The new digs

Here's home for the next two months. We have been out of our house almost four months now - I can't believe it's been that long! After work last night, we brought a couple of loads over here, and then spent the night here. We wanted the dogs to get a solid couple of days here before we leave them alone on Monday when we go to work. I like the house. It's small, so it feels more like "home" to me, and it's all one story which makes moving stuff in & out much easier. We plan on finishing up moving today, then cleaning a bit at the other house tomorrow.

FYI - this house does not have a phone. If you call the home phone it will be forwarded to Jeff's cell phone, so it's better just to call us directly on our cell phones. Remember: we have Verizon, so if you have Verizon, please call us from your cell phone so it's free for everybody :)

Back to my coffee. Not sure where to set up the computer (our cable modem does work here) but as soon as it's set up, I'll post more pictures of the house. And Cinn: this house comes complete with a black toile table cloth ;-) We'll be up in NorCal next weekend so looking forward to seeing some of you then!

Exoskeleton

Just a quick post. The roof is still going on, but they've started on the siding. This is a shot of the garage. The material is called "Hardy Board" and is a concrete/wood composite. It's the modern day equivalent of Asbestos siding and should theoretically last forever. It comes in this delightful gray color, but it will of course be painted.

I spent last night packing up stuff in the kitchen and I've got a load of stuff in my car to drop off at the new house tonight We'll be pretty busy the next few days, so I don't think I'll get an update to the site until this weekend. That is, if our cable modem works in the new house :)

The roof is underway

Well, the roofers started today and made quick work. The roof is off. This picture is from inside the garage. Thankfully, we covered everything that was left in the garage with plastic because it is a mess. We (OK, the royal we here) are combining some rigid foam insulation on the roof with regular fiberglass insulation inside. This will give us the R-value we need to pass inspection. I'm expecting to see the cutouts for the new skylights tomorrow.

In late breaking news: we are moving this weekend. I mentioned earlier that this house isn't available in June, so we called on one of the other houses we looked at before selecting this one. It's available in June, and also for May. The rent on this house go up to summer rates for may, which means it jumps $600. Moving to the other house will save us $1600 over the two months, so we are going for it. We get the keys for it Friday, and will move Saturday. We'll miss the view from the deck here, but will enjoy the extra cash in our pockets, especially since we got our cost to completion estimate yesterday. Ay carumba...

That's all for now - I'll post more pictures later in the week. Oh - we had the last inspection today we needed to insulate & sheet rock the walls. We passed so next week, it should start looking like a house again!

Rainy Weekend

No new pictures for you today. They've done more work at the house, but nothing photo worthy. The rain is over, and it's supposed to warm up again, 74 on Tuesday. The roof goes on this week, which means the bathroom skylights go in too. That will be photo worthy :)

We spent 8 hours yesterday looking at tile for the kitchen & bathrooms. We have it narrowed down and are submitting requests for bids this week. I think it will be a few weeks before we actually order the stuff, but we are making progress.

As for the Cor-Ten (weathering steel) we have decided to go with the corrugated vs. the flat. The only reason we won't go with the steel at all is if it's substantially more expensive than Hardy Board shingles, which we don't think it is. We think the Cor-Ten will actually be cheaper.

We found out that the house we are living in has been rented for one week in June, which is kind of a drag. However, we found out that our 2nd choice of houses is available in June, so we are doing an interim move. We'll be moving the end of this month to a smaller place, then back into our place the end of June. There is a *slight* change we may actually move in the other house next weekend, but that's just a slight chance at this point. We'll keep you posted!

Through the roof

What you are looking at here is the only major architectural change to the outside of the house. We call it the "tower of power." It's designed to look like an extension of the front wall that projects through the roof and the goal is to add some interest to our otherwise, um, bland house. I'm not used to seeing it yet (it just went up today) so I have to reserve judgement. Keep in mind too, that like the wall below it, it will be sided with Cor-Ten steel (not sure yet if it will be wavy or flat). Here is an example of a house that uses a lot of Cor-Ten (also called "Weathering Steel"). Our house will just use it as an accent. Weathering Steel Example I put a few other pictures in the photo gallery with different views of the T.O.P.

They also installed the fireplace today, and the can lights went in the kitchen. Speaking of the kitchen, it gets ordered tomorrow morning. We went with Cherry in the kitchen, but spiced it up a bit in the bathrooms. We think it will look great, and the total price, while not the cheapest, is very good. If ordered tomorrow, it will arrive in SLO in 6 weeks. The cabinets we are using, Ultracraft, are build in North Carolina.

We are busy trying to pick out tile and fortunately, we both are drawn to the same stuff. That makes it a lot easier. Not that there aren't one billion different types of tile to choose from. We are going to splurge (we think) on the kitchen counters and go with a Quartz material, like Cesar stone. It's really cool stuff, and is top rated for low maintenance and long life.

Lastly, we committed to our rental through the end of June. So, July 1, we have no choice but to be out of here. Hopefully, we'll be living in *our* house and not a garage somewhere...

