Spectacular!

It's early  morning but wanted to share pic of porch. The dream is coming true. Ciao until later.

Our Porch - A Southern Tradition

One of the things agreed upon for this remodel was that Lisa would get her porch. It was non-negotiable. There was to be a screened porch - period. And friends, that dream is coming true. Above is an artist's rendition of what our porch will look like. This artist has captured what we imagined the porch would be. All great artists are recognized by one name - there was Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Madonna...and now the artist who drew our porch is simply known as Adam.

A porch is a great southern tradition - it's where we entertain, eat, read and watch nature. This porch will be no diffent...We look forward to the days when we can sit on our porch during a summer storm and get a whiff of "newly fallen rain" or the perfumed scent of honeysuckle...we imagine sitting on our porch under the fan on a summer day, the sun beating down so hot you cannot bear to go outside for fear you'll melt away and all the while we are on our porch drinking an ice cold beverage...Ahhh...We look forward to those days...We're getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Long live the porch!

Tin Roof Installation

What is it? why, that's our metal roof. The roofers laid out the pieces, transferring the roof measurements and trimming it before installing it into place. A look at the next few pics and you'll see this beautiful roof. We're hoping it will be finished next week.


The final piece to the window trim is complete and looks fantastic - a perfect match to the orginal trim. Georgeous.

Insulation in the porch ceiling you ask - well duh, of course Mr. Contractor is very thorough at his craft. And the insulation was installed in one day. Fantastic!

New Rules for Lead Paint

One of the reasons we didn't see Mr. Contractor very much last week was because he was in class learning about how to manage working on older homes that might have lead paint. Some of you may have read in the Gainesville Sun about the new law that went into effect for homes built before 1978. See the article here.

"As of April 22, all contractors working in homes or schools built before lead paint was banned in 1978 must be trained as certified renovators in accordance with the Lead Paint: Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, according to Dawn Harris, a spokeswoman for the Southeast Region."

Contractors who work on pre-1978 homes must be trained, certified and follow the EPA guidelines for mitigating lead poisoning or face fines up to $37,500 per day.

Apparently, there had been an exemption that allowed homeowners to opt out if they certified there were no children or pregnant women in the home. Some public interest groups fought this and hence, the loophole has been removed.

Our take - the rule is probably a good one - not only for the homeowners safety but for the construction workers' health.

TGIF and other things...

Just as soon as we were lamenting not seeing Mr. Contractor, we see him on Friday! Maybe his ears were burning? Anyway, he assigned us homework: find any old paint cans we might have for the house color and decide on the floor wood - pine, oak or maple. Mr. Contractor also indicated that the metal for the roof is scheduled to arrive next week. We can't wait to get that roof on!


We're pulling the old floor up from the bedroom and the plan is to reuse it so the floor for the foyer and living room is the same. Mr. Contractor and Doug said the wood still looked good and we'll be able to reuse it as planned. We were inspecting the boards and saw that it was milled by the Argent Lumber Company from Hardeeville, SC. Of course, we had to google it and found the following excerpt from the Hardeeville Chamber of Commerce:

The Argent Lumber Company, based in Hardeeville, arose in the early 20th century. H.W. Philips of Suffolk, Virginia, secured logging rights to the timber on the Okeetee Club, and contracted with the Garysburg Manufacturing Company of Garysburg, North Carolina, to mill the lumber in 1916. The Argent Lumber Company had a planing mill, dry kiln, and storage shed along the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Hardeeville. At the same time, Argent created a network of railroads throughout the county to bring the lumber from remote tracts. These railroad lines used narrow-gauge engines, and Argent's Engine Number 7 remains on permanent display at the Hardeeville City Hall. Several Argent mill houses remain in the County. Union-Camp Corporation purchased the Argent properties in the late 1950's.

Doug has been doing a fabulous job with the siding and window trim. He's matching the original trim and once it's painted we're not going to be able to tell the difference. Thank you Doug!


Another week begins tomorrow. Looking forward to more changes. Check back soon.

The Hug

We have not seen the smiling face of Mr. Contractor these past couple of days. Mir thinks it might be related to something she did last week...Mir had a most unusual reaction to a suggestion from Mr. Contractor - she gave him a hug. She apologized for infringing on personal space but the deed was done and so we have not seen much of him. We now are experiencing Contractor withdrawal. Don't get me wrong, the work continues but wethinks he may be avoiding us or at least Mir. Damn her expression of joy! But, what's a happy homeowner to do?


So...Doug's been very busy. It might be hard to see from this picture but the windows are trimmed and more siding is up. Not bad, not bad at all.


Closer and better views.



Lest we forget - the plumber has been here most of the week. What you see will one day be hidden, but for now we can admire the plumber's handy work in the shower.

Under the House

Mir decided to take a gander under the house. She was already under there to place some boards up so the dogs don't have total access under there. Thank goodness she's a little person.

And The Beat Goes On....

More siding on the house. They've stopped short of the windows - we think so they can do the trim first.


The dryer vent is installed - yes, it's the little things that keep us going.


Our door is in! We love it!

We revisited some of our earlier postings and were reminded that demolition began Feb 2. So, Mr. Contractor has only been on the job for a little over two months! Hard to believe his progress in such a short period of time! Wow.

Lunchtime Delight

It's lunchtime and I just had to share the progress! Siding is going up. Hooray!

The Doors

Now, this is the door frame that will house the sliding door that leads into the in-suite bathroom. We've not picked the actual door yet, but we have several design ideas. Mr. Contractor suggested a door with a glass insert so as not to hide the very nice bathroom. Yep...he's a visionary...and we absolutely agree with him.

Well, yeah, it's a door in the shower...but, trust me, it will look much better when it's properly hung and swinging open and closed.

This and That

Looks like our doorknob lock is not working real well. Oh well, we plan to replace the door and locks anyway.


An image of our plans. The draftsman who drew them up is great. He's now working on plans for a deck area outside the porch door


The bird boards are in! It's all coming together!


We're getting a panel for the new electrical installation.

Rollin', rollin' like a river...

Busy as Bees

It was like bees buzzing around the hive today! The activity was furious. I've never seen so many trucks parked in the street. What joy!

The temporary wall is down! You might be able to get some sense of how much larger the room is going to be in the above pic. No more sliding sideways between the bed and the wall.


One of the canned lights on the porch. Yes, the electricians were here today and got a lot of wiring done. woo hoo!



This is a pic where they've written on the wrap what lies beneath. Message? DO NOT HIT WATER PIPES WHEN DRIVING NAILS! A friend of ours, we'll call her "Cheryl", knows all about this.


Yes, it's all moving nicely along. We're never going to want to leave home after this.

Cheers!