House #2

Thanks it was fun!

Pre-concrete

Sometimes, I can't believe how fast our builder works. Yesterday morning, we talked to him & he said he wanted to get his guys working on the yard. By the end of the day, the back yard was graded, the concrete areas chalked out, and they had started on the forms. This is the view looking down the side of the yard. You can see they have tipped the hot tub up in preparation for the slab. You probably can't see in this photo, but the trellis has been put up by the back fence. Once we have something growing on it, it will be great.

We are going to end up with a very small grass area, but, it will do the trick for the dogs. The house we've been living in for two months has zero grass and they seem to take care of business just fine, so I don't think it will be a problem.

Getting the concrete outside will really help the house feel "cleaned up." In other news, the cabinet installer is wrapping up today, at least for phase one. He'll be back in a couple of weeks. The counter people are supposed to to the kitchen templates today, and we have to pick a color for the ceiling (white, just which of the 10,000 whites is the question.)

Move #3

I spent all day Saturday & Sunday organizing & moving stuff. The storage unit we got is only 5x12 but I *think* it's going to be just big enough. This is just a quick pick when I started loading it. I would say I'm about 75% of the way done moving. Jeff is back now & while I'm working today & tomorrow, he'll finish up. We turn in the keys to the current house Wednesday morning. I've liked living here and will kind of miss it, but am looking forward to getting back in our neighborhood.

Talked the builder briefly this morning & Jeff is going to meet him to talk about hard-scape (the concrete patios, etc.). They are going to start grading today. That's exciting! Also, this weekend when I was at the house, I noticed they had started trimming out the interior closets & doors. I guess that had to be done before they painted anyway. Maybe we'll get paint this week? I also so signs that maybe the tile guy was going to start the shower pans this week. We'll see!

Cabinet progress

The cabinets are coming along. This is a shot of the kitchen, looking in from the living room. You can see the new location of the stove, and where the fridge will be on the left. The fridge will be in its own "surround" to give it a more finished/built in look. Part of that surround is already up. Overall, I think we will actually have more counter space and more cabinet space.

After seeing how little room is in the garage, I rented a storage unit yesterday. There is no way we can fit everything from our current abode into the garage right now. Plus, even though we cleaned it up, it's a total disaster again. So the plan for this weekend is to bring over all the building related stuff (lights, fixtures, etc) to the garage. Then, I'll try and organize everything else into "need now" and "can be stored" boxes. When we start loading the storage unit, all the "can be stored" stuff will go in the back, and the "need now" will be up front so we can get at it. It's not ideal, but we don't really have a choice right now. We kept hoping Pat (the neighbor who is letting us use her house) would leave early, but so far, she's staying put....

The weather has been wonderful this past week. We've managed to make it almost all the way through June without any "June gloom." It's been sunny & nice, which we've appreciated.

That's it for now. I may post later in the weekend....when I'm sick of putting stuff in boxes :)

Oh give me a home...

They started the cabinet install yesterday. Of course, there is good news, and bad news. First off - we are really pleased with the materials we chose. We deliberated a lot. I mean, a lot. I love what we chose. The bathrooms are, as we planned, very showy, very unique. The kitchen will be very cool, very contemporary. That's all swell. The bad news is that a few pieces were damaged during shipping. I suppose, seeing how it all was made in North Carolina & delivered from there, that this isn't surprising. None the less, it is disappointing.

The good news to the bad news, however, is that our cabinet designer will be at the house tomorrow noting any & all damage & ordering replacement pieces. She says they rush replacements & we should have them in two weeks. So, in the big picture, it should all work out OK. It's supposed to take about one week to install everything. Next Monday, the "slab people" are coming to make a template for the kitchen counters. They will mark where the hole goes for the sink, faucet, etc., then cut the slabs back at their facility. Not sure when they will get installed.

