Last week all the tubing for our central vac was installed. We’ve got 10 plug-in points around the house, and will have three 30 to 50 foot hoses. The new generation of central vacuum systems have hoses that have the wire integrated (so that it doesn’t get caught on things as you drag it around)Read more about Central vac[…]
The stone masons have been busy cutting stone from our pile into 4 inch pieces suitable for skinning the fireplace and raised foundation walls. They delivered the first drop of the materials last week. All those nice flat pieces came from the boulders we pulled out of the ground when we excavated our basement. IRead more about Stone work[…]
We met with 4 different water treatment companies this week. In Santa Barbara, most of our water comes from the Santa Ynez Valley watershed, which feeds Cachuma Lake. There is almost no farming or industrial activity in the water shed, so our water is reasonably pure. However, it tends to go through a lot ofRead more about Water treatment[…]
In addition to today being Lisa’s birthday, a lot has been happening here. Roofing The roofers have started the roofing process, laying down the second layer of paper, and flashing all around the edge of the roof. We are finalizing the solar layout and contract. Once that is done, the solar installers will install theRead more about Weekly update June 2nd[…]
On a side note, it’s Lisa’s birthday today! One way she’s celebrating is by taking the kids out to ice cream this afternoon. (Sorry, I just had to, it is such a cute picture.) One of the benefits of having carpenters on site, I was able to have Charlie and the carpenters build Lisa aRead more about Happy Birthday Lisa![…]
By living in the old house we tore down, for the entirety of the planning process, and the first 8 months of construction, we saved a lot of money. The downside of our frugal ways was the repeated moving of our extra stuff. The property originally had a very dilapidated garage, which we used toRead more about Moving our stuff, again and again[…]
The shingles are going on fast now and should be done in a couple more weeks. While you can’t see the final paint colors, the contrast between the different siding materials, along with the Craftsman details, is stunning. We’ve finalized the design of our railings and about half of them are on now.
It is a considerable up charge, but we’ve decided to go with a Lutron Homeworks lighting system. In traditionally wired lighting, lights are wired with high voltage (110v) directly to the switches. You can do things like three (or more) way switching, dimming, etc, but that is about as advanced as it gets. Other thanRead more about Lutron Homeworks (QS)[…]
We chose to use all LED lighting in our house for obvious reasons – the energy efficiency. But there are some other benefits as well. Size Because we are using LED fixtures (not just bulbs) the bulbs are much smaller, and the fixtures, with trim, are 4″in diameter (see the 3″ image above – theRead more about The benefits of LED lighting[…]
No, this doesn’t involve trench coats. A look at any older house quickly reveals the downside of older wooden exteriors. Anything flat that can collect water will eventually experience dry rot, and anywhere that water can get to, it will, and will cause dry rot. To avoid this, any flat surfaces, or anywhere that waterRead more about Flashing[…]