Change of plans- how many bathrooms do two people need?

Hi There, Jennifer here with a quick update on the Tate Residence construction.  Framing was supposed to happen today but it is currently pouring rain, we are going to get 4 inches!!!! Needless to say the framing has been rescheduled for next week.  It seems like we can't catch a break with the weather, the Farmers Almanac says this summer is going to be crazy wet and crazy hot.  I refuse to complain about the weather since it is what it is, but here's to hoping for a dry summer!!! Now that the framing is imminent and plumbing roughing is also happening soon we need to be 100% set on our floor plan.  Our current floor plan has our powder room on the left side of the house by the study.   

   My sister Faith from day one said she didn't like the placement of the powder room as she thought it was too far from the kitchen and family room.  It would be annoying for potty training kids.  I obviously don't think like a mom since we have no kids yet but she is a mother of (almost) 4 children so she knows what she is talking about.  Andy asked my mom what she thought (mother of 5!) and she said we should put a powder room in the mudroom by the backstairs and side entrance since that is where the heavy traffic would be.  Our mud room or "drop zone" as some architects call it is fairly large at 10 x 24 feet so we do have some wiggle room to play with.  Below is the mudroom without the powder room.

Andy redrew the mudroom to scale and added a powder room in the mud room by removing the closet and moving the pantry.  See Andy's rough drawing below. 

The total cost of adding this extra powder room will be around $1,600 which is fine.  However by adding this second powder room I feel like the other powder room loses its value all together.  Andy said the original powder room on the other side of the house will be the "formal" powder room.  Since I really don't think we will have such formal affairs I want to reuse the second powder room.  My idea, which Andy is not sold on is to connect the powder room to the study and add a shower/tub so we will have a potential 5th bedroom or small first floor master with its own private bathroom.  The only changes we would have to make would be to add a tub/shower since the toilet and sink are already in the plans.  I think this well help for resale since 1) It adds another full bathroom 2) it adds another bedroom 3) We could always use the sitting room in the master as a "study" so we don't really lose that space 4) First floor master options are very valuable for buyers who are older, as they want a house they can grow old in, having a bedroom/bathroom on the first floor would mean they can move downstairs when the stairs become too much, my parents who are still very young are looking for homes with first floor masters so they will have this option in 30 years instead of going to the old folks home :) 
So let us know what you think, I need help convincing Andy!!!

On Deck!

Well...the Tate Residence is coming out of the ground quickly.  On Wednesday of last week we were able to pour the basement concrete walls.   The wall formwork was removed on Thursday and waterproofing on the walls was applied on Friday.  The structural steel columns and beams, laminated wood beams, first floor joists and plywood decking (subfloor) were delivered on Wednesday morning.  The framers were onsite Thursday and they completed the first floor joist and structural steel.  Friday they finished putting down the decking on the first floor.  They were wrapping up at 10:30 am when I stopped by.  These Amish guys are very efficient and hard workers.  They do use nail gun and electric saws...if you were curious. The site contractor was Saturday onsite to backfill and rough grade around the house.  The first floor wall framing lumber is scheduled to show up on Monday with the Framers coming back on Tuesday.  Should be vertical early next week!

Progress photos below.

I'll keep ya'll posted!

Andy

Concrete Truck Loading the Hopper of the Concrete Pump Truck

Pouring the garage walls

Front elevation

Front of the garage

Video of the walls being poured

Rear right corner of house at the Family/Morning Room

From the back looking at the pump setup

Front Elevation

Front Elevation

Rear Elevation

Main House

Lumber has arrived

Steel beams and columns

Walking in the Front Foyer, the opening is the basement stair...

In the Study looking at the Morning Room and Family Room

In the Family Room looking at the Morning Room and Kitchen

Fair Weather

I'm head out to CT this week for 3 days so...the house will need to build itself for a few days.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the basement wall forms are scheduled to start today, Monday, with a concrete pour scheduled for Tuesday (weather permitting).  Current weather forecast for Tuesday is 80% chance of rain but we are optimistic in spite.

I will try not to rain on Jennifer's parade (no pun intended) but she will be writing about the exterior veneer/finish selection process. As is evident in our architectural plans, the front elevation will be clad in a real stone veneer.  They actually quarry the stone from the mountain X miles North of us and slice the stone into a 2" thick veneer that can be installed on the wall (once the wall is waterproofed) over metal lath similar to a conventional stucco system. The other elevations will be a combination of stucco and beaded board/board and batten vinyl siding. We also plan to have a large crown/dental molding detail at the front elevation to really give it that farm house character.

