Since I know everyone loved yesterday’s quick quiz, let’s try again. How would you describe the colors in the picture below?

• Purple and White
• Grey and Brown

Now back to the matter at hand. Over the past year, we’ve come to learn that, in Blue Ridge, everything. Happens. Very. Slowly. I think everyone must have either a “I’m on lake time” or a “I’m on cabin time” sign in their house, because nothing moves quickly. Nothing, that is, except the Terra Outfitters renovations.

As of this afternoon, half of the floor was already in. Handscraped wood floors look awesome, feel awesome underfoot, and fit perfectly with the atmosphere we’re trying to create. We were very fortunate that the old carpet came up easily, and the floor underneath was in decent shape. That made it a lot faster to get the new floor installed, and prevented us from having to do any repair work on the subfloor.

All of the framing is done, and the fitting room walls have been sheetrocked and barnwooded. The doors to both fitting rooms will be made out of the same wood that’s on the walls. It’s old barnwood that was replaned. Everything will trimmed with it also. This time, the wood really is local, I promise. That wall looks short, but it’s 6′ long. Actually, the entire picture is an optical illusion. The back wall runs 9′ between the two perpendicular walls, and both fitting room walls are 6′ long.

Each long wall has several 8-10″ sections of barnwood. The original idea was to just have a couple of sections of wood for accents, but it’s progressed into covering the majority of the walls, with the painted portions being the accents instead. The early feedback has been really positive, although apparently the walls appear purple, not grey.

It’s been over a week since we’ve posted any house updates. There’s a reason for this, but let’s first play a little quiz game to make up for the lack of pictures this week. Which of the following is the reason we’ve been absentee bloggers?

• David has had crazy work travel the last two weeks
• The internet doesn’t work in Georgia when it’s below freezing
• Brittany interpreted 3 “snow days” to mean 3 days completely off. From everything.
• We spent all of our free time writing orders for the store
• We were under contract on the house but within due diligence period

I know, I know, this is tricky stuff, and we didn’t tell you there was going to be a test. The reality is, last Thursday (2/19), we negotiated a contract on the house. Over the past 12 days, we’ve worked out a few details, but having been on both sides of deals that haven’t worked out before, we decided to keep quiet. Today, we received a non refundable deposit on the house that is significant enough that we now feel the deal is extremely unlikely to fall apart, as it would be extremely costly for the buyers to break the contract. After the closing, we’ll provide a bit more detail on what we agreed to do, and the things we learned about being a builder-seller. For now, it’s sufficient to say that any decisions made about the house from here on out are not ours.

The changes depart a bit from what we had in mind for the finished product, so it’s somewhat hard to have gotten so close to seeing the full vision completed to now having it altered, but we knew that it could happen. We’re also feeling fortunate that the timing will allow us to close on the house before the store opens and also opens up the possibility of getting into another house to actually live in without getting into another place that we know is temporary (again).

The closing date is set for 4/17, which will be 11 months from when we purchased the land, which isn’t too bad for the first go-round. It will also result in a modest profit, which for a first trip through the process is a great outcome. Hopefully, the next few weeks won’t be too interesting to read about!

All of the very dark grey granite was installed this week. It turned out pretty dark, but it works ok with the color the cabinets will be and the ceiling color. All of the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the kitchen island have the same granite.

Master bath has granite and cabinets.

The upstairs full bath is a toilet and faucet from completion!

The first floor half bath has the darkest looking granite. I think the smaller the slab, the darker it looks. We live and learn!

The kitchen counter and island are done! There’s a small section of cabinet door that is stained dark grey on the counter to the right of the sink showing the color that all of the cabinets will be.

The porch is a bit cleaner now and is looking good. All it needs is a few more pickets and a fire in the fireplace. Despite the lack of winter weather closer to Atlanta, Ellijay and Blue Ridge got a couple of inches of snow. This was enough to pretty much shut everything down. Even Chik Fil A , was closed!

We learned that both Gilmer and Fannin county treat the roads, which is a step up from our experiences in Georgia to date. They don’t have real salt, but the loads of gravel seemed to be keeping the roads fairly safe.

