Good News and Bad News

The no-see-um railings I love so much caused us to flunk the county inspection required to receive our certificate of occupancy. The fabricators were at River House correcting what turned out to be a minor issue due to a wrong measurement. And we received our certificate late yesterday. That sets off a chain of events — bank makes the final payment to our builder, our builder’s risk insurance policy gets converted to a homeowner’s policy. All that activity made Pete very happy. It means we are closer to getting our hands on the keys to the house.

But for me, I got happy seeing so many pretty plants.

Front foundation landscape; personal collection

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Den Built-ins

Image
At the front of the house off the foyer is a room that on the original plans was a formal dining room which was open to the great room. A formal dining area doesn't suit our style of entertaining so we walled the room off, separating it from the great room. We plan to use it as a small den for watching television in the evenings. Along one wall will be built-in cabinets because you can never have enough bookcases and storage space. It will also house Pete's big TV. The cabinet supplier and I went back and forth on the design more than a few times, but this is the end result. Den built-in elevation drawing. The drawers will hold our DVD library; personal collection I'm glad I'm not required to make a living as a draftsman!
Read more

Selecting the House Plan

Image
"Where we love is home -- home that our feet may leave but not our hearts." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Dad was a mechanical engineer by degree who worked at an architecture and engineering firm and then with a manufacturers' representative company, designing commercial heating, air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) systems and selling the equipment. He and Mom were inveterate remodelers of every house in which they lived. (I got those genes.) They designed their last two houses, which they built; and Dad did most of the construction of their house on Dawson's Creek. Some of my fondest memories of Mom are sitting with her at the kitchen table and looking at house plan books. Building a custom home is a project I anticipate eagerly. After I retired in 2015, Pete and I decided it was time to move to New Bern. He was commuting by plane every week to Albany, New York, and figured it didn't matter where home was. So I started looking at house plans in ear
Read more

Selecting an Interior Designer

Image
"All rooms ought to look as if they were lived in, and to have a say, a friendly welcome for the incomer." -- William Morris The Internet disrupted the interior design industry as it did many other industries. No longer should designers be able to charge exorbitant prices for furniture, art and other decorative items that can be purchased online. Now, buying services provide access to private label goods and to-the-trade-only items. Designers who offer e-decorating services have learned to adapt. After trying a few other interior designers with different business models, I've learned I like using e-decorating services. It lets me be more involved and finish a room at my own pace. So I stuck with what works when choosing an interior designer for our river house. We used  Zuniga Interiors '  Interiors To-Go, an electronic decorating service for the master bedroom and sunroom of our house in Oakton, Virginia. Oakton house master bedroom; personal collection
Read more