The siding work began last week. We’ve got scaffolding up all around the house, and the house has been Tyvek wrapped. Other than the building wrap, one of the first things the siding contractor is working on is the second floor skirt, also sometimes called a flare Here are the beginnings of that framing. HereRead more about Siding[…]
While we welcome the plentiful rain this year as some respite from our years long drought in California (and especially in Santa Barbara), we are happy to say that the last few weeks has given us mostly a break from rain, allowing the plywood on our decks and exterior stairs to dry out so thatRead more about Deck water proofing[…]
In December, our beloved designer informed us that she could no longer work on our project for personal reasons. Over the next two months, and interviews with 7 very capable designers, we found someone we felt comfortable with. During that time we also realized that we needed to do major changes to our landscape design. Read more about Design decisions[…]
A lot is happening but in some ways, the house feels a little stuck, as there aren’t any big accomplishments to announce. The HVAC and Plumbing teams continue to chip away at those two installations, which are getting pretty far along. We are waiting for confirmation of when the window installation will begin. Coming onRead more about Plodding along[…]
We’ve arranged for the scaffolding to be installed and expect the installation of windows to begin in the next week. To prepare for the installation of windows (and other final look elements that might suffer from a shift in the building foundation) it is important to load the building with the heaviest materials so thatRead more about Drywall loading[…]
We’ve always had a high ideal of re-using as much of the old house we tore down as possible, or giving it to others to reuse. To that end, is a nice story about the recycling of the old shed and fence that was behind the house. The shed and fence appear to have beenRead more about Turning old into new[…]
Add another crew to the ant farm we have going at the new house. The insulation team is on site and applying spray foam to the underside of the roof. There were here about a month ago, insulating the part of the roof that became inaccessible once we sheathed the roof, and now they areRead more about Spray foam insulation[…]
When we vacated the house on the property, and subsequently left it unattended at night and on weekends, we put up a security system using a combination of IP video cameras that record in various ways, and battery operated motion sensitive video cameras. The system has gotten its first real test in the last coupleRead more about Perp walk (security update)[…]
We’ve had on and off rain for the last month. But, now that we have a roof on and the last bit of concrete poured, it doesn’t matter much. Inside, the house is a hub of activity, with three trades working – plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. Builder Charlie calls this the ant farm. The plumbersRead more about The ant farm[…]
We’ve waited a long time to get a clear view of what our house will look like on the outside. While we’ve got some 2D hand drawn elevations, and a couple of renderings, they don’t really give the full picture of what the house will look and feel like. Now that most of the framingRead more about The outside of the house is coming into focus[…]