In other news, we are moving this weekend. Well, we are starting to. And what's really fun about it is that we don't have anywhere to move to! We don't have access to our "new" home until after the 27th, and well, we are leaving town on the 27th. Plus, we have to be out of our current home before we leave. So, what are we doing? Piling all our crap in the garage at our real home. This includes plugging in the fridge in the garage to put all our food in. And to clarify more - Jeff is gone until Sunday. So, I'm going to move what I can before then, then he'll finish Monday & Tuesday when he gets back. It will all be fine, really. We are just starting to feel the pressure. We have places to live until July 20th, then, well, who knows :)

Are you still chanting July 23rd? Please, don't stop.....

Ledger Stone

Here's the front column wrapped with the ledger stone we picked. It turned out a lot browner/rust colored than we thought it would, but we like it. It goes well with the color of the house & should tie in nicely when the Cor-Ten rusts. This is the same stone that will go on the fireplace inside. They put up the backer board for it today, so they might be starting on it tomorrow.

There's a 5-gallon bucket of primer in the kitchen. I hope it finds its way onto the walls tomorrow....

Heavy Metal

 
This is the beginnings of the Cor-Ten siding. Remember you *have* to keep in mind that this is going to rust very quickly, and will turn a very dark reddish/brown color. The process of putting this stuff up has proven to be more complex than our builder thought, but, they are taking their time and (as usual) doing a meticulous job. They have made all kinds of formed end caps and trim pieces. We are not sure how how they are finishing the corners here; they are either going to wrap one larger piece around the corner, or, make straight trim pieces out of the flat metal. We'll see.

The interior doors are hung, but we are missing one pocket door. We'll find out where it is this week. The doors look great; I've put some pictures in the album.

We've got the paint colors picked. S & T - you'll be surprised we went with Seapearl :) We narrowed it down to a few colors, and are doing one (Benjamin Moore Seapearl) color in the front of the house (living, kitchen, dining & office) a similar but slightly darker color in the bedrooms (Pale Oak), then two different colors in the bathrooms. It should look good. All the colors are fairly quiet. The celings will be white (we think?). The paing should go up early this week, as the cabinet install is supposed to start Thursday (fingers crossed).

I got the tour of the house across the street where we'll be the first two weeks of July. It's very quaint and will work well. It's just very cozy. Very, very cozy.

Cinn came down to visit us, so we took a few days off from doing anything at the house (other than forcing her to help us pick paing colors). We did a day trip to Big Sur on Saturday, with a destination of Nepenthe for lunch and a short - but incredibly beautiful hike at Limekiln State park. It was a wonderful day!

Paint Color

Here's a picture to give you an idea of the paint color. This is pretty accurate. It's called "Davenport Brown" if you care :) No decision on the trim yet, but the original plan of doing the same color but just in gloss is going to be a no go. It doesn't differentiate enough, so we'll either go darker or lighter, just not sure yet.

The interior doors also came in and they are beautiful. Mahogany like the exterior doors. They basically look the same, but instead of being glass, they panel is solid wood. Hopefully they will go up over the next few days....

Quick paint note

I took some pics with my phone camera yesterday, but they don't look so hot. I'm bringing the real camera over tonight to get some pictures of the paint. Bottom line - I love the outside color! You never can tell, looking at a small patch, extrapolating how it will look on the entire house. But, we made a good call. It's a nice color, easy on the eyes, and I think very contemporary looking. Today we'll see the trim options, then it should get finished up in the next couple of days. Bottom line - it looks very different than before, but I love it!

July 23rd

That's the day we are moving in. It just has to be, so we are are putting it out there to make it so! If we are not in at that point, we'll be staying with friends and it's just hard to do with the dogs. Plus, our loan HAS to fund by Friday July 20th because our lock expires then and rates have gone up. So, please keep chanting July 23rd for us, ok?

