SANGREE CONSTRUCTION, INC.

Timber Trail Front Porch

2008-11-01T10:41:00.010-04:00

Here is an old picture of Timber Trail before any outside work.

BEFORE

AFTER!Notice the new front door, trimed out windows, shutters, new windows, porch, and reverse gable..

Josh is replacing the front deck and adding a few blocks so we can center the deck under the door. It took us almost 16 months to get the building permit because we were within 50 feet of a creek that drains 50 or more acres. Miracles never cease!
Here are Shawn and I laying out the reverse dormer. The front porch part is finished. We added front steps in an angular design to create the feeling of welcome and they tend to draw the eye to the porch/entryway.Max, Shawn, and I starting to frame the reverse gable. We had some fantastic weather with no rain till we had the roof on and felted in.Rough framing complete. Notice the beautiful arched front. Adding the arch took a somewhat squatty home and gave it a larger, grander appearance with a focial point. Also looking out from the inside you don't even see the porch. It also lets in a lot of light. Good job Al on the design.

Me, Josh, and Shawn.The almost finished product. We still have the patio to put down, hand railings to install, cover the brick chimney in stone, and a few trim details. If you noticed the large messy maple tree is also gone. We had Bob Finley from Finley's Tree Service remove it for us. Good job Bob.The stack of bricks are the pavers that should be going down next week some time.

Progress

2008-10-04T10:23:00.004-04:00

Here are some recent photos of the house progress. We pored the concrete for the front porch last week and stamped in a slate pattern. It looks great. I trialed in some black die with black release agent to give a dark black grey look with some very light grey coming through. The idea was to balance the dark roof.

As you can see the columns arrived and we installed them as well. Sure does adds stability and a since of strength to the front.

Also the front walls are ready for the finish coat of butter colored stucco.
Here is the north side with the finished stucco on. It is looking very yellow in these pictures but it is really a buff color. We are trying to get an old world French country look. The partial stones are to simulate old walls with the plaster falling off.

Here is the gable end of the garage. The bottom section will be totally filled in with stone and the top will get stucco around the stones.

2008-08-06T13:00:00.002-04:00

This is a good picture showing the rough grading. The land gently undulates. All the windows are in place and most of the doors.
Front doors are in.
Good picture of the back yard and sound mound. Big mound.

2008-07-12T20:59:00.002-04:00

This is the sand mound going in. Yes it is as large as it looks. After a perk and probe a state certified designer designs the sand mound and you build it to their specifications. Evidently the soil was not very porous so consequently the large mound. Here we are putting 10' of 2 B stone on top of 38" of lime dust. On top of the stone will go 10" of top soil. We were joking that when we are done it will be the 19th tee off spot. It looks just like the 12th tee in the background. All the stone in place and rough grading around the mound.
These are the two tanks that the sewage flows to after it leaves the house. The first tank is the settling tank and the second is the dosing tank. The liquids from the dosing tank get pumped up to the sand mound and are distributed around the sand mound through a series of pipes. The liquids then leaches slowly back into the ground.
The white pipe will be connected to the pump in the dosing tank,

2008-07-12T20:42:00.002-04:00

This is the front of Timber Trail house. We are getting the site ready for a new deck and patio. There was once a large maple tree at the corner of the house which we removed and now we are removing the roots. We have waited almost a year for approval from DEP to start this project because we are within 50 feet of a stream that drains 100 acres or more. Front of Larch with some of the grading done and the front doors in. We have not had much time to work on the new house, we are still seeing progress.
Garage is filled in almost ready for concrete.
The back of the house rough graded and some of the casement windows in. Tyvek on and doors and windows properly prepped for installation.

Fisher Brothers installing shingles

2008-06-11T05:56:00.004-04:00

We work with many subcontractors who specialize in certain trades, roofing being one of them. I enjoy doing the hard physical labor of roofing but my back sometimes gives me trouble so I personally only occasionally get involved in the actual roofing. Although I did personally stock all 180 bundles of shingles on the roof last week.
We did a job for a customer some time ago and I noticed the roof was very professionally done. I enquired who did the roof and eventually made a connection with the Fisher brothers. They are 5 Amish brothers who started a roofing and siding company called Sunrise Exteriors. The brothers are Steve, John, Daniel, Amos, and Paul. Great guys with a wonderful sense of humor who enjoy hard work.
The temperatures the past few days have been hovering around 95 degrees and extremely humid. The Fisher brothers just kept right on going, doing an excellent job as usual.
Daniel, one of the brothers has not joined the church so he is the designated truck owner and driver. Daniel is the one who is not in black pants and not wearing a shirt.

Plywood on roof, shingles ready to go on.

2008-06-08T18:55:00.003-04:00

As you can see the trusses are up, the sheathing is on, and the bundles of shingles are ready to be installed.

I like this view of the house. This was taken from beside the 12th fairway. This spot was where we took our family portrait last year.
We have five Amish brothers coming to help us to install the shingles. The tempetatures are going to be around 98.
Al took this shot from inside our living room looking south.

