New Range for the kitchen

On November 2011 as a Christmas present for the renter,  we installed a new GE Convection Oven with electric 5 burner Glass Top Range.  All the bells and whistles.

New Range in place in Kitchen

New HVAC

Our renters had their baby a couple of months ago. We are still doing things at a snails pace piece-meal as they need taken care of. Our latest "renovation" was for the HVAC which gave-out as they say in the South. The unit was an air-handler/compressor outdoor unit first installed in 1988. Thank goodness for our home-warranty plan, as it saved us about $4000.

Our new unit is a Goodman and will surely save on $$$$ and save the environment as it is Freon-Free.

**** 6/3/2011... we replaced older duct work under the house to upgrade the duct work for the new HVAC.

A 3-D view of the addition

This is a 3-D view of what the layout will look like. This is probably the final draft and from here we will instruct our architect to draft some formal plans for our contractors. Construction plans are pending. JP and I have interviewed and discussed the project with three General Contractors. We really liked John Iles (and he happened to be the spouse of my husband's new practice partner). Anyway, John had the most honest opinion on the project and gave us several different options in which to pursue. Reliability is important and John has been incredibly helpful and punctual!

During the past couple of months, JP has been emailing the HGTV folks for a show called Renovation Realities. A production company out of Tennessee called RIVR Media produces and searches the SE for projects for HGTV for the Renovation Realities program. Breana Leader is our contact person and we were required to fill out a lengthy application form and make a video. My husband jumped right in, bought a digital video camera and software to produce an edited video tape of ourselves explaining the project. (Yuck, I hate being in front of the camera and seemed so artificial.) My husband was totally excited about it, while I was thinking that it would be such a hassle. He would prefer life as a budding film director rather than emergency medicine physician.

Ultimately we sent in the video, but felt they were probably looking for more charismatic characters. Oh well, all is well that ends well. JP had fun in the process.

Sketch of new addition and renovation (Getting close)

David's sketch of what the kitchen and bathroom will eventually look like. Now the next step is to see if the footprint of the new structure will fit onto our property plat, taking into account the several hardwood trees that are on property. We don't want to have to remove the trees if possible. I am getting excited as we are getting closer and closer.

A.H. Skipper Family House - 605 Laurel St.

Abijah Hollingsworth Skipper Family & House

Southeast corner of Laurel Street and Sixth Avenue, Conway, South Carolina

This is believed to be a photograph of the home of Abijah Hollingsworth Skipper and his wife Sarah C. Smith Skipper. It stood on the southeast corner of the intersection of Laurel Street and Sixth Avenue in Conway, South Carolina. A.H. Skipper was the sheriff of Horry County in the late 1860s and in the 1870s. His father was Joel B. Skipper, who served as state senator from Horry. Abijah was born near the Little Pee Dee River just downriver from Gallivant's Ferry in Horry District, SC. Sarah was from the Little River, SC area. Both are buried in the Conway First United Methodist Churchyard. Abijah and Sarah are sitting in front of the steps. I believe that pictured standing to the left of the steps is Henry Homer Burroughs, beside him standing on the porch is his wife, Isadora C. Skipper Burroughs, sitting in a chair on the porch is an unidentified man, standing on the porch to the right is Julia Skipper Causey and standing to the right of the steps and behind Sarah is Capt. Coleman S. Causey. An unidentified boy is standing in the yard to the right. Notice the "joggling board" on the front porch. The house was purchased by Dr. Henry L. Scarborough and around 1918 it was demolished to make way for the house that is currently (2006) located on the lot.

[Submitted by John Benjamin Burroughs]

Horry County Historical Society, 606 Main Street, Conway, SC 29526-4340.

Plat of Property

Click above for larger picture of rendering

In order to continue with our building plans we had the property surveyed. I forwarded the plans to our architect David Graham and he will determine based on where property lines are and setbacks needed to finalize our plans. We would like to avoid cutting down trees in the backyard as they provide a much needed shade canopy. Also, I have noticed running bamboo spiking up in the backyard along the fence. While I like bamboo, it is very invasive and will take over the yard if we are not careful. Every plant in the yard, is in fact invasive. Wisteria is growing bountifully on the iron fence beside the house, and Asiatic Jasmine is growing in the front yard. I am surprised that I have not found Kudzu growing there as well. Back to the plat, this is necessary for the final plans to be drawn. It will be up to us the take the plat to the city and to register it. Apparently, the current plat the city has shows that our property line is literally right on the house line. The corrected plans shows a good 20 feet leeway. I had visions of expanding the house from the kitchen, but our architect seems to think, as well as JP, that it is better to stay withing the footprint of the original house......Reality check ONE!

Narrowing it down

David Graham presented us with four rough drafts of our restoration project. With a week and a half under our belts to digest his recommendations, we decided to morph the plans to incorporate from each plan the things that we liked. We really liked his ideas for the kitchen in #2 and the living room and bedrooms in #4. We met again and decided to adapt what we liked from his plans to bring them together into a final rough draft. We have divided the work into phase 1 and 2. Phase 1 will focus on a total redesign of the kitchen and one of the bathrooms. Phase 2 will add a new master bedroom, master bath, double garage and potential studio / garage apartment. And yes, an outdoor shower, my favorite indulgent suggestion!