Archives for November 2016

There are so many things to be thankful for, as I sit here in this cozy (8-bedroom) cabin with my cute little nieces and nephews, and all of my husbands family. This is a tradition now- all of us together on Thanksgiving in a Tahoe cabin, making memories, relishing the kids all spending time together and of course, stuffing ourselves silly with food and drink. This year, I also relish having a real oven (actually two), a bed that doesn’t rock your house with every movement, and plenty of room to spread out. These are things I might normally take for granted, but when your “tiny house living” in your fifth wheel, you definitely learn to appreciate the little things (or actually, the bigger things… you get it).

Many people ask why we chose to take on this house project. What were the benefits that made it worth the expense, stress, and time that will go into making it our home. Well- here are a few of the “pros” that swayed us:

• The view and location, unbeatable
• The size of the house- even though it all came down, the square footage was already permitted, and that meant that we didn’t have to pay for the permit cost of adding more square footage, or the upgrade to the septic system that would have been required for more bedrooms or baths. We actually took away a bathroom and turned one of the bedrooms into an office.
• Position of the property- south and west-facing, perfect light
• Friendly neighbors
• The position of the house, which at first I did not like, but now I think is ideal. The house is placed in the farthest northeast corner of the lot, which actually allows for maximum benefit of developing the entire property. When I say “farthest”, I mean our house is literally about two feet away from the neighbors property line and also within at about 10 feet from the street. Clearly, there were no setback restrictions back in the 50’s.
• The well and septic were in good working order.We have spent some money on inspections and repairs, but overall, having those things in place has saved a lot.
• Believe it or not, we have solar! The previous owners had installed solar panels and they still have at least 10 years of life left in them, which will really help save on our energy bill.
• Did I mention the view?
• The house has a garage, a front porch, a fireplace, and the beam and board ceiling
• We are just barely outside of city limits- this is both a plus and a minus. I can’t vote for my friends running for city council, but on the plus side, I can also never run for city council 😉

This week was short, but the crew made great progress on the roof.

And finally, my husband was busy with the burn piles, and got to play with his chainsaw. He got rid of those pesky digger pines- some of which were pretty large! We have plans to plant many more trees; evergreens, maples, birch and dogwood on the north and east side, fruit and citrus trees on the bottom of the west side. We’ll keep the huge native oaks, and hope to build a nice treehouse for the kids in one of them.

On that note- I wish everyone a very blissful Thanksgiving!
Thank you for keeping up on our progress- it’s always great to hear from people that they are reading the blog!

Also, a couple of plugs:
Happy Birthday to the love of my life!
and How ’bout them Cowboys!!

We got some mid-week sprinkles which allowed my son and husband to tackle the large brush piles.

Things are really heating up on the house. This was a dramatic week of progress because our trusses were delivered. And now that they are up, the house is starting to take shape.

It took the huge truck a while to figure out how to get to the house- our roads are very narrow and have ditches on both sides. He backed all the way down the road to get out.

The scissor trusses were designed to give us a vaulted ceiling in the dining room, office and master bedroom. I’m really happy with how the angles turned out.

 

And on another semi-related note: When we acquired the house, it was still full of “stuff”. I wanted to keep the dining room set and a china hutch. They were dated, but solid and have great lines. My friend (and Montana neighbor), Joanie, who is an expert chalk-painter, is helping me re-finish these pieces. We just finished the chairs. Chalk-painted in “Old White”, distressed, waxed in clear and then a dark wax accent finish. With the new material I chose for the seats, I’m so excited to see them coming together!

I wanted to write a little about the design and the vision of the house. As a designer, it’s difficult to commit to a design for myself. For this reason alone, I do not have a tattoo. I’ve changed my MPrint Studios logo many times over my 16 years in business (I’m in the process of updating it again- stay tuned). And when it comes to home decor… there are so many different styles that I love, the question is, what can I live with for a really long time (because we probably won’t be moving for a while!). One style that I’ve always dreamed of having is a white farmhouse, and honestly, that was the only style that I could envision this home turning into. Plus, it plays into our illusion that we are indeed on a farm. It’s kind of an in-thing right now, I know, but I think it’s also timeless.

So traditional farmhouse style… visualize front porch, white siding, black trim, grid windows and dark gray roof (I wanted all metal, but we are only using the metal on the porch roof as an accent). Inside, the design will also be rustic, industrial, and vintage farmhouse. I’ll share all of the finishes for each room as we get farther along. It’s been six long months of pinning and web searches– I’m SO ready to shop!

See the plans for our elevations below.

You can check out my Pinterest boards for some of the images that have inspired me for this home design.

http://www.pinterest.com/mtugg/

 

 

Our persimmon trees turn a bright orange- both fruit and leaves. Beautiful and delicious!

Thankfully, the weather has been totally cooperating for the last couple weeks, and, fingers crossed, will continue for a bit longer (sorry to all those people hoping for early snow, i.e. my son!)

The crew has made progress, but it hasn’t been without some hitches. The demo is now complete, and there were many surprises along the way. At one point, we just dodged a bullet of having to take the few remaining walls and roof down, basically starting from scratch. I was not ready to open that can of worms, for fear of not retaining our status as a “remodel”. If we remove more than 50% of the walls (which is very close to what we now have!), it would be considered a new build. That would mean a lot more in permit fees, possibly having to get variances for set backs and adding sprinkler systems in the ceiling. No thank you. Luckily, the contractor and the engineer came up with some retrofit solutions that allowed us to stick to plan– making adjustments to fix the issues.

So the progress is anti-climatic this time because much of it was hidden under the house. They had to set some new piers and tie downs on the foundation, frame in the new addition and do the rough plumbing under the house while it was opened up. This coming week, they plan to finish framing in the walls, and the trusses are due to be delivered on Thursday. Can’t wait to see how the roof line will look!

Side Note: Shout out to the 2016 Faith and Fantasy Ball Committee. I love working on the decorating committee every year- we have developed a great team. I’m also proud to design the invitations and logo for this event for the past many years. This year was the 50 year anniversary of the Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital Foundation. To celebrate, the theme was “A Golden Masquerade”. The decor turned out spectacular. The party was amazing.

A reminder to myself in the future: stop signing up for projects with gold glitter ;)! Auburn is lucky to have such a generous community and quality hospital.

 

 

 

The last week was pretty rainy, ending with a very wet Friday. Of course the roof was completely off, with the exception of the small portion of the ceiling that’s staying. We are now left with a bit less than three walls and a floor. It’s basically like starting over. But that’s ok, because it’s progress! The trusses are scheduled for November 10, and in the meantime, the crew will be working on the framing.

I spent a fun weekend with my friend from out of town. We did some browsing at home stores, consignment shops and boutiques. She was excited to see the house (or what was left of it) and gave me a lot of great feedback on design ideas. When she left on Sunday, I decided to start sanding down the beams in the living room ceiling. This will be a loooooong project. The up side is that holding a palm sander for extended periods of time above your head is a pretty decent arm and core workout. So far, I’m quite pleased with the results of the sanding. I think if I sand it down leaving a little bit of the dark stain in the wood grain, I can apply a couple coats of wax and they will look like rustic old beams. I will be painting the t&g white.

After a few half hour shifts, I finished one side of one beam. Only 14 more sides to go. Through the afternoon of sanding, the storm moved in again from the South. Another spectacular sky!

So for any of my friends out there who would like to stop by and help me sand- you’ll get a work out and I’ll reward you with wine 🙂