White Rock

Updates

18 Aug 2015:   The pool is in and working and almost everything is complete. Latest photos hit the high spots. New furniture will be delivered on Monday 24 August, with HHE later that week. We're prepared to close out the construction loan and are awaiting the certificate of occupancy.

21 July 2015:   The pool structure is complete, awaiting the lining. Concrete hog pen slats are going on the dock. Electricians and plumbers are installing electric service and some of the plumbing fixtures. Some of the cabinets are in place and HVAC equipment is on site and ready for wiring. We should have electric service by Thursday of this week and rough grading is scheduled to start this week as well.

4 July 2015:   Archie and his workers and subs are making good progress. Flooring is complete along with almost all of the interior trim, electric service is connected to the house and the septic system is in place. Lots of activity secheduled after the holiday including interior painting, porch and stair railings, concrete, HVAC and completioon of electric and plumbing.

21 June 2015:   Stacks of flooring are everywhere and is already installed in the kitchen, living room and entry hall. CAMA issued the dock permit and construction on the dock and the pool should be started by the end of the month.

10 June 2015:   Archie's finish carpenters have started the interior trim and are making great progress. Many of the interior doors are hung and tile work is underway. The garage doors are installed and the interior of the house can now be secured. We selected interior paint colors and are ready for flooring.

15 May 2015:   First coat of paint (Sherwin Williams Banana Cream) is on the siding and porch floors and ceilings are now in place. Work is underway on front and back stairs.

26 April 2015:   Siding is about 75% complete and roofing is underway! Drywall delivery/hanging is scheduled for next week.

12 April 2015:   By mid-April Archie's team had begun to install siding. We're now poised for electrical and plumbing inspections followed by insulation, drywall and roofing. The front porch and the front and water-side stairs should be going up soon as well. With siding, trim and porch decking now onsite, we now have a gas fireplace, too. We're focused on bath tiles and also hope to make a decision on a dock very shortly. We visited a boat show in Oriental over the weekend, but are in no hurry.

The live oaks lost their leaves and are now greening-up with new growth. With all the scrub cleared away they now receive much more light and nutrients and should thrive. It looks as if we may have to chop back the weeds at some time within the next couple of weeks. Our neighbor is having the adjacent lot cleared as well.

1 April 2015:   The third floor porch has a roof! and we are working through lots of details, some of which require framing or other adjustments or relocating electrical fixtures. For example, because we enlarged a closet to accommodate an HVAC return, we decided to reduce the size of the island from 10 ft to 9 ft. As an important milestone, we signed a contract for kitchen and other cabinets and sited HVAC ODUs and pool equipment on the west side of the house. We are working through the complexities of an insulation strategy for the house.

16-17 March 2015:   After weekend rain storms, fine weather continues and we now have three windows in the kitchen. Window installation proceeded on the 17th and will continue through the rest of the week. We sorted out the vertical placement of the dormer windows and the final configuration of the 3rd FL bath. We met with the roofer and plumber and have another dock estimate as well. With the roof line, the house fits on the lot! This is always a worry and the existing trees are a tremendous asset. In contrast to some of the ephemeral hopes and aspirations which go into discussing the design of a house for a specific lot, we now are beginning to discuss landscaping concepts. With construction well underway, it is easier to see more of the possibilities.

In terms of financing, we seem to be in good shape. The contractor's draw against our construction loan is about 20 per cent of the construction loan. This month probably will put us at the 30 per cent mark. We've allocated a hefty chunk of savings for upgrades like pool, pier and roof. At this stage it's a bit of a shell game - moving funds to the "nice-to-have" features if they seem to make sense.

27 February 2015:   In spite of unseasonably cold, wet weather, framing on the roofed progressed, albeit more slowly than anyone had hoped. We arrived on site while the local building inspector was there and, as might be expected, all of the work was absolutely code compliant.

We'll probably be making a couple of minor framing changes on the third floor. To open up the options for furniture placement which maximizes the view, we'll probably move the closets in the 3rd bedroom from an interior wall to the south wall. Some minor rethinking of the 3rd FL bath is likely, too. We updated the plans and images on the design page to reflect these changes. This includes an 18' x 36' vinyl pool, alligned perpendicular to the house, about 20 ft south of the porch. Centered on the house, the two live oaks frame the shallow end of the pool. We also included a couple of window changes on the ground floor which have already been framed.