Staining the inside walls and tile work will be happening in the next couple of weeks, so we are in the homestretch!

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards.

So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.”

-Steve Jobs

It’s true. We have not been completely loyal to our house project. While we’ve been working on the house, we’ve also been working on another project in Blue Ridge. We won’t live in this one either, although we’re certainly going to be spending quite a bit of time in it. With construction under way today, it is time to reveal the new side of Durkins Build a House: Durkins Build a Business! On May 20, we’ll open the doors to Terra Outfitters!

We’ve had input from many of you on the logo design, and all of your input is greatly appreciated! We think it turned out great and can’t wait to get it printed on lots of shirts, half zips, and some killer signs for the building! Just as with the house, we’ll back up this initial post with all of the background. The topics this time around are just as enthralling as dirt, permits, and site plans: site selection, vendor schmoozing, insurance, permits (again…), space planning, and all of the other fun stuff that goes into creating a small business!

We’ll continue updating on the house as it nears completion, and of course, we’ll keep updating “what’s next” on the real estate front, as you can be sure there will be something else. You’ll also see posts show up under the “Durkins Build a Business” tab that will appear shortly on this page!

For those of you asking, “was this the grand plan all along?”, the answer is no, we’re not that good at planning. Yes, we like to always be moving forward, but no, we don’t know exactly where we’re going. We just know we’re going and trusting that someday the dots will all connect!

The house looked a bit different from the driveway today! Three major changes are visible since the last time we showed the outside: the stone fireplace is done, the porch has railings, and everything is 100% stained. The color of the rock is great with the roof, and really pulls the house together. The biggest change we made to the original plan was moving the covered porch and fireplace from the back to the side, and a big part of it was because I thought it would look really good from the driveway. I think we nailed it.

A somewhat odd-ball thing about the house is that the front porch has steps from the two sides, but no steps directly in front of the door. We did this so that there would be enough space to drive a car in front of the porch and park past the house. From there, there are steps up the side. The other logical parking spot is right where this picture is taken from, so there will be another set of stairs (well, 1 step) on this side. Paul (the framer) asked how people would get furniture in the front door, but I think that huge french doors on the side of the house present a much better entry point for furniture anyway, so I’m building a set of stairs just for that.

The fireplace rock goes all the way around and the porch feels well enclosed now with the rock and pickets in.

Here’s the steps on the side of the front porch. There’s a big flat area to the left that has been used for the burn pile, but will make a perfect parking spot.

This side has 2 steps, the other side will only have one. It was a little weird to not be able to hop up anywhere along the porch.

Going up the steps and through the front door, you’ll run right into one of the other big changes. The inside fireplace is done as well. It’s the same stone as outside, but it does look a little bit darker inside. The fireplace also looks much bigger than it did before, and actually makes the living room feel smaller since there’s nothing else for scale inside.

This is going to be a great place to sit. A lot of people put their big tv’s over the mantle in these cabins, but I don’t think I’d want to cover up the stone.

From upstairs, the view is much improved!

The kitchen cabinets are nearly complete.There’s a few drawers left, but otherwise, everything is done and ready for the countertops. There’s also cabinets built into the island that are accessible from the left (or “inside” of the kitchen”). The right side of the island will overhang so that bar stools can slide underneath it.

The rough temporary stairs have been replaced with real stairs, and we’ve upgraded the safety of the house with a nice solid railing. This feels like a sign that the house really is approaching completion, as the steps were one of the last truly rough or temporary parts left. (side note: For those of you that have been to the house and seen posts holding up the deck, those were finally replaced as well with some massive supports that are buried about 6′ into the ground. I don’t have a good picture because I was too much of a weather wimp to hike down the hill in the frigid 20 degree weather. Yes, Pittsburgh people, that is 20 above, not 20 below, and it was cold.)

