building for our future

I suspect that the words anticipation and anxiety were made to go together. One can easily follow the other, especially on a project like this. In my last post, I spoke about the driveway phase and looking forward to the elevations which are the next deliverable by our architect, Jim Gray.

On the former, the trees that had to be removed are down (with one stump still firmly anchored to the ground and in need of the “large saw” to return and change that intimate relationship with the earth)...pictures are posted in the pictorial section of this BLOG. I had the paperwork for the driveway permit in the mail to PENNDOT the very next morning and hope to have the permit in-hand soon so we can schedule the excavation contractor we have elected to use and get things underway. Even if we were not planning on the addition, the new driveway will greatly enhance the entry/exit to our property for both safety and view...we really look forward to having it build as soon as practical.

On the latter, we’re hoping to be able to meet with Jim soon to review new drawings. He also provided general information on one of the local builders that we will be considering for the work and we know they delivered a preliminary quote yesterday. Anticipation. Anxiety. Absolutely.

Oh, and the play gym people are finally coming out tomorrow for the site survey and are installing next week. The area has been ready for a couple weeks now. I really do hope that the timing will be such that the girls don’t see the installers and just come home from school that day to a “grand” surprise...and they better like it ’cause it was not a trivial investment!

Here’s a view of where that new “toy” is going to go...

Time moves slowly when you have a lot of excitment about a project. The past month or two has been relatively dry with little rain...a good situation for any kind of construction plans. We had our tree service scheduled for Friday to take down the trees along the road on the south-eastern corner of the property in support of our new driveway plans. PENNDOT is requiring that work be completed before they will issue the necessary permit so our excavation partner can schedule in to “move some dirt” and lay down some stone. We actually planned on this being done the week before, but the necessary crane was out for service. Well, Thursday night it rained. Hard...’about an inch and a half’s worth. Said crane weighs “a lot” and therefore, we had to reschedule the tree work for next week. Fortunately, I’m not traveling and that will still work out. Unfortuantely, it may rain more on Sunday and Monday. Sheesh!

Our architect/designer met with us on Friday morning to confirm the proposed floor plans with a few changes implemented that we requested in our last meeting. He also presented some sectional drawings that illustrated what he thought the roof line may look like...slightly different than my 8 April renderings (which will be re-done when I can get to them)...but very nice. A project like this always has some asthetic challenges, such as making a new structure fit well visually with the existing home and this one is no exception. The addtion cannot appear to overwhelm the building already in place and things like roof height, orientation and pitch work into that. The good news is that Jim Gray came up with what appears to be a winner the first time up in this respect. And it also may allow us to do some interesting things, like have a small loft in the MBR to retreat to with a good book, et al.

We also talked a little about certain material elements. One of our goals for this new addition is maximum energy efficiency. Although the current preliminary plans show 2x6 based exterior walls, we requested a change 2x4 walls with high-efficiency, closed cell spray-foam insulation. The reduction in lumber costs for both the walls and even roof rafters due to the increased structural strength of the spray-foam just about balances out the higher cost of this form of insulation. The windows will be Pella Architect series to match the units we’ve already installed in our home or equivalents...the exterior colors must match. Roofing will likely be standing-seam metal in some appropriate color. Siding will be a high-quality cementious product finished or pre-finished with a long-lasting paint. In other words, we talked enough about certain things that Jim can get a rough estimate from one of the builders we will be considering as our contractor. I’m sure we will want to be sitting down when that number comes in!

The next steps will be getting the driveway underway as well as reviewing elevations when they are finished. We will hopefully have a general cost estimate at or shortly after that time.
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As an aside, we recently ordered a play gym set for the girls...I would have loved to build one, but the time just isn’t available. I did get the area prepped for where it will go, including stripping off the grass and putting down landscape cloth. Once our tree-cutters do their thing as mentioned above, the area will be stocked with a lot of wood chips and be ready for installation of the play gym setup later in the month which will look something like this...