More Framing Pictures

2008-05-26T07:46:00.002-04:00

After some major set backs because of poor engineering on the part of the truss company we started to move ahead setting trusses on Monday afternoon. The trusses were scheduled to arrive Friday as it turned out they did not come till Monday afternoon at 2:00. I had 10 men on site ready to set trusses and put up plywood. This is all we were able to get done Monday.
Bonus room over garage.
Tuesday it rained all day and Wednesday it rained in the morning. Tuesday morning a couple of engineers from the truss company came out to the site to inspect the trusses they made wrong. Four trusses were made wrong and we had to modify a few more. Wednesday we set the rest of the trusses and started to put on plywood. More rain Thursday which made walking on the roof a little dangerous. Slow going.

This shot is from the new road going in.

2008-05-18T20:12:00.002-04:00

All the walls are up and we are ready for trusses. View from the twelfth tee.
Front of the house as viewed from Larch Circle.
Front porch and garage.
View from golf course.
View of the back of the house and garage.

2008-05-13T20:04:00.002-04:00

The first wall went up today Monday May 13th. It took 8 men to raise it.
David Sangree going for another gas cylinder for the nail gun. He has not had much training but is learning fast.
All the exterior walls up and 8 feet of sheathing.
Front to the house. We left the osb sheathing long around the front doors so we could trim it to the arched entry doors when they come.
One more shot of the gang working.

Foundation and decking

2008-05-12T17:20:00.002-04:00

The foundation ins in, the basement walls poured and the main house decking down. YES!!!
As you can see we have had quiet a bit of rain. The foundation is perfectly level because the rain rolled off on all sides equally. The puddles are because we have not put in the posts under the middle bearing beam yet.
Tuesday will be a big day. We are ready to start building the wall. Then next Monday the trusses come.
I spent a lot of time Sunday spraying poison ivy. The lot was neglected and consequently the poison ivy took over. A few sprays of Round Up and it should disappear.

Milestone Progress

2008-04-24T18:52:00.003-04:00

Kevin and Max two faithful employees. Drywallers are all finished and now the painters take over.

Kitchen is in all we need now are counter tops.
Painted hallway in on the classroom side.

Footers

2008-04-19T03:27:00.006-04:00

The hole for the basement is dug and the footers are going in. Because the ground was so hard we had to hammer drill for every pin that held the footers in place. Here is the finished product ready for basement walls. Nice Concrete out of Duncannon will be pouring the basement walls.
David walking around inspecting. Looking busy.
David and Bob digging around the bulkhead for the basement door. We hit some hard rock. They worked on this for about two hours.

This big area for concrete is for the back covered patio. Instead of forming for the inside walls we are just going to pour the entire area full of concrete.
Dave and Bob still at it. I told them it was rumored there is gold buried in the area and that the people buried it around 11' 11 inches deep.
Ready for concrete. Forms all up and stone in place.
Concrete poured, everything cleaned up, and ready to call it a day.

PS. They never found any gold.

Basement

2008-04-16T20:53:00.002-04:00

Here are some pictures of the basement being dug. We are having some perfect weather for this right now. Tomorrow we are setting the footer forms and spreading stone. Friday we are pouring the footers and Monday the walls. We may have to get jackhammers to get the spot to the right in the photo above. It is very hard shale that is running directly toward the hole. This makes it very hard to break apart.

As you can see we will be building on a very firm foundation. You can see a clay vein in the center of the picture below but the rest is very hard shale.

Digging Foundation

2008-04-14T19:51:00.002-04:00

Here we are Monday afternoon starting to dig the foundation for the new house. Joe McNaughton is driving the bulldozer. He is stripping off the top soil and piling it up to be redistributed after the foundation is in. This is David Sangree who is apprenticing with us for about a year. (If he is good) We are getting rid of all the scrub pines and brush. We also had to get rid of all the trees and shrubbery around the septic field. David is a volunteer fire fighter with Willow Grove Fire Company. You wouldn't know it by the hard time he had getting this fire started. He brought this dinky fire extinguisher from his car just in case things got out of hand. As you can see from the size of the fire it would not have done much good. It did give us some laughs though.
Here David is getting the septic field ready for sand. All the trees have to be cut down and moved as well as all the brush and leaves. As you can see we are piling up the top soil from the house site next to the septic field so we don't have to move it very far when we go to cover the sand mound with top soil.
Joe moving trees away from the sound mound and prepping the site.
We moved all the good trees a few days ago and David and I were staking them this morning. The site is starting to look good.

Recomendations

2008-04-10T19:14:00.007-04:00

We designed and installed some custom shelving around a room for a customer last week and we just received payment along with a personal note. I have posted it below.

Allen,

Thanks for doing such a great job on the shelving.
I painted them last week and got all my books put up there on Sunday.

It really makes the room look sophisticated!!

They were exactly what I envisioned

Thanks again,

Tom Kulp

Here is another one from an attorney we have done a lot of work for over the years.

