Construction begins!

We met with our contractor and architect this morning to sign off on the final details of our renovation project. We are super excited!

Permits have been obtained and the work will begin this afternoon. Holes are going to be dug under the house to place supports for the new 2nd floor. It's a small beginning, but it is a start! The roof will be removed the first week of January. So pray for no rain for at least 10 days for the start of the year.

We've had a few snafus to overcome as we've worked toward getting started on the work. A huge one was discovering that no homeowners insurance had been placed on our house. The insurance person in charge of finalizing the insurance had been fired in the midst of working on our policy and it was never completed. So, we've been without homeowners insurance of any sort for the last 3 months. Another issue has been the cost of the project. The final numbers are projected to be higher due to needing the whole house rewired to meet code...an unexpected cost. So we're working with the bank to raise our loan limit.

And I'll leave you with a few pictures of some awesome finds we've purchased for the house: a cast iron tub and 50s push button stove. Awesome!

Final Floor Plan? Let's hope so!

Alright, folks. I think we've finally worked out all of the kinks with our plan. Now onto the engineering plan and finding out the cost (which might mean we get to do 1/2 of what we've planned...ugh).

 

Our 1st floor. So, we still don't know where the HVAC chase will go, but it could go near the fireplace, which would leave the downstairs a little less open than we planned. The HVAC subcontractor will be making that decision down the road. And, we've turned the fridge toward the kitchen for my obsessive need for a work triangle.

Asher's room is Bedroom 2. So, his closet has moved from the last plan. Otherwise everything else will stay the same. 

Now we hope and pray that we'll be able to stay in budget with all we have to do. What's our budget? I can't remember if I mentioned that...it's $80,000. We're going to work from the top down, making sure to get the 2nd floor as complete as possible and then doing the changes downstairs. 

On other Crump news, Asher and Ainsley are giddy about Halloween. Ainsley plans to be a ladybug (I think this makes the 3rd year in her short life she's been a ladybug) and Asher will be the boy version of a witch (whether that's a warlock or a wizard). Fun! Pictures will follow next week.

All is good!

Our architect emailed today to let us know that everything went well yesterday. Our house is solid and can support a 2nd story being built. So, the next step is to finalize our floor plans and have an engineering plan drawn up so everything can get priced out. (That's lingo I stole from our architect's email...I don't talk like that.)

And, thanks to my sister-in-law, Patrice, for taking some awesome pictures of us at the pumpkin patch this past weekend...

Appliances

Today our contractor and architect met with an engineer and carpenter to discuss our plans. I'm super excited to learn what was discussed...Can our foundation support a 2nd floor? Will the cost of ripping off the roof and other renovations cost more than the expected $80K? Hopefully we'll find out soon...

In the meantime, I'm on craigslist looking for appliances. This Sunday we bought an awesome cast iron sink with faucet already attached for $50 (no pictures...sorry). I'm still on the search for a fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer/dryer, cabinets/counter and tub. It's awesome the number things you can find on craigslist in great condition for an even better price. For the things we can't find on craigslist, we'll use the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Raleigh and the Reuse Warehouse in Durham. We love reusing other people's throw aways! We're also planning on reusing wood floors for the upstairs...if they're available. Last month we came across some used heart pine floors like ours, but we weren't ready to buy yet. Let's hope we get that lucky again!

Not much more happening with the house right now. Have I told you we expect to start construction by December 1st? Until then we'll be working on getting a better cost list and needed permits. Woohoo!

The Cabinet and the Previous Owner

Here's a picture of the cabinet we bought yesterday at Grandaddy's...

I'm pretty excited about it being the first piece of furniture for our house. Love it!

Another exciting thing that we discovered today is that the heart pine wood floor that is throughout the downstairs continues in the bathroom. And, for some reason there's subfloor and vinyl on top of it right now. Yay! That's one cost that we can avoid as we renovate.

So, the previous owner of our house. I wish I had a history of all the owners of our house. Perhaps as we live there longer, we'll learn about others who have lived there. But the most recent owner lost the home to foreclosure. And, as we began to ponder purchasing the home, I became curious to learn all I could of the previous owner. The first thing I learned is that the woman who owned the home owned it for 8 years. And she had married and divorced while living there. After finding out her name I learned that she was the owner of a graphic design business located in Hillsborough and that she didn't move too far away. I also learned from the neighbors that after having lived in the home for a while, she became a recluse. She also owned and added items to her home often...perhaps hoarding. From the look of the walls, she liked to put things on the wall...with tape, screws, nails, velcro and pushpins. Lots of pushpins. So many pushpins that the movie, "A Beautiful Mind" comes to mind as we pull pins out of the wall. Some of the things that remained on the wall were coat hooks and fortunes from fortune cookies.

Although I am excited to begin working on the home to make it ours, I am sad that someone who lived in the home longer than we've stayed anywhere lost it. Lost her home, marriage and perhaps her mind. I've certainly prayed for her as I've prayed over this house. I believe I'll continue to pray for her as we prepare the house for us to move in.

