If you’ve been following along, and love the house, it’s now officially listed for sale.

http://nathanfitts.com/homes-for-sale-details/13-RIVER-ESCAPE-DRIVE-CHERRY-LOG-GA-30540/243215/260/

Once it is under contract, we’ll start planning for the next one, but for now, the focus remains on getting the details right and continuing to learn as we go through this process.

The plumbing is expected to be finished this week, with the electrical work starting today or Monday. By the end of next week, we should have all plumbing and electric in place. At that point, most of the structural work is done and everything else is finishing.

The rational for listing it now is that it’s far enough along to see the floor plan, views, and overall structure. As we continue to progress, more of the finishing details will be chosen by us, so the longer our future homeowner waits, the less they get to pick!

The front porch is done and ready for some chairs. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking today.

What’s around the corner, you ask?

More porch!

The outside fireplace is framed out also. It looks plenty big enough to keep the porch nice and toasty.

Don’t forget to look up and see the 1×12 tongue and groove ceiling. This looks awesome, and runs under the entire porch, not just the big side porch.

The other news is that the doors and windows not only were delivered, but were installed this week. To continue showing off the porch, here it is from inside the living room through the doors. We debated having double doors or a single door with a window, and I think we made the right call. The glass definitely helps open up the room, and once the fireplace has rock, it will be a great focal point to draw you out to the porch.

If you look left from the doors, the inside fireplace has been framed.

This is the first picture showing the window we added in the upstairs bedroom (top middle window). It was a good addition, and completes that room.

The outside left of the house looks better with all of the windows in, and there’s still one more to add in the closet-turned nook upstairs.

Lots of windows means lots of screens. The scale is tough, but trust me that this is a big pile of window screens!

#curbappeal

Hi blog readers! This is a guest post from Rocky, the family mascot, child, and dog. I am here to report MY perspective of the new house!

First of all, the humans never go up to Blue Ridge without me in the backseat! I am great in the car. I love watching people and laying in the backseat. I never cry or barf (only when I was a really little baby).

When we get to the house, I love to get out and sniff all the other animals who visit there during the week. I can smell bears, deer, coyotes, mountain lion, tigers, yeti, and sometimes other doggies. I have a few fav trees to pee on, but that’s getting a little personal…

This house has challenging me in ways I never could have imagined. I have risen to the challenge (literally) of jumping up two feet through the front door. Sometimes it takes me a few peaks over the edge to summon the courage, but I always eventually make it! As dad mentioned in the last post (thanks for callin’ me out, dad) I am still working on the steps. In my defense, I am LITTLE and there are big slits in the middle of the steps where my paws and fall right through. Good thing I can still make those puppy dog eyes and mom picks me right up and carries me. Blue Ridge is also the only place I feel comfortable jumping out of the back of the Jeep. Why jump when your parents pick you up like a prince??

Well, readers, I hope you have enjoyed my perspective on this new house adventure. Check back for more updates! And a shameless plug for my twitter: follow me @RockyDurkin.

Love, Rocky Durkin

Framing of the house is nearly 100% with the porches to follow in the next few days. The exterior framing is nearly all covered up, so the visible changes will slow down shortly once the porches are done.

We’ll mix things up a bit today and start inside (so don’t cheat and skip ahead to the end to see the outside! Seriously…we’re watching).

Walking in the front door, the house is fully enclosed for the first time. The ceiling here is 9′ until the edge of the kitchen, and then it’s super tall in the living room-about 30′ I think.

From the middle of the living room, you can see 2 of the bedrooms and get an idea of the overall layout. You can also see the awesome vaulted ceiling in the upstairs bedroom. This will be a tongue and groove wall when finished, but it’s cool now to be able to see how everything fits together.

From the other side of the great room, you can look up and see the barn door bedroom. The kitchen would be directly in front of you, and the doors to the left go out to the side porch.

You can get some appreciation for the ceiling height here, and see all of the framing for all of the bathrooms and closets.

I’m including this one because you can see the window layout and all of the framing. I think this is cool stuff, and I’ll assume that if you’re reading this, you do to.

