December 2007

Donna was in Charleston on business in mid December and while David suffered in cold, wet Washington Donna contended with 80 degree weather and a round of golf with colleagues. However, once our builder heard that she was in the neighbourhood he took advantage of the opportunity to have her run errands and confirm a few more items related to the house before she left town.

The place is coming along and the work has moved indoors. The cabinets in the master bath are installed and apparently look very nice and the work on the outdoor fireplace has begun as you can see in the picture above. One big OOOPS is that the contractor has installed the wrong flooring which must be removed and replaced. Given the number of decisions we have made, I guess it is not surprising that there is at least one mistake. Anyway, we are assured that it will not slow us down. Other meetings included the pool contractor to select coping and tiles, the closet lady, and the decorator for preliminary color choices.


This picture of the house was actually taken in November before the foundation was painted, but at least it shows an unobstructed view of the house without dumpsters etc. More news in early January - stay tuned.

November visit

The "Ryan Residence"

It was cold when we left Washington but the weather in Charleston was beautiful on Thursday Nov. 08 when we arrived for our latest visit. As you can see from the photos, the house is coming along and looking more and more like a house rather than a construction site. The shingles are up and the sheet rock has been installed on the ceilings; the staircase is in and the roof is almost there. We love the detail in the shingle design and are very happy with the roof.

As always we covered a lot of ground. First we met with Dennis, our project manager (see photo) at the house where we ran through the lay-out and reviewed a number of small issues. After a quick lunch we met with Laura Boyle our decorator who is helping us pull things together. We reviewed furniture, rugs and lighting selections and discussed paint colors. From there, back to the house to meet with the carpenter who will be building our "built-ins" on either side of the fireplace. This is a tricky decision as the ceilings there are 13 ft high, which is a lot of space to fill.

While admiring the shingles, David discovered that the siding crew were all Brazilian, so he had a good old chat, made some friends and was immediately enlisted as translator. Apparently the majority of the siding crews working on Daniel Island are Brazilians

Dinner at another local Charleston eatery "Coast Bar & Grill" where obviously seafood was the dominant choice. A casual restaurant with a very good menu and reasonable prices, we were not disappointed with the food or the bill. - A keeper.

7:30 Friday morning found us at the house with everyone invovled - Wayne, the architect and his assistant Marc, Bob, Dennis and the two of us. Decisions about a couple of design features caused this conflab - we scrutinized pillar sizes and discussed the addition of steps from the deck back down into he backyard.

We then met Catherine at 9:00 to begin foraging for granite. Having made preliminary selections during our last visit we intended to confirm these choices - not so easy- what we liked before was no longer available. So off we went again to various wholesalers and found some replacements, with just the kitchen remaining to be selected. On the way to one of the more remote granite places, Catherine introduced us to the "My Thai" Restaurant which turned out to be surprisingly authentic and tasty lunch.

One final stop at the house to meet with Dennis before heading for the Club for a glass of wine, then the airport and home.

About turn!

We were back in Charleston on Sept 18th to take a look at the color samples first-hand. As we mentioned last time, the ARB was pushing us in a direction that we were not comfortable with and which we thought would make the house too dark. After a few tries and the exchange of some photos by email, we decided that we needed to see for ourselves. Bob had prepared another sample of shingle and trim colors at our request and we decided that we liked them much better. So now we go back to the ARB again. A photo is attached.

Obviously we went through the house again with Dennis ,the foreman, to confirm decisions and see what progress has been made. Wire has been pulled and plumbing roughed in. The pool is also coming along, awaiting inspection before going to the next step. We also stopped in to the cabinet store to squeeze a little more out of the price without changing the design.

The weather was nigh on perfect and the golf course was busy - but all that did was make us jealous as we rushed around to look at lighting again. We hit four different lighting distributors before heading for the airport for a smooth on-time flight home.

Oh yes, we did have a very nice lunch at The Mustard Seed.