I have known Allen Sangree for a number of years. He has worked for me, my law office, and my land development company on various projects. He is knowledgeable, expirenced, honest, and fair. I recomend Allen to anyone who has need for construction related work.

Very truly yours,

Richard Angino

Milestone Drywall

2008-04-10T19:00:00.004-04:00

Work is progressing at Milestone. Plumbing is roughed in, electric is roughed in and tile is being laid in the entryway and bathrooms.

This is the kitchen and life skills room . The students will learn to cook, do laundry, and general life skills. We will be installing a full kitchen,

This is the conference room. We have an interesting detail in the center, a raised section with some nice lighting.

Here we are finishing the drywall. It's all hung and soon we will be painting.

2008-04-07T19:23:00.003-04:00

200 Timber Trail Lane

2008-04-01T20:21:00.008-04:00

Below are some pictures of the work we are doing at 200 Timber Trail Lane.

Check out the creek:) Don't tell Will.

New sewer line from house to tank

Remove one sewer tank

Grade work

Straighten creek.

Grade driveway

New garage doors

New white fascia and side garage.

Check out the siding and new door out from the garage.

Milestone

2008-03-29T12:34:00.006-04:00

Framing on classroom side of Milestone Achievement Center. All steel stud 20 gauge.

Milestone is a private school for seriously emotionally and mentally challenged children. Any child the local public schools can't handle will be sent here. We have been doing work for the them for a couple of years now. It seems that the need for this type of physicality is growing because they bought the building a few months ago. We are working with Wiligrod and MacAvoy architects. We gutted the whole second floor except for the drop ceiling and lighting. This makes it a little more challenging for us but saves the customer a ton of money.

According to code if you are remodeling more than 50% of the space you are required to install all new t8 florescent fixtures. After doing some calculations I figured the cost of the old lights and then removal the old t12 lights would be around $5,000.00. This does not take into account land fill, wasted resources and the environmental impact.

New t8 would cost about $10,000.00 This includes all new wiring. So to save 2 KWH per light fixture at .10 a KWH would save about $350.00 a year in electricity.

SO you spend about $16,000.00 to save $350.00 a year. I'm all for going green but only when you look at the total picture.

This is a picture of the administration side.

Andrew the electrician doing his thing. Andrew works for Mark Freese Electrician Inc. These guys are great guys to work with.

This is Max one of my employees. He is very interested in making construction a career. I am sure one day he will have his own company. He is a real take charge kind of guy. Tries to boss me around sometimes.
This is Kevin, another employee. He is one of the best workers that has ever worked for me. Nothing is a problem with Kevin. He is a real pleasure. He is also learning the trade. Kevin is a plumber by trade but right now he is trying something new. We are glad he is.

2008-03-27T18:40:00.003-04:00

Tree moving day. We moved all the nice trees that were in the center of the lot where we are placing the house. Our plan is to shield the house from the 12th tee so we won't get hit with golf balls and have to say hi to all the golfers. They are to the west of the house so we won't loose any sun. Sean you must recognize some of the guys. That's Paul getting into the Bobcat. Jeramey ran the backhoe. The lot is now ready so we can start the basement and foundation. They are calling for rain the next few days so we will see what happens. Also the township codes officer Julie Shields has some concerns about the set backs so I will be meeting with the township engineer on Friday.

Trees all moved. This is where the house is going to go.

Lot 88 Land clearing and well

2008-03-09T14:43:00.009-04:00

This is what the lot looked like when we purchased it. Below is how it looks after we removed all the debris and leveled the lot.

We drilled the well and hit a reserve of water that supplies 50 gallons a minute. We used Eichelbergers, Inc to drill the well. Drilling a well is always a risky proposition. You get an estimate from the well driller based on his past experience in the general area but there are no guarantees of hitting water. You can drill several hundred feet and not hit a reserve of water. I am glad to say we drilled 280 feet and hit a generous supply of water. 50 gallons a minute. The first 80 feet we drilled an 8" diameter hole then 220 feet at 6". After drilling the hole we inserted a 6 5/8" steel wall casing 81 feet down from the top. Finally we put a cap on the well head.

Raw Land

2007-01-14T20:55:00.000-04:00

This is the land as we saw it for the first time. It is just over an acre and boarders alongside a golf course. The lot had been used by the golf course maintenance staff as a dumping ground for stumps, leaves, dirt, and anything else they wanted to hide. As you can see in the picture with Sean and the cars it was quiet an extensive pile of debris.

I was planning on renting a bulldozer and just pushing everything over to one side of the lot and then covering it with dirt. As it turned out the owner spent two and a half days cleaning the lot with a bulldoze, bobcats, three tri axle dump trucks and chipper and shredder. He cleared the lot of all the debris and leveled the top spot where we are building.

In these pictures Sean is clearing the lot of trees and bushes.

The views from the lot are spectular! The lot is located next to the twelth tee off. We face south.