Any Predictions? Place your bets? -- Wks 61 - 63, August 24 - September 13, 2008

Although our builder hoped it would be true, getting a certificate of occupancy just isn't going to happen by tomorrow. It might not even happen by the end of the month, but I feel confident we will be settled in by Thankgiving!

If you haven't heard yet, we plan to give our 30 day renter's notice on the 15th or the 30th of the month depending on which is closest to when we get the certificate of occupancy so that we will have a full month to move in and do what we have to do to move out of our rental.

We hoped a lot more would have been done by the time we got back from WA on 9/8, but with the holiday and some very heavy rains while we were gone, it was not to be. So here's what I can show you for the 3-week period covered by this post.

Appliances

You may remember that the rangehood is already in as well as the base of the cooktop. The rest of the kitchen appliances were delivered while we were there on Monday, the 8th (yes, we did go almost straight to the house after getting back from WA). Here the guys are unloading the congelador. That's the freezer. I just love the Spanish name for it.

I'm not sure if these count as appliances, but the furnace, hot water heater and water softener are all in now.
Sinks

The utillity sinks are in. This is mine, mine, mine. It's in the garage and will be the one I will use for gardening, dog washing and whatever other messy work I might do. Eventually, there will be counters of some sort on both sides of it. The 13 foot stainless steel piece we got a couple of years ago won't fit between this sink and the water softener to the left, but I'm sure we will find a good place and use for it.

This is Trout's in the shop. It's his, his, his. I'm not sure what he plans to do in the way of a counter here. He doesn't have a lot of room with wall behind it, but he does have a lot of nothing to the right of it that he can do something with.
This is his shop bath sink. It was a free one Joan got from Lowe's when the one she ordered didn't arrive on time. Free is good.

Hardware

Many posts ago I put in pictures of the door handles we picked out. Now they are on the doors. This is the front door one. They are kind of rustic and feel great to the hand. You may remember that the 1st choice for looks was not the 1st choice for feel. This was our 1st choice for feel and 2nd choice for looks.
Here's an interior handle.

Color Prep

Now for all of you who have wondered, "What are they thinking?", gaze back upon the entryway star. Breathe deeply. Focus on the star. You are starting to understand. It is all coming together. By the way, the light isn't actually on here. That's the solatube shining through it.
All along I planned to have some accent walls in various locations around the house. At first I thought I would paint them. Then I decided to let the pros do it. I managed to catch one of the painters on Friday cutting in the color on this one behind the master bath tub and toilet.
By the next time we went over, he had finished it. This is on the same color path as the wall behind the range in the kitchen. It's just one shade lighter. It's called Spanish Peanut.
Here is Trout checking to see if this toilet flushes yet. It does.
After seeing how bright my vanity lights are, I decided to use the same color behind my vanity mirror on the light wall. It will keep it from being so bright and the warm color will make me look better than I actually do. Over time I plan to fill this wall and perhaps part of the side walls with other Mexican mirrors and milagros I collect. It should be interesting.
This is the accent wall that will be behind our bed. The color looks a little funky in this picture due to the reflection, but it is very similar to the Pomegranate of the shop.
This picture many represent it a little better. My feng shui book said we needed pink or red and gray or silver in this room. No remedies needed here now.
The office got two adjacent accent walls. I love bluegreens of all types. And by feng shui guidelines this room along with the guest room should be blue and/or green. I also wanted this room to be darker and more study-like.
This is a good example of camera error and lighting differences. The color is actually more like this than the blue above.
But where's the blue or green in the guest room? It will all be in the bedding, draperies, etc. This accent wall is the same Spanish Peanut as in the master bath. The bed will go between these two windows. When we get our own bed done or bought, the one that will go here is the one we use now. It's pine. I thought it would be lost on the yellow wall, but it will contrast nicely with this light terra cotta color.
This is the back hall wall between the laundry and the master bedroom. Except for the guest bath, what we have the least of in the house is green. That's not such a bad thing because we have lots of green outside that we see through all those windows, but we both thought having a green accent wall somewhere would be a good thing. It is anticipated by a green countertop and backsplash in the laundry.
This is what it looks like from the living area. You may also notice that the pendant lights finally have shades. I'm not fond of recessed lighting and we only have it in places (like bathrooms) where codes wouldn't allow anything else. But I do like to see what I'm doing, so we have lots of light in the kitchen area.

