Beachin It!!!

Snakes on a plane...this has nothing to do with the Tate Residence but in honor of our flight into to BTR I thought I'd give it a shout out. 

Here are some progress pictures of the Mudroom Powder Room, the front and side entry doors installed, window seat framing, master bath shower, bonus room...

While the Tate's are in FL for a week in the sun, beachin it...the house will still be speeding along. Plans for week of 6/23 include, but are not necessarily limited to: completion of plumbing and electrical rough ins, inspection by Township of these rough ins, upon approval insulation of walls and ceilings, and installation of drywall by the end of the week.  We are reviewing the final lighting fixture selections which Jennifer has worked so diligently to pull together. We will be making the final selections on the wood trim throughout the house. 

Tate Residence Update- big things happening

Rain rain go away come back...when our house is finished. The Tate Residence is moving; not a fast as we would like, but making progress daily. The roof is on and all windows and exterior doors (less front entry) are in. HVAC, plumbing, and electrical rough ins are well underway. For those that don't know what "rough in" means; rough in is the stage of the project where the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning), Plumbing, and Electrical distribution systems (i.e. Ductwork, Sanitary Sewer Piping, Vent Piping, Domestic Water Piping, Electrical Wiring) are installed into the walls, ceilings, attic and basement spaces - all the stuff you don't necessary see but need to live comfortably in your house. The Tyvek (Waterproofing) and Exterior Siding started yesterday with a quickness - should only take this new Amish crew a few days to wrap it. Preparation of the site for the site utilities (electrical, gas, and sanitary sewer service), driveway, and storm water rain garden will start next week. Good news: the Township has received verbal approval from the DEP to extend public sewer to our property. This was great news - we will no longer have to deal with the potential headache (cost) of a septic system.
Last week Jennifer had the pleasure (insert sarcasm) of walking the entire house and confirming the location of 50 light fixtures and the 100's of electrical devices (outlet, lights switches, etc). I'll let her elaborate on that below in addition to all the final selections on appliances and custom cabinetry...but first here are some progress pics.

So as Andy mentioned we have made some huge progress over the past few weeks.  All of our plumbing selections have been finalized, see pics below for some of the highlights!

This gorgeous faucet will be going in all of the bathrooms, master bath, jack and jill, princess, powder room 1 and powder room 2.  

Farmhouse apron front sink as shown above was picked for our kitchen!

We have also walked through the house with the electrician and confirmed where each light fixture would go and where every light switch and outlet would be.  It was a long meeting but I'm happy we were able to finalize it all.  Now I just need to pick out 49 light fixtures, ah!! Below are some of the fixtures we are considering, the most important ones being the center hall foyer chandelier and the kitchen island lighting...

Foyer chandelier option..lanterns seem very colonial to me

lanterns for over the island if we decide to go with this theme...

this one is really sparkly and pretty, would be a great statement piece for the foyer chandelier

I am also LOVING drum shades,  I cant get enough.  I have a feeling picking 49 light fixtures is going to get very old very fast, but for now I am having fun!!!

Also for those of you that have Instagram follow us @tateoftheunion (you can click the little camera on the top right hand corner of the blog and it will take you to our insta account) I will be adding daily progress pics and other fun tidbits!! There is so much happening so quickly, I can't document it all on the blog!!! Partly because I am horrible at getting around to posting.  Using a computer is so 2008.

Tate Residence Is Topped Out!!!

Lots has happened at the Tate residence over the past 2 weeks.  Last post we had the first floor framed up, now we are "topped" out as Andy calls it.  Basically the interior and exterior framing are complete as well as the roof!! It actually looks like a house now, this transition has been very exciting, instead of Andy telling me he's going to the "lot" he now says he's going to the "house".  Hooray for progress. Below are some progress pictures... 

view from the back of the house

view from the backyard

Now for the most recent pictures, Andy took these yesterday (5/20).

We had to finalize our exterior selections also, we picked Certainteed Landmark Colonial Slate for the roof (light gray shingles), and Colonial White siding...do you sense a trend here??? We also finalized our stone selection, we are using the exact same stone as the house below (picture was taken this winter).  We LOVE this stone, it's a blend of all local stones so it feels very authentic.  This is one of my favorite aspects of the house so far.  The stone along with our vertical board and batten siding for the garage really gives the farmhouse feel we are going for.

White vertical board and batten siding, similar to what we will have. Over the next few weeks the exterior of the house will really take shape, the roof shingles, stone exterior and siding will all be put on soon. I can't wait to see all of our selections actually put together!!! Stay tuned.

Cloudy with a Chance of Amish

We have been waiting for dry weather and appears that this week we finally got our wish with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning/afternoon having little to no chance of rain.  Thursday and Friday look to be about 50/50 chance but I'll take what I can get.  The equipment shunkin' in the mud onsite can finally be resurrected and put back to work.

The Amish Mafia is still throwing up walls when able.  All first floor perimeter and interior walls, garage walls, and balloon framing is complete.  I know what you're thinking... and no were are not framing walls out of balloons.   Balloon framing is actually a method of wood framing were the vertical members (studs) are continuous the full height of the building, from the first floor plate to the second floor roof rafters (example is family room interior and main foyer rear wall).

The second floor joists (TJIs) arrived today and are about 75% installed with subfloor/decking down. The pre-engineered roof trusses are scheduled to arrive on Friday.  The truck crane will setup and swing the 32' + long trusses into place early next week.  That's always a fun sight to see.  We should be "dried in" within the next 2-3 weeks.  For those of you that are not familiar with the term, dried in refers to the stage of construction where the building is weather tight and mostly protected from the elements.  In this case this would mean that the windows, Tyvek Building paper, and roofing is installed and building is watertight.

Also, if anyone is interested...I am getting a skid-steer (Bobcat) with bucket grapple and 12" wood chipper shredder on Saturday to clear up all the trees and brush I've downed over the last several weekends.   Bring your gloves and work boots.  I'll bring the beer and chicken wings.   Andy  

Front Elevation

Right Elevation

Left Elevation

Rear Elevation

   

Master suite updates- Dressing room or sitting room?

Last Thursday the first floor perimeter was framed, the Amish did all this in one day!  

Here is Andy standing where the kitchen sink will be. So now that we have something that actually resembles a house, it has started to sink in that this is really happening and one day soon we will be moving in!!!! I do tons of research on houzz looking at photos of new construction, reading articles from designers etc.  I always love seeing dressing rooms, like the ones pictured below.

Our plans originally had a master suite with a sitting room, two walk in closets and then his and her bathroom vanities.  I really don't see myself using a sitting room, if I'm in my bedroom and I want to relax I am going to get in bed and watch netflix.  Not sit in my sitting room.  I asked Andy if it was possible to turn the sitting room into my dressing room.  He was able to redraw the layout and made some slight adjustments so that I not only get to keep my walk in closet (yay) but I will also have my own dressing room.  I must say I am extremely happy about this and I think it will get much more use than the previously planned sitting room!!!

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