Monsoooooooon!

I was whining about not getting much rain at LMMM. I wanted the rain because we need it and because we needed to see how well the latest round of grading was going to work at moving the water around the house. Yesterday, I got my chance in a classic example of "be careful what you wish for".

It rained very hard for very long. Typically this time of year the rain is heavy in scattered storms around the area. Yesterday our area was the main event, complete with flash flood warnings. Of course I had to take some pictures.

The storm started about 4:30 or so. It had wind and some thunder along with the rain, but not the huge number of lightning flashes we'd had in the weeks earlier, all of which produced no measurable precipitation here. Yesterday it was definitely measurable.

I went out about noon today to take some dry pictures to contrast with the wet ones, and to see the way the water flowed on the land and in the street.

This is looking out the front door at the house to the east. Clicking on the pictures will help you see the actual rain and the water flowing in many of these pics.

This is our normal puddle place in front of the garage and shop doors. It came so hard and so fast that you'd swear we never had any additional grading done.

Here the water is coming from the sky and down our driveway. Some of it is from the road and some is coming off the slight hill to the east.

This shows it running off from the east. We got no water coming over the retaining wall, so we may need to extend it toward the road.

This is the driveway with the water rushing into the bypass area on the south side of the house. Those little stakes and tape define a planting area.

Now we shift to the back of the house. There are 5 runoff crickets on this part of the house roof. They take the water to the top of the back porch roof. Then it shoots off into the west yard. We are seriously thinking about guttering this roof and taking the water into another rain barrel. It probably would've almost filled up just from yesterday. Here you can see 2 of the runoff areas, one on either side of the post.

This is a shot of the one on the right in the picture above and the 2 others to the north.

Here you can see what's already on the ground and where these streams of water are hitting.

I took this picture just to get a good shot of the sky.

These are some of the places where that water digs into the ground and erodes it. If we do nothing else with our landscaping, we will have to do something about this. It's eroding back to the edge of the porch and compromising it.

These pictures were taken today. You can see the partly cloudy sky with a downpour in the distance.

This flow is into the Mexican garden.

Now back to the front driveway. I was wondering if the trench our neighbor dug was helping or not. In this area, it did until it filled up. This is running down the side of the retaining wall.

We weren't supposed to get this puddling anymore. Maybe we will need the Ark next door.

This shows water coming out of the trench and into the runoff area on the north side of the house. Our Ark neighbors also have some water flowing through a shallower trench on their property.

This is coming off their land into the trench, but most of the water that goes into it comes from the land to the east.

This is a picture looking from the open east shop door to the south.

Here's what it looked like by noon today. It's mostly dry, but wouldn't be if we had more rain. These are issues that will have to be dealt with more delicately if we have the driveway graveled or paved.

Here you can see where water flowed into the driveway from the east.

This shows another pathway of water from the east.

This was the best shot I could get from inside of the water flowing down the street. It's mostly on our side. This is at our driveway.

Here's what that looked like today. When we first signed up for the house, we were told we would have to put a culvert here. Then the county decided we didn't need it. I think we may after all.

This is the mesquite on the east side of the driveway. You can see how the water pooled there.

This is looking west along the street. The water took the path next to our property.

I had to step over to the other side of the road to take a picture. It is totally torn up. I'm sure the county will be around soon...

The water cuts in a bit here at this prickly pear. We may be losing some of our lot.

This is from that prickly pear looking back east. The erosion is pretty bad.

This is back on our land south west of the house. This is actually right where the landscaper has a half-circle seating area with a fire pit. I don't think so.

This is the same area somewhat dry today.

Now we go back to the rain barrels on the north side of the house. The grading did help the water to channel through here quite well. We will need to line this with rock to slow it down a bit.

Here it is from the west side of the house. As you can see, some of the runoff is from our Ark neighbor.

The pop-up valve on the west rain barrel is working well. It must be full. The other one didn't pop up at all.

This is the water flow between our houses. A couple of years ago it was much worse than this, so the channeling must be helping. I need to plant some water loving trees here -- willows or mesquites.

This is the west driveway from the shop.

This is about where the natural open space begins.

This is the pop-up valve and the channel today.

And this is the area between the houses.

We usually get damage at the end of the west driveway when it rains, and yesterday was no exception.

This may not look like much, but it's a rut at least 6" deep.

I took lots of pictures through the windows with water on them. This was my favorite. It's the only one that has the wall color reflecting in the drops.

So this is not the dry heat part of the year. I think we can expect water like this once a year. It's not as bad as cows on hills near Centralia or midwest flooding, but I noticed our across the street neighbor got home at least 1/2 later than normal on Friday. She must've had to wait for a wash to clear.

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.