These are our friends, Don and Patsy, hanging out in the kitchen. You can see the blue accents here behind Don. That big blue nicho to his left will house the desk I got in Santa Fe. It's also pine and would've been lost on the yellow wall. The box to his right is where the freezer and refrigerator will go. The trim that will make them look like they are lah-de-dah builtins instead of Kenmores is to his right.
The kitchen sink is coming along here. It looks fabulous.
Here's a closeup of what the interior is like. To the left of the pullout faucet is a soap dispenser. No more GoJo on the kitchen counter. That will be limited to the garage and shop. The little faucet you can barely see to the right of the big one is for the reverse osmosis system. So not only will we have a water softener for the whole house, but we also will have filtered water at the sink and for the ice supply in the freezer. Both those systems will help keep the calcium deposits down and improve the taste of the water.
Here's a picture of the cooking wall with the lights.

We've been waiting forever to see how the fireplace would look painted blue. The day finally arrived this past week. I've seen many fireplaces down here with decorative painting on them. We still may do that later, but I want to wait to see if it will be needed after the furniture is in, the bancos have their pads, the curtains are up, etc.
This is the mural that is on the front porch to the left of the front door. We made a place for it in the stucco, and it's perfect. Dave (our builder) put it in and now all that has to happen is the grouting.

These handpainted tile murals are fairly common down here. This is the smallest size. They can be very large and take up the better part of an entire wall. Most are pretty primitive like this one. The mural itself consists of the twelve 4" center tiles. We added the 2" ones around it to frame it and make it a little bigger. The ones in the corners are 2" versions of the ones on my vanity.
And we'll end on an unfortunate mistake. Trout did this beautiful and creative tin work for the top section of the linen closet door, but Kelly and he accidentally made the door for a taller cabinet. So they are going to have to make a new door. Today Trout said it's small enough to just need one panel. Kelly may end up using this mistake for his examples or we might just hang it on the wall as art.
So that's where we are now. There still are many details to finish and mistakes to correct, but we are getting very close. I'd better get busy with my curtain-making.

Hurray! Toilets! -- Wk 60, August 17 - 23, 2008

I wasn't going to update this before our trip to WA, but I decided there would be too much to show after we get back (lighting a candle for that) so here we go.

Exterior:

Let's start with the drama. Last post there were night pictures of the exterior sconces. Here are some daylight ones. I got a little wacky with the camera angles.

This is the guest room and front porch.
This is the great room and back porch.
This is down the south side of the house.
This is the fireplace.
This is the west side of the shop and the pedestrian door.
This is the shop deck stair wall.

And this is a garden feature I hope we can have. It's a bottle tree from Caroline's place in Johnson City, TX (next door to my cousin, Ronna). She sent me a link to an online vendor of trees and bottles, but I like hers the best. It just kind of sprouts out of the flowers.

Furniture:

This is our butt bench. These are common down here, but we had this one specially made for the guest bath. We may or may not use it in there.

A few posts ago I confidently put a picture of the loveseats we were going to have in the great room. I waited to order them until Crate & Barrel started its custom furniture sale. When I found out that instead of being the same price as using the standard fabric for the loveseat we picked, each one was going to cost almost double -- on sale, yet -- I started looking again. Joan and I went to the Penney's Home store and found something even better and within budget, so I ordered 2 sofas and 2 ottomans this past week.

The fabric above is for the sofas and the fabric below is for the ottomans.