The windows and sliding doors have been ordered for a few weeks now and are scheduled to arrive in time for immediate placement in the rough openings.  They are PlyGem Vinyl Single Hung (only bottom window sash is operable) windows.  We priced Anderson and PlyGem in Aluminum Clad, Vinyl Clad Wood, Single Hung and as Double Hung (top and bottom sash are operable). We decide not to spend $35,000 plus on windows and go with an economical product with a solid manufacturer warranty.  We will spend the money saved were we can actually see and enjoy it (Jennifers paneled fridge perhaps).


As for the roof, we are going with Certainteed Asphalt Shingle roof, TBDJ (To Be Determined by Jen).

Lumber package has been priced, accepted, and released. The first floor joist, floor decking, and wall framing is scheduled to deliver next week (second floor package to follow 3 days after).  Shelly's Building Products will be providing all the lumber, which includes the pre-engineered roof truss package.  Engineered shop drawings were reviewed and approved, they are currently in production.   Andy.

Building a Foundation

Dear Diary...oh wait, wrong place for that.

The Tate Residence is moving along nicely despite adverse weather conditions and difficulty scheduling subcontractors.  Since the Winter was so harsh and long...there was little to no work able to take place. Typically, during the Winter, construction work is able to be done intermittently with marginal progress but not this year.  Therefore, the backlog of work from construction projects delayed by the Winter is effecting our schedule (in addition to the rain now).

That being said...Monday they finalized the excavation of the basement and brought in additional stone for the driveway in an effort to allow concrete trucks to come on to the site and not sink to the axles. The  "fat clay" soils we have on site turns to a slick muck and "pumps" under foot track. A typical loaded concrete truck weighs about 70,000 lbs. (35 Tons). So...we decided to get a concrete pump truck in to pump the concrete. Thursday morning the concrete crew was on site laying out and placing the Form-A-Drain stay forms. The site contractor worked with them to install the stone base. The grade beams turned out nicely.  They will be forming the basement walls on Monday with plans to pour on Tuesday (weather permitting).  We will wreak the forms on Wednesday, waterproof the walls (interior and exterior) on Thursday, backfill on Friday, and be ready for framing Monday, 4/21.  The Tate Residence will be vertical very soon!
Andy  

Depressed Footing For Walk Out Basement Door.

Left Elevation - Living Room, Study - 1st Floor and Master Suite, Spa - 2nd Floor.

From the Front Looking at Kitchen, Morning Room, and Family Room.

Rear Right Corner - Looking at Family Room, Morning Room, and Kitchen.

One of the many large boulders removed from the basement during excavation.

Front Entry and Porch.

Concrete pump truck headed out.

Grab Life By the Horns!

Construction Update - My Turn

Sorry babe...it's my turn to write a little something!  Unfortunately, for most of you my posts will not be has "fun" as my wife's.  As per her opinion, no one wants to read a construction blog. Well, I beg to differ, I do.

Any who...it's been a long road to get us where we are today (actually on Thursday), breaking ground on this our first custom built home.  I won't waste your time retelling you the story of our journey that Jennifer has so eloquently detailed in her previously posts, but I will say that we would not be here today if it's wasn't for our wonderful family and friends that have supported every step of the way and helped guide us through some of the biggest life changing decisions that a couple can ever possibly imagine having to make (i.e. moving across the country, leaving family, friends, church, job, selling a house, house hunting, starting a new job, being laid off (Jen), job searching, interviewing, starting a new job, searching for land, buying land, leaving another job and starting another new job (Andy), developing plans, and now building a house) all in one year!  Sorry if that was long winded but it's a true story.

As Jennifer mentioned before we have been extremely blessed to have been able to develop a project team of very talented people. For starters, Corbett Hall of CD Hall Builders is a rockstar. He is an experienced Mainline custom home builder with an eye for detail (similar to mine if I might add) with a 20 plus year track record of building quality homes and satisfied clients. He's used to building million plus custom homes so ours is a piece of cake. To think our relationship started with just a google search "residential builders mainline pa". Definitely a God thing.  Corbett will be providing site supervision services for a fee while I am actually the General Contractor.  Corbett gave us his list of his preferred subcontractors that he has worked with for years. We developed a detailed cost estimate and know (for the most part) what every piece of the house is going to cost. Corbett also introduced us to Tom Weston at McIntyre Capron & Associates an award winning and very well known Mainline PA Architect. Once we settled on our land in December 2013, we worked with Tom to finalize our selection of the floor plan we wanted with our personal modifications (redlines).  Tom took our marked up floor plan and developed the actual Architectural and Structural plans for permitting. We also hired a Site Civil Engineer to do a survey of the property, advise on placement of house, develop grading plans, provide overall site plans showing septic sewer system, water well, house placement, driveway, and design the storm water management system (which is a biggie here - they required that you reduce post construction storm water runoff by 50%, which amounts to about $10,000 of extra work for us).  We went in to the Township (not city, not parish) for permits towards the end of February and had the permits to start work late March.

