Three days before move-in, catastrophe has struck our new house. Over the weekend, a plumbing fitting connecting the kitchen island pot filler to the water line had a crack, and developed a leak. It seems our plumbers over-tightened a plastic fitting and it caused a crack. The water dripped down behind the stove, and foundRead more about Catastrophe[…]
The master tub is finally in! Because we didn’t plan on having an access hole from the bottom to attach the drain, it gave the plumber some difficulty doing it from the top. The first attempt leaked. I am always amazed at how much planning and thinking things through is required to build a house.
We finally removed the office trailer we’ve been using for over a year to manage the construction. Like the roll-off containers, we had to wait until we could rebuild the ramp necessary to get them out. It was a tight squeeze getting it out the driveway. We now have a temporary office inside the basement.
We’ve had storage containers on our property for the better part of 3 years. In them are all the furniture and furnishings that would not fit in our rental house, or the old house that we tore down. We decided to go with roll-off containers, rather than renting a storage space, because it is muchRead more about A milestone – removal of the roll-off storage containers[…]
Traditional craftsman houses have a considerable amount of stained wood finish. Consider this house just a half block away from ours that was on the market some years back. The old house on our property had a lot of exposed, unfinished redwood. We love redwood, but that is a lot of reddish brown to haveRead more about Stain in the ass[…]
All week we’ve been trying to get people to come over to get some work done on the yard, and then all three teams showed up at the same time today. The plaster crew showed up to plaster a retaining wall that goes all down our driveway and then across our property. The block wallRead more about A busy morning[…]
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 spent the better part of 30 years in Santa Barbara, since I moved here to go to college. The lifestyle (casual, laid back, outdoorsy, friendly) and the climate make it a great place to live. Take a look at this view from the top of the courthouse tower in downtown Santa Barbara. We gotRead more about The Santa Barbara lifestyle[…]
A week ago, during heavy rain, the wealthy enclave to the east of us experienced some horrific mudslides. The Montecito mudslides have made the national headlines for days now since they occurred a week ago. The Santa Barbara area, at around 230,000 people, is a small community with about 3 degrees of separation between anyRead more about Mudslides and the schedule slides[…]
The pool house is inching along. One of the difficulties with the pool house is that it has a lot going on. Among the normal stuff, we have a bathroom, outdoor shower, and electrical sub panel. But there are also a number of elements that make this a lot more complicated than just a smallRead more about Pool house progress[…]