Tree Decisions

Japanese Stewartia

 

I can get a 9 foot tall Stewartia.  It will go in the back corner by the garage.

 Serviceberry

In Spring it will look like this, also about 9 feet.

Serviceberry in the fall

Ilex Miserve Castle Spire

I will use this as a hedge along the driveway in the backyard rather than using a fence.  I'll place a garden gate in the middle of the hedge.  I may also use this with another bush as a hedge along the far side of the house.

Let it Snow

The little house on Forbes Avenue is moving along.  On Tuesday, the insulators finished their job.  We used high and low density foam (ask Ted why and where).  As a special touch, Ted had the insulators spray foam on the living room ceiling below the master bedroom and on the wall between the master and the guest bath.  This will provide sound proofing for Galactica in case David and any invitees wish to carouse late into the night (late meaning after 9 p.m.)  Here's a few shots of the finished product:

Basement

Must Protect the HVAC

Master Bedroom

3rd Floor looks like an igloo

On Wednesday, the drywall was delivered.  Ted had to take out the third floor stairs to get the pieces up to the 3rd floor.

The drywall,"came in through the bathroom window..." Literally

But as usual, there was no problem.  10 minutes after Ted said he had to remove the stairs,  the master was seen hanging out on the front porch, doing absolutely nothing.

Here's the master, here's the stairs

 The drywall rested comfortably on the third floor within minutes.  Monday the walls go up.

 

We also have a graded, seeded property.  No mud puddles for this cookie, no way.  We will grow annual rye grass (that's the grass covered by straw in the pictures).  The landscaper assured me that the grass will come up.  We shall see.

Now, you can see also:

So Neat and Tidy!

 

Ted and Jeremy are STILL finishing the stair tower. So many other to do's keep getting in the way. First they had to get ready for the insulators, then they had a series of tasks to prepare the walls for the sheet rockers.  Maybe tomorrow.

My job is to order some knobs, pick out the stone for the vanities, and pay, pay and pay.

Time to Plan the Backyard

I met with a landscape "consultant" last week.  Her name is Gaby, she works at Smith, and she knows the local scene.  We walked around the yard and talked  possible specimen bushes and trees. Gaby told me that the only ordering I would need to do this fall would be for those more unusual plants; more common local plants are readily available in larger sizes in the spring.

I made a list of her suggestions.  Some of them I knew.  Then, I went home and looked them up on-line.  I narrowed down the possibilities.  Here are my current candidates:

This is Cryptomeria Japonica Gracilis.  I had one of these when we lived in Chatham.  I have always loved the way the plant seems to swirl.  (My father loved this tree).  It grows to 18-24 feet.  It is a candidate for the back corner of the yard. 

It has a junior relative, Cryptomeria Black Dragon.  I had one of these in Asheville.

 

 It grows to 8-12 feet.  I could use one or two along the beds that will border the fence along the back and side. I would pair it with rhododendron  Chionoides--a white flower with a slight pink cast to the interior--deep blue hydrangea and maybe some Shasta viburnum.

I also like dogwood.  I love the way it branches horizontally.  Its not as unusual to me as Japanese Stewartia  ( grows slowly up to 40 feet) or Serviceberry bush  ( grows to 35 feet) though. The Stewartia has really cool bark.

Serviceberry in fall

Serviceberry in spring

Stewartia

Stewartia blossom

Another candidate is the River Birch.  It also has very cool bark.

This one grows a little faster--up to 35-40 feet.

I am trending toward a white spring blossom.  I do love this though:

Its the (you guessed it)Japanese Maple "Bloodgood". Gaby says its very hardy around here.

On Sunday we are going to meet on the Smith campus.  Gaby will show me mature specimens.  That will help.

I want to create a repeating pattern that I can use for foundation planting all around the house. I want to use deep blue and white as the dominating blossoms.  They will jump out against the yellow house.  There will be a large perennial bed in the center of the backyard and a perennial bed in the front right corner of the front yard.  I can go crazy with color in those.  I will draw a rough plan and post it next.

A Few Pictures of the Past Month

We now do have three inspections:
electrical
plumbing
structural
This means that tomorrow the insulation begins.  As I wrote previously, it will take about a week.

In order to be ready for the insulation, the HVAC had to be installed.  It has three parts, some in the third floor, some outside, some in the basement.  Here's the basement:

 Oh, and I mentioned that Nathan left this month.  Here's is his farewell portrait.

 The Crew

From Left:  Nathan, Harper, Ted, Jeremy

And I'm Climbing the Stairway to?

We are structured!  All the inside wood installation is done, including the new, level stairs and landings.  This is from the top down.

I know, not a great visual.  But a big deal anyway.

We are also just about done with the outside.  You can see that the stair tower is almost clad.

When I get there tomorrow,  I am to expect completion.  We will also have a completed electrical inspection, followed by the structural inspection.  The outdoors will be graded and completely renewed.  Insulation will begin this week.

This edict was delivered by himself.

He is very authoritative looking, don't you think? Actually, the brains of the business belong to the resident of the truck:

The Fabulous Harper

A Little More Progress

It's the End of the Outside as We Know It

Ted is grinding to the end of his outdoor labors.  All the windows with the exception of the triangles are in.  Now, when it rains, the house interior stays dry.  The triangles go in next week; they've already put up the scaffolding, so they can trim them out.

This week he began the work of covering the stair tower.  The triangles at the base of the tower have been the biggest challenge.  Ted  had to cut patterns, put them up and adjust them.  He then took them down.  He will paint them and then put them up next week.  Next, up the tower he will go,  cutting flat pieces of exterior shield.  He will also create my square decorative cut outs. (See post, "Look Ma, No Clapboard")  Ted said he would paint the decorative colors also.  This will be a big visual change.

 The windows on the third floor are now in.

Did I mention that Ted is a literary type guy?

Post Script for those who want to know

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

The boys also attacked the front porch (literally).  They discovered a bunch of rot along the base which was no big surprise.  They also took one look at the footings and we were on the way to new ones.  Nathan dug some mighty holes, he shored up the porch so it wouldn't fall down, and then he took a sledge hammer to the metal footings. BANG! Not only did the posts pop off, they broke in half where they had rusted out. I guess this is "just in time" renovation.  We would have lost our front porch without this intervention.

Ted will replace the columns as well.  The posts are lying in the front yard.   Once they are in, we will decide how to cover and decorate them.

Ted tells me that he should be done next week (this is a good thing since Nathan the monster carpenter leaves for his engineering life next Friday).  Ted said we will get the rough electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections completed next week as well.

Next stop, insulation.

P.S.  We are having the backyard graded next week.  The landscaper will also pull out all the little stumps still remaining along the  property line.

After that, in goes the English Lattice fence.  I won't close off the side by the driveway yet, since I am not sure how I want that to look.  But, we got such a good price on the fencing (because its the end of the season) that I decided to go ahead with the majority of it.  We will stain it Dark Essex Green before we install it. 


Here are all the colors that we will use on the exterior:

Salisbury Green

Hawthorne Yellow

Calming Cream

Essex Green