Let's Update with our priorities for work and some updates on projects
Last night we made a trip to our local Home Depot and Lowes. We walked out with lighter wallets, but some supplies to help us on our weekend projects.
Master Bedroom
Our top priority this weekend will be to finish the crown molding and painting our master bedroom. Shouldn't be to big of a project. Sand the crown, paint the crown, and then paint the walls and ceiling. Hanging curtain rods and curtains will be the finishing touches.
Porch
We had our first interaction with our home owners association yesterday. We emailed in our plans for screening in our back porch. Apparently everything on the exterior of your home must be approved by the Architectural committee. We submitted our plans, and we went way overboard compared to what they were asking. I reached back to my days of engineering thesis reports and used Google Sketch a free CAD program to give accurate 3D models of the porch. Although it was overboard it also helped us to visualize the finished product and determine what our building material requirements would be. I attached some photos below
View from the property line
2"x4" Stud Framing
Frame with Balusters
Screens attached
Final Design to include pet door and stairs
One of the basic tenets of this design is that we wanted the ability to allow our dog outside with little supervision. However, I want a gorgeous green lawn without dog spots everywhere. That's where the dog door comes into play. This door and stairs will lead to a small possibly 6'x6' area that is fenced in. Thus our dog can have some feeling of freedom to go do her business. This fenced in area will be somewhat hidden by some strategic landscaping.
Landscaping
The landscaper that installed the sod for the builder went out to our home and measured the remaining area yesterday. So, I had intended to install 3 pallets of sod, I was very wrong. We had a little under 5000 sf that remained with zero ground cover. That is close to 11 total pallets(450 sf per pallet) That is a lot more then I had planned and budgeted for. However, the ground needs to be covered we're not willing to have a mud pit. I intended to have some planter beds as can be seen below.
That is an accurate depiction of our plat plan. If I haven't recommended google sketch enough yet, I recommend it. What a great tool for home owners. If you have any CAD knowledge it will be simple to pick up, if not google provides tutorials online.
Back on track, The left perimeter and the rear of the lot I intended to have 5 foot planter beds and then use river rock as edging in a 2 foot bed and then use actual plastic edging to separate the two. However, the landscape also informed us that right in the middle of the back wall is the area that our property drains towards. The planters would disrupt the drainage from our yard, causing sitting water which is certainly not what we want. I'm contemplating still doing the planter beds, but leaving a separation where the yard drains towards. Then lowering the grade in that area and filling it with the same river rock used as edging. It would allow the yard to drain as the river rock would allow the water to permeate, and when the yard is dry it would have a cool dry creek effect similar to the photo below.
When we decide which way to go y'all will know because we will proudly post those pictures.
Speaking of landscaping, we hope our mailbox isn't full of fines from the HOA because we have yet to mow our lawn yet. We have a solution to that! Below is a picture of the fiskars stay sharp reel mower. It is supposed to be the most advanced reel mower available. We will see how it tackles the task of mowing multiple weeks of growth.
There are a few more smaller tasks we will try to accomplish this weekend like attaching all the knobs and pulls in the kitchen and choosing a color for the downstairs powder room. Long post, I know, however it should make up for the lack of posts in the past and be a good preparation for our weekend.
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