k:e:n::h:o:u:s:e::b:l:o:g

Emerging Family Room

2007-08-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

We got setback on the drywall about a month, but it is in and done and taped. Before that the insulation and soundproofing were all installed. I have a ton of pictures to go through and put up, but until then here are a couple pics from this weekend:

This is how the entire downstairs looks now - drywall taped and ready for paint. We needed to get the family room (and kitchen) ready for the floor guy - who started this morning. This was the state of the family room Saturday morning.

Here it is again just 2 days later. We needed a coat of primer, one coat of paint for the light ceiling, but two coats for the darker walls. We cleaned up the windows and installed the electrical. We have two of those fan/lights, but the other one is missing a couple important pieces =(

More updates soon!

Inspectionirific!

2007-07-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Exciting news: we passed our close-in inspections day-before-yesterday! It was a huge push, but I managed to finish the plumbing (both DWV and supply), gas (which required a ton of fixing what the plumber was supposed to have done), electrical (I racked, stapled, and organized a million wires that the electrician left - both figuratively and literally - dangling), and got all the low voltage (CAT-6 and cable) tucked in and complete.

Only thing that didn't pass was the framing - due to some missing blocking on the staircase. I'll get that done this weekend and have the insulation guys in next week! Excitement-city: we should be drywalled by the end of the month!

Anemic Updates DO NOT Imply a Lack of Progress

2007-06-26T13:58:00.001-07:00

It's been a long haul, and we're closing in on ... well ... closing in. The next big milestone - one that we hope to reach within the next week - is our close-in inspection. This is huge. It means that we can put up insulation and sheet rock and everything else is "just" finishing up. Ahem. Ahyhow, here's the proof.

Exterior view showing how it's all come together. Everybody just gushes about how wonderful the house looks - but now that the neighbors aren't suffering, we are. It's been a hard year living in 4 small rooms with one, sometimes-fully-functional bathroom and no kitchen. I'm sad this picture misses the tree in the front yard - it's looking really good.

Now isn't that just the cutest little gate/arbor you've ever seen? It's all redwood, and the three 2x2's were intended to compliment the handrail on the porch. We'll probably continue this design into the back yard arbors and the one over the driveway (someday.)

I realized I had shown the torn-up version from the backyard, but had never shown how it came together. You can see our fabulous window and our beautiful doors (that will open onto the patio) and trim and everything here. We'll need to prune those trees.

What are you seeing here? Let me explain. This is what we call "low voltage." This is almost all the ethernet and cable we're installing throughout the house. Anything grey or green is CAT-6 ethernet, black or white is 3500mHz cable. Yes, there is a lot of it. No, I don't think there is too much.

Everything comes together somewhere. Our house seems to come together in the laundry room. In this one picture you can see: The main electrical panel, the 200-amp supply lines (in conduit) for it, the many (yellow, white, orange, black) circuits leaving it, the low voltage system (green, grey, white, black) mentioned above, the fire sprinkler pipes (orange), the gas supply lines are black steel, the water supply lines are copper, the drain/vent system on the left and bottom edge in white PVC, the ventilation system for both the dryer (far left - square aluminum) and the room (galvanized pipe in the center), some can lights over the washer/dryer (we didn't use many of these), and if you look really hard, a tiny bit of the old electrical system, the last bits of which got removed this weekend.

Here you can see the intricacy of the DWV (drain/waste/vent) system we had to build on our own. This wall is where two bathrooms and the kitchen collied with the main sewer line. To make matters more difficult, this isn't new construction - we had to fit this into the walls and make it work with the old house above.

Can you feel it? Can you see the arbor along the driveway wrapping around the finished slate patio? Can you see the nice chairs and the open double doors making the sunroom-patio a perfect indoor/outdoor space? Can you see the large garden box against the back of the house and the jacuzzi at the near-end of the patio in a "gazebo" by the driveway? Oh yeah, I can.

