soopa

Awesome.

I love your basement(?) door. Looks like entrance to a wine cellar.

I need to move to NC...

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

haha, yeah, it's pretty cool. We were going to paint and/or stain it... but we may just leave it b/c it does look like an entrance to a wine cellar. It's actually just a crawl space. Basements don't add much to the resale down here, but they're expensive, so we just have a high crawl space.

You should come down... there's a community going up behind ours that has homes from $200k to 1.2 million. You can get some sweet houses in there for not too much money!! At the least you'll have to swing by this summer on your travels to take a dip

soopa

Maybe I will come check it out... I'll be looking for something different in about 5 years.

... and yes... please keep that door natural. You are paint crazy

I guess the grass is always greener though, I'm in a classic colonial with pure white EVERRRRYYYWHERE. I yearn for some natural wood here and there

soopa

... but if you do change your mind... go with a white washed stain rather than paint. it will maintain the rustic look... something needed in new houses. you don't want to go making the place look "too new"

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Yeah, come on down It's supposed to be a 5-7 year build anyway as it's a huge community with 860 or something homes plus retail, lakes, parks, and so on. Should be awesome, and is expected to really push our home values through the roof... so I'm looking forward to it for that reason alone

hehe, we are paint crazy, but in our defense we haven't painted anything yet, just talked about it. We're not painting the pergola, we're doing that white wash stain you mentioned. We don't want it to look brand new white, but more of an old world italian white... so if we did the door, we'd match it to the pergola stain.

GreenMonster

I'm looking at snowblower threads, and Juniors posting pool photos

soopa

Scrib

I was just gonna say the same damn thing... lol


Pools in January... JB, you ass!!!

dallison

looking good, i hate you

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

hehehe. Well, it was a little cool yesterday. Think we only got up to mid-40's... but it will be back in the 60's this week starting today .

Titand19

more pics of the pool please

soopa

Click the link in the first post of Page 1.

fsttyms1

:rof: ahahahaha


Pool update pics look great.

xjdmb16a2six

nice. damn your house makes me want to move to the east coast. lol

Street Spirit

Thanks for the continual update -- love checking in for new pics. Looks great!

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

FYI, all pics were updated to the main site (linked in the first post), so if you want to see start to almost finish... check it out

batm4n

Pardon the ignorance here. But what is the functional purpose of a pergola?
Sorta the same for an arbor also, I've seen the structures built in peoples yards but other than a wedding i'm not really sure what's the purpose.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a flame, i just never understood the purpose.
Like Gazebos they have a functional value even though they look a bit odd in McMansion homes.

batm4n

BTW, before I get flamed , I do like what you've done.
I looked into the costs for a 8' deep vinyl in nj and they came back with a figure of about 32K installed, then i got the speech about oh there's extras like topography and permits you'll be "comfortably" around 35K. Unbelievable living in NJ.

TBone2004

so it won't be the same color as the deck that is next to it? hmmm..how will that look?

BTW - this is fantastic work - I love these pics

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Oh don't worry, the deck isn't staying the way it is ... and the "roof" of ther pergola will stay "wood colored" until next year b/c we have to wait before we can stain it.

Anyway, the railings on the deck are going to be replaced with a white-distressed looking composite that has plexiglass instead of spindles. The supports of the deck will also have columns around them eventually, so everything will tie together. This is a several phase project that will take some time to be totally complete... and we're only on phase 1.5

The deck railing will kind of be like the style below, except instead of brown wood, it will be kind of whitewashed to tie into the pergola and pool theme....

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Don't worry, I won't flame ya... not everyone has to like it.. just us

The backyard gets A LOT of sun... and where we put the pool gets more sun then the other side of the yard. The summer sun down here is HOT.... so a pergola offers you a way to have a place to get out of the sun, yet still be by the pool. Obviously with the open "roof" you'll get some sun... but it will provide quite a bit of shade verses being out under the sun anywhere else on the decking.

Once the sun gets higher in the sky I'll take a picture of the shadow the pergola casts so you can see what I'm talking about. I'll also snap a picture of the firepit I bought my wife for Christmas. The under the pergola is going to be an outdoor living room type of area. There will be an outdoor rug, and loveseat and couch around the firepit. We're buying a glass top for the firepit... so when it's not being used, it can function as a table.

I'll get some shots of that in about an hour... the sun is still a little low and the shadow from the pergola is over on the grass and mud...

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

In the meantime, enjoy the new pics of the pergola Columns were put in yesterday. They're not done yet, but getting there. Should be done this weekend. Just waiting on some trim pieces... then he'll make sure everything in squared up... and we should be good to go....

