The Holidays

After a wonderful visit, great food, and movies with Noelle and Stuart in Toronto for Christmas, we dedicated the rest of the holiday season to the house. On Boxing Day (26th), we drove to High Point, NC where we camped out at Furnitureland South for a couple of days. With over a million sq ft of showroom and very good prices, we exhausted ourselves for two and a half days walking back and forth through the showrooms. Our objective was to make sure that our visitors would have nothing but the best to sit on, lie on and party on when they visit.

There is little else to do in High Point but to look at furnishings however, we did manage to have a very nice evening at Noble's Restaurant near the hotel. The highlight was our waiter who confided in us that he is a competitive Elvis impersonator (the early years) and has competed all over, including Canada. We were spared any impromptu songs but thought that with his current girth he might want to move over to Elvis' later years.

We made it back to Wasington in time to join friends for dinner and dancing at the Country Club of Fairfax for our final New Year's Eve. We resigned as of December 31st due to the pending move and the fact that January and February in Washington are not conducive to golf.

Off to charleston early on the 1st - and was it ever cold! Well, cold for Charleston and we were not dressed for it. The Brazilian crew were there putting some final touches on the shakes and they opined that the weather was not to their liking.

The schedule was hectic as always: door hardware, landscaping, fencing, closet designs, paint colors, crown molding, swimming pool colors, sign-offs on granite, lighting, built-ins, final flooring approvals and more. We dedicated the three days to details and made decisions we never thought we would have to make. When you visit, we hope you will open the drawer to the bathroom cabinet and think "wow what a nice knob and by the way the colors in this bathroom match the granite - they must have been difficult to select, but just look at the lighting in this room - it is perfect" (memorize this if you want to be invited back!).

Things are moving quickly now and we will have to go back again fairly soon. They did a great job on the outdoor fireplace and are getting ready to put in the barbeque and outdoor kitchen. The next visit will see forms laid for the driveway, color on the walls most of the trim work completed. A few selections remain largely because we decided to await wall colors, and kitchen cabinets before making final choces.

Little was open for dinner on the 1st but we did manage one nice dinner at 39 Rue de Jean French Bistro on Thursday where we had a perfect (what else?) steak/frittes.

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.