19 February 2015:   The framing crew started the roof this week in spite of bad weather and very cold temperatures. We're continuing to investigate swimming pools and will be starting on the cabinets next week.

1 February 2015:   The movers from Acme Movers and Storage were fabulous and got our much reduced household effects into storage in Morehead City, NC. We reduced our "stuff" by 2/3 - 3/4 and the remaining 11,000 lbs were loaded by early afternoon on 19 January. The next day we donated more items to a local church, cleaned the house professionaly from top to bottom and had remaining detritus hauled to the dump. By late afternoon we turned over the keys to the new owner and turned the final page of that chapter in our lives.

After relocating to Beaufort, NC we spent about 10 days in temporary quarters while we looked for a long term rental. We located a cottage which meets our needs and since it is right in downtown Beaufort, will give us an opportunity to learn the area and hopefully make a few friends. If anything, the pace of construction actually increased despite cold rainy weather.

16 January 2015:   Framing continues and the subfloor on the main floor is now in place. This has been a busy week for us since we also closed on the sale of our home of almost 35 years. We opted not to use an agent and, with only a "For sale by owner" listing on Zillow, the process was remarkably rapid and pleasantly smooth and uncomplicated. Movers are coming Monday, 19 January to load our household effects for shipment to storage until the new house is finished. We have been very busy packing and selecting items for sale or donation. Habitat for Humanity's ReStore in Leesburg, VA sent a 20 ft box truck to collect tools and furniture. The truck left filled.

7 January 2015:   Framing is underway and the footings for the porch posts are in place. We revised the septic system and reapplied for a permit. This has lots of consequences requiring some design changes as shown in the revisions on the "design" page. We eliminated the fill in front of the house, replaced a block wall with framing and added more ground floor windows and bigger front stairs.

31 December 2014:   Our builder really moved forward during the last two weeks of December. The foundation has been filled and compacted and under-slab plumbing installed and permitted. Pouring the concrete slab was scheduled for Friday, 2 Jan 2015 and went as planned. The crew finished up about 13:00 with pleasant air temperatures in the high 50s.

mid-December 2014:   Activity really accelerated after we finally closed on the construction loan on 10 December. During the week of 15 December, Archie Davis, our builder, put up batten boards defining the footprint of the house and dug and poured the footings. The masons began laying block on Saturday, 20 December and by 23 December, had completed the first four courses of block up to the level of the ground floor slab. Neighbors report that 10 loads of dirt completed the interior fill. Archie also arranged for water and electric service as well. A great Christmas present!

19 November 2014:   The builder submitted a building permit application to the Carteret County Planning and Development Department which was approved, noting that they liked the truss design drawings. Our neighbors have been sending us photos of our lot following site preparation and grading with a bull dozer on Monday and Tuesday. The images are available on the Construction page.

10 November 2014:   We visited the Alberene Soapstone quarry near Charlottesville, VA to see the operation in early November and there are a couple of options. Soapstone from this quarry is available in 100 in X 60 in slabs weighing about 900 lbs or as 48 in X 25.5 in pieces weighing about 175 lbs. After considering the options, with shipping and fabrication, we think the smaller pieces would be less expensive, even though there would be 2 additional seams. They offer a special package called kitchen-in-a-box totaling 51 ft sq which we would have to supplement with another 30 ft sq of material. The kitchen-in-a-box option costs less than $20 per ft sq before shipping and fabrication.

28 October 2014:   We signed a contract with our builder and forwarded a copy to the mortgage lender which will schedule an appraisal of the property and the proposed building construction. Meanwhile, because of commitments next month, the excavation contractor is scheduled to break ground this week. We subsequently learned that this has been delayed as well and are now hoping for mid-November upon completion of the appraisal and closing on the mortgage.

For the last six months we have been accumulating appliances and plumbing fixtures for our new home - bath tubs, vanities, faucets and key kitchen components, so far. We have been haunting local Habitat for Humanity ReStores, some of which have been more productive than others. There are four ReStores within about 30 minutes. We try to avoid impulse buys by having separate lists for each class of item we need with desired specs and performance criteria. This has worked out pretty well so far.

