The back property line had anywhere from 4-8 feet think of mixed growth, including an invasive bamboo-like species, and a red trumpet vine that kept invading our oak tree. Luckily, our neighbors on that side agreed with us that it all had to be taken out, to start from scratch, with a fence and someRead more about The jungle[…]
It’s been almost a month since my last burst of posts, and it’s been quite a month. Frustratingly little progress in terms of what we can call complete, but lots of work going on there an there, just more slowly than we want. The estimates of our move in date keep getting pushed back. Originally,Read more about April – what a month it’s been[…]
I’ve become somewhat of an accomplished junior surveyor over the last few weeks, as the need to figure out the location in 3D space for several elements of our hardscape has come up, like the bio-filtration basin. This ridiculous thing is supposed to clean all the water that runs off of our property before weRead more about Surveying – bio-filtration basin[…]
Materials have a limited useful life, and more so when they are in the ground. This became evident recently at my parents house, which they and remodeled over 40 years ago. At the time when laying irrigation pipe, one used galvanized pipe. But galvanized pipe can and does corrode over time. In this case apparentlyRead more about The lifespan of materials[…]
Take a look at this cross section of our wall structure from our structural engineer. Like most everything in our house, and that is requited by code, this new wall that we are building along our property line with our neighbors will be veritably bomb-proof. And it needs to be pretty beefy as in additionRead more about How to build a wall[…]
In the last few weeks we’ve been working on grading the back yard. Here is what it looks like now. Here is a better shot with more contrast. The area around the fireplace is ready for the foundation for the small pool cabana, which will have three open sides. You can see we have aRead more about Back yard grading update[…]
We had this existing wall on the property, a short segment that was skewed relative to the property line. We decided along with our neighbors that we liked the style, and wanted to tear down the existing wall and replicate the style all along the property line. Yesterday was the day it came down, andRead more about Down comes the wall[…]
We moved another palm tree last week. This happens to be the only tree we didn’t previously move. Originally, we had it 10 feet from the back of the house. However, as part of the planning process, we moved the house back 10 feet to reduce the perception of size from the street. But, weRead more about Moving another palm tree[…]
The property next to us came on the market last year. It is a large 1/2 acre property, like ours, with a 3,000 or so square foot house close to the front of the property. Much of the yard is unfinished (and old dilapidated tennis court) and the house hasn’t seen a remodel since theRead more about Neighborly luck[…]
One of the more frustrating aspects of building a house are the bureaucratic rules that are pointless. Along those lines is this story about our biofiltration basin. When we original submitted our landscape plan, it included a lot of new impermeable surface area: larger roof profile more concrete for patios and such paver driveway walkwaysRead more about Bureaucratic check box – bio-filtration[…]