Thursday Updates

Just quick post today. Nothing major happened this week, but there was still progress at the house. More of the wiring was completed, the plumbers pressure tested the supply lines, and the huge hole on the side of the house for the sewer connection was filled in. Additionally, the garage was cleaned out some in preparation for next week's roofing. They need to beef up the garage roof from inside and to do so, needed some space cleared out for a couple of temporary posts. We pulled out all the old fixtures we weren't using and they are being donated to Restore, which is the main revenue generator for Habitat for Humanity. They resell donated building supplies and use the income to help fund affordable housing projects.

The kitchen plan you see here is the real deal, with one change: we are not using the gloss gray on the drawers. Everything will either be Cherry veneer or glass & aluminum. We decided to put the kibosh on the high gloss look. We really liked it, but were worried it might be too much maintenance. Hopefully, the kitchen & bath cabinets will get ordered next week.

We also met with a tile designer and are moving forward on the plans for hard surfaces in the house. I still think we are on track to get back in the house in June. I can hardly wait...!

The front porch

The computer is back up, so I was able to get pictures off the camera and upload some to the album. What you see here is the form for the base of the front corner post, before the concrete was poured. Ultimately, it will be faced with some kind of stone. They poured the concrete for this the same day they poured the concrete retaining wall (of sorts) on the other side of the house. I think that's the end of the concrete until we start doing hardscaping.

We continue to go through iterations with our kitchen designer and are very close to a final plan. I'll post a rendering once it's done. I think it's safe to say that it will be divisive. Some people will really like it, and others will make polite comments like, "wow, that's different." We wont take it personally :)

The roof may be going on this week, I'm not sure. The outdoor lights are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Of course the ones we liked were $125 each, and of course we needed nine of them. We are still trying to pick out a kitchen faucet. We've seen some things we like but they are all pricey. Trying to decide on doing a separate sprayer, or going with the integrated sprayer that seems to be more common these days.

We spend a bit of time at the house today watering, and moving stuff around in the garage. I cannot believe how filthy the stuff we left there is. There were four dining room chairs that didn't fit in the pod and I couldn't bear seeing them covered with grunge, so we brought them here.

That's it for now. If you have any requests for photos, or are curious about any of the construction plans, by all means, request away! Happy Easter....

The fireplace

Here's the beginnings of the fireplace. The insert will be off center, to the right, and the face of the fireplace will most likely be framed with a cement looking tile. At least that's the current thought. We are going to have a piece of reclaimed timber milled to be the mantle, and are leaning toward having a "live edge" on it, which means the part you see on the front will be natural & rough hewn. We went round and round about having the fireplace on an angle or straight against the wall. Because of space, venting and design issues, we've gone with straight against the wall, as you can see. The entertainment center will be to the right

The living room is currently filled with a huge stack of sheet rock. I don't know when it's going up, but it's a good sign it's on site. There is still a little electrical to finish first, I know, and obviously the insulation has to go in as well.

We are making good progress with the kitchen design. The designer is meeting with our builder this morning to go over some structural changes (surprise!) that had to be made in the kitchen. It shouldn't impact the design much, if at all. We had to add a beam on the east end of the kitchen, and are centering the skylight in the room. Our goal is to have the kitchen ordered by the end of next week. It will take 5-6 weeks to arrive once it's ordered, which will put as at the end of May.

I should have our computer back up & running this weekend, and will try and get some more photos posted.

Half way there?

Well, our main computer is currently dead, so no new photos for you today. I hope to have it back up & running in the next few days, and will post photos. So today, you just get to listen to me ramble on without the benefit of visual aids. I *think* we are about half way through this, uh, adventure. We are guessing we'll be back in the house the end of June.

The majority of the wiring & plumbing are done. The entire house is sheeted, and the windows are in. The garage requires some additional structural work. A new beam has been run across the door opening, and we need some new joists as well. They have trenched & framed for a low concrete retaining wall of sorts on the back side of the house. We have had water problems there in the past, so this will be a nice security blanket if we get rains like last year again. This year, rain was almost non existent.

We got the first set of renderings from our kitchen consultant and they look great. We are looking at samples for the doors again and are definitely heading in a very European, very contemporary direction. It should look sharp! The siding on the house will be going on in the next few weeks, I think, and we are using a combination of Cor-Ten steel and hardy board siding. The steel will age & rust with time. The renderings of the siding plan look really great, and our builder has a great idea for a cool architectural element at the front of the house.

So overall, things are going along very well. We are starting to narrow down hard surfaces for the bathrooms and kitchens, and trying to pick out faucets. Why are we naturally drawn to the ones that cost over $400? Damn you good taste!

While our rental is nice, it's not home. I really miss our beach, our neighbors and all our stuff...

Out of town the past few days. just a quick post from my phone near the russian river. heres a picture of the hole in the street for the new sewer connection. took this friday morning on the way out of town.