The Plantation Shutters Arrived Today

Although all 28 windows are 3 feet by 6 feet - every shutter was made to fit every individual window opening. There are 56 panels in all. Although our windows are plumb and square - to operate perfectly - some spacers will have to be used. 

Each shutter was packed in its own shipping blanket. 

The shutters were made in The Louver Shop - a national company that makes custom shutters near Dahlonega GA. The company is owned by Jim Tortorelli - an FSU graduate and friend of ours. We met him through Lulu's brother Jack. Jack's firm makes the bulk plastic for The Louver Shop. 

Burkett Carver - the sales agent - place each shutter next to the designated window - making sure all the numbers matched.  On Thursday - the crew from the factory will be here to install all 28 pairs. 

Each shutter panel has two sets of slats - uppers and lowers - that can be opened independently. There are 10 slats for the top and 10 slats for the bottom. We had a choice of wood or plastic. We chose plastic because the color is the same thru and thru - even if they get chipped. Also there will be shutters in the shower and above the tub. We did not want any warping or wood rot.  

House Day 91 - Electrical Ready For Inspection Tomorrow - More Interior Paint - I Wiped Up The Wooden Floors

Nick was getting soaked pulling the main wires through the underground conduit to the house. 

Monday Monday - Today was the last work day before Christmas. It was raining outside all day, Three painters were there working on the interior woodwork. Two electricians were finishing up for the electrical inspection tomorrow. 

Nick is the major electrician on our job. He does nice work. Today - in the pouring rain - he was pulling the main wires underground to power the home. All of the boxes and outlets were terminated. The circuit breakers were placed in the main power box. 

While that work was going on - I was scrubbing the wooden floors - getting rid of any excess glue. The floors looks great - not one nail or screw was used. Everything is glued in place. 

The gas logs arrived and I prepared the hearth for them. 

Tomorrow we go up north for 5 days. The workers are taking a vacation during that time. We are closing in - 90% done. 

Harry Potter lived under the steps. We even put wood floor in Jack's secret hideaway. 

The 200  Amp service uses Square D circuit breaker format. The top 8 circuit breakers are ground fault interruptors. 

The dining room fireplace is ready for the logs. The natural gas logs will easily heat the large great hall. The fireplace will be covered with stone. The mantle will attach to the 2 x 10 plank.

The living room fireplace looks a lot  like the dining room fireplace. 

Bedroom 2 has mahogany floors and 4 windows which will have interior shutters.

Bedroom 3 faces west and the back yard. I scrubbed the floors of excess glue today.

Each bedroom has a fire detector. They are hard wired into the electrical system. This is bedroom 3.

Bedroom 2 is green.

This fire detector protects the great hall.

The kitchen/dining room will have a large granite island and an even larger dining room set.

Looking through the fireplace from the dining room to the living room and the front door.

This panorama shot shows the living room.

This is bedroom 3 with its 4 windows.

House Days 89 and 90 - Completed the Mahogany Hardwood Floor

Thursday and Friday - We completed the hardwood floors. It was a long tedious job - but my crew did an excellent job. The hardwood floors are in the living room - dining room - kitchen - pantry - and 3 bedrooms. There is porcelain tile in the bathrooms - the master closet - and the laundry. In our present home- we chose to nail and screw the hardwood to the concrete floor. This time we chose to glue the tongue and groove material with a water based glue. It was my job to wipe off the completed floor - the glue comes off easily with a wet cloth. I have completed the living room - it will take me a couple days to do the rest of the floors.

The 1200 feet of attic floor is ¾ inch plywood. I have sanded ⅓ of that floor - we plan to leave it unfinished plywood - with maybe a little oil stain. 

Josh Wells is putting down the last few boards in Jack's private cubby hole under the steps - like Harry Potter.

The living room hardwood is cleaned and done. Next the fireplace gets its stone.

The living room floors shine - they get lots of light from the windows and door. 

The white pocket door separates the guest suite from the great room. Notice the kitchen cabinets in the background.