And this is the sofa I picked. It's much more traditional than the Crate & Barrel one and bigger, but I think it will look better and it's definitely more comfortable. It's called the Arcadia and is made by Broyhill, but I couldn't find it online either at Broyhill or at Penney's.
Since it is bigger, I had to rearrange the great room furniture layout a bit. We still don't have all the pieces we need, like the side tables, but we'll get there. I checked yesterday and so far at least I've spent much less on furniture and decoration than I budgeted.


Kitchen:

A few things happened in the kitchen this week. One was the positioning of the cooktop. When I selected this GE Monogram, I chose it because every burner is adjustable from high to low. I didn't really notice that the front was curved like the front of the rangehood until Dave put it in the hole.

Speaking of holes, this is the one for the kitchen sink.
And here are the drawer fronts and doors on the island.

Baths and mechanicals:

This is a detail from the linen closet door. This was the last piece of tin punching Trout did and he really got wild and crazy and very detailed. We got barrels, we got saguaros, we got bird holes in the saguaros and they are blooming.This is the floor of the master shower, ungrouted.
This is Trout's vanity with the sink in, but ungrouted.
This shows his light fixtures. A very tall arched mirror will be between them and will cover up the box in the middle.
That's the hot water heater on the left and the water softener on the right. There will also be a recirculating pump that will keep the hot water on the ready for all the baths. I thought this was a bit of an extravagance at first and then read it is actually considered to be an environmentally sound thing down here because you don't have to run the water for a long time before the hot comes through. Last post I had a picture of the guest bath vanity lights and how odd they looked. They have now all been reversed and they are much better.
And the blessed toilets. They aren't functional yet, but there is hope. This is the one in the guest bath.
And this is the one in the master bath. Please note that they are the same color and the walls are the same color -- but not in these pictures!
This is the one in the shop bath. It is white and is a different brand.
So that's what's new for Week 60 of the project. The next update won't be until September 14th at the earliest. Have a great Labor Day.

Paint & Tile & Light, Oh My! -- Wks 57 - 59, July 27 - August 16, 2008

During the past 3 weeks the exterior painting was finished. There will be touch-ups of course, but this is it for now. We absolutely love it.

We had a landscaper in to take a look and design a landscaping plan which will include addressing rainwater issues and harvesting, hardscapes and what to plant. His name is Scott Calhoun. His company is Zona Gardens (http://www.zonagardens.com/). Check out his portfolio at his website.

He recently won 1st Place in the Professional Residental Category of the 8th Annual Xeriscape Awards given by the AZ Department of Water Resources and the Tucson Botanical Gardens. We went to a couple of his classes and really like his style. He seems interested in working with our dramatically painted house, our natural open space requirements, the walled area we want to create and the transitions between all those.


Exterior Paint:

So here are some recent pictures of the exterior of the house. This is the front porch.

This is one of the painters working on the north side of the shop. Don't try this at home.
This is the front of part of the garage and the shop.
This is the west side of the shop with a little of the courtyard peeking through the palo verdes.
This is the courtyard. At first I thought this was going to be a throwaway space since it has kind of an odd location. Now, largely due to the colors, it's my current favorite spot.
This is the back porch on the west side of the house.

And this is what you see when you drive up these days.

Kitchen:

The kitchen is usually the most complicated and expensive part of the house. I'm sure ours is no exception. This is how the tile and rangehood developed over the past three weeks.

Here Kelly and Trout start attaching the drawer fronts.

And this is the way they look now.

This is the bar countertop not yet grouted.

Great Room:

There are a couple more great room detail pictures later, but this was a major accomplishment. This hearth isn't grouted yet, but it's exactly what we wanted.

Laundry:

The laundry is my "shop." This is the where the sink will go.

And here is Trout checking door instally gaps and adjusting the hinges.

Master Bath:

When I started working on this blog, I thought I had more pictures, but there's been so much activity in the master bath I haven't been able to get in to get very many good ones.

