Carrie's Building Journey

Sometimes the little things can make all the difference. I put up my larger art prints in the house, but hadn’t put up family photos yet. Most are several years old and I wanted to wait until I ordered new prints. I finally decided to just put them up and I’ll replace the photos when I get around to it. Makes it feel so much more like home seeing my kids and grandkids on the wall!

My friend’s husband cleared the property line through the woods so I could get a fence up around the whole back of the property. I had a temporary wire fence up just to keep the dog in and man, what a difference moving the fence has made. The entire back is available to us right from the house, the dog has a ton of space and it’s nice having that border to know it’s all mine. I bought a t-post puller to move the existing posts and that was totally worth it. Made removing the posts super easy. I was even able to use it to remove the mailbox set on an 8’ post in the ground that was used to hold permits during construction. It was buried between 2-3 feet. I was amazed it worked! It will come in handy when I replace the wire fence with wood.

I still have a ton of projects to do, but with lumber prices up 3-4 times the norm, they are all being put on hold for now. I did get my landscaping plan completed and sent it out to 3 landscapers to get some estimates. The project won’t start until Fall at the earliest and planting not until after Spring. I bought a push mower for now to mow the weeds and dirt, which helps, but man, the weeds are winning the battle big time. It’s definitely feeling a little overwhelming.

While the time absolutely CRAWLED waiting for this house to be built, it is now flying by! Moving in, building furniture, hanging pictures, organizing then buying more furniture to organize things has been where most of my time has been spent. I still don’t have a bed or a couch in my living room. My bed I ordered in November should be here this month and a living room couch will wait for next year.

I hired someone to do a landscape design for me. This worked really well at my last house. I could use it as my template and then do an area as the budget/time allowed. I have also hired some help to clear the back property line and may be hiring someone to help me with other random jobs as I need them done.

My latest project was building two 8×4 raised garden beds and two 4×4 raised garden beds (one still needs to be built) using metal roofing, roof flashing, 2x3s as the frame and 2x4s on top to protect hands from the metal roofing edge. They turned out beautiful and I love that they are 2 ft tall so I don’t have to bend at all. Plus that keeps the bunnies out and the the dog from peeing on the plants. I added some deer and rabbit repellant around the area as well. Next step will be to frame the area in and fill with pea gravel or cedar chips….not sure which way I’m going.

I got the plans for these from Youtube – Raised Garden Beds. I will add another brace to the long side on the one closest. I built that one with 4×4 in the corner and they were a pain because the metal roofing couldn’t go to the corner. I will use the roof flashing for the rest and then add some 2x2s to the corners to add strength. I had an old ladder hanging around so painted it and using it for the tomatoes to climb. Used some wire fencing and wood I have to make a bean tunnel. Most plants were from starts with some from seed.

The final step/hoop to jump through has been done! Friday, I closed on my mortgage. The permanent Certificate of Occupancy was granted in January. The house is officially “mine” (technically the bank still owns it until it’s paid off)!! It feels good to finally not have to deal with all the financial stuff, inspections, etc. There are still a couple things the builder needs to provide -smart dead bolt and the hub that goes with the smart lights, but most everything is done.

We have been in almost three months. I’m to that point where things are “good enough” and it’s hard to get motivated to get through the final unboxing. I’m thinking it might be easier when the weather is nicer. Speaking of weather, the house was so pretty with snow last weekend!

The snow hid the fact that there is no landscaping done around the house. My son and I went sledding and made a snowman which was a lot of fun. It has all melted and we’re back to dirt now. It was pretty while it lasted!

Since moving in, I bought shelving for our media area, my office and my son’s room. Pictures have been hung, TV mounted on the wall, installed a new shower head in the Master bathroom, installed bidet toilet seats in every bathroom, put up 40’ of wire fencing with like 900 ft to go, put up Christmas decorations, then took them down, installed the movie screen, projector, speakers and some wall shelving on the walls in the media area and got my smart lights setup so the outside ones come on at sunset and off at sunrise. So I guess I HAVE been busy!

I have a list of projects started and will budget and prioritize them. Fencing is high on the priority list because I’m getting tired of babysitting the dog when he goes out. He tends to follow his nose and wanders off. Putting up wiring fence is not as easy as I thought it would be, but I watched some youtube videos on stretching it so the next section should go better.