Bedroom 3 - the floor is still dusty for the painters sanding the walls. This is in the SW corner room..

Bedroom 2 - the wood is done but dusty. This is in the SE corner.

The sunny SE room will have plantation shutters as will all the windows.

The front door enters into the living room directly. The door is fiberglass - is solid - filled with styrofoam insulation. 

Day 88 - Installing the Hardwood Floor

Gary - Josh - and Gary worked all day installing mahogany hardwood floors. This is the pantry off the kitchen. All that is left to do are the two guest bedrooms.

Even the coat closet and the cubby hole under the steps received a glued down layer of hardwood

That is the front door and this is looking east to the street. It was a little messy because the painters were sanding all the walls and woodwork to give it another coat of paint. 

This is looking west from the living room into the diting room. We are waiting on the stone for the fireplace. As soon as it comes in - it is going up.

The vacuum cleaner is in the kitchen. The kitchen will be separated from the dining room by a granite topped island. The island will have cabinets all around it. 

House Day 87 - Cabinets

Kevin is installing the kitchen cabinet bases. They will be covered with alight colored granite. There will be openings for a push in gas range. 


The cabinets are made from scratch. They are made in Mission Style. 


The guest bathroom has a double sink. The counter top will be marble.


The master bathroom has a similar Mission Style vanity. It think the counter tops are white. All of the fixtures will be brushed nickel. Gary and Josh most of the wood floor in the great room done. 

House Day 86 - 86% Done - Things We Did Today - Wood Floors - Paint - Demo Shutter

The Louver Shop of Albany GA installed a demonstration shutter. They also measured all 28 windows to get the shutters exact. The shutters are made in Dahlonega GA. Our friend Jim owns the company. 

Josh and Gary Wayne were gluing down the hardwood floor. Josh is kneeling where the dining room table will be. We are using www.Bellawood.com brand mahogany. 

Hardwood Floors

This is the master bedroom mahogany wood floor. You are looking east toward the front porch and Seminole Drive.

This is the same room but looking northeast. All this room needs are the plantation shutters - the AC vents - the outlet plates - and the final coat of paint on the walls and woodwork. 

We have Bellawood hardwood floors in our present home. They are made of Brazilian cherry and have served us well for about 7 years.

So when we planned the new home - we did not consider many other options. I would have been happy with tile floors but Lulu did not want that. We are using tile in the bathrooms - laundry room and master closet. We like the color - beauty - and the ease of care of hardwood floors. In our present house - the cherry started out light but darkened quite a bit with age.

We have two of those Roomba vacuum cleaner robots. They do an excellent job on wood floors. You would think your floors are clean until you stop the Roomba and empty a big pile of dust - dander - hair - etc - out of the dirt cup.

Yesterday Gary Wayne and Josh installed mahogany hardwood in the master bedroom. In our old house we chose to nail and screw the floor down. In this house we chose to glue it down. the mahogany boards have a bigger variety of color. It will darken with age - particularly in rooms with lots of windows. The floors is also made by www.bellawood.com.

Today I wiped the floor with a damp cloth - then dried it with a second one. They did an excellent job installing it - no dents - no rough edges - and  any little drops of surplus glue easily cleaned up.

Meet Bill Richardson - House Day 85

Bill Richardson drew our house. Here we are on the completed front porch.

Small world - this house building business in Tallahassee. About 7 years ago - Bill Gwynn built a guest house/workshop for me. He introduced me to Bill Richardson. Bill asked us a whole bunch of questions - then he went home and designed the building on his computer. The build has served us well with well - with over 150 guests. 

So when it came time to design the new house - we went to Bill right away. Not only is he super fast - but he has tons of experience and his fees are very reasonable. He has a real gift of putting down on paper what he hears you say. 

We sat down with Bill at the dinner table and went over a list of almost 200 things Lulu and I wanted in our home. We discussed materials - window placement - perfect symmetrical dimensions - the pitch of the roof. The almost impossible task - we wanted the windows outside perfectly spaced and the same size. This proved to be a problem for rooms and walls inside. 