The exterior is supposed to get painted today & tomorrow. Actually, we haven't quite nailed down the exterior trim, so the field color will go on today with some trim samples & hopefully, we'll be able to make a decision tomorrow so they can finish. After the paint is done, they will put up the Cor-Ten & it can get busy rusting :) The interior doors are supposed to go in starting Wednesday or so & then they can start the interior paint next week.

We are starting to get a bit stressed about having to move two more times, what to do with the dogs, will the house get done, etc. etc., but we know there's not really much we can do. We are telling the builder that they have to hit the July 23rd date and we'll keep reminding him of that! I hope to have some pictures to post in the next few days. The exterior hasn't changed much in the past week, so no new photos today...

No new pictures today. They dry wall crew should be at the house doing a final sanding today, then we'll be ready for interior paint. The builder put temporary locks on the house so we can start to secure it somewhat, which is a nice feeling. I'm sure it's had a parade of errant pedestrians touring through it.

We've got a bunch of paint color strips & samples taped up on the wall looking at interior colors. We've got four or five we are going to get quarts of to put up. You just can't tell from the samples.

I got a price on the cool aluminum/glass closet doors. They were about $1500 a closet, which is out of our budget right now. We are getting an estimate for a similar product from a local company, and also got prices for closet doors that look like french doors. They are made out of MDF & the center panel would be frosted glass. These are a pretty cool option & only about $750 a closet (we have three closets now). Still, we are leaning toward staying with curtains, like we had before. In a small house, they work great. They completely open up the closet for easy access & don't open into the room at all. Plus, they are substantially cheaper, even if we splurge & spend a couple of hundred bucks per curtain.

We'll only be in this house for three more weekends. It's strange to think about moving, especially because I have really grown fond of this little house. From here, it's off to an even smaller house, but at least we'll be back in the 'hood. We can watch the progress from the front window of the next temporary digs!

The weather has been very spring like lately, which for here, means windy. Summer weather should set in over the next few weeks and the wind should die back, which will be nice. We also noticed last week that the pelicans have returned. They just started showing up in ones & twos mid week, and by Saturday, we were seeing flocks of them flying in formation. Very cool.

That's it for now - thanks for stopping by!

Texturing

The texturing is going up! The house is about 3/4 of the way textured, and we expect them to finish tomorrow. You can see part of the living room here. It looks mottled just because it's drying.

In other news - the cabinets are here! Well, they aren't at the house, but being stored in SLO. The kitchen needs to be painted before the cabinets can go in. Normall, the builder waits until the interior doors are in before he'll paint. But, we are going to try and just paint the kitchen so they can start on the cabinets. They are really key in the timing: they have to be in before we can have the counters shaped & cut, and the counters have to be in before they can tile for the backsplashes. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the kitchen gets painted the beginning of next week & the cabinets can start getting installed later that week. We'll see!

The remainder of the lights have been ordered. A couple are back ordered, but they should still be here in time.

We saw these closet doors online. They are aluminum & glass, very cool! We are going to try and get a price, but we are guessing they are cost prohibitive.

Spent the day cleaning out the garage. What a mess! Should have enough room to move stuff back in to store now.

Another gate

This is the base for what will be the new gate/trellis thing on the side of the house. I won't be anything that locks, and obviously, you could just walk around the bushes. But the idea is to make the side yard & master bedroom a bit more private, and to give sense that this is not a shortcut from one street to another, but rather, is part of our yard. I think it will be a welcome addition.

The 2nd photo is of the backyard without the hibiscus. It looks really bare right now, but when the new trellis is up, it will be nice. It will span the entire area between the bamboo & the edge of the house, giving quite a bit of privacy. Not sure yet what we are going to grow up it. We figure it gave us about 3' more in the back yard.

We think we have an exterior paint color picked. And the most exciting news: we have a place to live after July 29th! One of our neighbors who only lives here part time is letting us use her (very small) house until July 13th. That gives us two more weeks, which I have no doubt we'll need. I finally put a few more pictures in the photo gallery too.