TayMic Harris Blog

Final house photos

2008-09-25T15:46:00.003-04:00

Final house pics

2008-09-25T15:40:00.003-04:00

Hi-

We finished the house and I never posted the final pics so here goes:

Siding

2007-10-09T18:50:00.000-04:00

Rob found a fantastic, fast sider and we think they are doing a great job. We ordered a custom color cedar siding - off yellow - that only needs to be painted 1 time after installation. We started the first week of October and should be done at the end of this week - just in time to start our insulation - moving along nicely...

In the meantime, we are busily packing and moving out on Nov 5- UGH!!!!

The Front Porch is Constructed!

2007-10-09T18:43:00.000-04:00

My favorite part - the front porch! After laying down gravel and a special material to prevent weeds from growing, Ricky returned to construct the front porch

Rough mechanics going in

2007-10-09T18:32:00.000-04:00

During the month of September, our electrician, Frank Sacherski and his team, was hard at work roughing in the electrical systems. Many decisions needed to be made - where to put switches, plugs, and all the lighting in the home. Luckily, I had already sourced many of the lighting fixtures and recessed which helped a lot! Frank and Earl Ballard are also installing the speaker wire, telephone systems and CAT5 throughout the home. We have a true Smart Home and have keypads throughout the house that will control music in various rooms and allow iPod music to stream easily.

We also had our central vacuum system and alarm system roughed in and passed inspection for all of these systems during the first week of October. Phew!

We Have an Offer on Shadow Oak!

2007-09-06T18:50:00.000-04:00

We are pleased to tell everyone that we have accepted on offer on our current home on Shadow Oak. I know it's not a done deal yet because we still need to go through the home and mortageg inspection but we're glad to move on so wish us good luck over the next few weeks!

The family that wants to move here used to live in the house we lived in Sudbury 10 years ago on Moore Rd - how wired is that!! They must like our style.

I found a decent rental down the street that we can move into until our house is ready - expected in March per Rob so if all goes well, this would work out great because we can still be down the street from our construction which was just 1 mile away from our current house.

Voila! House in Progress as of 9/2/07

2007-09-06T18:47:00.000-04:00

Fieldstone veneer for front of house

2007-09-06T18:43:00.000-04:00

We chose another mason, Bowen Masonry out of Hudson,Mass, to install our real new england fieldstone veneer on 2 fronts of the house. I went down to the stoneyard, picked my pallets and they have been doing a great job blending the stone. It really is an art!

Pouring the Slabs, Rough HVAC and Plumbing

2007-09-06T18:35:00.000-04:00

After putting down a layer of insultarp, we poured the basement and garage slab which dried in 1 day. We don't have plans to finish the basement but this now allows the rough HVAC to start installing our 4 zone hydroair system.

Our plumbing and HVAC contractors, T&J in Bellingham,MA, are well reputable, used by many of the large developers, and are a pleasure to work with.

We are considering radiant heat in our bathroom and mudroom tiled floors and are waiting for a price to make this decison.

Rob and Ricky Hard at Work

2007-09-06T18:32:00.000-04:00

Rob in the attic

2007-09-06T18:31:00.001-04:00

Windows are In

2007-09-06T18:22:00.000-04:00

After hours of decisions on what windows to use, Rob chose Andersen windows and we LOVED them when they came in. They are SDL top sash only and add to the farmhouse charm.

Ricky and crew took 2 days to get them in - can you believe! I never knew windows could go in so quickly.

Building the Fireplace

2007-09-06T18:18:00.000-04:00

We decided to build 2 flues so we could have 2 fireplaces - one in the basement and one large fireplace in the family room.

It took a while to decide what brick to use but finally chose a Glen Gery brick that is an oversized, face molded handmade brick to give an old world feel - as if the firplace has been there for hundreds of years.

Our mason is on the job now and here is work in progress....

Our Stair Tower Framed

2007-09-06T18:16:00.001-04:00

View from Second Floor

2007-09-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

The roofing

2007-09-06T18:09:00.000-04:00

We hired some awesome roofers that came in and out, roofing the entire house in about 1 week. We chose architectural shingles of a weathered wood color to match the custom colored off yellow siding we ordered.

Second Deck/Floor Goes Up!

2007-07-31T11:05:00.000-04:00

Very exciting as Ricky and his crew frame the 2nd floor and it starts to look like our dream house.

We have 10'4" ceiling heights on 1st floor and 8' on second floor.
Rob has had our engineering group over a few times to confirm roof height building code requirements.

2nd floor deck...

Our stair tower...

Our family room - fireplace will go in the center floor to ceiling

Our library framed....

Starting to Frame

2007-07-23T21:26:00.000-04:00

We've started to frame the house on July 16 when we returned from vacation. Rob, of course, had the lumber ready to roll at 7 am for our framing crew, August Construction.

Michala came to view the start before she leaves for camp for 4 weeks at Fernwood Cove.

Here in our basement, Rob puts several sills to get the basement ceiling at 8'4" in height.

The first deck and subfloor goes in and the house looks like a HUGE airplane!

