The Legend Of Oak Hollow

Well we’ve lived in the house nearly a year. In that time the lots surrounding us have been built on and new neighbors have moved in. The landscaping has taken hold though we still have some patchy spots in the grass. Most of the summer was too hot and dry to be good for lawns, though lawns that were seeded rather than sodded seem to have had fewer problems. Our biggest problems was that in the the weeks right after the lawn was seeded we had three monster rain storms which left standing water in parts of the lot and caused some of the seed to be washed away.

Minor Problems
We have had some minor problems. The biggest was that we had a leak in the roof in the area behind the fireplace. I discovered this when I went into the basement and discovered a large puddle. The roofers had to come out several times before discovering a problem with the flashing around the fireplace chimney, but it is now fixed.

Another problem was with the cap on one of the pillars on the porch. First there was a chip knocked out of the stone, and then when I leaned on it I discoved that the whole limestone cap could shift about an inch. This required some repointing by the mason, but is now fixed.

Several of the strike plates for the doors were set just a little too high keeping the doors from closing. I solved that with a little work with a file.

New Work
I was kept busy most of the spring and early summer getting our old house ready to sell. It’s amazing how much junk you can accumulate in 25 years. Only recently have I had a chance to do any work around the new house.

One of the problem areas was with the stairs leading into the house from the garage. These were left roughed in by the builder. Nothing was really wrong with them, they were jsut ugly with unpainted walls and particle board covering the stair treads and landing. As this turns out to be the most used entry for the house, I wanted to do something about it.

Fortunately, the painters left plenty of paint, so the first step was to paint the walls that people will see if they enter the house through the side door of the garage. This, in it’s self was a big improvement. The second step was to replace the particle board with cedar decking which I stained the same color as the front steps and the rear deck. The cedar should be durable and stand up to snow and dirt being tracked in. Finally, I finished it off by capping the drywall half wall on the stairs and landing with more of the cedar decking, giving the whole stairway a more finished appearance. The total cost for the whole project was about $110 and about 20 hours of work between the painting, prep, cutting and staining the decking and installaion. I still need to paint the rest of the garage interior, but I think I’ll leave that till the spring.

I’ve also done some minor maintenance. I restained the front stairs which had been covered with snow for much of the winter. I also restained a section of siding on the garage. This had been prestained, but for some reaason there were five or six boards that were a lighter color than the rest of the house. Not a disaster, but really annoying. Fortunately, there was some left over stain, so an hour or so of work and one more little thing taken care of.

There are still a lot of projects remaining, a bench and coat hooks for the rear hall, walls for the wine cellar, shelves for the six upstairs closets, and some additional wiring for the shop area in the basement, but I should have plenty of time this winter once football season is over.

We had torrential downpours yesterday. As Greg alluded to previously, we are really affected by rain in a number of ways. Because of this, we’ve been very curious to see how the rain garden performs.

Yesterday, our yard was flooded, as you can see below. Off on the left you can see a very submerged rain garden. It was a good time to see if it would stand up to the challenge.

It did a good job, all in all. Here are some before and after pictures. About 12 hours had passed, and you can see that the rain garden was happily draining away, while puddles on our neighboring lot were quite unhappily submerged.

Our hope: That our neighbors (when we get them) see the effectiveness and adds on their own rain garden.

Our fear: That they won’t really care about the flooding because it is at the very back of their lot line.

We’ll see which way it goes!

Well, the landscaping is finished and now we have a yard covered in straw and a bunch of bushes and plants poking up through the stone. It actually looks pretty good except for the straw.

To get the grass to germinate it has to be kept moist. Of course the first week was dry and cold, ideal conditions for not growing grass. This resulted in my trying to water the yard in near freezing temperatures with one hose and a small sprinkler. The first day took me nearly two hours. A neighbor lent me some hoses and another sprinkler which helped a lot, but I still kept an eye on the weather forecast hoping for rain. Even with the extra hose watering took over an hour each day and there were parts that I had trouble getting to because I didn’t have enough hose to reach them.

