River House Diary

Yesterday our the shutters for the two double windows on either side of the front porch were installed. We chose Bahama, or hurricane, shutters for light control and privacy. They were fabricated by Atlantic Breeze in Morehead City. We choose to have them powder coated in Azure to match the stair and screen porch railings. Close up of the storm shutter on the front bedroom window; personal collection Front facade of our house with storm shutters; courtesy Pete Dagutis

The paint color for the Den built-ins exceeded our expectations. Simply goregous. Den built-in cabinets; personal collection

We have several “specialty” doors throughout River House. There are glass pocket doors between the foyer and the den and pocket doors in the guest bath and between the master closet and laundry room.  The pantry door and the one between our closet and bathroom are bi-directional swing doors. The pantry door will also have glass in the top panel. We decided to do that because so much natural light comes through the pantry window. We got our first look at the glass pocket doors to the den yesterday. (The protective coating on the glass will eventually be removed.) It was an unseasonably cold day and the trim carpenters had all the doors closed and were running a space heater. Glass pocket doors between foyer and den; personal collection

Yesterday, eagle-eye Pete spotted a mistake with the doors from our bedroom to the master bath. They opened into the bedroom instead of into the bath. Doors between master bedroom and bath opening in the wrong direction; personal collection We decided to check all the doors that have been hung against our house plans and found another issue in the master bath. Based on where the hinges are installed, the door to the toilet closet will open out into the bathroom instead of into the toilet closet. Getting ready to hang this door so it opens in the wrong direction; personal collection I told our project manager about these two issues and was told they would be easy to fix. I wish my door mistake had been so easy!

The weakest part of the River House floor plan are the guest bedrooms. They are small, though that is mitigated somewhat by good-sized walk-in closets. But in neither bedroom is there the perfect place for the bed. So we made compromises. In the front guest room (Bedroom 2) the headboard of the bed will be in front of a window. In the back guest room (Bedroom 3) the headboard will be on the same wall as the entry door. I'm a big believer in having a nightstand on either side of a bed sized to sleep two people. They can be small but everyone will want to place something -- a book, a glass, a cell phone, jewelry, etc. -- on the nightstand. And that's something I overlooked when working on the floor plan modifications with our architect. One of the nightstands in Bedroom 3 will block the door to the walk-in closet. Why I didn't notice this in August when the electrical rough-ins weren't yet complete, I'll never know. Instead, I noticed it during our last trip when ...

Our project manager mentioned that our mahogany front doors would need to be stained soon in order to maintain the warranty. I selected Minwax 273-Espresso. This is the darkest stain we will be using in the house and will match the kitchen island and the shelves in the great room built-in cabinets. Our front doors stained in Minwax 273-Espresso; courtesy of Austin Bayliss

My sister-in-law stopped by our house yesterday and took many photos. Thank you, thank you! Pete and I pored over them, comparing them to the floor plan and I realized I'd made a few window mistakes. The first one is in our office upstairs. I thought we would put our "T" shaped desk under the window so Pete could view the river while he is working. But I didn't tell our architect that and the window is too long to put a desk under it. Windows in the Bonus Room (aka Office); courtesy of Dawn Jennings The next photo is of our pantry. I love the size! There will be a sink under the window so that I can wash dirty dishes in the pantry without have them cluttering up the main public spaces in the house. I wish now I would have made the window a double one. On the plus side, more wall space equals more shelves for storage. Pantry; courtesy of Dawn Jennings This is Bedroom 3 or the back bedroom. It has a sliding glass door to the screen porch and looks out to...

Thanks to my sister-in-law, we know we have windows and doors now. Thank you, Dawn! Our house as of 2 August; courtesy of Dawn Jennings

We still haven't resolved our first door dilemma  and we're on to the second one. Our first floor system passed inspection; framing has started; and we needed to decide on the height of the interior doors. The original house plan specified 10-foot ceilings on the first floor with 8-foot tall doors throughout. When we moved the Bonus Room -- the room originally over the garage -- to the back of the house over the Master Bedroom, the ceiling height in that wing of the house was reduced to 9 feet. Did we still want 8-foot doors or did we want to go with standard 6'8" doors? Since the crown molding comes down the wall 4 inches from the ceiling and the door casing trim is 3-1/2 inches wide, that would leave only 4-1/2 inches of drywall showing between the door and ceiling if we stayed with 8-foot doors. So we elected to use standard size doors in the Master Bedroom/Garage wing of the house. This is ... wait for it ... a cost savings! My very bad drawing for Pete abo...

Zuniga Interiors recommended any lever door handle with a rectangular backplate, but Kwikset apparently doesn't do rectangles. We went with the Montreal square backplate levers. I much prefer knobs but we are trying to incorporate universal design elements where we can for aging in place. Montreal Square door lever; courtesy of Kwikset

We have five exterior double doors in the house -- the front entry doors, doors to the workshop area of the garage, two pairs of French doors in the Great Room and a slider in Bedroom 3.  When you have double doors, you have to decide which door of the pair will be active, or movable, by default. We are following the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) theory of decision making for this one. We're following what our builder and Pella representative recommend. Red stars indicate which door will be active; courtesy of Austin Bayliss

Our house plan specifies twelve 2870 windows and three 3070 windows. This is secret code to the average homeowner, but can be cracked using this decryption device . 2870 = 32" x 84" 3070 = 40" x 84" Seven-foot tall windows! That's big. And it turns out Pella doesn't make them. Well they do, but the horizontal thingie, or sash, would not be centered top to bottom. Who would want that? Not us. Single hung 2-over-2 window with even sash; courtesy of the London Sash Company So we are going with shorter windows, which will be 6-feet tall. We don't think it will affect the view of the river at all.

I'm dithering over doors. Two-panel raised panel (left), three-panel flat panel (middle), two-panel flat panel (right); courtesy of Mountaintop Enterprises The two-panel raised panel door (left) is what our builder used when pricing our house. Other doors are called Shaker style panels or slab panel doors. Which do you prefer two panels or three? And, oh yes, they are more expensive than the standard door.

Our house plan originally specified a side-loading garage. However because our lot is narrow, one of the first modifications we made to the plan was to move the garage doors to the front of the house. Front loading garage; courtesy of Mountain Standard Homes, Inc. Our builder recommended the 194 Series Thermacore garage doors by Overhead Door Co. We've chosen the standard door design in white with the Stockbridge 2 windows.

Our front entry doors will be wood with a dark stain. In "door talk" they are 3/4 lite with one raised panel and a 2 over 2 grille pattern in the glass portion of the door. Entry doors; courtesy of Home Depot

Our builder recommended using Encompass by Pella, the most affordable vinyl windows in the Pella line. We chose single-hung windows in white with a flat 5/8" grille between the glass. The grille pattern will be 2 over 2. 2 over 2 is the Custom grille pattern. The panes are equally divided; courtesy Pella