These pictures are for Noelle, who wanted to see what all of the talk about the views from the outdoor living room were about. Above is the eighteenth hole and the back of the clubhouse. The picuture below is of the eighteenth fairway. As you can see we have extensive marsh between us and the fairway and will not have to worry about errant golf balls.

Our Visit August 20/21

This time we decided to drive down to Charleston and treat ourselves a little while we were down there. We left early on Saturday morning to avoid any heavy traffic and soon learned that that is what everyone else decided to do. The drive was stop and go most of the way and easily 90 minutes longer than normal.

No matter, we arrived in Wild Dunes a resort about 15 miles north of Charleston in the late afternoon and immediately went to the beach for a long walk and a swim. The sand was hard packed and perfect for beach tennis while the water was warm and inviting. Sunday, we crammed with energetic “stuff”; beginning with golf at 8:30, followed by a swim in the ocean, lunch and then roller-blading around Wild Dunes, after which we rented bikes and rode up and down the beach before taking another swim.

Dinner that night was at Magnolia Restaurant in downtown Charleston where we probably exceeded our quota of cholesterol. The restaurant was very nice, food was good, but not the best we have eaten in the area.

Having relaxed on Sunday, we hit the pavement on Monday morning with a 7:30 appointment at the property and didn’t stop until we left on Tuesday afternoon. This was a key visit as we needed to go through the house and confirm placements of plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets and lighting. Other decisions included such things as how high the shower head would be, whether we wanted to control the swimming pool lights from the bedroom, whether the future placement of paintings needed to be illuminated from ceiling lights and so on. The list was endless but the decisions important.

Other visits around town at the suppliers included finalizing our cabinet selections, looking at granite for counter tops, stone and tile for the bathrooms, flooring, balusters and rails for the stairs, light fixtures and ceiling fans. Wow - brain numbing! Go ahead, ask us any question on granite or marble; or does Tigerwood darken like Brazilian Cherry? - We have the answers and we probably have the samples too. Fortunately we did not have to navigatethis on our own. Catherine (Bob, our builder's wife) accompanied us on our trip to the granite factory and tile shop. She has an excellent sense of style and has helped us narrow the selections and stay within our budget.

The house is coming along as you can see from the photo. The windows are in and the insulating paper (dark color material) has been attached to the walls and roof. From this view you can see the lower and upper porches as well.

We do have one battle going on with the Architectural Review Board on trim color for the house. The ARB is determined that the houses on our street be dark because of their proximity to the clubhouse and the river. We had selected a light trim since the shingle exterior was going to be dark. So far we cannot agree and left it to Bob to twist their arm. In fact we stopped for a brief chat with our neighbors across the street and they confessed to a similar saga in their battle for color “independence".

Monday night, Bob and Catherine took us out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Charleston, High Cotton. It reminded us of why it is our favorite. Food and service were excellent.
Perhaps the most memorable images we have of this trip are the fantastic views we have from the porch off the master bedroom. Can't wait to get back!

June Visit to Charleston

On June 20th we made another quick visit to Charleston to walk through the now framed house and to continue the selections process. This trip was highlighted with trim, lighting, appliances, and finalizing the cabinetry.

We arrived somewhat late on Wednesday evening and it was drizzling. I gather it had rained a lot the past few days as the house was wet and water dripping everywhere. We went straight to the job site and walked through it to get a sense of sizes and a feel for the views. That is David standing on the front porch looking at the view of the marsh and river in front (see below).

We had been warned that the house would feel smaller at this stage since it is dark inside and there isn't any furniture or other items to give us proportions. This certainly was the case with the kitchen, which seemed smaller than we had envisioned. However we were not disappointed in the great room and the dining room which will be a good nice size.

The views from the back of the house look out over the marsh and the eighteenth fairway. We wanted this to be a focal point of the Great Room and envisioned windows with a view. As you can see from the photos the windows are spectacular - intentionally large (compared to Donna standing in front) to highlight the views. A view below.

Since it was late, we decided to dine at the Clubhouse where the food was wonderful as usual. The picture below is a view of the clubhouse from the end of our street.