This is my vanity, but the grout hasn't been cleaned yet.

This is Trout's countertop laid out.
This is the shower, still not grouted in this picture.
And the same goes for this pebble shower floor. The pebbles are very similar to those on the hearth in the great room.
Guest Bath:

This tile did get grouted. This is the mural at the back of the tub. Now I have to get busy and finish the shower curtain I'm making for it.
Most of the light fixtures were installed this weekend. This is the little baby fan for the guest bath whirring away.

This is what the vanity looks like. It's not attached and the sink isn't installed yet.
The vanity lights were installed, but they are going to need some changes. I wanted them just like this, but the bar across the top hangs down too low so the fixture needs to be turned with the lights pointing up. The sconces were made slightly differently from the picture I had of them. The difference is that the light part is about 3" higher, so they are going to need to be lowered or turned with the light pointing down if possible.

More Lighting:

Some of you may not know about my Horned Toad fetish. Most people call them Horny Toads but they are really lizards. The ones we see most often here are the Regal Horned Lizard (http://www.arts.arizona.edu/herp/phso.html) and the Desert Horned Lizard (http://www.arts.arizona.edu/herp/phpl.html). My bible for these guys and the other similar cold-blooded creatures we see on our land is the Tucson Herpetological Society (http://www.arts.arizona.edu/herp/index.html). They have a great website with all the species within a hundred mile radius of Tucson.

I just had to have some on the house. There is a company here that does these plasma lazer things including light sconces. So these guys will flank our front door with lights in their bellies. One will point up and one will point down the wall. Both will face you as you arrive at the house.

You will also see the entry lights from outside since the door is glass. This is what they look like now from the inside. At first I thought these mulit-colored glass stars wouldn't provide enough light, but many of the glass panes are clear. I love the shadows they cast on the ceiling and walls.

In most houses these days there aren't any overhead lights. Frequently you flip a switch to activate a plug that turns on lamps. That's just not enough light for me. So we have sconces around the great room and dining room and in the hall to our master bath. When you get Talavera pieces from Mexico, you usually don't know what you will be getting. I think we lucked out. All the ones we got are great, but don't expect them to match.
In this picture you can see 2 of them lit as well as one of the fans in the great room. This house is defintely mix and match with some very contemporary stuff, some vintage stuff and lots of funky stuff. We chose a school house type globe for the light kits on the fans.

Exterior Lighting:

Now for the real fun. These pictures are hot off the camera from last night. Trout and I got into it over the bulbs for these fixtures. I had purchased the lowest lumen and wattage compact fluorescent bulbs I could get for them both due to our lumen restrictions and for conservation (money being a big one) reasons. He still thought they were too bright. So I looked again and verified that this was the best we could do for outdoor bulbs.

You may remember that we chose these <$20 fixtures to replace the >$150 ones we originally picked. I'm sure glad we did. They not only were cheap but they look great.

This is the front of the guest room last night.
This is the front porch. Before I bought yellow bug compact fluorescents, I wanted to try regular yellow bug lights on the porches. Any yellow light has lower lumens, so I wanted to make sure we had enough light and that the yellow color didn't mess up the wall colors. I think they are fine and we will gradually replace them with the CFLs as they go out.
Now we're back to the regular white CFLs in front of the garage. The exterior lights are switched in a number of places inside so that they all don't turn on at the same time. We will need to label where the switches go. This was the hardest location to figure out.
I just love the way the light hits the walls, but I particularly love it on the Pomegranate shop. There is still plastic on the interior of these windows for some reason. It has some interior Baby Chick paint sprayed on it and Trout thinks it looks like the interior is on fire. He will hate to see the plastic go.
No, it wasn't raining. This is what you see as you drive in at night if the lights are on. Some TV shows would lead you to believe that those globes of light are spirits of some sort. I think they are just a dirty camera lens or maybe some bugs.
So that's it for the last 3 weeks. I will try to update it again next weekend, but don't hold your breath.