We're homeowners!

It was the easiest and quickest closing we've attended. And this is the 5th one we've attended....hopefully our last. After closing, we stopped by Grandaddy's Antiques in Mebane and bought an awesome G. I. Sellers cabinet to use as an island in our kitchen. I didn't take a picture, but will get one up here soon.

We spent our afternoon at our new house changing the locks and putting new wheels on our cabinet. We'll likely go back tomorrow and get the front yard a little more manageable. There's a TON of junk in the yard. We'll eventually get some help with clearing it out, but not until the construction is done.

Speaking of construction, we got our revised house plans back! Nothing really changed except the upstairs layout.

 

1st Floor. We eliminated our 2nd closet in the master bedroom...because we're crazy like that.

 2nd Floor. Lots of changes. Looks good, yeah!

And then, after spending some time upstairs this afternoon, Peyton went and created this crazy plan. And I love it. Keeping the upstairs roof intact with no dormers. It's simple and wreaks of charm.

 

Crazy 2nd floor idea

We'll likely drive our architect nuts. But that's ok because he keeps telling us how much fun he's having with this project. So, let's hope he continues to think that way. 

So, which plan do you like the best? I'm curious.

The delay

Our closing was delayed from Tuesday to tomorrow. The appraisal came in a bit late, which is what caused the delay. I'm plum pleased with what the appraisal said, though. So, I forgive it for being late. If all goes well, we shall have keys in hand tomorrow afternoon.

And after a two hour meeting with our architect and contractor, we have a final version of our house plan coming next week. An engineer and framer will be visiting our house next week to see if the plan is possible. Then we begin meeting with subcontractors to determine an exact cost.

We hope to begin construction on December 1st. Pray for good weather, since the plan is to rip the old roof off and start from scratch.

Waiting for Closing

Our closing happens next week. So it's the quiet before the storm. We've got an initial set of plans done and we'll make an appointment with the structural engineer/framers/subcontractors once we finish with closing. For now, I'm making sure we get all of our ducks in a row so we aren't caught off guard on Tuesday with something that fell through the cracks.

And so that this isn't a pictureless post, here are a few of the kiddos that Peyton took recently...

First Version of the Floor Plans

This morning we received the first version of our floor plans. Our architect, Ben, did a great job! We'll do some changing to the upstairs by eliminating the hallway/reading nook and laundry room (we'll stack in the bathroom closet) and making the bedrooms bigger. And we'll put a bathtub in either the upstairs or downstairs bathroom. So exciting!

 

 First floor. Existing on the left...the future on the right.

Second floor. Existing on the left...the future on the right.

We close on the 11th...less than 2 weeks! Once we close, a structural engineer and house framer will come in to make sure what we have planned can happen, we'll get plans approved by the town and get started on the renovation! I expect that we'll get started on the actual construction in November.

First Meeting with the Architect

My head hurts from thinking and visualizing so much with the architect today.

Because we are financing our house with a construction loan, we are having to do things a bit backwards. We received a rough estimate from our contractor prior to having plans drawn up by an architect. I now understand how backwards that process is after having talked with the architect and changing what we want to do with our little mill house. We're trying to stay in the parameters of our estimate while creating a great plan for the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom.

We should have the plans drawn up by the end of the week. I'll share them with you when we get them.

Our Mill House Renovation

Someone recommended to me that I should document the renovation of our little mill house that we are in the process of buying. It's a great idea! I hope I can keep up the blog for the duration of the project. We'll be closing on the house mid-October and starting renovations soon after. We will move into the house in May 2012.

It's located in the Bellevue Mill Village in the back of the downtown area of Hillsborough, NC. The house was built in 1921 by the owners of the local mill that it sits beside. The plan for the mill right now is to turn it into high-end apartment lofts similar to what Saxapahaw did to their old mill. Adjacent to the mill is Hillsborough BBQ Company and The Depot. And there are plans to open up a brewery and a river walk to downtown close by. We're excited about the walkability of our new house and what will become a thriving area of Hillsborough in the coming years.

Our house is currently 850 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom all located on one floor. Our plan is to keep one of the bedrooms downstairs and put two bedrooms and another bathroom upstairs (currently the attic) for a total living space of 1150 square feet. To pretty up the downstairs, we'll expose the beadboard that is behind the drywall, uncover the fireplaces in the kitchen and living room and spruce up the heart of pine wood floors. We'll also need to rearrange the kitchen a bit to make room for a dishwasher and add a set of stairs going to the attic/upstairs.

A friend of ours from The Gathering Church will be our contractor and his son is our architect. Ben, our architect, will meet with us on Monday to begin drawing up the plans for our house. I can't wait to share them with you. For now, here are some pictures of our new place...

 

Front of the house

Front Door

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

 

 Yard