WTF? THE HOUSE IS SHRINKING!

Howdy Y'all!

I'm sitting here, all alone, enjoying a wonderful glass of wine and cigar on a beautiful Texas evening while Jan is in Seattle partying hard with Macenzie [sic], trying hard to figure out how the house got smaller in the space of a single day!

Really good!

Well, as it turns out, they started "rockin' the house" today (builder-speak for putting up sheetrock) and all of the rooms started getting freakin' smaller! We know that it is an illusion, but they do look smaller (except Jan's closet). There is still some work that the insulation guys need to complete, so the sheet-rockers are working around the walls that need to be further insulated and finished. Hopefully, it won't shrink any further.

Like all of the rest of the processes, we're fascinated by the way they deal with rounded walls. As it turns out, on some walls they take 1/4 inch sheetrock and form it around the bends. Then they layer a second 1/4 inch sheet right over it to achieve the 1/2 inch thickness. This is the process they will use in tight radiuses like Jan's powder room.

The other high tech approach is to go out to the hose, spray the back side of the sheetrock with water, and form it around the bend while it is still wet. It dries, and presto!, instant curved wall! That is the process they used for this wall in the following picture.
Something that we learned from the Alan the Great in Walla Walla was screwing sheetrock in, rather than nailing. Nails eventually, over time, work their way out; screws don't. Takes longer, but worth the effort. (Okay, not my effort, but you get the point.)

Exercise Room - Curved back wall. 

Media Room

Jan's closet (getting bigger, not smaller).

Wine Room. Hurry!

Almost finished garage.

We're now at the point where the interior activity is no longer dependent on the exterior stuff, and vice versa, which means that we should see texture on the interior walls within a week. The outside activity is slower going, although the stucco facing is complete and is being painted as I write this.

If you remember from the previous blog update, the stucco team put up a 'scratch coat' (grey stuff) as the first step. They then applied a white 'finish' coat which represents the finished texture (ala "Tuscan" in our case), and has a water sealant in the product. They then primer the finish coat and apply two coats of elastomeric paint ("Latte" color). The elastomeric paint also has a water sealant in it, and can expand and contract with the weather. (See how this all comes together?) Now, all that remains, once the stucco painting is complete and all of the fascia and soffits have been painted, is 'waiting in line' (more builder-speak) for the stone masons and roofers to show up.

Primer coat over the finished texture.

Primer coat and first Latte color coat on Guest Rooms.

Workin' the roller on the inside driveway arch.

Finished driveway arch. 

Finished arch - inside view.

The big surprise when I stopped by the site today was the installation of the front doors. To be honest, we would have preferred that they waited, but the builder informed me that because of the iron door frame, they need to be installed so that the masons can set stone around the outside frame. This makes the door frames virtually impregnable (yes, our big word for today!), and allows the sheetrockers to properly finish the inside frame. This picture is kind of funky looking, but it is the reflection off of the wrapped plastic around the doors.

Front entry doors.

But Wait, There's More!
For those of you that have wondered if we are putting a pool in, here is the final plan (we hope) that we have been working on for the last 3-4 weeks. It still has some work left, and although this is not the detailed drawing, it is very close to what it should look like. Of course, this assumes a lot of landscaping that doesn't quite work in a ranch setting, but we'll eventually get to that part. (We need a money tree, not palms!)

Pool Plan, minus all of the lawn shown here.

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