It’s almost been a month since we moved in. Everything we need has been unpacked. There are still boxes in every room except the kitchen. I was fairly organized in packing, but still having a hard time finding things. I could NOT find our Christmas DVDs. The internet sucks so I wanted to watch the DVD instead of streaming it. Turned out those got moved to a different box # than what was on my original inventory, but I found them finally. Got our Christmas tree up, some decorations and the outside has lights on the porch.

I LOVE MY HOUSE! Here’s a pic of the sunrise this morning. With all that’s going on in the world, not being able to see family this holiday…I’m so grateful to be able to live here and in this home, the one I chose.

It’s funny how your priorities change after moving in. I thought the first thing I would want to have setup was the garage so I could build things like shelving. Well, after looking at he price of lumber compared to cheap bookshelves, I ended up just buying bookshelves for one room. I also thought building a sliding pantry door would be one of my top priorities, but turns out, I’d rather work on my range hood first. Lesson learned is…wait until you move in and then prioritize projects and buy materials.

I got one bid for landscaping, but they can’t even start anything until June so I’m going to get a couple other bids. The first project will be a walkway from the driveway to the steps so we aren’t dragging mud onto the porch constantly. I also want an overall design done that I can do over time.

I still do not have a permanent Certificate of Occupancy. I’ve reached out to the Town Planner a couple times and have not heard back. I was told by another person in the office that they are really busy. Meanwhile, the builder wants their last payment and I’d like to convert my high interest construction loan to a mortgage. Neither of which can be done until I get the permanent CO.

Happy Holidays to all!!!

I received a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy on Wednesday 11/25 – the day before Thanksgiving! There are a few things to finish up for it to be permanent and they are all being worked on. Some are not even related to the house itself (2 items are for the shed), one related to the water treatment system, a request for the written blower test report and the rest have been done since the last inspection. Wednesday, movers had all my stuff from storage in the house in 3 hours. Thursday, I made two trips from my mom’s to the house for the rest of our stuff.

I have been working my tail off to get boxes unpacked and things settled. The hardest part is organizing everything when you need shelves to put stuff on. We have chairs but no couches to sit on and no bedroom furniture. I did save the drawer units from my last house for the closets and got those installed. That helps us at least get our clothes organized. The other hard thing is not buying everything at once. I placed an order for my bedroom furniture. I need to try out couches before buying so that will be awhile (after COVID). My garage looks like a cardboard recycling area!

I’m getting used to the various noises in this house. There is a pressure tank & pump that goes on every time you use water, the septic makes a kind of humming noise that you can barely hear and the bathroom fans run a lot, but overall, it’s really quiet. Definitely better than the suburbs where I lived before with sirens nightly and racing cars going by!

The house is absolutely beautiful and the view is amazing! Pictures don’t do it justice. I wake to a beautiful sunrise and get to watch the sunset in the evening. I’m SO HAPPY to finally be in my new home! I started to think it was never going to happen!

It’s almost done. Ran into an issue with the septic system. County says it was never inspected, septic guy says it was inspected. Either way, I can’t move in until they figure that out. Septic guy is on it, but the inspector won’t be back in the office until next Tuesday so that’s the soonest I could get the Certificate of Occupancy. The remaining major items from the builder are: Install dishwasher and power to the range hood. Other than that there are minor things – need the hub that comes with the smart light switches; replace the black heat unit with a silver one when they come in, install toilet paper holders, finish trim on cabinets by the fridge, adjust window or wax, I think so it slides open easier, I can’t remember what else.

Apparently, I also need to file a permit for the water treatment system (vendor is taking care of it) and for a yard hydrant I had installed because I couldn’t put water to the shed. The kitchen sink is making gurgling noises so I might have to have the water treatment people come back to look at it. The driveway is getting paved tomorrow, unless it starts pouring down rain. That will be nice.

I SHOULD be able to move in next week unless something else comes up.

Peek the new handles! And I LOVE my range. The hood is ugly, but will have a nice cover eventually. I’m kinda burnt out doing any DIY projects until I’m in the house. It’s such a pain to take stuff out of the shed, set it up, then pack it all up and put it away. So I’m waiting until I’m in the house and then will do it.

