THE AGONY and THE ECSTASY

Howdy Y'all!

The Ecstasy - Here we are, sitting on beautiful Lake Sammamish (across from Seattle) with our wonderful and close friends, Gene and Beth Morel, at their home enjoying the fabulous sunny weather, lounging in shorts, and drinking tasty cocktails with umbrellas. What a life!

Okay, maybe not so warm and sunny, but beautiful anyway.

We decided to take a trip to Seattle to visit the Morels, and then spend Christmas week with Macenzie and Beau. We had to dig deep in the storage closets to find cold weather coats to go over the shorts and flip flops (standard Texas attire).

Back at the ranch - the Agony (sometimes) - we continue to hope for substantial progress on the house. The stone masons finally cycled back on Thursday morning (supposedly now there until the completion of the stone work), and picked up where they left off. It probably wasn't the best timing for us to leave with the rock work finally underway, but when we made the flight reservations to Seattle we forgot to check with the masons to see if it fit into their schedule :-).

The difficulty with the stonework is that it is an imprecise process - it really relies literally on the 'artistry' of the stone mason's eye in combining the work of nature's randomness, as to the stone's color and texture, to assemble the stone in a manner that appears random but really has a discernible pattern. Add to that the need to stack and mortar it properly, and you end up with a fairly cool skill set. Anyone can stack stone, but who can make it look like it belongs there?

Powder Room and Media Room exteriors

Walling in the Master Bath and closets

Moving inside we saw the preliminary assembly of the Cantera stone fireplace that was pieces and parts the previous week. The fireplace guys still have some additional finishing and facing work to complete after the mortar sets and the stone dries, but we are happy with the initial look.

The fireplace is only 5 feet tall; Jan shrunk.

The painters also showed up and started the tedious task of caulking each and every seam in the windows, baseboards, and closet shelving. Amazingly, four guys moved through the house in the space of two days. Behind them, another crew arrived and started the process of staining all of the woodwork. This is a six-step process that involves staining, staining again, sealing, sanding, and applying two lacquer coats. We aren't there, so we're hoping it looks good when we get back, and matches the colors they were left with.

Beginning the door staining process.

First pass finished on the doors. Next step - restaining.

Staining the trim, baseboards, and crown moulding.

While all of this is going on inside, the pool guys have been busy finalizing the deck area to begin pouring concrete next week. A couple of the issues we had were to make sure that the lower deck was graded high enough to eliminate any water intrusion from the surrounding grassland, and to ensure that we ran the properly sized sleeves under the concrete for future irrigation needs. All of this stuff gets lost in the noise when everyone is working to meet deadlines. Thankfully, the pool project manager is pretty attentive to the details.

Framing the steps from the pool deck to the lower level.

Lower deck. Steps are being formed to the left of the picture.

Same lower pool deck with more road base and steps.

Six months after purchasing the Wine Room door, it was finally delivered and installed. Of course, this is the beginning of the final steps in outfitting the most important room in the house. Might need to put a microwave and TV in there as well.

Wine Room door at the showroom.

Installed in the wall - finally!!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Jan and I want to wish all of you the Merriest of Christmas', and all of the blessings of the New Year. Best wishes to your families, and travel safe during the Holiday Season!

That's all for now. See ya later!

- John and Jan - 

STILL THERE!

Howdy Y'all!

Yup, the stone pile is still there. The masons were supposed to show up two Mondays ago, but didn't. Then we had three days of heavy rain, which eliminated any exterior work. The rain devolved into sub 40 degree damp weather, which also eliminates the possibility of mortar drying properly. Then, along came Thanksgiving Week and everyone is off preparing for Turkey Day. Which brings us to the present, and still no stone on the house. We now have a lottery going and taking bets on which week of the calendar the stone work will actually begin!

Still there!

LATE BREAKING UPDATE!

Just as we were about to post another therapeutic rant in the blog about the missing Waldo stone masons, guess who showed up yesterday? The masons arrived yesterday morning and immediately set to work putting up (and taking down) a test wall for us to look at and review our options as to color match, mortar depth, and spacing. It is a process that takes some back and forth until the masons get a sense of what you want in the look of the stone placement. It is never perfect because the stone is not 'painted', has variations based on when and where it was quarried, and what batch was delivered compared to the original stone example. But then, that is part of the beauty of Mother Nature, and the experience of the stone masons. (We're so touchy-feely these days.)