I finally broke down and bought three new hoses and a sprinkler at the local hardware store. Fortunately there was a sale on. The additional hoses and new sprinkler gave me much better coverage. The weather also started to warm up.

Then the Rains Came
The day after I bought the sprinkler and hoses it rained. Not a nice gentle rain, but a hard driving rain. We ended up with over an inch. The rain garden was under water and the neighbor’s downspout cut a gully in the front yard. At least I didn’t have to water. Two days later it rained again. Nearly an inch, though it still hadn’t warmed up.

Despite the rains and cold after about two weeks the first thin green blades started to poke their heads up out of the earth. As the days went on, a few more joined in. After three weeks, we almost have what could be called a lawn though there are plenty of sparse spots. Still, there’s hope.

The Rain Garden Works
The big question mark about the landscaping was whether the rain garden would work. As I’ve explained, the yard on the side of the garage ends up draining the adjacent lots and sits lower than the street so that there is no outlet until it overflows and runs down the driveway. The rain garden is supposed to provide someplace for the water to collect and percolate into the ground. That’s the theory, but even Wayne, our landscape architect, was dubious.

As we have had four major rains in three weeks, it’s been given a good test. Several times the berm surrounding the garden has been under water as has the whole side yard. However, a few hours after the rain stops the water has pretty much dried up. An indication of how effective it is is the fact that a few feet away from the rain garden just the other side of the lot line, there has been a puddle that hasn’t dried up since the first rain storm. Now if only we can convince the people who build behind us to put in there own rain garden.

Speaking of Rain
When the first rain came I discovered a small puddle in the middle of the basement floor approximate underneath where the fireplace is. The fireplace is a gas one with a metal chimney going straight up through the roof. It didn’t eeem to be coming in through the basement walls, and when I looked up at the underlayment, I could see water spots. The puddle dried up, but when it rained in a few days, the puddle returned. Of course this happened over the weekend.

On Monday, I called the builder. The roofers were out the next day. There was more rain and another puddle. The roofers returned and put some flashing up where the roof meets the bricks on both sides of the second story. So far the puddle hasn’t returned. However, Toshi the pup, pointed to a wet spot on my closet floor on the otherside of the cavity behind the fireplace where the chimney runs. This is still something we’re going to have to watch.

Finishing Up
There were a few items that had to wait on the landscaping. One of these was the compressor for the air conditioning. This was installed and theoretically works, though the weather hasn’t warranted its use. With all the windows we have no lack of breezes the few days it’s been warm.

The other major item were the two stairs from the rear deck. They have started to work on those, but haven’t finished because it rained again today. There were also a few pieces of trim underneath the vback doors which didn;t get installed in the rush to get everything else done in November and December. That and a stuck side door on the garage that no longer sticks rounds things out.

I’m uploading some pictures that were taken a week or so ago. The landscapers are done as of yesterday, so the landscaping is actually further along than what this shows, but we probably won’t take more pictures for a few days. Until then, here they are! (Click to enlarge them!)

After a long winter without much happening, the weather finally cooperated to the point that they could begin landscaping. We had two major problems that had to be resolved. One was the slope of the lot that resulted in the house sitting up quite high in the front. The other was a major drainage problem in the area to the side of the garage. This was evident this winter when we alternately had a lake and our very own skating pond. The puppy was amused by both.

The first problem is being resolved by a set of retaining walls flanking the front steps. This has resulted in a much more formal look than we had planned initially, but Wayne, the landscaping designer, has done a good job of tying the walls to the lines of the house and using it to provide a visual foundation. When the plantings are all in, they should soften the walls somewhat. Right now they do appear a bit massive and make the house look even bigger than it did before.

We are trying to deal with the second problem with a rain garden. They haven’t started work on this yet, so I don’t know how well that will succeed in dealing with the runoff. To add to the suspense, they begun construction on one of hte lots immediately behind us. It’s not clear how much that will affect the problem, but the lot does drain onto ours.