The weather has been rainy off and on here but were able to get the silt and construction fencing up, a portion of the stone road/tire scrubber installed.  We also started digging for the basement concrete foundations, garage and porch concrete footings. The basement excavation was left a few feet high to prevent it from become a sloppy mud hole. Hopefully Monday it is drier and we can finish digging and start install the stone base and forming footings for the basement, garage and porches.

I will keep y'all posted.

Andy
   
 

 Dropping off the excavator!

Good day for grubbing!

First bucket in the ground!

Digging the basement

Our four legged neighbors checking out the basement

Sheep in a hole!

  

"Tate Residence"- our house plan

I never thought I would ever build a house.  Especially not at the age of 27!  It is a complete dream come true and I feel so blessed, but there is one down fall- the options are endless!  It is so much easier to decide on things you don't like when you are searching for an existing home, but when you have no restrictions (besides budget), creating a clear vision is a struggle.   There are many styles of homes; on the West Coast you are more apt to find Craftsmans, Bungalows and Mid Century modern homes.  The Mid West has Puebelo and Santa Fe style homes.  In the South where we used to live the homes have a French Country style to them (and no basements!).   Here is our home in Louisiana.  I will do a separate blog post of the before and afters, we only lived in this house one year and one day, but we loved every second of fixing it up!!!!

Now back to our East Coast house plan, we worked with a well known Philadelphia Mainline Architect firm McIntyre Capron.   We told our Architect what we were looking for; number of bedrooms, bathrooms, layout etc.  I really wanted 11 foot ceilings throughout which is what we had in Louisiana.  Since this was going to be a two story home I had to give up my high ceilings.  Instead we compromised on 9 foot ceilings throughout and 12 foot ceilings in the family room and morning room.  At least I will have somewhere to put my Christmas tree!  Another thing both Andy and I loved was a Center Hall layout.  We spent our Sundays going to open houses to figure out what layout we liked best (Dr. Andy and his young trophy wife were our open house persona's, ha) and every time we walked through the front door of a Center Hall it would take our breath away, yes I am dramatic. 

Based on our list of wants and must have's our Architect gave us 10 or so house plans to look at.  We picked the house plan that would allow for the 12 foot ceilings, had a center hall stair and had the best kitchen! We made a few tweaks here and there by bumping out the family room and mudroom but in the end I think it will be perfect.  It is a little scary to build a house off of what you only see on paper!  

Speaking of a house on paper- here is the first floor layout

Unlike my husband, these drawings still look completely foreign to me, even after months of looking at them.  Here is a breakdown of the first floor, described as if you were walking through the front door;

Center hall foyer, stairs are directly in front of you, the formal living room and study is on the left, and the dining room on the right, walk through the foyer, there will be double doors leading to the out door space and a powder room on the left along with another entrance into the study, an entrance into the kitchen is on the right.  The kitchen has a 10x4 island, I am crazy excited about this, it might be my favorite part of the house!  The kitchen is open to the morning room and family room.  There is a side entrance along with a 3 car garage which is connected to a mud room and has a back stair up to the second floor.  

Second floor layout...

Andy wanted his mother who will be visiting from Louisiana to have her own room and bathroom so there is a princess suite.  We also have 2 other bedrooms that have a Jack and Jill bathroom.  The master bedroom has a sitting room, his and her closets and his and her vanities.  Although I am contemplating making that a hers and hers vanity with Andy getting just one sink :).  The second floor also has a laundry room.  No more carrying laundry up 3 flights of steps! 

In total our house will be 4,133 square feet, 4 bedrooms 3.5 bathrooms, we might add another powder room but that hasn't been officially decided yet.

Once we had the layout finalized, the next step was to pick the elevation (what the exterior will look like).  I wanted to stay true to the geographical location we are in.  There are lovely old historic farm houses and colonial homes which inspired our decision to go with a stone Georgian elevation.  We really feel this is a classic and timeless design for the Philadelphia suburbs.

Every time I see "Tate Residence" it cracks me up, it seems so legit and professional.  In reality we are just two crazy kids, living with my parents trying to make a dream come true.