With the kitchen cabinets nearly complete, it was time to stop stalling and make a call on the kitchen counters. I took 3 samples up to the house. One was too creamy, one was way too dark, and the third one was a perfect match with the ceiling stain that is in progress! The tiny sample I brought was a lot darker than the big piece below, so I was hesitant, but I’m confident that the bigger pieces will have enough variation that they won’t be too dark. The darkest specks are also very close to the color that the gutters will be, so I think everything will tie together. The same granite will be used for both bathrooms, the kitchen, and the kitchen island.

The staining activity has moved inside. All of the ceilings are done, except the living room which was about 75% complete, though rapidly moving along. The same color was used on every ceiling, including the bathrooms, hallways, and the office nook.

The downstairs bedroom looks nice now that it’s not solid white.

As does the upstairs bedroom, where the color makes the ceiling appear to be towering above the room. When it was the same color as the walls, it felt roomy, but there wasn’t much sense of scale. This room keeps getting better and better, and it’s looking more and more like this should have been built as the master bedroom.

The living room ceiling is almost complete. With two guys working away, it was progressing fast. The biggest limitation to their speed was the height, which necessitated frequent rejigging of their scaffolding.

You can also see the mantle below, which was installed this week. It’s just a chunk of a milled d-log. There’s a similar one on the fireplace outside, although it’s not as big.

The stone for the fireplace was delayed several days, so the stonework is now slated to start tomorrow. Hopefully the pictures next week will feature a massive stone fireplace!

Not many updates since Thursday, but here’s a few more pictures of the things that have moved along. The outside stain is nearly complete. The only sections left are right above the side porch, and part of the upper level in the back. It’s not quite as dark as it looks in this picture once the sun is up.

They’ve also been working on the stain on the porch ceiling, which has made that area feel more finished. The color works perfect with the cedar.

Inside, there’s not much to update on. The fireplace has been closed in and readied for the stone. The stone work will start on Monday, and they’ll be working on both chimneys. If we get good weather, they’ll knock out the porch fireplace first, then move inside.

The top of the basement steps was finished off this week as well. This is behind a door, but it’s also the bottom of the steps, so needs to be cleaned up.

The trim is still an ongoing project as Paul and his crew work to make every square inch perfect. I learned today that they even do a bang-up job when faced with a random protrusion in the back of a closet. This little box covers up the main HVAC duct to the first floor. I hadn’t thought anything of it until Paul turned it into a furniture-grade shelf. Just to drive this home, this picture is of the back of a closet. This guy cares about his work.

My closet-turned-office/nook/reading corner finally got (most of) its last wall. There’s some code issues that require us to put insulation around that pipe you see. This is “looking around the corner” from the picture in the last post. The window is just out of the picture to the right. For scale, the back wall of the nook is about 2′ back.

The frame(s) of the bathroom cabinets is (are) done. This is the downstairs “master bath”, even though we’re fairly certain that the upstairs bedroom will be the eventual “master”. This bathroom just happens to be directly connected to the bedroom, and has a double sink. There’s also a nice sized built-in linen closet.

The kitchen cabinets are also coming along. As you can tell, all of the cabinets are being built by hand on-site. It’s pretty cool to see these come together. The kitchen layout is standard. The sink will under the window and the stove will be on the left wall. The refrigerator will also be on the left wall, at the very end of the kitchen near the porch doors.The island will have an overhang for stools, and will be all one level. We had a short debate about a single-level versus a double-level island. It sounds like a dumb decision, but it affects the aesthetic, the height of stools, the size of stools, and the number of stools that can be fit in the kitchen. The single level counter will allow for more people to sit at the island, and will also allow for shorter, smaller stools that can be tucked out-of-the-way under the counter. Visually, I like that there won’t be anything to keep someone from looking past the kitchen to the view out the back doors.

Last, but not least, the house finally has some color! The exterior staining is about 50% complete, and the color turned out perfect. It works great with the cedar shakes and the darker roof. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the whole front because of all of the trucks, but you won’t be disappointed when you check back in a few days for those!

Overall, we’re about 85% complete going by the budget. We’re expecting to have everything wrapped up in 3-4 weeks!