We have begun using the rear decks. So far they’ve been quite pleasant, but the trees are just starting to put out there leaves. We still don’t have a good feel for how much sun we are going to get. To build there house, the neighbor had to clear quite a few good size trees. Also, because the landscaping isn’t done, the decks have no steps into the back yard yet. It will be nice to be able to just open the back door and let the puppy out.

If the weather is nice, we’ll try to get some pictures of the landscaping posted.

It’s been a while, but it being winter, nothing much has happened. Wayne, our landscaping designer came back with a revised plan for the landscaping that takes into account the changes to the front steps and tries to deal with the problem of the low spot in the back yard.

The new design calls for a low stone block wall running much of the width of the front. This will wrap around the front walk to keep soil from washing onto it, and will wrap around the two trees at the other end. It will be a more formal look than we had originally planned, but the horizontal lines will serve to emphasize the Prairie Style lines of the house. It actually should look quite nice. It also is more expensive. The plantings will remain much the same, but will be arranged in a more linear pattern echoing the wall.

The other change has to do with the drainage. One problem that we did not realize when we bought the lot was that we had a low spot. We are at the bottom of a hill and the lot slopes from the right rear to the front left. Compounding this is that we have this massive oak tree sitting in a low spot in the middle of the lot. Because we built the house between the tree and the natural drainage path, there is nowhere for the water to go. If we raise the grade of the yard to the left of the garage, any run off into our back yard will flood the tree. If we build up around the tree, it will kill the roots. As it is, the yard on the side of the garage is lower than the street level which means that it collects water. Right now we have an ice sheet over much of that area. If we had a Zamboni we could play hockey.

This problem has given Wayne fits, and is responsible for some of the delay in getting plans. The ultimate solution was to not fight nature, but take advantage of it with a rain garden. This will be a depression in the side that will collect most of the runoff and allow it to soak into the ground. It will be filled with lots of waterloving plants and form kind of a wildflower garden. We were trying for a naturalistic look for the rear of the lot, anyway. It will be screened from the street and the lot abutting our rear by some spruce trees. The plants should attract dragonflies which will eat the mosquitos. At least that’s the theory. Actually, rain gardens have become popular in this area in the last few years as concern about runoff polluting the lakes has grown. The state Department of Natural Resources has been promoting the idea. So it looks like we will be taking our low spot and creating a “Water Feature”. Wayne suggested we get a nice garden bench so we can sit and look at our puddle. Very Zen.

Now all we have to do is wait for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw (and our hockey rink to evaporate) before the landscapers can move in.

The Final Bill
We finally got the final bill from the builder. Actually, after you elliminate the additions and changes that we made after the initial proposal, we stayed very close to budget. The final bill is only about 2% over what we had anticipated. The biggest chunks were $3000 additional for the initial excavation and $1600 the painter charged us for painting the walls “different colors”. I think that means we didn’t paint them all the same color rather than being a comment on our choice of colors.

Well we’ve been in the house a little over a month (we moved in the week of Thanksgiving) I thought I’d bring this up to date with some random observations.

The State of Things
The house is now essentially done. All of the hardware has been installed with exception of one window handle in the basement. The deck has been completed except for the stairs which have to wait on the landscaping which has to wait on spring as we just had 8″ of snow. The window grills have been installed which really changes the look both from the inside and from the outside. I’m sure there is some mysterious clause in the Builders Code of Conduct that required them to leave so many minor details unfinished at the time we moved in. It was nothing major, just little annoyances. The railing on the deck wasn’t put on until this last Tuesday. As a consolation, there is another house in the neighborhod where they just moved in and the workers are still there, so we were not unique.

Heating Bill
The first heating bill came yesterday. Allowing for the higher price of gas this year it isn’t much higher than the old house despite the fact that we now have over twice the square footage, a bigger water heater, and gas range and a lot more lights. Of course we also have top of the line windows and doors and six inch walls instead of four.

