For us, building a house is a very personal thing, and nothing is more personal than our relationship with our builder Charlie. I’ve known Charlie for 25 years, and he is probably the only person I would trust to build us a house. I am a big fan of breakfast – bacon, sausage, eggs, theRead more about Eggtastic[…]
I thought I’d mention a bit about site security. Construction sites make attractive targets for theft because of the abundance of valuable raw materials, like copper pipe, and expensive tools. For the first 10 or so months of construction, we were living in the old house at the back of the property. Living on siteRead more about Site security[…]
We’ve been struggling to dry in the structure for the last few weeks as we continue to get hit by weekly storms. The last one, five days ago, dumped 1 3/4 inches of rain overnight and we again had to pump, squeegee, and vacuum out the water. The problem is this: Part of the exposedRead more about Rain rain go away[…]
The demolition of the old house on our lot, which we had been living in for 3 1/2 years, was waiting on us finding a suitable rental. From living in the old house, to the demolition, was a whirlwind. It went something like this: Monday: look at a rental Tuesday: signed a lease Thursday: movedRead more about The demolition[…]
We’ve had a crew sheathing the outside of the house for the last week. Here is the before and after of the front. The crew works this as a second job, so they work on Saturday and afternoon on weekdays. For the neighbors, it is unfortunately noisy work, with the compressor constantly running the theRead more about Sheathing the house, craftsman style, and more rain[…]
The history of the old house on our lot has always been shrouded in mystery. From the historical report, we knew in general that construction was done on certain dates, and in some cases what in general was done (second story added) but we haven’t really known what part of the house was built when,Read more about The real history of the old house[…]
In preparation for plumbing the house, the plumbers measured the water pressure at the street – 60 PSI. While 60 PSI is perfectly normal for inside house water, typical street water pressure ranges from 85 to 120 PSI. The difference is that higher pressure can provide more water. To simplify, the relationship between pressure andRead more about The water line[…]
From the structural design, through the pouring of the concrete basement foundation, we didn’t realize that the outside walls of the light wells were so high above the natural grade. Early on, with the excavation pit considerably wider than the footprint of the house, it was hard to tell what it would look like afterRead more about Cutting the light wells[…]
Living in the old house, when it is so close to the new house, has always been a gamble. We were betting that the cost of renting another house was more than it was costing us for the old house to be somewhat in the way of the new construction. As construction marches forward, theRead more about Moving day[…]