Oh and yes, before anyone asks, they are load-bearing columns (the have to be since only one side is attached to the house). And also yes that we had footers poured under the concrete decking to ensure everything is supported properly


From up on the deck:




From the other end of the pool looking up:

TBone2004

You know what I really like about this house - from the few pics I have seen....you have the brick all the way to the ground (or as close as possible). I see so many homes that they stop - maybe usually cause it is siding - but they stop several feet from the ground - looks nasty. This looks really great. Apparently you are filthy rich! Looks gorgeous.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Hahaha, definitely not filthy rich . If we were still in NY we wouldn't have half of this stuff... we just made a good decision to move and got out at a great time. Got out while the NY market was hot and down to Charlotte right before prices down here went up... so got lucky on the timing. The builder did a good job of the brick on these houses. The brick is right to the ground... and that's the same on all of their houses... even the basement lots... brick to the ground so it's nice b/c they're all built with the same quality. Keeps values even throughout the neighborhood

Oh and thanks for the kind words ....

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Oh well, I missed it. Got busy with work and now that whole area of the backyard is in the shade. I found a pic online that pretty much shows what I was talking about. The only difference is that b/c of the angle of the sun verses the location of our pergola, the area under our pergola is always shaded....

So imagine the whole area under the pergola is shaded... and you can see the difference of the sun under the pergola verses just out in the sun....

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

OK, got two more pics. The rear supports have been wrapped in columns. The only thing left on the pergola is some decorative braces on the sides, and cleanup... and that should be it. The pool company is also supposed to come today to finish the steps... hopefully.


View from the bottom of the pool looking up.....




View from the pool furthest from the house...




And a little peek at the firepit I bought my wife for Christmas for under the pergola...

badboy

Very nice junior, very nice indeed!!

Lister00169

Very nice Junior! One question though, I see your backyard has no fence. Do you plan on putting one up?

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Oh yeah. Suprisingly the county does not require it, but the town and HOA does. Doesn't matter anyway, even if no one required it, we would never have a pool w/o a fence... especially since most of our neighbors have little ones as will we one day. We won't be fencing in the yard itself until we have kids, so once the pool is done and the landscaper grades the rest of the yard we will be fencing in the pool itself. In fact, we won't even be filling the pool until the fence is done.

Doing it this way means the pool is fenced off, then, down the road when we fence in the yard, kids will be able to play out in the yard but they still won't have access to the pool b/c of the other fence.

GreenMonster

Looks good... I was wondering what they were going to do with the downspout on the corner of the house. Probably not done yet with the downspout but it looks like you've got a http://www.rainguardusa.com deal on the end... Only reason I know what those are, is that I just bought 4 of 'em for my house last saturday

pmptx

Those spout ends look great, any feedback from either Greenmomster or Junior?

I would certainly go for them if they worked well

Scottman111

Looks cool JB, I like the steps by the pool

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Hahahaha. Good eye!!

Yeah, that's just temporary b/c they had to cut the downspout when the pergola went up. Once they did that the spout was coming straight down and there was already a small divot in the concrete from the water falling, so we ran to Lowe's and scooped up one of those for now. Eventually it will be turned to come down the other side of the house (right around the corner), then underground and out to the woods.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

They seem to work fine. It has little holes on the side, so when it rains, it unrolls based on how hard it's raining. We had some decent rain last Friday, so the water was coming out of the little holes on the side and it was only unrolled about 25% of the way and was watering the bush on the corner of the house (which is better then falling on the concrete)...

zeroday

man i love your house...the pool looks amazing.

:ibjuniorshouseisonmtvcribs:

GreenMonster

I noticed the downspout in the first set of pics where soopa commented on the wooden door.. saw the water on the wall, and probably should have said some thing then....

GreenMonster

I haven't used them yet. Didn't know that Lowes had 'em or I would have bought them in person.

JB covered the basics on how they are supposed to work.

Since I haven't gotten mine yet, I can't comment on how well they work...

I do need to get the water away from my house, and I don't like the downspout extension I have in the back of my house now... It's a pain in the ass to mow around and weedwack, so I figured I'd try these out. Ordered a 9 footer for there, and three 4 footers for the other corners of the house.

You can (almost) see the current 4 ft alum. extension I've got near the cellar bulkhead here...



I've got a pool of water that sits around the current extension, and I'm getting water in thru the foundation (around the basement window and from the bulkhead). I need to get the water as far away from the foundation as I can.

We now return you to the pool thread, that's already in progess

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

OK, few new pics of the pergola. Still not done as the finishing touches need to be added to make it a finished product (column molding, aligning everything, and so on)... but it's getting there. Below are two shots of the rear braces installed.

I also hear the pool guys outside, so they should be finishing the stone work on the steps... then the pool will be done except for the plaster and water



#1




#2 - a little further out...

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Oh and Greenie.... we put in a complaint with our builder about the lack of drainage on that side of the house and told them we shouldn't have to pay to route it away from the house since it's been like that since the beginning (I emailed them pics and we contacted them before the pool work even started), so they're sending someone out here to take a look. Hopefully they'll pick up some or all of the cost to run the drains and underground piping. That would be nice (and save us $1k)

GreenMonster

Cool... since my basement leaks, I'm kinda anal now about drainage...

Those rear braces look great