Two of our four new best friends - Waldo Chavez and Waldo Martinez

Part of the difficulty of this house is the large number of arches that have to be constructed of stone, metal and wood. Stretched, or wide radius, arches are particularly difficult because of the weight that has to be supported across a long span (where are the Roman aqueduct builders when we need them?). We had to laugh listening to the mason supervisor and project manager casting about disparaging remarks regarding "architects and their grand drawings". Unfortunately, we weren't aware of this issue when the plans were discussed or we would have simplified them. But, at the end of the 'walkabout', the challenges were addressed with good solutions, and no changes to the plans.

Laying the first course on the powder room turret.

Working the side wall of the entrance.

It is pretty fascinating watching these guys study a wall, pick out the different color stone, chip off the right amount of rock to fit the pattern, and then set it in place accurately. Of all of the craftsmen working on a stone-exteriored home, besides the trim carpenters, these guys truly have the "look" of the house in their hands. 

The following pics show wet mortar which will dry to a very light color (Texas Tan), and mortar joints which still need to be brushed. All in all, a good look with what Nature has to offer us. (More touchy-feely.)

Finally losing the 'green' look.

Rough look after a couple of hours.

Meanwhile….back inside, the trim carpenters have been busy working on the crown moulding and window trim in designated rooms. Jan and I complicated things by moving to a three-part crown moulding rather than the one piece designated in the plan. We felt the high ceilings needed something more substantial, and this was validated by the expert opinion of our ranch neighbors. Thankfully, the carpenters are a really good team that accommodate our changes without any complaints. 

Crown moulding in the Prep/Utility kitchen.

Finished trim on the Kitchen windows and ceiling (almost).

Ceiling trim on three walls. Fourth wall is rock.

Finished Dining Room window trim.

We also saw the arrival this week of the first pieces of the Cantera stone fireplace surround for the Great Room. This is a multi-piece fireplace hand-carved in Mexico to the dimensions of our particular requirements. Sounds really special, but they are fairly common in this area.

Outer leg stands for the fireplace mantle.

Work continues on laying the decking around the pool area. This week has consisted of mostly moving road base for the fill, framing the contour areas, and laying out the frames for the steps down from the main patio. Once again, it is hard for us to visualize the finished results, but it will be nice not to look at dirt any longer. The pool deck will be raised to within five inches of the covered patio and will cover the remaining open area seen in this pic.

Filling in the gap with roadbase for the beams.

View from the other side.

Framing the stairs on the side of the pool.

Framing the lower patio and fire pit area. Fire pit is at the end of the curved area.

And, last but not least, some additional work was done on laying the collection pipe in for the water system. The upright pipe stands will connect to the roof downspouts, and then to the main line into the water collection tank.

Water collection main line to the tank.

That's all for now. See ya later.
- John and Jan - 

ROCK 'N ROLL

Howdy Y'all!

It's the old 'good news, bad news' story; yes, we just had our first load of stone delivered for the exterior of the house. That's the good news. The bad news is that the stone masons won't be showing up until Monday! This is now 3 weeks after we approved the stone selection, 3 months after we discussed the stone type and color, and nearly 7 months after starting the house. Don't get us started! For those of you planning on building a new home, add 3 months to whatever completion date the builder estimates, and buy a boat load of Tums.

The Waldo question - Where in the world are the stone masons? (Lonely stone.)

Thankfully, we still have plenty of activity progressing inside the house. The carpenters are busy inventing things on a daily basis. As an example, most of the large windows have arched transoms. We thought that one could just order curved wood trim precut from the mills. Noooo Bucky, that isn't the way it works, at least not at our house. Each of the arches has to be measured and radiused separately, the wood has to be cut into bendable strips, then individually glued and nailed together, and finally, sanded and placed over the window transom. Although there is a lot of labor involved (think builder $$$), the end result is pretty awesome.

Creating the jig for the bendable strips, glued and nailed.(Dining Room)

Out of the jig and ready to be sanded (back side).

James sanding the laminated arch front.

First arch installed over the Great Room doors.

Meanwhile, out at the pool…. Last week Emilio started placing tile under the edge caps and completed that portion on Monday. This week he started applying grout to the completed edge tiles, and also tiled the top and sides of the negative edge wall. 

Workin' the grout! 

Finished product!

Infinity edge ready to be grouted.

As part of the pool design, stone columns were also built to support two shallow pots (official name - scupper pots - no idea what that means) which will pour water into the main pool. For a preview of what the stone on the house will look like, this is a good example.

Stone columns for 'scupper pots'

Exterior view of the stone columns.

Jan supervising the tile and stonework.

