Category: RIVER HOUSE (Page 2 of 20)

Today we had our weekly site visit with the builder and the architect, and I have some update pictures.

The deck is coming along. The skirt is in place along most of the length as you can see in this picture from the backyard. (The skirt is the darker strip at the top.)

The deck surface is mostly installed. Right now they have stopped work while waiting for a little more material. The first picture is looking from the breezeway towards the river.

The next picture is looking around the corner towards the living room door.

They are still working on the stairs.

Meanwhile, the landscaping crew has been busy at work. They have most of the downspouts connected to the underground pipes that feed into the dry well (which is now finished). In this picture (North side of the house), you can see two of the downspouts. The white pipes will be painted black and the level of the ground will be raised so they will be mostly hidden.

The landscape crew also finished the floor of the area under the porch. For this area, we repurposed the bluestone tiles that made up the patio of the original house. We had enough stone for the job except for two additional pieces that had to be added. The old bluestone is very well aged (and very pretty), although I fear that the moss will not survive well in the light-less area under the porch.

In a week or two we will put an enclosed shed at the North end of this area and a kayak rack against the foundation, and this will be our boat storage area.

The interior doors have been delivered. They will be installed much later and are being stored in the garage right now, where we are using the garage’s ventilation system to keep the humidity down.

Inside the house, the crew have been painting the walls and ceilings. Here is the second floor family room with the first coat of paint. Notice the decision to paint the sloping section in the ceiling color instead of the wall color.

The game room is still behind. The beams have arrived and will be installed soon.

As soon as that is done, they will finish the wall board and plastering and then paint the game room. Here is what it looks like right now.

The floor of the master shower has also been delivered, and soon the tiles will show up so work can start on the master bathroom.

Today, Daphne selected the color we will use for the baseboards. Here you can see her doing the color selection in natural light.

My final picture for this post is the current view of the river. You can see that the water is dropping but new growth has not come in yet so we basically just have mud.

Tomorrow I will post the most recent schedule for the next few weeks.

In my last post I had a picture of the dry well hole in progress. Here are two more pictures form today, from the builder, showing the dry well being filled.

The pipes coming in the side (first picture) come from the gutters and downspouts. The pipe coming out the top (second picture) is an overflow.

The yellow pieces have no bottoms; the bottom is just gravel.

We had our weekly meeting with the builder and architect. Inside the house, nothing is happening this week while we wait for the plaster to dry. I did recover the construction camera memory card, so here is a video of the plastering of the living room.

Meanwhile, outside the house, work continues on the deck.

And the landscaping crew has started their work outside the house. The first task was to adjust the ground level and gravel at the front edge of the deck. This was done to help water flow since rain water comes off the road and flows past the house to the river. We want to carefully control where the water goes to avoid water damage or erosion anywhere.

This is the front of the deck where you see an opening for water to flow.

While we were there, the crew was digging the dry well. The dry well, near the southeast corner of house, is where we will collect all the water that runs off the roof, through the downspouts, and then through underground pipes. Here is a picture of the hole partially dug. The yellow pieces will cover the dry well (the bottom is just gravel).

Our big decision this week was what to do about the exposed concrete. We got a quote for applying stucco and decided that it was too expensive. So we toured the neighborhood to see what all out neighbors have done with their exposed concrete. One neighbor installed a fancy fake stone finish, which looks really nice but is too expensive for us. All the other neighbors either left the concrete unfinished or just painted it.

We have a small strip of exposed concrete in the front, but it is very short. We also have a little exposed concrete on the north side of the garage, mostly hidden by the propane tanks, and on the south side of the house (shown below), but neither of those locations are very visible from the street or the river.

The real area that is visible from the river is under the living room, between the deck and the porch. You can see it here in a recent picture.

We have decided to leave all the concrete natural except for the part under the living room. For that area we are trying to decide between paint and just putting a matching section of vertical slats (so it matches the slats under the porch and under the deck). Decision coming soon.

Here are the expectations for the coming weeks.

• The painter will apply prime coat starting May 4.
• Also on May 4, the front stoop gets delivered (which will allow the construction crew to install the front posts.
• Site work (digging) has started and will continue for 4 weeks.
• Interior doors are delayed and are now expected May 11.
• Front door installation will be done on May 4.
• Kitchen cabinets will be delivered on May 11.
• The game room’s cherry beams will be installed on May 11.

Things remain on the new schedule for now, but past behavior is no guarantee of future performance.

Current estimated occupancy date: July 31, 2026 (no change).

We went to the house this weekend to plan two sections of geraniums. Here is a picture of Daphne doing some of the planting.

Whenever we plant things, we tend to discover all sorts of interesting items buried in the back yard. Last week we found a milk bottle.

Today, we found a bathmat buried in the ground. I have no idea why there was a bathmat buried in the back yard. There is no evidence that there was a bathtub in the yard.

Inside the house, they have finished plastering everywhere except the game room. The game room is waiting for the beams to be milled before it can be finished. Here is the now cleaned-up living room. Next week, there will be no work inside while the plaster dries.

Meanwhile, outside the house they are starting to put the deck surface down. They can not finish until the landscape crew shapes the ground under the deck to facilitate water flow.