Sorry for the stretchy image. I'll try to get an old-new comparison up here sooner or later, but the significant thing about this side of the house is that the electrical meter has been put inside the wall, the plumbing has all been moved inside the wall, the back room has been integrated with the roof and window line, the downstairs "fits" with the upstairs, the levels are correct - there are about a billion things right with this picture that most of you will never notice - and that's the point. That's what all the hard work does: makes you just see it as a thing. Don't mention the little hole that needs to be patched where the old meter went into the house, or the shingles that need to be stained where they were patched in, or the vents that need to be painted, or the cable and phone lines which need to be moved into the roof. All that will happen because I'm just like that.

I'll try to get the next update up sooner. Promise.

Overdue Update

2007-02-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

The front of the house this morning. Can you dig the purple steps? We had intended for them to be brown, but that's one of those colors that went a different way when spread out over a large area. A future coat (and believe me, it's going to need future coats) can tweak the color back towards the brown for which we'd hoped. Take note of the awesome handrail action.

I'm seriously overdue on an update to this blog, but not to worry: much progress has been made since the last update: exterior paint is done, downspouts have been upgraded and finished, Shannon and I have gotten about 60% of the electrical in, the fire sprinkler guys have gotten their stuff in and inspected, I've been drilling in vents and working with a plumber (Chuck) and we're grinding away at that now. I'll need to have Shannon back to finish up the electrical, I need to get the electrical service upgraded and moved, and have to figure out and install all the network, phone, cable, upgrade the upstairs electrical, and others(?) - and then drywall. We've purchased and received our kitchen cabinets, the vanity for the kids' bathroom, the washer and dryer, and hopefully the master bath vanity this weekend. With any luck, I'd say we're about 4-6 weeks from drywall.

Brief, Pictureless Update

2006-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say that the windows are in, the shingles are done, one last piece of trim is about a half-day from completion, the painters are working (when dry), my friend Shannon came up and helped get about 30% of the electrical in, the fire sprinkler companies are submitting bids, I need to get the plumbing rolling, we need our downspouts and some dirt moved before it starts raining, it's already raining, and it's National Novel Writing Month.

It's a good thing I have all this extra time in which to write my novel.

Permit? Check. Handrail? Check.

2006-10-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report our upgraded plans which include the new family room were approved last Thursday. We had the inspector out (for the main house) last Friday and we'll see him again on Thursday to inspect the family room as well, thus freeing us to complete the roof and outside. Only the windows will hold us up now.
On another note, we're also gearing up for Hallowe'en as well.
A better wrap-around shot of the kitchen. We cleaned things up so the inspector could get around and I figured a clean pic was in order. It's all about plumbing and electric (and the missing window) in here now.

The (covered) furniture was moved back into the center of the family room. Sorry about the missing tile area (boring anyhow), but I think this panoramic does a good job showing just how great this room will be. It's cleverly tied to the kitchen with double french doors to separate, or tie these two living spaces together. Waiting on inspection for the roof and windows...

My crew put in the much-needed retaining wall in the side yard. This feature will permit us to improve the side yard drainage and plant some citrus bushes. Of course it's gonna make scaffolding in that area a bitch. Hmm.

Can you believe it??!! A handrail! On our house!! With this "small" deatail, we're only lacking a few small bits of trim and paint before the front of the house is done. Exciting.

Here's the view from the street. We cleared that last pile of dirt this weekend, so this is already out of date a little.

Waiting is Painful

2006-10-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

So all we need in order to see the light at the end of the tunnel is an amended permit and some windows. I really hope the building department doesn't find this blog, but they were the ones who made it sound like "no big deal" so we just started. Now, we're ready for inspection, and they still haven't amended the permit. Sigh. If it weren't for the fact that the windows were holding us up until the second half of October, I'd be really frustrated.

The top window will be beveled - like a hexagon - to match the line of the roof - but most of those huge openings are, in fact windows.