Within a few hours - we had our first plans sent over the Internet. Lulu and I went over them carefully and made many changes. It's nice saying what you want - and having someone else to do the leg work on it. After moving a few walls - bedrooms - bathrooms - and adding a pantry - steps - we had the basic floor plan. 

So we had a plan - now we had to hire a builder. Lulu was determined to hire a big building firm. We interviewed a few - they did not seem excited about our project. We got a couple prices - but there was not much personal service - they said take it or leave it. We left it. 

We called back Bill Richardson - and he suggested a small firm - Gary Shiver Construction. We called Gary - got the address of a few of his projects. We interviewed satisfied customers. Lastly - we visited Gary and his wife Cindy at their home. The more we heard about Gary - the more we were convinced he should do the project. 

Gary gave us an estimated price. It was simple - we would pay cost plus a percentage. Gary would open the books to us - and every couple of weeks - we gave him a check. At the end we will pay him the "plus." Of course we added some features that may raise the cost - but things are coming out pretty good. None of our checks bounced - all the vendors and subcontractors have been paid so far.

Now it is time to plan a garage. We took Bill to lunch and discussed what we wanted in a garage. It will hold 3 cars - be pretty plain - but it will also have many of the same characteristics as the home - proportions - roof angle - etc. 

I was very proud to give Bill a tour of the house he drew. I liked pointing out features that we demanded and he provided. Even after 85 days of  building - we are still enjoying the building process - we are still good friends with our builder - and the house has come out better than we imagined. 

We are not rushing near the end. We will not move in until the middle of January. Lulu wanted the house for Christmas - but there are tax advantages of finishing it in 2014. 

We still have the floors to finish - the kitchen to complete - the appliances to install - the electricity to hook up - the external air conditioner to install - sidewalks and driveway - and 1.4 acres to landscape.  When we hired Gary - he said it would take 100 days. Well - we are at day 85 - the house's outside is completed. The finish line is just around the corner. 

House Day 84 - Hanging Pocket Doors - Starting Hardwood Floor - Grouting the Porches - Painting Woodwork

The painter was caulking the baseboards while Gary Wayne was hanging a pocket door.

This is the tiled back porch before the khaki grout is applied.

The brick around the foundation is Henry Brick of Selma AL - The brick style is Hartford. 

See henrybrick.com

Lulu tests the pocket door between the master bath and master closet. The doors are quiet and smooth. 

Gary Wayne is starting to install the mahogany hardwood floor. 

Lulu examines the front porch before the grout was applied. the porches are covered with porcelain tile. Porcelain tile is colored at the way through in case you chip it. This tile is slip proof and frost proof. It is ADA approved. 

In front of Harry the khaki grout is already applied. Behind him - the cracks are still exposed. Kim the grouter is in the back ground on lunch break.

Day 83 - Bricks and Mortar - Sword Masonry

The most important job in masonry is mixing the mortar. If you do not have the right mixture of water - sand - and grout mix - your bricks will fall out. Here - John Dragojevi is using an automatic mixer. Still he must make sure the right ingredients go in. Remember the old motto - garbage in equals garbage out.

They started the southeast corner first.

Billy Crum lays the first course.

Owner of Sword Masonry - Tim Sword makes sure the bricks just touch the string.

Harry supposedly selected the Hartford brick. They used that saw to cut the brick. Note that it is gasoline - not electric - and it has a Honda engine.

This is the south wall.

The 4 walls are essentially 60 feet  by 2 feet. They cover the concrete and provide splash protection. the roof has not gutters.

We used khaki mortar. It is supposed match the khaki siding - the brown tile - the brown brick.

Billy Crum lays the last line. John Dragojevic hauls the last mortar. Tim Sword manages the crew.

There will be a step or two coming off the east side of the porch. The khaki grout for the tile will tie it all together. Porch needs to be grouted.

John - Billy - and Tim are on to the next job.