Stairway to Heaven… or at least the second floor

We have the grandest staircase!  There are 16 stairs going up, and with the spindles on either stair railing, the railing at the top parallel to the stairs (to the left) and perpendicular to the stairs (to the right), and the railing behind the stairs (next to the open basement stairs), we have 107 spindles.  That’s a lot of dusting!

No one (including the builder) realized the stairs would be as big as they are.  They are nice and wide (good for moving furniture in I say) and have nice curly ends at the bottom.  The last step is wider than the rest of the stairs and has a very sophisticated look.

We had to make sure the spindles were nice and durable before the carpenter finished installing them.    (No actual sparring was involved.)  Don’t tell, but I also run up the stairs with a small pen (cap closed, of course) in my hand to hear the dink-dink-dink-dink-dink of the spindles.  I figured someone needed to do it before we have children and we have to hear it all the time.  I think I deserved to be the first one.  And it was fun!

This picture, looking from the second floor landing, shows just how big the staircase and foyer spaces are.  At the bottom, you can almost make out the curlicue at the bottom of the railing.  You can also see the front door straight ahead, the doorway to the office to the left (where we will hang french doors), and the entry to the living room on the right at the bottom of the stairs.  The doorway to the fourth bedroom is peeking at the top right.  We have decided to paint the foyer area and beautiful yellow gold called #213, er, Harp Strings.  We hope it will make the entry to our new home feel warm and inviting, and we can’t wait to greet our friends and family at the bottom of our grand staircase!

Walled In

I was on a work errand this morning and snuck by the house to see what kind of progress is being made.  There was a big truck in the driveway from the stairs company (who knew there was such a thing?) and they were bringing the basement stairs.  I could hear the two guys talking, and as I rounded the back of the truck, they fell silent and stared me down.  I explained that I was the owner of the house and then we were great friends instantly.  Good to know people are watching out for what’s going on.  Then I headed inside…

Wow!  This first picture shows the family room.  The fireplace is straight ahead.  We will be adding a mantle on the raised shelf (which is kind of hard to see in the picture).  The mantle will be a large piece of wood that my husband’s grandfather, a master woodcarver, put together, as long as it cleans up well.  It was used as a long narrow coffee table in my husband’s youth.

This second picture shows the kitchen.  We will have one recessed light over the sink and two more on each side of the kitchen.  We will have two pendant lights over the island.  The two smaller windows on the far wall will be on either side of the stove top.  The larger window to the right is the bay window over the kitchen sink that will look over the deck and backyard.

This third picture shows the master bathroom.  Yes, it’s big.  And yes, I’m thrilled about that!  Just past the door frame to the left will be a separate little room for the toilet, or, if you’re feeling fancy, the water closet.  Straight ahead on the left is the shower, and on the right is the large soaker tub.  There will be glass above the half walls of the shower and a glass door.  You can’t really see the little corner bench in the picture, but I wasn’t giving up that nice little amenity.

Hopefully it will only be as long as it takes the townhouse to sell until I can climb into that soaker tub with a load of bubbles and my little bathroom chandelier dimly lit and think back on all the work it took to get there…

Those Little Hidden Fees

Everyone says you should always read the small print on contracts.  I try very hard to do that.  Every so often I am still surprised.  However, there’s not always print – large or small – when going through the steps of building a house.  And even if it was in print, it’s not like you always have an option.  So, here’s the not-so-small print of things to look out for and be prepared for.  (Up until this point, I have tried very hard not to include actual dollar amounts for anything because they can vary so widely and because I don’t want to get too personal.  However, I am including fairly accurate figures here because there’s really no good way to give a head’s up without including them.  And because otherwise you probably wouldn’t believe me.)

1. Soil sampling: I guess I didn’t talk about this way back in the beginning… We had to have the soil sampled to make sure a house could stand where a house was already standing in order to get a permit to build.  So, for $900 we had 3 30-foot tubes of soil pulled from the yard.
2. Asbestos testing and removal: If you plan to tear down a house that might contain asbestos, be prepared to pay at last $6000 for these services.  You have to have a “clean bill of health” before being considered for a demolition/building permit.
3. Demolition permit:  We paid $100 for a permit to remove the asbestos, and since that was removing part of the house, we didn’t need to pay this fee twice.  So, we saved a little money.
4. Building permit: If you didn’t know you needed a building permit to build a house, just stop your project now and walk away.  This should be a no-brainer.  However, depending on your town, be prepared to write a hefty check.  This permit is not usually covered in the builder’s contract and will be several thousand dollars.
5. Disconnect and reconnect of water and sewer: Apparently our village thought we paid enough for our building permit and only asked a nominal fee of about $200 to dig up the street and disconnect the sewer and water.  And no fee was asked to reconnect.  Phew!
6. Disconnect and reconnect of the natural gas line: Obviously you don’t want gas running to your old house when you tear it down and during construction, so you have to have the gas company come out and dig a hole in the yard to cut the line.  Reconnection can’t be done at the same time, so you have to pay again to reconnect.  Overall, we paid about $1500 for this to happen.  And be prepared to trench the yard yourself to lay the new pipe or the price goes up from there.
7. Disconnect and reconnect of the electricity: This one was a real whopper.  We had overhead power lines on the old house, and now we have underground lines on the new home.  While we like the aesthetics better, it was the decision (and benefit) of the electric company to run the lines underground.  But, kindly, they pass the charge on to the consumer.  To the tune of $2000.  Originally they wanted $3400 to trench and reconnect the lines because we would have had “abnormal trenching” which means someone would have had to hand dig about three feet with a shovel.  The travesty!  However, we were able to hire a trencher for $350 to dig for both gas and electric lines and save us quite a bit of money.  Otherwise I would have been out there with a shovel myself.

These are most of the “hidden fees” and “small print” that people warn you about.  Fortunately we were able to cover these fees to keep the project going because we didn’t really give ourselves the choice, but not everyone may be able to.  I’m trying to give help to anyone who is thinking about or in the process of doing a teardown/rebuild.  Read the small print.  And if there’s no small print, ask some questions and do your research.