The rest of you are probably more interested in what is happening on the steps.

Yes, that is Rocky making an appearance again. Except this time he’s not acting so tough. He’s not a fan of the open stairs right now, apparently believing that we’d let him fall 25 feet to the basement. Don’t tell the bears, deer, foxes, coyotes, and chipmunks that this guy is afraid of steps. They won’t be afraid of him anymore.

The view from the barn door bedroom hasn’t changed much, but know everything is closed in. It’s good there’s a huge window behind me to keep this room from feeling claustrophobic.

The other upstairs bedroom, which we have not given a fun name to, has a huge vaulted ceiling and a killer view. There’s still 1 window to be framed on the left, which will give this room 3 windows just like the bedroom on the first floor.

This pictures don’t do it justice, but the view is great. We’re going to have some of the trees trimmed now we can see where the best spots are, but we’re holding off so that we cut as little as possible. We don’t want it to look like we clear cut around the house.

To reward your patience in getting this far, we’ll give you a 360 degree tour of the outside!

Porch footers are visible across the front of the house here. Hint: they look like 4 little craters!

“Let’s build a little cabin in the woods.” I guess we drifted a little bit.

It looks a little cozier from the front!

We’ve had a lot of rain the last few days which has limited the progress. The forecast isn’t great this week, but when we do have clear weather, things have been moving quickly.

First, we made a few small changes to the upstairs.

Here’s the original plan:

The changes are marked with arrows.

The first change (A) is the addition of a window. On the original plan, the roofline dropped through this room, but now there’s a vaulted ceiling, so there is a nice tall wall there begging for a window. This is also the spot that I previously mentioned has a much better view than expected. This window will be the same size as the other window in this room.

The next change (B), is the another new window. This one is smaller. This is where you ask why there is a window in a closet!

The answer is change C, which is changing this large space from a closet into a reading/office nook. With no door, the window will give light (and a view) to the nook, as well as light to the upstairs hall and bedroom.

Finally,  D is not a change, but I wanted to point it out again- that’s the barn doors which open up the bedroom as if it were a loft. This will allow light from the large front window of that bedroom to get down into the living room.

The shape is now apparent with the exception of the porches, which from this side will make a big difference.

The only change to the outside that was made was to left side wall. The original plan had the main roofline continuing down. The dormer was altered a bit here so that the dormer roof intersects the main roof, and the dormer roof forms a vaulted ceiling for the bedroom. There will also be an additional window, which will be placed directly above the main floor window that you see framed.

This the same corner from the inside of the house.

The resulting high ceiling and additional window will transform this room. It will have the best view in the house, and will also have a tall but proportioned ceiling.

Stepping outside of that bedroom, you can look left and see the nook (formerly the closet). From here, you’ll be looking straight into the nook and out the new window. The door to your left goes into the upstairs full bath, and the second bedroom/loft is behind you.

This is the same vantage point, but a step further, and you can get a glimpse of the view.

Turning around, you’ll run into the other bedroom. This is the opening where the sliding barn doors will be.

This is the back of that room. This window is parallel to the sliding doors.Looking up from the living room, you can see where the sliding doors will be, and the window in that bedroom.

Things are starting to take shape, and it’s become obvious now that there is a dwelling under construction, not just a large box.

The curb appeal has changed a bit, and you can now see the rooflines and the shape of the facade. The shape of the roof is definitely adding some character. It will look even better with the porches.

 

This will be looking at the side porch, but here you can see the opening for the french doors to get out there. The fireplace will be the left, so no windows on the rest of that wall. On the original plan, the porch was on the back, so there was a double hung window where we have the door. I’m going to come back to that change in just a minute, as it does have a drawback.

This is the left side of the house. You can’t see much, but this gives you some perspective on all of the framing, and the height of the house on this side. The side window for one of the upstairs bedrooms is also visible.That window may have the best view in the entire house, which was unexpected. It turns out there’s some nice looking mountains in that direction that aren’t visible unless you’re 35 feet off the ground. This supports my idea that any future site plans will be completed with the help of a drone. I think that’s a great excuse to buy one.

