It Keeps Going, and Going, and Going... Day 22.

This is the Memorial Day Weekend and we are celebrating it in our

 cozy apartment hunting and shopping for doors and windows.

The house project is rapidly growing and expanding ever skyward.

Here you can see the walls of the master bathroom on the far left, and bedroom

 and utility rooms on the right. Don't let the blue skies fool you -

we been dodging bullets of rain over the past week or so - hence the big blue tarps.

The Office walls as well, are springing up.

Looking once again down the driveway. Once a pile of debris,

now something new and, well...wooden.

Standing in our new Bedroom area looking more or less North.

Here is a small hallway leading to the bedrooms and utility room.

Looking in towards the Master Bath - home to a future Jacuzzi Tub!

In the next day or so, the Framers had the basic shape of the addition

well under way. It is starting to really look like something!

That pile of wood in the foreground, was quickly devoured

by the construction.

Before you the skeleton of the roof takes shape. And for the first time,

you get a sense of scale from the construction. It was very unnerving

trying to guess the size of the rooms from the foundation lines alone.

But we have ignored the front of the house long enough. It too

is getting framing and roofing elements. One difficult part of the process

is ordering windows. It took weeks trying to find a matching style of windows,

trying to find some that didn't cost an arm and leg, and even after you

finally order them, it will take 3-4 weeks for them to arrive. 

 Word of advice - if you ever plan on remodeling your house...

the first thing you do is order your windows way way in advance!

Back at the Office, it has received it's roof and plywood "skin".

This of course will be sided in the end. Notice the small roofing

detail over the door - which we tried to hint some

detail interest from the main house design.

Sheridan enjoying the view. Probably secretly wishing

that this was his room!

Sneak peek inside the Office.

The main house too has received it roofing and plywood exterior. Pretty dramatic

 improvement over a couple of weeks ago. Still have some yard left, but not what

we had before. Kids will more than likely be disappointed when it

comes time to be cutting the grass!

So on a fine Memorial Day Holiday - this is pretty much the status

of the house. They have pulled the rough wiring and plumbing, with outlets

and drains. HVAC guys are coming in to install the ducting and whatever

units they need.  So alot of work now is internally.  I think progress will appear

slower on the outside, but there is still much much to do.

So hope you have a great weekend. Kids will be off school in a couple of weeks

 and the summer will be upon us!

Day 15 - The Wood Arrives

My elderly neighbor across the street claims at 7:15am he felt a sharp rumble.

At first the thought maybe it was a start of a earthquake, but instead looked

across the street to see a truck dumping the first of many loads of lumber

dropped on the driveway with a resounding bang.

It is peculiar to see, even this day of age, all the wood needed to build a house. You'd

think by now, in the 21st century, you would have giant Lego-like plastic building blocks. Or maybe

an air-filled structure like your kids Rent-A-Jumper. But no -still using sticks of trees like they

did in Colonial days.

Giant wood beams, not destined for the USS Constitution, but for the Garage,

Somewhere, there is a colony of termites licking their tiny lips!

Now its starting to look like something.

Inside the Garage, which my contractor has affectionately

dubbed the "Church."

The back of the house receiving its rough plumbing and wiring.

Looking like a sweet pink treat to eat, insulation is layed under the flooring.

 I honestly believe insulation is a new discovery to California brought to it by

migrating Northerner's. The original house only had a trace amount of insulation

in the ceiling. Barely enough to fill an average Futon.

Hopefully this will make a big difference in energy costs -and the

air conditioner won't have to run every half hour

So at the end of another week, the house is taking shape. With the floor and

foundation down, I am told the walls will spring up even faster!!!

Foundations 2 - Moving Up in the World

After threatening with a late rain, the weather finally broke clear.

You can see the roof is still exposed to the elements, save a few plastic tarps.

But the next day, the concrete was strong enough to support the

first layers of the flooring. We are finally moving up!

With the new garage floor in the foreground, workers start on the Office.

The Office flooring takes shape.

Back to the front of the house.

Progress is really starting to pick up.

A Look Back into the Future

I guess this post would have been more appropriate back in the beginning, but here are some

color models our Architect did for us early in the planning stages.

Very cool and inspired design - although we very quickly had to scale back

 as the floating house proved to be far more expensive and

technological involved than we expected. Not to mentioned the flood of

 harassing letters from the producers of "Zathura". Still a very striking design we hoped

kept the original feel of the house, but with a update.

Back on Earth, a view of the rear of the house. Of course my grass

never did look this good either.

Here is the garage and Office. One detail we liked was the way the

Office picked details from the main house.

All the colors and textures are loose interpretations. The only colors locked in are the actual house cream/white and green trim.

Time for Concrete

Imagine you are my neighbors and looking out the window

and seeing this beast at 7:00am in the morning.

So instead of trying to back the cement truck back on the driveway,

they chose to utitilize a cement pumper instead.

The cement flows into the hopper and sent under pressure

 through a hose to the backyard.

The workers can control and direct the cement with as

much ease as watering the garden.

Well, they make it look that easy anyway.

The start of a great looking garage. We never did get a chance

to put our footprints in there yet!

Form Fitting Foundations - all the Rage

I am deviating slightly from the program here, initially all the dramatic events

 like demolition, have occurred on a daily basis. But now, progress is not so

steady or apparent day by day. So instead of Day one, two, three..etc,

I will try to identify the posts by category. Here is case one, prepping

 the yard and laying the forms for the foundation.

No, this is not a makeshift bunker, nor grave site,

 but the outline of the Office. The kids are mighty sore that I wouldn't let them use the trenches for their war games.

Future site of the new Garage.

Looking at the back of the house - Patio and Master Bath.

 

Ah, the first load of lumber to arrive. One of many many loads

that I was told should expect to arrive.

Looking at the Utility Room - the forms are going in to

 accept the concrete pour.

Back at the Garage, slowly taking shape.

Not to be ignored, the Front of the House is also receiving

some attention. Incidentally, we had to move the mailbox off

 the wall and relocate it on our temp fence. It took some retraining

 on the part of our mailman, but it is all good now.

Don't know if you realized it by now - but I have been

incorporating a large amount of Panorama shots. 

The construction always looks more impressive in person

 and the wide-angle compositions help convene some of that.

Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, or thickley weeds if you will,

 the new construction is quickly sprouting up.