go with the color chosen by the decorator for all the rooms that open to each other. Check one!
Hopefully next week, I can get in and out of a car more easily and go looking at and for others things that need a decision made about!

2 comments:

  1. I like the way the wall and steps flow into each other. Doesn't look like it will be much of a strain getting up and down from the dock. That's a good thing for you older folks!!
    RHA

    ReplyDelete
  2. It looks SOOOO wonderful! I love how close you are to the water! I am sooooo jealous!! But so happy for you and Harry too!
    Hope your recovery is speedy and that you aren't down for long! Love, Diane

    ReplyDelete