Rob works with Ricky, the brains of the August framing operation, on confirming the ceiling height of the entire house which must be under 35 feet per Sudbury,Mass building code.
Ienjoy walking on my new flooring in my work boots - a requirement for all family members visitng the job site per the builder - Rob.

Our family room starting to be assembled....

It's starting to become a house from the front view and street....

Looking through a wall to our future kitchen...

And a view from the living room to our meadow. A future window wall...

And here's the back of the house. You can see the basement walkout, future sliders and windows, and first floor shaping up!

Foundation: Part 3

2007-06-24T20:40:00.001-04:00

The forms are off and here are pictures of the foundation and views in the back of our meadow.

Foundation Part 2

2007-06-24T14:37:00.000-04:00

Next the footing was poured and forms were erected around the foundation for 30,000 PSI concrete can be poured in the forms. Large cement trucks came in and poured the foundation which was then left for 1-2 days to dry and then the forms were removed.

The Foundation

2007-06-24T14:31:00.000-04:00

After 1-2 days, escavation was done and they started layout of the footings which hold up the house. Although many builders don't always do this, my husband Rob, with his wealth of building knowledge, insisted on putting in extra reinforcement - rebar steel -which was laid into the footing.

We've Broken Ground!!!! The Foundation

2007-06-24T14:15:00.000-04:00

Hi to all our friends and family. We have moved forward and "broken ground" at Pelham Island on June 14. We hired Al Mailett of Mailett and Sons to put in our foundation.

The first step: escavate and dig the hole where the house will be. The site plan along with staking our the foundation from our engineer was necessary for this to be accurate. The stone was laid for drainage.

Selling our Home in Sudbury

2007-05-24T19:58:00.000-04:00

We put our house on the market at the end of May even though it is quite early. If anyone knows of someone looking to buy a fabulous house in Sudbury, please have them e-mail me at dana@redjavelin.com or visit our site for more details at http://www.68shadowoak.com/

We are only 1/2 mile away from the land we are developing which is so convenient right now and we are still truly enjoying the pool - we will miss it soooo much!

Springtime - Time to Move Trees

2007-04-29T22:04:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Now that it is spring, it's time to move the 8 beautiful 12 foot hemlocks on the property to their permanent home. We hired a large tree mover expert, Leighton Allenby, to move the trees and plant 4 other large roses of sharon on the border of the property.

We also cleared out the back of the lot and put down a special conservation mix of wildflowers to start growing near the back buffer zone

Put to bed for winter

2007-01-29T11:14:00.000-05:00

The barn is now down, the land is cleared, andwe have put the project to bed for winter. We are in the planning and budgeting stages and will start building this summer.

Clearing for our new back yard

2007-01-23T18:11:00.000-05:00

After getting a Notice of Intent approval to clear within the buffer zone, we hired a wetlands supervisor Dave Burke and a clearing company to clear within the parameters allowed by Conservation. We then purchased hay bales and sill fencing to border the perimeter.
We have a totall of 2.5 acres of property which is beautifully bordered with a sweeping meadow back view and a farm feel. Less than 1/2 mile down the road, there is Heard Pond where people can boat, fish, ice skate, etc. along with many walking trails of The Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge & Sudbury Valley Trustees Land.

Barn Demolition

2007-01-23T17:48:00.000-05:00

Demo underway! A crew came in and had to remove every nail and all of the timbers as they took the massive structure down. It took 2 months to finish and all of the full aged timber wood was saved.

Michala's Fav Tree

2007-01-23T16:02:00.000-05:00

Michala's favorite tree in the backyard before it was cut down

Clearing the land

2007-01-23T15:28:00.000-05:00

Almost immediately, Rob pulled out his chain saw and started cutting down brush to clear whatever he could. I, along with Michala and Taylor ran around the land feeling proud as new landowners and soaking up the little left of warm sun before New England heads into winter!

2007-01-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the barn and land. It was a 60x40 barn that was NOT historical so was able to be dismantled. This is the Fall of 2006.

The barn was built in circa 1860. Pelham Island is the site of a 400 acre land grant made to Herbert Pelham and his father-in-law Mr. Walgrave in 1639.

TayMic

2007-01-23T15:02:00.000-05:00

Well, after a long year of waiting, we finally were able to get approval to dismantle the barn and move forward to buy our land. The land is approximately 2.5 acres in a wonderful Southside Sudbury location near the Wayland town line.

We can't wait to build our dream house and are right now in the final stages of plans for the house.

I will chronicle the building of the house here on this blog with all of you.

A Wonderful Spot for a Home

2006-11-01T17:41:00.000-05:00

With the help of Jon Malone with Comrie Real Estate, a real estate broker with extensive real estate knowledge of Sudbury, Wayland, Weston, Framingham, Lincoln and Marlborough, we found one of the most beautiful pieces of land in Sudbury to build our new home.

Jon was also instrumental in helping us obtain approvalsnecessary to get the barn removed from the property and in finding other contractors to help us early on in developing the land.