Furniture
The cheap made in China mission style furniture actuall looks pretty good in the living room. The dining room table that I made and the Amish chairs look very appropriate in the larger dining room. The table in the breakfast nook is working out well even if it does have a temporary top made from a piece of plywood that I stained in a hurry. What we really need now are about three or four more end tables and the same number of lamps. Also, our bed set doesn’t fit very well as it covers the outlets and just fits between the windows. That’s probably the first major piece of furniture we’re going to replace. The library is the one room with too much furniture. With the bookcases in there’s one more chair than what will fit comfortably. The first major project will be to add built in bookcases to replace the random mix that we have now.

Stairs
One thing that we have to face is the stairs. You can’t get in or out of the house without going up them. The ones in the garage aren’t bad, only seven steps, but with taking the puppy out numerous times a day, we are both getting plenty of exercise. The front stairs are another matter. There are eight or so wooden steps plus about the same number of steps in the cement walk from the curb. This makes it an adventure getting the morning paper or the mail, especially when there’s as much snow as we have now. Still, it does make for a rather grand entrance.

The Kitchen
The kitchen is working extremely well. Except for Irene occaisionally burning things in one of the ovens there really haven’t been many problems. We had both Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners (the latter for 19 people) and things went as smoothly as can be expected with a ton of hungry family getting in the way. We also had 15 people over for the Outback bowl and things worked out well. The house is very good for entertaining.

There are a few things that take getting used to in the kitchen. One is that there is plenty of storage, but a lot of it is up very high. This does provide space for all those things that you only use once or twice a year (like at christmas) but it does require a step ladder to get at. Also, because plates and silver ware are on one side of the island and cooking stuff is on the other, it does require some planning if you are plating food from the cooktop to avoid having to run around the island (which is 9 gfeet long) all the time. Of course, if two people are in the kitchen at the same time this isn’t a big deal as you can just yell out “pass me a spoon”

The Viking gas cook top has allowed us to use the full potential of our All Clad and Le Crueset cookware which has worked very well. The one exception is that we had to get a non-stick frying pan for frying eggs and making rosti.

The TV
The 50″ DLP HDTV was well worth it. Surprisingly, though, one of the features that we have used the most has been the Jazz music channel that came as part of the HDTV cable package. This was particularly nice before I got the stereo hooked up. The only down side has been that the cable box, DVD player, and VCD are piled on top of the mantel. This is partly necessary because of cable runs and also so we can use the four remotes. We had originally planned to put all this stuff in the built in cabinet chich we had wired with outlets, but that wouldn’t allow us to use the remotes because of furniture in the way. It will be useful when we get a home theater type sound system, though. This area is still a work in progress.

The Neighborhood
Despite the fact that there are still a half dozen houses being built on the block and about the same number of empty lots, it is becoming a pretty nice place. The large number of mature trees makes it seem like its been around for awhile though onlky one house has been occupied for more than a year. The neighbors seem more open and friendly than in our old neighborhood.

Of course part of this impression might be due to the puppy. Walking the dog turns out to be a great way to meet people. Particularly as it seems at least half of the houses in the neighborhood have dogs. Toshi has made a number of new friends (not the boxer accross the street though).

I guess I’ve rambled enough for now. I just wanted to make some comments on what it’s like to live in the house, now that it’s actually a reality. I’m sure we will be posting more pictures in the future, particularly one the landscaping gets done.

Well, we’re finally moved in. I haven’t posted in several weeks as I took time off to move and get settled in. One thing I discovered is that we had accumulated an enormous amount of stuff in 25 years. We still haven’t brought everything over from the old house, but the list of things that remains grows shorter every day.

Our big moving say was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We hired a local company who sent out two strong guys and a truck. It was well worth it. My back will be forever grateful. There were a few minor hitches. They were still working on the front steps the day of the move. Everything came in the door from the garage except for the three sofas. Fortunately these were the last things they unloaded.

There are a few things for the builders to still do. The major one is finishing the deck, though that is 90% complete. They spent the last week and the first part of this week finishing the ceiling and soffits on the front porch and putting in the pillars. These do a really good job of tying everything together. There are still some details like door stops and the handles on the windows in the master bedroom and upstairs, but it’s December so we aren’t going to be opening many windows.

All of our furniture fits except for an extra chair in the library. That room is still too small, but with the setbacks, there is just no way that we could have gotten more space. On the other hand the living room is bigger than I expected.

