Construction - Week 7 - Days 32, 33, 34 - April 25-27, 2011

View from #13 Bunker 

View of Side Elevation

View from Rear Property Line

View of Garage Side Elevation

Week 7 has came and we are in the middle of getting the roof rafters constructed.  The crew continues to make progress.  The photos above show the progress as of April 26, 2011.

Construction - Week 6 Days 30-31, April 21-22, 2011

A Spring break visit from Karen's college roommate, Rachel and her son Clay, made for a fun but busy rest of Week 6.  We took them over to 100 Yorktown on Wednesday.    Cam and Clay joined me Thursday night as it was girl's night out shopping.  The boys picked up nails and then we hit some golf balls, stopped at DQ and headed to church.

Friday was just as busy, so little time was spent at 100 Yorktown.  We had Good Friday church service.

The framing crew continues to add to the roof structure.

Raise the Roof - Construction Day Week 6, Day 29

Framing of Roof Rafters

Another milestone was reached today at 100 Yorktown.  The framing crew started the roof structure.  Needless to say as the photo shows the house is really starting to take shape.

A Good Little Helper - Week 6, Day 28 April 19, 2011

A half a bucket full - A claim was made that we had 20 hundred

 Father and Son spent a significant part of this evening at 100 Yorktown.  We took some time to collect all the nails left laying around the job site.  We were thankful to having a couple of tools that Cam's grandpa dropped off to us last Saturday.

My little helper was such a trooper.  He actually made sure he hit each room twice as well as circling the house twice.  He really like using the tools and collecting his bucketful of nails.

His good work was rewarded with a few minutes on the neighbor's trampoline.   then it was off to church to put candy in Easter egges for the kids Easter festival.

The rest of the progress at 100 Yorktown consisted of framing more details in preparation of moving on the roof.

Posing with his new tools

Construction - Week 6, Day 27 - April 18, 2011

Starting Week 6

The crew started and placed all of the upstairs ceiling joists on this Monday.  Next comes the rafters.  If we are lucky we will have a roof and be in the dry soon.

Roofing Decision - Shingle Color

The next decision at 100 Yorktown is to pick the color of the roof.   It is nice to have a decision with a lot fewer choices.  Really there are only two that make sense.   The shingle will be Owens-Corning Oak Ridge Series.  We will either go with Estate Grey or Onyx Black.   Here are the photos of the choices:

Owens Corning Oakridge Onyx Black

Owens Corning Estate Gray

Construction - Week 5, Day 26 - April 15, 2011

Bonus Room Dormer - Single Window 

Bonus Room Dormer Framed In 

Our stop at 100 Yorktown was brief on Friday after work.  Soccer season has started and we worked in dinner and the progress check.  Today they started framing up the dormers in the great room and bonus room.  Both are modifications of the original plan, so I am a little tentative with them at this point.  The great room dormer was modified from two separate single dormers into a single double window.  The house we are copying has a single quad window. So I am left wondering will the double be large enough?

The bonus room is still a single dormer, but we added 10' in length to the room, so I thought perhaps making the dormer a double window would maintain scale of the feature better?  Photos are below.

We also heard back from Sonny Craft at OC Cluss on the two other entry doors (garage man door and patio door).  If we want to go to fiberglass options, it will be a little more money out of pocket.

Great Room Dormer -  This dormer was moved to center over the fireplace and will be a double window.   Wondering if we should make the window larger?  

Great Room Dormer as viewed from the rear of house

View Out Great Room Dormer from the Upstairs Balcony

Construction - Week 5, Day 23 - April 12, 2011

This Tuesday was a little busy to get the daily update posted.  We stopped at 100 Yorktown prior to Cam's school talent show.  After a long evening, I didn't get the day posted.

So today, the crew started on the ceilings in the Master.  They completed framing in the trey ceiling and most of the vaulted ceiling in the bath.  They also lad all the attic flooring.  It looks like there will be plenty of storage.  They also started framing back in the door in the master bedroom.

Ceiling of Master Bedroom

Framing of Master Bath Vaulted Ceiling

View Across Camden's Bedroom into Floored in Attic 

Construction - Week 5, Day 22 - April 11, 2011

Think Once, Twice, . . . Build Once


Perhaps both Karen and I tend to overanalyze.   I pretty much spend a lot of time researching any buying decision.  It is not unusual for Karen to mull over some clothing purchases for weeks waiting on the price to drop.

When it comes to 100 Yorktown, I have played the houseplan through my head many times.  No matter how many times I roll out plans, things generally will look different as walls transform from lines on paper to lumber.

As we have moved upstairs, a few questions have popped up regarding sizing of rooms, closets, etc.  What we have quickly found if you are uncertain it is better to ask to prevent having to have someone redo something or live with something that you would have really preferred to be different.

Thanks to Owen for meeting with us and discussing the details of the plan to make sure we are happy with where things are headed.  This meeting resulted in us making sure that the 2' we gained in the bonus room was added to the bonus space and not closet space.  We will make final decisions on Camden's bedroom on Wednesday.

It's a good thing we made this decision because when we returned to 100 Yorktown at the end of a long day of work and soccer practice the closet and most of the rest of the 2nd story was framed in.

Here are today's photos:

Our little soccer player checking out the construction

Street View at the Start of Week 5

The crew is getting around to filling in the opening they left open for the porch door in the Master Bedroom.  