Thursday June 21st

On Thursday morning we started out at the offices of our builder where we met with Dennis our project manager and Wayne, the trim carpenter/trim expert. The morning assignment was to decide on trim for windows and doorways, as well as crown molding, chair rail, and panelling for the dinning room and den. Wayne Windham our architect joined us for the discussions which lasted until noon (We now know more than we ever imagined about trim!). After lunch at an Irish pub (fish and chips for David) we met with Chuck from Integrated Technologies to go over all the electronics and controls for the house. This required us to envision how we planned to live in the house as he conducted a detailed walk through of the plans; for example, do we want to turn the lights on and off by the pool from upstairs; do we plan to listen to music in the shower; where will the alarm key pads go etc. Of course there will be a price ticket attached to all the switching equipment, amplifiers and processors behind the scenes. We are now waiting to see if Chuck can "really" sharpen his pencil to come up with a relatively modest audio system.

Dinner Thursday night was at the Oak Stakehouse which was hopping with activity. Fortunately, we sat on the second floor which was a little quieter. As always in Charleston, the food was good and since Donna fell in love with their basil & rosemary bread, I had to finish her steak as well as mine.

Friday June 22nd

Friday was a day of revisiting and finalizing decisions made on previous trips and a final visit to our new home site. We started with the cabinet designer (kitchen, bath,etc) and we are just about ready to sign off on this major decision. Our second stop was a review of lighting fixtures where we added to our catalogs collection. The afternoon stops included the appliance store where we reconfirmed our choices, and our final stop of the day to the tile store. This caused a complete brain overload and after a brief discussion with "Devanna" we decided enough was enough and we headed to the airport. Until next time.....

It has been a while since our last posting but things are moving right along down in Charleston as the pictures show. Our next visit to the construction site will not be until later in June at which time the framing will be complete and we can see first hand, the sizes of the rooms, ceiling heights and make decisions about placement of electrical fixtures, lay-out of the kitchen island etc. The pictures alongside show progress on the main house, but the garage and FROG (Family Room Over the Garage for those who don't know) are being framed next week and will be to the left.

In addition to work at the site, we have made some decisions. We have selected the swimming pool contractor and he is scheduled to begin work in August. We have received bids for an integrated electronic control system that will tie in the lights, security, audio visual and central vacuum throughout the house. Pending issues include selection of a ventilation system over the cook top (not a big deal except that some of them are pretty expensive) and final selection of cabinet colors for the kitchen.

On a related matter, we have sold our Arlington home! It only took 8 days and we are happy with the price, so now we have to move. We have found a brand new 2 BR condo a couple of miles away and taken out a lease that will hopefully keep us with a roof over our heads until the Charleston house is finished. Movers come in early July so we now have to do the packing thing. Anyone want any junk? We are trying to get rid of some. Thank goodness for Craig's List! Address changes will be sent out soon.

April 11-13 Trip

April 11th arrived cool and rainy in the south, but this did not deter us as we had assignments to tackle. After securing a hardy breakfast for Dave at the local"Waffle House" (destined to be our last visit to this chain) we headed to Daniel Island to check out the progress on our home. Dennis, our project manager met us at the site along with a pool builder to discuss ideas for size and placement. As the photo indicates we are still a long way from moving in, however it was exciting to see the start of the foundation and position of the house on the lot.

Our next appointment was at the appliance distributor, where we discussed our selections. We had a pretty good idea of what we were interested in and Dave came prepared with a list of the model numbers which made it very straight forward. The sales associate took the information and committed to get an estimate over to Dennis for our meeting the next day. Now for lunch!

We spent the early part of the afternoon with a decorator who will help us pull the whole place together and make sure we do not do anything "too" outlandish. As the weather was not conducive to outdoors activities we headed to the fitness center for a quick workout before dinner in Charleston. Our dinner reservation was at McCradys, a popular haunt that more than met our expectations with a delightful atmosphere.

