Hey, y’all! It’s been awhile since our last chat. However, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a lot going on with the rebirth of our old girl, Sutherly. Let me tell ya folks, she’s looking good!

I have been frequenting paint, light and tile stores gathering information  to prepare for some final selections. You know, color is a tricky chick. You can know that you want a pale blue but when you look at chart and there are what seems like hundreds of light blue hues, it gets very confusing. I owe a big thank you to friends who have listened to my ideas and concerns and offered their advice. I think I am now in the home stretch of at least the color selections.

I was talking with one of those said friends who happens to be in the process of building her own house. I said to her, “Do you ever get in your car, look over in the passenger seat at a pile of color chips and…” She interrupted before I even had a chance to finish and said, “You noticed you’re wearing the same colors?” Yep! I’m glad to know it’s not just me.

As a matter of fact, I can give you an example of such and share our interior color palate at the same time. I bought this bracelet over a year ago. I didn’t have anything to wear with it at the time, but something about the colors just moved me. I have been wearing it more in recent weeks while at the same time considering colors for the house. One day I look down and made the connection. Hey, here are our colors! There’s the light sage, baby  & teal blues. It even had wood tones of the floors and silver that represent the stainless steel. Funny how that works, huh?

As I mentioned in a previous post our contractor told us that after the final approval from the CBAR the pace of the renovation would pick up with tremendous speed. That was a bit of an understatement. I think it was Thursday that we were there along with framers, brick layers, window repair person, the termite guy and we were waiting on the electrician to arrive a little later. Things are definitely moving right along. As a matter of fact, we received the new timeline which projects completion by the second week of December. That may sound ambitious to you but wait until you get a load of these pictures.

The first is what the house looked like at the beginning of the week. Not only do we have the new/old windows in on the front, but the talented bricklayer has built us these beautiful steps out of old Charleston brick, some salvaged from the house. The sidewalk will be laid this week and will be trimmed out in the same brick

Now for the back. I am including a picture of what it looked like in the beginning for comparison. What an amazing transformation. What you see is where the old porches, top & bottom, were torn away and rebuilt as additional square footage for 1st & 2nd floors.The screen porch is well on its way also.

Inside demolition continues, although we are almost finished with that part of the renovation. We are creating a powder room below the front stairs. The measurements are 4 x 7ish. It will have horizontal bead board painted a light blue. This kind of gives you an idea. The door that you see is going away. It is currently in the laundry room. We are going to try to find a place for it somewhere else in the house.

Another demonstration of the skill of the craftsman Engelke Homes works with is the brick work on the fireplace and chimney. As with the stairs above, Derrick is a skilled craftsmen that learned working alongside his father. The pride and care he takes in his work is quite evident in the skilled job he did cleaning and repairing the mortar on both structures. Only the chimney portion of the fireplace needed the repairs as the bottom portion will be finished in a manner soon to be decided! 🙂

The chimney in the later picture will be trimmed to counter level with bead board.

I am learning that there’s a lot of professional assistance out there for homeowners. For instance, Sherwin Williams on Savannah Hwy offers a service that is very helpful to homeowners. For $95 a consultant will come to your home or office to help you with those tricky afore-mentioned paint color choices. You will receive a $50 coupon toward the purchase of your paint. You also receive a coupon for a buy one get one free sample color.I’m sure you can do the math. That folks, is a great deal!

Another helpful service is one offered by Rick’s Lighting on St. Andrews Blvd. They offer a decorator to come to your home to help with the selection of light fixtures. AND, it’s David’s favorite price: FREE! How’s that for helpful info?

Well, I don’t want to wear out my welcome so I think I’ll just hang ‘er up for this go around. I hope you are continuing to enjoy our little chats as much as I do. I’ll be back sooner than later for the next update on the transformation of our Charleston home.

David couldn’t wait to start cleaning house.

The south side had to be totally removed due to sun exposure and lack of maintenance.

Roof Samples/ Silver turned metal

I thought this kind of interesting. The nails on the exteriorof a building have to be no more 3 inches apart according to hurricane regulations for new construction. (TMI ?) 🙂