We were going to pick up some trees from the neighbors, but it turns out that a lot of the neighbors are away for school vacation week, so we will swap plants in a few weeks,

Here is an update from this Wednesday’s meeting.

Inside the house, plastering continues. It is expected to be finished on Friday. Here is the master bedroom, which has been plastered.

And here is the living room, which is still in progress (and has not been cleaned up yet).

Inside the house they have also turned on the water. This is important since we need the exterior facets to work so we can water the new plants we are installing.

Outside the house, I have three things to report. First the gutters are now all installed, although they are still working on some of the downspouts. Here is the front corner near the pantry. The downspout will eventually go into that white pipe which funnels water to a dry well in the southeast corner (past the porch).

It is not clear in that picture, but there is also a screen over the gutters to keep leaves and pine needles from clogging up the pipes. You can see a little of the screen hanging over the edge of the gutter in this close up.

Also today the A/V team was installing the exterior doorbells and cameras. Here is the doorbell near the pantry door.

We inspected and approved the view from the doorbell and from the camera that watches the backyard for wildlife.

Here is the view from this doorbell camera. There are two pictures, one shows the view of a person at the doorbell and one is the view of packages left on the ground by the door.

For the backyard camera we had two choices of views, based on the angle that the camera was mounted. We decided on the first view, which gives us a better view close to the house, but I included the other view for comparison.

We also inspected the awning. Here is the awning when it is retracted. The power cord will be shortened and colored black (and plugged in just under the awning).

Here is the awning when deployed. We adjusted the angle from the last video that was posted. The team on the cherry picker in the background are adjusting the backyard camera.

You may notice that the awning cassette is brown, which is “chocolate” color. We had wanted “espresso”, which is a near black color, but somehow in the ordering process the color got switched and no one noticed. The brown goes better with the deck color, but black will go better with the trim. We have not decided whether to fix this or not.

Things remain on the new schedule for now, but past behavior is no guarantee of future performance.

Current estimated occupancy date: July 31, 2026 (no change).

They just installed the retractable awning that covers the deck outside of the dining room window. The builder sent me this video.

We went to the house this weekend to plant four Arrowwood Viburnum bushes. Here is a picture of Daphne measuring the hole we dug for one of the bushes.

And here is Daphne preparing the root ball for planting. You have to cut the roots which have been forced to wrap themselves around the inside of the pot, to ensure that they will spread out when planted.

While we were there, we also installed the new cover on the new rowboat, so we no longer need to keep it upside down on logs.

Inside the house this past week they have been plastering. Here is the family room (2nd floor), all plastered.

And here is the guest bedroom (2nd floor).

They are still working on the first floor. Here is the living room. The wood sections on the ceiling and wall will not be plastered but will have wood slats.

And here is the kitchen.

Outside the house they have been installing the gutters. Here is a section of the front of the house where you can see the gutter on the first floor and the brackets on the second floor.

And here is the porch where you can see the gutter installed.

Well, that’s all for now.

Update from the builder.

• Plastering (walls and ceilings) on the second floor is finished.
• Plastering on the first floor will be done the week of Apr 20, completed by end of week or sooner.
• Plaster will be left to dry during the week of Apr 27.
• The painter will apply prime coat to interior walls and ceilings during week of May 4.
• Also on May 4, the front stoop gets delivered (which will allow the construction crew to install the front posts.

More updates from the architect.

• Retractable awning will be installed on Apr 21
• Decking will be delivered Apr 23.
• Interior doors will be delivered on Apr 27.
• Front door installation will be done on May 4.
• Kitchen cabinets will be delivered on May 11.

Post by Daphne.

Over the last week a couple of my orders from the forestry services have arrived. The plants arrive small and bareroot, so they are easy to plant. But I have a lot of them. So I asked some friends for help. Louisa helped me with the 7 grey dogwood and the 5 elderberry.

Then today Cathy and Louisa (above) helped me with maybe 10ish red osier dogwood. I forget how many were actually planted. I had 20 delivered to me, but that was way too many for the space. I gave a few to Louisa and I’ll give the rest away to the Arlington Gardeners.

After the planting, I had my typical Wednesday progress report with my architect and builder. The plastering has started on the second floor.

And we had to make a decision about the screening for the heat pump fans. If I just had one fan it wouldn’t be a big deal. But we have a bank with four and they are large and imposing.

I wasn’t really sure I liked our original screening plan. The fans where very visible from the deck. But with an L-shaped screen (above) it blocked the view very well. Now that is not the screen we are using. That is just a mock up to show the location. We will be using 1/4″ black aluminum cut out with abstract flowers. I might end up growing some coral honeysuckle up the front if I can keep it from getting too close to the fans. And keep it from getting too thick. I still need some airflow.

Right now, inside the house, a crew is putting up blue board on the walls and ceilings. They have finished the second floor and are partway though the first floor. Once the blue board has been installed, they will start plastering.

The crew uses stilts, especially when working on the ceiling installation. Here is a picture of two workers in the living room.

Here are workers in the first floor hallway.

The second floor has all the panels installed. Here is the guest bedroom (2nd floor).

And here is the family room (2nd floor).

In the living room, they have installed wood where the decorative slats will go.

Plastering should start tomorrow or the next day, once all the blue board has been installed.