We've met with a highly-recommended, local cabinetmaker who can build all of the kitchen, bath, closet and storage cabinets for us. While in the area, we visited a local stone (granite, quartz and marble) supplier with fabulous foreign suppliers and finally selected an alberene soapstone for our kitchen counters and sapele "butcher block" kitchen counters from the Hardwood Lumber Company for the kitchen island. We already have an 8' by 4' oak butcher block top from the same supplier on the island in our current kitchen and are very happy with the product. We're looking at the options.

Our builder has given us a lead to a local mover who may be able to help us move, filling up un-booked truck space on back-hauls as well as storing everything, perhaps in a POD on the work site. This might work out well for us and the shipping company. The problem here is that we will need stage items to be installed so that we can meet the schedules of both the contractor and his sub-contractors. "Just-in-time-delivery" would help us cut the storage costs. Not a problem really, more of a minor scheduling complexity...

Revised drawings from the contractor are posted on the Design page. We'll share periodic photos of construction progress on the Construction page.

26 September 2014:   We accepted a final design and construction proposal today and contacted our lenders for approval. One has already responded positively. The final amount is a bit higher than the $150/ square foot for the 1st and 2nd floor living space which we originally targeted. However, if the area of the ground floor - two car garage, utility room, workshop and storage - is included we meet the original target. The initial estimate is that the house might take about six months to complete.

mid-September 2014:   Our contractor prepared a proposal by mid July. Because, it was about double our target amount, we revised and redrew the plans. This involved a couple of iterations and fortunately, we were able to use SketchUp revisions instead of having the plans professionally rendered again. We found this process very valuable in helping to align our very costly initial concepts with our budget reality. Our contractor was very patient and helpful throughout the process further reinforcing our confidence in our selection.

In addition to simplifying the design footprint, we lopped off 10 ft. from the length of the house, 4 ft. from the width and eliminated some of the costly, "nice-to-have" but little used items like a front porch, the outdoor fireplace and big chimney chase. For example, we substituted 9 ft. ceilings and 7 ft doors for the taller doors and ceilings originally specified and replaced most of the very costly, very large french exterior doors with less expensive windows. We eliminated the bead board wainscotting, with the understanding that we could always install it later. During this process we concluded that if we used 2 x 6 exterior framing, we could substitute an inch of closed cell polyurethane foam in conjunction with fiberglass batts and still duplicate the energy saving benefits of the SIPs. We substituted wood-framed walls on the ground floor for three of the masonry walls and substituted wood posts for masonry piers.

June 2014:  After a few minor delays, we received copies of the house plans which we submitted to the home owners' association for approval The plans were promptly approved. During our spring visit, we selected a contractor who is very highly regarded in the Beaufort area and began phone and email correspondence. The selection process was more intuitive than the result of any rational evaluation. We submitted financial documentation to the potential lenders we identified during our March trip and were promptly prequalified for the estimated construction cost. Fortunately because we were able to purchase the lot outright we could use the value of the lot itself in lieu of a 20% down payment. If the property tax valuation has any relation to market price, we probably have some additional equity. Property taxes are being re-evaluated this year in North Carolina, and with the rebound in the economy and modest gains in real estate prices, property tax assessments probably will rise in our area.

April 2014:  We took a week at the end of March and visited banks and contractors in the Beaufort, NC area. We're having the plans professionally rendered and hopefully will begin construction in the near future. We met with several of our new neighbors and had all of the brush, weeds and unwanted small trees on the lot mulched. At the same time we had what seemed to be about 40 years worth of trash and debris removed from the site. Photos from the two visits are available in the gallery, below. We also met with a marine contractor about a dock. We'll have to renew our CAMA permit for this, but since the site has already been inspected, this should not be a problem. We thought it was a very successful trip. Although we left home in a blizzard, within a week termperatures were in the 80's in Beaufort.

Since closing on the property we spent the intervening months developing a design. After numerous iterations, we now have something we like. We'll be clearing this with the Home Owner's Association and moving ahead.

October 2013:  By early October 2013, things had moved forward and we closed on 24 October. Another family bought the adjacent lot 20. The adjacent lot 18 on the west side of us, also sold by the end of the year and our new neigbors had begun construction at the time of our most recent trip at the end of March 2014. We submitted a bid which the seller accepted and then we worked through a list of due diligence items - site survey, septic and environmental permits, etc. We tried to identify items which might be costly liabilities and we made our offer contingent on these items. We had six weeks to satisfy ourselves that everything was as it should be.