Overall, I think the project went pretty well, Lots of people (friends and family) say it took too long, but COVID added about 6 weeks, possibly more with crews getting sick and having to quarantine. I think the house is well built, it has almost everything I WANTED and certainly everything I NEED. Regrets – should have met with the kitchen people instead of just approving things via email. Had I talked to them, I would have had the cabinets I wanted versus these brownish ones, plus I forgot to have at least one full height base cabinet for a garbage pull-out. Forgot about the electrical outlet inside a base cabinet so I can have a sweep-in vacuum there.

I’ve been learning about Agile (SCRUM) at work and wonder if that would work well in the construction world. I think it would work well in the design phase and post framing. Basically, get all the people needed for the phase together and work through all the tasks needed to be done. The linear project management takes so much time. A week for each thing and if one sub is late or misses something, it bumps everything out a week. Not that I’ll be doing this again…..but you never know. Maybe it’s like childbirth…hell when you’re in it, but looking back, you think how wonderful it was and you could do it again.

I installed the cabinet handles in my kitchen. I have not purchased handles for the bathrooms yet as I’m not sure what ones I want yet. I messed up measuring on the FIRST cabinet and put the hole in the wrong spot. I’ll have to figure out how to patch that with the glazing that’s on the cabinets. It’s under the handle so not really noticeable until you look for it. SO mad at myself, but I do love these handles. I purchased them from House of Antique Hardware. I looked at local hardware stores and all they had were the 3-4” ones. The upper cabinets have 6” handles, larger drawers have 5” cup pulls, lower cabinets have 5 1/8” handles, small drawers 3” cup pulls and the small cabinets above the fridge and next to the sink/dishwasher have knobs. I used a plastic template for installation, though the template didn’t have spots for the 6” handles so had to measure and level. I put painter’s tape on the door first and marked that.

The other project I did was staining the stair handrail. I did one coat and that’s it because you are supposed to wait 6 hours between coats. I started at the top of the stairs. I hope it dries ok, but this was hard. I don’t have a ladder tall enough to get to the outside of the rail so I was staining blind over the top of the rail to the outside. Since there isn’t a straight line where the pickets are, they were hard to tape and I know I got stain on the pickets. I’ll have to fix all that after moving in. The bottom rail looks a lot better because I could use a ladder to get to it. This reminded me how much I hate painting. I should have paid them to do this. The posts will be painted white instead of stained.

One of my biggest WANTs for my dream home was a 5 piece master bath and I got it. My tub is in and I LOVE it. Can’t wait to relax in there!

I had planned to put cabinet handles in the kitchen this last weekend, but after putting them up against the cabinets, I didn’t like them. They look so small. So, I’m sending those back and have ordered new ones. I haven’t purchased handles for the bathrooms yet.

I just taped them on there to look first before drilling any holes. They actually look ok in this picture, but in person, they looked too small to me.

My project list for the house is already growing. I’m going to try to upgrade the bottom stair post before the painters are back for the final paint job and stain the stair rail. Other projects are:

• Build a barn door for the pantry. I want one with a chalkboard on the top half and an ‘X’ on the bottom
• Pedestals for the washer and dryer – with drawers
• Install closet organizers
• Build shelving for the pantry — there is wire shelving in there now, but I will get some custom shelves in there
• Custom shelving in the entry closet – one of the rentals had a cool shoe rack idea so I’m gonna copy that.
• Finish the back deck/porch
• Build steps for the shed
• Build the dog wash station in the garage.
• Build a workbench in the garage
• Decide whether to build or buy our beds. Platform beds are pretty easy and cheap to build, but I might wait to save up for a new, fancy bed.

Left on the house is:

• HVAC
• Appliances
• Final Electrical
• Walk Through
• Punch List (which will include final touch-up painting)

I updated the kitchen backsplash grout color to a lighter color (Silverado) so the tiles are more defined and it’s not a solid grey block. I LOVE how this turned out and it was an easy fix. Just used a toothbrush to update the grout color. Tip: Don’t wait the recommended 30 min before wiping the tile off. That took a lot of muscle to get the excess off the tile. When I waited about 10-15 min, it was a LOT easier to remove and the color stayed on the grout.