What a couple of weeks it has been. Two weeks ago, we finished the excavation of our pool. At that time, just two short weeks ago, no-one was talking about sheltering in place or how many new coronavirus cases were reported that day. Obviously, a lot has happened since then. Coronavirus notwithstanding, we’ve had twoRead more about Pool – despite everything, progress continues again[…]
We planned on using some of the dirt from our pool excavation to fill our garden beds. But first, we needed to figure out exactly what we had, and determine what we would have to add to it to make it good growing soil. We learned a net trick from our local botanical gardens. TakingRead more about Soil analysis[…]
They dug the pool in 4 days last week. It should have taken three, but they hit rock below 6 feet in the deep end. Actually, were were quite lucky that they didn’t hit rock before that. Because the rock sat under the spot where they had the exit ramp, they had to dig upRead more about Pools progress – Houston, we have a hole[…]
Yes, chickens. We’ve been building a chicken coop for a few weeks now. The frame is solidly built out of mostly treated wood, but we are using reclaimed redwood fence boards from our back property line, for the siding. It is coming along nicely. The coop itself has 6 nests. It is smaller than IRead more about Bwaaaaaak, buk buk buk buk[…]
We’ve had this large open mulched area directly behind our house for a year and a half now. Our young hairy dog likes to roll around in it and the wood chips stick to him like Velcro. Well, soon that will be no more, as we embark on our last big construction project, a pool.Read more about Staying cool with a pool[…]
We found a nice way to use a little bit of the old redwood fence wood we recovered from the back yard.
When we built our house, we pre-wired for just about anything we would want to install, including: Wired network in every room Speakers in almost any room Surround sound in three rooms Centralized AV gear rack in our basement and Centralized control of the entire house, including lighting, music, garage doors, door locks, doorbell, HVAC,Read more about Audio | Video | Home Automation[…]
One bummer about our paver driveway is that the pavers show tire tread marks and the pavers soak up any kind of oily material which forms a stain. Here you can see the driveway with the tread marks. So we decided to have the driveway cleaned and sealed. I tried cleaning the driveway myself atRead more about Sealing the driveway[…]
Before we knew it would take 6+ years to design, permit, and build our new house, we thought it might be nice to have a room that would be appropriate for a live-in Au-per as we had just had our third child. We figured anyone in that position would appreciate having their own little kitchenette,Read more about Basement guest room kitchenette[…]
We had another great holiday season in our house. This year, we invited two families to join us on Christmas day dinner. We again made Beef Wellington, which we’ve decided is now our Christmas dinner tradition. We even tried out the thermometer that came with our oven. This thermometer will monitor the interior temperature ofRead more about Our second holidays in the house[…]