Revisiting Decisions

Taken August 30, 2014, from the front of the house.

First, an update. I plan to include at least one photo of the site each time we go out. Last week we had forms. Today, we have house-shaped concrete!

Taken August 30, 2014, from the back/
garage-side of the house

At the land today, I was looking at the trees and sky and thinking that the slate blue siding color we had chosen last year might not work as well as I thought. Carl shrugged and suggested that we drive down the road to look at another house that has blue siding to see what I think. We did, but the siding on the house he showed me was lighter than the one we had chosen. On the way out of our road, though, I noticed another house, and I said, “I think that’s closer to the color we chose.”

Without missing a beat, Carl says, “We? Who is this ‘we’?”

Color me confused. Last year, we went through a bit of effort to track down the color swatches for the siding. Samples in hand, we followed our usual routine: One of us (this time, me) narrowed down the choices to about three or four, and the other (in this case, Carl) chose from there. We ended up with slate blue. I even put a tab on it, so we wouldn’t forget.

I didn't know they made portable siding swatches.

See the tab? Been there a year.

So, honey, “we” is you and me.

Not that it matters really. I’m asking to revisit many of the decisions we made last year – some because I just want to check, some because we made a change to our plans that affects our original choice. So far, we have revisited three: flooring, lighting, and appliances.

Carpet choice for stairs, hallway, and guest bedroom

The flooring revisit was relatively easy because we were happy with our original choices. Luce Brothers no longer had our paperwork, but we had the photos that included the labels, so we recreated the order (see our earlier post for those choices). We needed to make an addition, though, because we reconsidered the hardwood stairs. As many of your know, we expect to have dogs, so we’re adding a carpet runner on the stairs – and carpeting the upstairs hallway and guest bedroom while we’re at it, since carpet is less expensive than hardwood flooring. We chose a nylon that will be tough enough for dogs. I’ll post another time on some of the specifics we are adding to accommodate our current dog and the critters we intend to foster. I don’t think we were in the store more than an hour this time.

The appliance update was easy, too, because Belcher’s Appliances still had our paperwork. We checked for updated models and changed our washer/dryer selection. We will probably have to check on those again closer to the actual date we’ll need them, but I suspect that our current list will be mostly fine.

Lighting is still a work in progress. We got partway through a list of our needs last time we were at Hansen Electric, and we got a bit further this time. Unfortunately, the line we had chosen for most of the interior of the house has been discontinued, so we need to choose all over again. I also need to remember to bring the kitchen layout when we go next time. Lighting will get its own post soon.

We’ll definitely be revisiting the siding choice, in part because of what I found out when I went to the Certainteed site today. They have some new colors of their MainStreet line, which is the line our builder uses – and one of the things we didn’t upgrade in the P&S. There’s a red now that I think Carl will like.* I’ll see if we can get an updated set of swatches.

*Perhaps I don't know my husband as well as I thought. When I showed him the color, his reaction was – and I quote – "Bleah." 

This Time for Sure!

Kairos, chronos, and krisis. Three kinds of ancient rhetorical time. We've titled our blog using kairos to suggest in part that there is an opportune moment in which we can achieve success, and it's a way for us to be mindful as we are building this house. 

One problem, though, with our contemplative, wait-for-the-right-moment approach to kairos is that sometimes the time for action -- the krisis moment -- can be really slow in coming. Really slow. As in: are-you-still-paying-attention-or-have-you-fallen-asleep? slow.

Almost a year ago, Carl and I stopped posting to this blog. I got very tired of saying, “I think we have a P&S!” only to have that exclamation point collapse under yet another round of negotiations. Part of the point of this blog was to document our decision-making and the progress on the house, but the back-and-forth with negotiations just didn’t make for good blog-theater. We'd make a request; a month would pass; they would respond. We'd hammer out one detail; another would show up. Flurries of action, followed by long waiting periods.

So, instead of making you wade through our months of waiting, I'm invoking chronos. From September through February, we negotiated the P&S. The details will show up in bits and pieces elsewhere in our entries, I'm sure. In this entry, I'll walk you through the last six-ish months in a summary narrative and photographs. Chronos at its best!

Taken March 5, 2014, looking from my estimate of where
the front door will be toward the other lot. Some of the
earth-moving equipment is visible, mid-left.

By the time we signed the P&S at the end of February, the land had been cleared. The builder, Mike, knew he was going to sell to someone, even if it wasn't us, and he had the equipment at the lot next door for the couple who did not have nearly as many adjustments to the specs as we did. The rough clearing occurred during the fall.

When snow melted in early spring, we could see the contours of the land and get a clearer sense of how the driveway would approach the house. Part of problem was that even though there was no snow in April, there had been a lot of it over the winter. Add the fact that this property is next to a wetlands, and the drying-out process took months. (Mike told us that he puts perimeter drains in all of his houses. We asked.)

Taken April 12, 2014, from roughly
the same position as the previous one.

Taken April 12, 2014, facing from
approx. the front door toward what will
be our driveway.

 

Taken June 22, 2014, from what will be the back yard.
The backhoe is on the rough driveway.

Over the next couple of months, we saw little progress -- until June, when things finally began to dry out. At that point, we started to see Mike shape and level the land, though we weren't actually present for any of this work. There's a lot of rock on our land, which isn't surprising to anyone who knows New England geology. So the existing rock had to be moved.

Taken July 13, 2014.
Driveway defined!

Taken July 13, 2014, from the side of the house.
The driveway is up the hill to the right in this photo.

In July, we got a kind of rectangular outline -- the suggestion of a basement and thus of a house. At the time, it seemed oddly placed to us because the footprint stood away from the hill (to the right in this picture). We couldn't quite figure out exactly the placement, but a hint of placement was further than we had seen before. The driveway also had a thick layer of gravel.

August brought rock. Lots and lots of rock. Early in the month, we came out to find piles of boulders. I'm assuming that the boulders that had previously occupied the space were either evicted or under the new rock. Mike happened to arrive with another load while we were there, so we got to see a load dumped. I was too busy keeping our dog, Durin, from tearing off into the woods to get a picture of the actually dumping, but I think Carl did. Mike told us he was bringing in about 30 truckloads of about 30 tons each. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around 900 tons of rock.

Taken August 3, 2014, a 30-ton
hauling truck.

Taken August 3, 2014, the pile of rock
before the next 30-ton load.

 

Taken August 23, 2014, from the front of the house.
The near corner will be our bedroom and the part that
sticks out a bit will be our front door.

Then, last Saturday, we had a wonderful surprise: concrete! I am not sure of the technical language -- footings? forms? maybe some of both?

It looks to us as if Mike had to shift the placement of the house a bit further back than the original plan. Along the front of  the house, Carl found a shelf of granite that may have been too much to try to cut into. We will ask Mike about this next time we see him.

Taken August 23, 2014, from the side of the house. The view
is of the basement, with the front of the house and our
bedroom to the left in this picture.

So, after this run through chronos, we will rejoin our focus on kairos in this blog -- at least I certainly hope so. We haven't been idle, but the reporting would have been too sporadic to be interesting. I am hope that even with the semester about to begin, I'll be able to post at least once a week.