This is a neat storage space that will be in bedroom 3.  

View of Second Story Framing from Bonus room.  Walk in Closet on left, Entry door and bathroom in center, linen closet on right

Bedroom 3 View into bathroom and closet area

Walk in Closet = 2 ft shorter

Hallway Linen Closet from Bonus Room

Construction - Week 4 Day 21 - April 8, 2011

Let's Go Upstairs  


We traveled to 100 Yorktown in between two Friday evening thunderstorms.  We were excited to see walls partially completed upstairs.  Due to lightning, we decided to come back over on Saturday morning.

Saturday we had Mickey D's breakfast at the lot.  Alan and Drema met us there.  We finally got to go upstairs.  Friday was a good day for the crew.  They worked on the second floor walls for bedroom three, the landing and a portion of the bonus room.

With things taking shape, Karen started to have some questions about the dimensions in Camden's bedroom and the bonus room.  We will need to get with Doug on Monday.

View from balcony into great room

Construction - Week 4, Day 20 - April 7, 2011

Stopped by the Brier Patch in early evening tonight, the framing crews was still there working late.  The day's progress was installation of the subfloor on most of the 2nd level besides Camden's room.

Camden played with the Brier Patch kids.  He asked us on the way to school and on th way home when we were going to 100 Yorktown.  I think he is ready to move now.

Construction - Week 4, Day 19 - April 6, 2011

Moving on Up . . .

Stairs Under Construction

The evening trip to 100 Yorktown had us find major progress.  The framers were able to complete almost all of the floor joists to the second story.  The garage and upstairs bonus room also took shape.  We even have the stairs started.  Hopefully by the end of the week we will at least have the stairs and flooring system upstairs completed.  Crossing our fingers.

Camden can now see where his bedroom is to be located.  Soon enough he will be able to walk through it.

Construction - Week 4, Days 17 and 18 - April 4-5, 2011

I stopped by 100 Yorktown on Tuesday evening.   Karen has been doing drive bys in the meantime.  It looks like all the wall bracing on the 1st story has been installed and the started the rim board upstairs.  Between the bad weather the last week and the move to the second story, things have slowed down and progress is slower to notice.

Since it was just me on Tuesday evening, I spent a little extra time looking over some of the framing and picked up a pile of discarded nails around the house foundation.  I figured twenty minutes now was better than Camden or another neighborhood kid stepping on them later.

I did run into a few golfers around town on Tuesday that have been keeping up with construction from the 13th fairway.  It is a new feeling, but I guess more folks will see our home from the golf course than the front.  Makes me wonder why we are spending so much time worrying about the look of the front door.

The Appleton Chase @ 100 Yorktown - Artist's Rendering

Frank Betz Associates Appleton Chase Elevation A @ 100 Yorktown

It is not April Fool's as the house is not complete yet.  However, once complete it will look similar to the image above.  This rendering and the ones below show the power of virtual 3D rendering available in today's design world.  Images like this sure do help getting a handle for how something will look prior to building.  Thanks to Larry Rine for his assistance in preparing these renderings.  

Front Side Elevation Rendering

Rear Elevation Rendering

The Door should not be a bore

Moving forward from the brick, our next big decision is the front door.  We didn't realize there were so many different types of doors.  We had a little bit of an oversight with the Appleton Chase design in that we didn't think too much of the entry door not having side lights.   The door will be a 36" door with a transome above.

Our goal is to find an entry door with a window.  Our front door at this house does not let much light into our foyer.  Plenty of glass choices.  Right now our preference is for a black door.  We are looking at doors from Jeld-wen, Thermatru, and Masonite.  We are having a hard time, because we don't like many of the glass designs.  They all seem to be over the top.

The Brick Decision Made: General Shale Kendall Tudor

House in Teays Valley, WV with General Shale Kendall Tudor

We are relieved to have finalized our brick selection.

The Winner is General Shale Kendall Tudor


We found this brick after a whirlwind Saturday brick hunting trip on this house in the Woodridge Subdivision in Teays Valley.  Karen actually knocked on the door and inquired on the brick.

Fortunate for us, the wife didn't know, but the husband did.  Of course he wasn't home.  The wife did call us in a few days and talked to Karen.  Ironically the husband, an environmental engineer by trade, sounded a lot like me.  Since he had kept meticulous records on the computer.

Once we knew the brick name, when I called to inquire about it.  Roger Monk at American Block in Princeton tells me that it has been discontinued, but he would see what he could do.  A few days of phone messages back and forth things didn't look promising as the brick which was made in Marion, VA could be made they just required a 75,000-100,000 brick run.

On Thursday, Doug let me know that things had been worked out at General Shale.  I made sure I thanked Roger at American.  He provided great customer service throughout this ordeal.

It is ironic that these brick will be made in Southwest Virginia a few miles up the road from Emory & Henry.  Our brick in line to be made before the end of the month.

Construction - Week 3, Day 16 - April 1, 2011

Welcome April Showers!

Just hopefully not too many at 100 Yorktown.  We headed out of town late Friday, so again we didn't get to stop at the lot.  The framers spent the day straightening, bracing walls, and framing in the garage.  Materials have been delivered for the second floor framing.  Hopefully that starts with better weather next week.