Getting Going Again ... Wks 28-30, 1/6-26/2008

The past three weeks went by slowly for us as far as the house goes. Progress happened but there wasn't much to document. Still, I can always find pictures to show, so I did.

Let's start with these tile murals. Painted tile murals are often seen in this area. They can be put anywhere. We're not positive and always reserve the right to change our minds, but here's where we think these will go. Y'all want to start a pool?

This one will be a surprise in the guest bath. It will be a part of the tile work. It was painted by someone in Tubac. The rest are from Mexico.

This one is planned for the front porch. I'm not quite sure where yet. It will be embedded in the stucco.I think we may use this one in the wall when Trout builds it around the house.
The artist says this is a scene from Guanajuato. I've been there but I don't remember this. I bought it because it reminded me of the River Walk in San Antonio, my home town. I'm thinking the courtyard for this one.

It was time to pick hardware, so this is what we picked for the cabinet hardware for all the drawers and doors. I swore I wanted to keep the black and white to a minimum in the house, but this is what looked best on the galvanized metal that will be the filler for the doors and drawer fronts and most of the hardware will be mounted in it.


Now to the real work.

The water makes its way to the house through the piping in this trench.

The driveway goes partly over it as you can see from this view from the Shop Deck.
Steve from WA was one of our recent house inspectors. Here he and Trout stand in the great room while Trout does the tour.

They partly obscured the work on the fireplace. You may have noticed that the fireplace is a recurring photo op. That's because it's unique, complicated and the major focal point of the great room.

The electricians started wiring in earnest. The shop gets really big wires.
The house gets more wires but smaller ones.


Dave, Trout and the electrician, Bob work out some issues with Trout's vanity lighting.
The painters stained all the porch wood, back...and front.
This is Jodie, our friend from Santa Fe, walking her dogs on the road next to the house. I hope by this time next year, a picture can be taken of me doing that, but it will be only one dog and probably one a bit smaller than Pedro the Borzoi or Zeus the Irish Wolfhound.

Happy Holidelays! Wks 24 - 27, 12/9/07 - 1/5/08

Yes, the house is still progressing, but it's not so dramatic now. Most of the work is inside and with the holidays, it slowed down significantly. Some work was done to plan, but not to the changed plans, so that will have to be fixed, but we can definitely see things shaping up. I hope you can, too.

HVAC

Our first day back from the trip to WA, we headed out to the site and this is what we saw -- lots of HVAC company trucks. They were working on the ducting for the heating and cooling.

This is what they did inside.

Framing

While we were gone, the framers completed the porch roofs, including the posts. I think they look great! This is the back porch from a couple of different angles.

I love the detail of the rafter tails.

This is a post closeup that shows the color better, although the color will fade over time. All of the porch wood will be stained this color, as will the doors inside the house.

They also got the fireplace framed in.

Roof

The roofers got the first layer done on the roof. I freaked out when I first saw it, thinking it was done, but the roof will get two more layers which will be white.

This is the roof over most of the living area.

This is a closer view of some of the Solartubes from the outside...

...and from the inside. Trout has 3 large ones in the shop. We have 6 in the house. They are a great way to bring in light without bringing in a lot of heat.

These are the canales from the shop onto the garage. Any of these canales that can't be seen from the ground or road will stay basic like this. Those that can be seen will have downspouts and be prettied up.

And this is a cricket and canales from the inside of the roof.

Driveway

This is Trout and Dave siting the Cinnabar Driveway. The water will come from the street and be under it. We probably won't pave it with any solid type of paving.

And this is a bird in a Palo Verde close to where they're standing. Too bad you can't hear him sing.

Mistakes

What building project doesn't have mistakes? Certainly not this one although I'm not sure if all these really count.

Remember from previous posts that the plumber sited the guest bath toilet 2 feet farther into the house than on the plan? So that meant we needed to adjust the guest bath vanity to 52" wide rather than the 68" on the plan. Well, when the electrician and the plumber did their work, they forgot that and did it to plan. Wrong! It's even funnier because the pipe coming down from the ceiling is almost exactly in the right place for the 52" vanity.

Remember how we struggled over the height of the bar in the kitchen and decided on 45"? Well the framing wasn't changed on that when the plumber came, so the pipes are too high and will have to be adjusted after the height is lowered.

The plan shows the freezer, hence the icemaker, on the left, but the plumber put the water source on the right.

And finally, Trout decided he wanted the pedestal sink in the shop bath in the corner instead of on the wall, but the plumber did it according to plan instead of putting it in the corner.

All these are items that will be fixed soon, she said confidently. But not too soon, because much of this work won't be done until the windows and doors come so we can lock up the house. Those aren't due until mid-February.

If you're wondering what all that plywood is doing on the floor, it's to protect the concrete from stuff being spilled on it because it will be our actual floor. The staining and polishing will happen to the slab itself.