Thursday we woke to a cool (70's) but sunny day, and after a quick breakfast we grabbed our Starbucks and headed to the lighting store where we met with "Crystal Lovelady", a lighting specialist. Crystal had done her homework and walked us through the house plans room by room. We made decisions about pocket lights and placement of the switches - who would have thought there were so many decisions to be made around light placements. This totally sapped my brain cells so we headed for the mall to pass some time and grab a quick lunch before our afternoon meeting wth Dennis.

Back at RobertMorgan Fine Homes, Dennis was waiting for us to run through the designs once more, and discuss changes since our last visit. He also had the estimates from the appliance distibutor - and what a surprise! We are suppose to get builder discounted prices, however the prices were higher than the retail prices David had off of the internet. Catherine, Bob's (the Robert part of RobertMorgan) wife, immediately called another distributor for a second quote that came in at a much better price point. Lesson learned - get more than one quote and do your homework.

Thursday night we headed into town to FIG (Food is Good), another restaurant on our list that we wanted to try. While it was an acceptable meal, it did not meet the same standard as many of the other restaurants we have come to know. Also, we were astonished at the high number of elderly folks (it looked like an early bird special night). This was a first for us, as most of the city restuarants seem to be full of a younger trendy set of patrons (much like ourselves!).

Friday - the cabinet day! Terry our kitchen designer, and a chef prior to getting into kitchen design, did an awesome job of taking the concept we discussed on our last visit, translating it into a kitchen. The cabinetry will be two colors - "espresso and late" (I really am a Starbucks fan!) with fairly straight lines. We still have to decide on counter tops but that can wait to another time. Once we had settled on the kitchen, which took a lot of negotiation (Donna and David), we moved on to the bathrooms. For the master bath, which will have a modern look with an open glass brick shower, we choose suspended cabinetry resting on glass bricks - a great concept that left our designer and Terry very excited. We chose a "Tommy Bahama" theme for the FROG (Room Over the Garage) with a touch of rattan. The other two bathrooms will have a more traditional look, one white and the other a wood shade.

Three hours later, completely sapped, we decided to head to the airport to see if we could catch an early flight home. Unfortunately we could - the reason for the unfortunate part is that we didn't have time to refuel the rental car, and let me tell you, rental car gas is VERY expensive. But it was good to get home for now, as we will return to Charleston in June once the house is framed. Stay tuned.

We Have Signage!

We are official - and the neighbours now know our name!

The long site preparation process is finally over, and our construction crew is ready to start on the house. The picture on the right, of the prepared building site, is a view to the back of the lot. The trees line the edge of the marsh and beyond the marsh is the 18th fairway. On our next visit to Charleston in the middle of April, we will meet with the kitchen designer and the lighting experts to discuss options. More to come....

Our First Selections visit

Taking advantage of the President's Day long weekend, we went down to Charleston for three days to make our first round of selections. This time we went through Dulles airport for some reason and it was not a happy experience. The flight was three hours late and we felt that we were lucky to get off the ground at all. In the future we will probably stick with National airport regardless of price.

The objective of the trip was to pick colors for the shingle siding and for the roof as well as window coloring, plumbing selections and a first run at cabinetry. We did it all and are still married!

Bob Lee, our builder, took us to Kiawah Island, 20 miles south of Charleston, to look at shingle houses to form an opinion on shades and colors. Kiawah has a large number of new shingle homes and is the best place to see a variety of types that are new or which have weathered a few years. We took pictures and obtained the actual color names from the architectural review board (ARB) later. Donna and I narrowed it down to two choices which Bob presented to the Daniel Island ARB the next day. It was tough choosing between the two but we settled on Spanish moss which is in the green/brown range and which will hold its color without any of the tanins bleeding through and little fading. (The actual color is a little darker and has more green in it than this sample from their web site) As a trim, we decided on Elephant tusk which is - you guessed it - an ivory color. Windows will be very close to the shingle color and the metal roof will follow suit. At this time we also selected the type and color of brick.