Back at the house…. The finish carpenters are also designing and assembling the custom cabinetry for each of the closets. We chose not to have those built by the cabinet makers based on time and overall expense, but we are extremely happy with the individual designs and quality of build we're seeing. Nothing extravagant, just very functional.

Guest Room closet.

The beginnings of Jan's closet. Room for 200 shoes!

At the same time, the carpentry team is finishing out the baseboard trim, window trim, crown molding, and hanging doors. Busy guys!

Baseboard design.

Doors, doors and more doors! (Garage)

And, over in the detached garage, the texture crew finally applied the orange peel texture to the tape and float work from last week. Doesn't look like much of a texture, but after a coat of primer and two coats of paint, the texture will stand out.

Texture layer in the detached garage and upstairs casita.

Hopefully by the next blog update we'll have some stone on the house to share with you. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

See ya later!

- John and Jan - 

TANK YOU!

Howdy Y'all!

When we left you last week, the tank pad for our water collection system was being worked on. That part was completed last Friday, and other than the cattle and deer checking out the density of the sand on the pad, all went well. They still need to regrade once the collection line pipe is in place.

Completed water collection pad (with cattle prints).

And today, finally, we have a water collection tank! After months of planning, sorting through possible contractors, making the selection, and watching the rains pass us by, we now have something to start harvesting rainwater. Lest y'all think we're out here playing Daniel Boone and foraging for our food, water collection for residential homes is actually quite refined, high tech (see our earlier blog on the technical notes), and becoming commonplace here in Texas on ranches. The tank was assembled today in about 6 hours by a team of six people (kinda anti-climatic after all these months). Of course, we still need the connection to the rain gutter system on the house, but hey, we're getting there! The tank is visible from the front driveway even though it is 300 feet from the detached garage. Need some more trees planted.

The tank is 7.5' high by 33' wide. About 52,000 gal.

A closer view.

In the meantime, we have a number of other projects underway, and finally some real activity again. Our Trim Guys arrived on Friday and began laying siege to ~1000 linear feet of baseboards, window trim, and 700 linear feet of crown molding. James and Buddy were joined by Jim and Frog (yup, that's his name) today, so sawdust was flying everywhere. Hopefully, the pizza inspired them to creative greatness.

Frog laying the first step of the baseboards.

Guest room trim, baseboards, and crown moulding.

Exercise room trim out.

Along with the trim work, the finish carpenters are also hanging the doors for each room. Unfortunately, we discovered today that the door company sent the wrong color hinges with the doors, which will necessitate changing out every hinge in 29 doors. Not a problem for us, but the carpenters weren't too thrilled (welcome to some of the pleasures of home building!).

Master bathroom doors.

On the other side of the house, the work on the detached garage continued, albeit slightly behind the main house activity. The first tape and float work has been completed on the garage section below, and the casita upstairs. 

Detached garage right to left: Doorway upstairs, water heater closet, storeroom/saferoom under stairway.

View of the garage from the other side.

Almost finished upstairs casita studio.

In addition to all of the inside work being completed, our pool guys have been busy cutting and installing brown Lueder stone edging around the pool. We've been impressed with the amount of detail that has to go into measuring, cutting, leveling, mortaring and polishing each piece of stone. 

Step 1: Measuring and setting the stone in place.

Step 2: Cutting and leveling the stone in place.

Step 3: Mortaring and polishing the stone (infinity edge catch basin).

Step 4: Working and trying to answer all of John's dumb ass questions.

Of course, we still have some small odds and ends to fix before we can proceed to the next big step. One of those was to slightly redesign the main fireplace chimney, which got its first scratch coat of stucco today. Tomorrow they will complete the second coat, along with the trim work, which will enable the roofers to finally complete that portion of the tile roof (we don't want stucco mud slathered all over the roof tiles!). 

Main chimney change. Needed to be bigger for Santa Claus.

By the time you read the next blog, we hope to have stone on the ground and the rockin' of the exterior walls. Can't come too soon!

But Wait, There's More!

It can't be 'all work and no play' all of the time. So, this last weekend we put down the hardhats and shovels (right!) to join some of our ranch mates to quaff a few beers at the New Braunfels WerstFest. For the out-of-towners, this is an annual  German fest that has been held here for about a thousand years, or as far back as anyone can remember, and consists of eating just about every German menu item imaginable, and hoisting as many beers as your budget can tolerate. (Word to the wise - they have more beer than you have budget.) In any case, we all had a great time together enjoying good eats and good friends.

Left to right: Jan, Jerry and Cindy Miller, and Craig Miller (only one husband).

Our table mates were thirsty!

Well, that's all for now.

See ya later!

- John and Jan -