For the time, you can actually walk “into” the house. It’s pretty awesome. Looking across the house from the front door, you can see across the great room and out the back. To the left is the steps down the basement, a coat closet, and then a small hallway to the half bath and laundry closet. To the right is the kitchen. The door to the back left goes into the downstairs bedroom.

Now we’re across the living room and looking back towards the kitchen. You can see the front door through the steps, that’s where I was standing for the previous picture. The window in the middle of the front wall is above the kitchen sink, so this house will have a nice big front porch and a window for the sink! HGTV would give us a couple of points for that.

Now for the part HGTV won’t give us points for. By moving the porch to the side, and turning the double window into doors, we’ve greatly reduced the space that would be available for a table. We can set up the kitchen to have a bunch of seats, but there won’t be a way to put a table of any size. I think a square 4 person table would be fine, but the pottery barn thanksgiving dining room table is definitely out (it was never in, but now the best option is probably no table, so the opposite extreme).

The downstairs bedroom is all framed in now, and has a good feel to it. It’s a good size, the closet is substantial, and I think the bathroom is roomy but not obnoxious. This will not be a Ridge Way bathroom!

Going upstairs, the views get even better. The great room ceilings are immense, so this room will end up feeling huge! I think it might be high enough to test fly the drone.

The best surprise so far is this upstairs bedroom. The views out both windows are awesome. The window on the left is one I referenced earlier which I think has the best view from anywhere in the house. Look down to the river, up to the mountains, just like we planned!

Finally, a picture with leaves to make the Northerners jealous that we’re still a few weeks from any sign of winter. It was 80 degrees when I took this!

 

The first floor framing is complete and we can now see the floor plan and the views out the windows and doors.

The house is starting to have some presence as you make your way down the driveway.

This is looking at the right front corner as you reach the end of the driveway. The porch will be here, accessed by the french doors on the right. The front door is in the middle of the left wall where Rocky is. You can also see one of the french doors out of the basement.

Here’s the nice area in front of the house. Even with the porch and steps, there’s still going to be room to park out here.

Left front of the house. The main floor bedroom is on this side. The front window on this wall will be in the bathroom.

Here’s the front of the house. Rocky is in the front door again, and there will be windows on both sides.

This is looking out from the great room out the back of the house.

Here’s a closer view out the back.

  This is from the inside of the bedroom looking to the back The door to the right goes to the living room.

This is the view out the bedroom window.

The bedroom has 2 windows looking out the side of the house.

  Looking towards the front of the house from the bedroom window. The door on the right goes into the bathroom, the left side of the wall is the closet. Behind that will be a closet for a stackable washer/dryer, and a half bath accessed from the living room.

The basement bedroom has a nice view too.

From the middle of that bedroom you have a nice view out the french doors.

The door to the right goes into the future game room.

The basement game room will have 2 sets of french doors.

Here’s the house through the trees from across the ravine.

We’re about 2 weeks behind on updates, so a few will follow. I’ll break them up so you can actually see the progression.

We needed somewhere to put all of the wood for framing, so the driveway area in front of the house had to be expanded.

This is nice and flat. It ended up being even more space then you see here.

Before the slab goes in, you need a gravel layer below it. You can also see where the basement bathroom (future) will be.

Basement from the other side, pre-slab.

Here’s our beautiful basement slab. This is a nice piece of concrete. 

Looking out over the left side of the house.

Here you can see the awesome flat space in front of the house. This makes life easier for the builders, as they have somewhere to put materials, park, and also somewhere flat to work. It wasn’t cheap to get the rock taken out to do this, but it’s useful now and will provide a nice area in front of the porch when the house is done rather than stepping off the porch into an embankment.

The basement is fully framed and you can walk on the main floor now. This also gives you some scale of the area in front of the house that they leveled off. That dog is not Rocky, but apparently it can climb ladders!

I can’t leave you without a “view” picture, so here you go. This is from the typical spot “at the front door”. Just wait until you see what this looks like from 32′ forward!