Next was plumbing. Bob's wife, Catherine, took us to the plumbing supply depot where we discovered that toilets come in different sizes, colors, capacities and all sorts of unimportant stuff. All I remember is that we bought five of them. We also purchased sinks for the kitchen, the bar, the FROG (Family room over the Garage) the bathrooms, BBQ area etc. Donna got a little carried away on a sink for the powder room and wanted one worth $2000, but I was able to reel her in. (So as of now guests will have to wash their hands in the toilet) The bathtub we selected is cool and the fixtures are nice. Importantly, we stayed within the budget. With 90% of the decisions on plumbing now made, we headed to the kitchens & cabinets people. Donna and I had done some research beforehand and had a pretty good idea of what we wanted but were looking for advice on kitchen lay-out and design ideas. The kitchen designer turns out to be a former chef and he will be preparing the elevations for us in time for our next visit when we will see which of the custom manufacturers will be able to provide us with the right mix of style and features we are looking for. We will also be introducing our designer into the mix at this point so that we can ensure that the colors and decorating schemes hang together with the rest of the house. They will also make recommendations for bathroom cabinetry.

Finally we met with Dennis, Bob's point man on our project and Rich who is Wayne's point man to discuss small details such as whether we wanted the hearth elevated or flush with the floor; where to locate the folding stairs to the attic and so on.

But wait, there is more. We were there for three dinners and followed our plan to try a different restaurant every chance we get. The first night was at Tristan's which offers modern american cuisine and is a nice and enjoyable place. The best part was watching the dessert chef prepare her concoctions (I want that job!). Night two was a recommendation from Bob called the Post House at the Old Village in Mount Pleasant (just across the bridge from downtown Charleston) and it turned out to be a quaint Inn with very good food and pleasant ambiance. Finally, we went to 39 Rue de Jean, a French Bistro, loud and busy in a very old building with that decayed look that gives it authenticity. All were good choices.

Welcome

Welcome to David and Donna's home building project in Charleston, S.C.

For those new to the latest Ryan project, a little background. Back in 2002 David and Donna took a road trip along the south eastern seaboard to look at properties for investment. Toward the end of the week we landed in Charleston, S.C, one of our all time favorite places, and fell in love with a new developing community called Daniel Island http://www.danielisland.com. After a fabulous dinner in Charleston and a glass of wine at one of the "hot music spots", it was a done deal - by 8:30 a.m. the next day we were the proud owners of 54 Watroo Point on Daniel Island. At the time we saw this as an investment, however, after many trips to Charleston in the intervening years to check on our "dirt" patch, and with retirement looming, last year we decided to build a custom home in this growing community. Daniel Island is 4000+ acres of land across from downtown historic Charleston that was owned by the Guggenheim family as a hunting preserve for many years. Its is bordered by the Cooper River on one side and the Wando River on the other. In addition to two beautiful golf courses (one by Tom Fazio and the other by Reese Jones) what appealed to us, was the fact that Daniel Island has many neighbourhoods as well as schools and other amenities while still being close to the city. Charleston meets all of our criteria, an airport, hospitals, superb restaurants, cultural activities, universities, charm and, of course, a warm climate. It is a place that people want to visit.

Once we decided to commit to the area, we embarked on selecting an architect. After interviewing several prospective candidates we hired Wayne Windham http://www.waynewindhamarchitect.com to design our Charleston home. Having lived in Asia, Europe, Latin America and various places in the US; in traditional, modern, big and small homes and apartments, we gave Wayne lots of room to be creative and he did not disappoint. Wayne designed a traditional shingle style home in the "Low Country" style that the Architectural Review Board demands. (We will provide a link to the design shortly.) After many iterations of the design in order to bring it down to our price range, we finalized the plans and set about hiring a custom builder.

Following the same process that was so successful in finding Wayne, we began researching Daniel Island builders, visiting their projects and interviewing the principals. In December we selected Robert Morgan Fine Homes, http://www.robertmorganfinehomes.com .

In January we secured our building permit and Phase II (the build) is now underway. As you can see from the first photo - we already have a bathroom - only the finest ammenities! We will add photos and links as we go so that family and friends can follow along with us on this adventure.