Cleaning
The Friday we took posession we came in to start cleaning. There was just an incredible amount of dust and grit everywhere. We’d clean off a surface and two minutes later it would be dusty again.

On Saturday Irene’s Mom and Dad and her sister and brother in law came over to help with the cleaning while I dealt with hanging 18 sets of blinds (those were all we could afford, we still have the upstairs, the library, and the breakfast nook.) Irene’s Dad is a demon for cleaning and we couldn’t have done it without him.

There were a few minor problems, like they forgot to plug in the cook top and there was a secret switch to turn on the dish washer, but all in all, everything met our expectations.

Big TV
We bit the bullet and bought a 50″ DLP projection TV for over the fireplace in the living room. This actually works out quite well if not especially period looking. We had planned to put the electronics in the built in next to the fireplace, but because of remotes and things this may not work out. Right now there is a stack of set top box, VCR, and DVD player sitting on top of the mantel with some really ugly wires behind. Well, it gives me a project for this winter. It took me most of one Sunday trying to get everything hooked up. Fortunately it took my mind off the Packers-Eagles game.

Getting Settled
It didn’t take too long to get settled in. The dining room table and chairs really look nice now that there is space to put them. We bought some cheap “mission style” furniture for the living room because we had nothing. It was all we could afford and actually it doesn’t look to bad. We managed to find two matching Morris chairs and a pair of matching sofas. A love seat would have worked better, but the line has been discontinued. We basically got the two sofas as discontinued floor samples (but that’s another story).

The Master bedroom is a bit sparse at the moment as all we have is the bed, a totally inappropriate headboard night stand thingy, and a TV stand. But it works. The closets are great, though we’re both still unpacking clothes.

Right now the Library has a mismatched collection of shelves, our old living room sofa which is really two big, my old living room chair (which is too modern but comfy) and two humongous speaker cabinets from my monster stereo days. This room will remain a work in progress for some time. The first order of business is to make some built in shelving. I also need to get some smaller speakers and a different cabinet for the stereo equipment. My long range plans include a Library table and probably some sort of settle more in proportion with the size of the room.

The two upstairs rooms are just a mess right at the moment as neither one of us has had any time to deal with them. Well, that’s for the future.

The table I made for the breakfast nook is working out well. I still need to make a real top to replace the piece of plywood I have on it now, but it looks okay. I also need to build some benches, but we have some chairs that will work for now.

Status Report
We’re comfortably moved in. Toshi has found all sorts of interesting things. She thinks the upstairs landing is a cool place, but she’s not too sure about the puppy that she keeps seeing in the glass of the stereo cabinet in the library. The kitche works great, though it does involve some preplanning as the thing you need is always on the other side of the island.

The landscaping remains unfinished (more accurately unstarted). Right now we have a sea of mud, but any day we’ll have a sea of frozen mud. We have discovered that we have a drainage problem in the yard behind the garage. We have two options we can either solve the problem and kill the oak tree or save the oak tree and be stuck with a lake. Maybe we can turn it into a fish pond.

We missed the deadline for hosting Thanksgiving, but we’re committed to Christmas with 18 or 20 people.

As we have time, we’ll be posting more pictures and comments. Happy Holidays.

I wish I could say that these are the final exterior photos, but they won’t be. Our porch still isn’t finished, and they need to put the columns in place. Once that is done, I’ll update the photos. Though actually, the real “final” photos won’t be til probably summer, when the landscaping has taken hold.

I also realized I hadn’t posted pictures of the powder room, so I’ve added those as well. The walls are a much deeper “rust” than what the photos show.

(and of course I needed to include the obligatory Toshi shots)

Here are a few shots of the interior of the house, as it is today. I may take some exterior shots, but there is a worker’s van on our future front lawn, a big construction truck in front of the house, and a port-a-potty on our side lawn. So we’ll see.

Living Room:

Dining Room:

Fireplace:

Front Door:

Toshi, discovering that we have an upstairs she didn’t know about:

And her response to: “Toshi, you come back down here right now!”