Today they're finishing up as much of the soffit vent as they can without the permit. We went ahead and replaced the soffit around the entire house, as the labor to patch it was equal (or maybe more) than the labor to replace it, and the material was only about a grand. The new vent wraps around the entire building, providing far better venting than the two, tiny, clogged screens we removed. The architect called for this vent on the addition, we just figured to roll with it around the whole house. Once painted, I think it'll be less noticeable (though what's someone going to think? "They really vented that attic up there!"

Just Six More Inches

2006-09-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

Chris stopped by yesterday and instantly required that I lift the header at the end of the new family room by about 6 inches. In the end I agree completely that the new height is a ton better "as he designed it" and I won't regret having to spend the extra cash (about $800) or take the day off work to get it done. The new framing (shown here) is much, much trickier than the original plan, but will also be about a million percent cooler.

Here's a panoramic of the current state of my kitchen. I took the shots from the top of the stairs, so you can see down into the lower floor and off into the family room. For those who knew and loved them, the temporary stairs have done their job and are gone.

Here's stained versus natural shingles. On the left are unstained shingles that have weathered for a couple months outside (in the summer.) On the right are the TWP 200-series "golden" color stained shingles. This pic is color balanced for daylight and shot in even light. We chose TWP as it's strongly recommended by the "pros" and chose the "golden" tone since it's closest to the natural color of the wood. Of course, the TWP should keep them looking like they do on the right for a long time to come...

A nice 180-degree panoramic thanks to AutoStitch. You can see from the front of the house (on the right) to the back (on the left) through the lower floor framing. It's about 85% done at this point and we'll finish once we get the family room completed.

Family Room Reborn

2006-09-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

We're still short a (sub?)permit - but we've restored much of the family room already. It's big: no more weird divide due to old-porch shape and structure, no more lowered/sloped floor to drain water off said old porch, no more low ceiling. In fact, the new ceiling will be cathedral - 14-feet-tall at the top above the 10-foot-tall walls. The giant windows - 6 panes in all, shaped to match the roof line - will probably hold things up, so please pray to the Kolbe gods for an early delivery.

The current plan is to get the framing and siding on the new family room and kitchen, then focus on finishing all the details downstairs for a framing/structural and maybe shear inspection. Once that's done, we can hopefully finish off the windows/shingles and cut our carpenters loose for a while. Then we'll focus on getting the electrical service upgrated to 200A and the plumbing vents in so we can patch up the roof. Enough boring details, here are the pics:

Family Room Demo

2006-09-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Things are moving along. We still lack the permit for the family room replacement, but that doesn't seem to be holding us back. We've slowly carved away at the roof, and I'm betting that the last of the demo (I keep saying this, by the way) is very, very near. The beam for the cathedral ceiling is in place, as is the first of the rafters and some of the new wall. When I got home tonight I realized just how huge the new family room is going to be. Crazy. Justifies the $3000 window we're putting at the end of it.

Brian sent a link to this incredible panorama-stitching software that I used to create the below from some August 31 photos. I'll bust out the camera tomorrow to show off the new and improved family room...

Before and Now

2006-09-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

A March 2003 photo we submitted with our planning permit application (before) and a similar shot from September 2006 (after.) It's been a long road.

First Stain - Last Demolition

2006-09-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a frequent question of late: How goes the house? I don't want to sound jaded, but it's one of those questions like: How are you doin? You just expect me to say "fine." The answer is long and complicated and about the only thing harder to answer is: So, when will it be finished?
Stop asking me that.
I created this blog to fill you in with words and photos, so you can a) know what I've been up to, b) see how it's goin, and c) be able to estimate for yourself when it'll be finished. "Soon", there will be another (static) site where I'll lay down the history in pics. Being an owner-builder teaches one a great many share-worthy things.

In these September 3rd photos you can see the stain going on the west side as well as the giant hole in space where, just days before, we possessed a family room.