River House Diary

A few days ago the project manager for our house texted me and wanted to know if we wanted the window in the toilet closet of our master bathroom. It had been left off the doors and windows order and he wanted to be sure we hadn’t eliminated it. I assured him we wanted the window. Building a house from over 700 miles away can be nerve-wracking because you want to be on-site to oversee every detail. It’s great to learn our project manager is so thorough. Missing window from left side elevation drawing; courtesy of Austin Bayliss Missing from floor plan; courtesy of Austin Bayliss

My brother, Ted, stopped our house yesterday and took a couple of photos. Back of the house; courtesy of Ted Jennings Front of the house; courtesy of Ted Jennings Windows and doors will be delivered next week.

Ted braved the temporary stairs to photograph the upstairs. Like yesterday, I've included a plan of the upper level and indicated from where each photo was taken at the end of this post. This photo was taken from A on the plan below. It is looking down river and shows the great room raised ceiling -- it's 11-feet 6-inches tall while the rest of the main level is 10 feet. Also visible is the dormer window over the front door. Attic space above the kitchen and great room; courtesy of Ted Jennings This was taken from B on the plan below, which is in the Bonus Room. It is over the master bedroom instead of the garage to take advantage of the river views. The room we will use as an office: courtesy of Ted Jennings This is taken from C in the plan below, which looks across the floored attic space to the window above the garage doors at the front of the house. Floored attic space over garage; courtesy of Ted Jennings Diagram of the upper level of the house that ...

Our house actually has rooms now, or a least skeletons of rooms. I've included a floor plan at the end of this post that identifies where each photo was taken. This photo was taken from A on the plan below, which is the front of the garage. The door on the left is on the left side of the house and enters into Pete's workshop area. The left most window at the back is in our master bath. Towards the right of the photo is the door into the house from the garage (see the wood ramp). It leads to an entry hall with a closet, stairs to the upper level, a half bath, laundry room, and access to our bedroom and kitchen. From the garage looking toward the back or river side of the house; courtesy of Ted Jennings This photo was taken from B on the plan below, which is the entry hall looking through the kitchen wall to the great room. One of the French doors in the great room is visible on the left as is the slider in the back bedroom (Bedroom 3). The entry to the bedroom hall is...

Our builder didn't send photos last week and we were going through withdrawals wondering what was going on and the status of the construction. My brother, Ted, very generously stopped by and took a lot of photos. I posted these on Facebook today. Front of the house; courtesy of Ted Jennings Back of the house; courtesy of Ted Jennings View of the Neuse River from the Master Bedroom; courtesy of Ted Jennings The other bank of windows in the Master Bedroom looks down river; courtesy of Ted Jennings Eat-in area of the Kitchen. You can see some of the Master Bedroom windows on the left; courtesy of Ted Jennings

I have looked at more photos on Houzz.com of kitchen and bath cabinets than I care to admit. I was looking for some unknown, and it turns out, nonexistent rule on when to use knobs, pulls or bin pulls. I did find this article helpful in confirming my decisions: How to Select Cabinet Knobs and Pulls . Yesterday we got the final quote from the cabinet supplier which included all the hardware. I’ve decided whatever she specified is good enough for me. So we will be using Jeffrey Alexander’s Hayworth collection throughout the house except for the Master Bath and Den. Jeffrey Alexander Hayworth cabinet hardware; personal collection

What is it about a man and his recliner? After we demolished the swamp witch, fieldstone waterfall and goldfish pond in the basement of our first house, we went furniture shopping at La-Z-Boy. Our sales lady was old enough to be Pete’s grandmother and came up to his belt buckle, but she flirted with him shamelessly. She knew her sale depended on finding the right recliner for Pete. And she did. And it was a monstrosity. Any piece of furniture named the Grand Canyon is going to be bad. When we moved into our Oakton house, it took about four years to talk Pete into even looking at different recliners. He finally conceded and we got a less ugly one. He doesn’t like it as well and occasionally complains that his “footies” hang over the foot rest -- something his "girlfriend" at La-Z-Boy told him was the sign of a bad recliner fit. I’m not buying it, though. He falls asleep in it just as fast as he did sitting in his first recliner. How quickly he nods off in that chair has beco...