JUST PLUGGIN' ALONG

Howdy Y'all!

This week has been one of sporadic progress mostly focused on completing the front stone exterior of the house. It has also been punctuated by some erratic winter weather (yes, it happens in sunny Texas) where temperatures have yoyo'ed up and down sufficiently to disrupt the stone work. Cement mortar doesn't work well in sub-40 degree weather, and neither do the stone masons. Hopefully the disruptive weather here in Central Texas is over for the time being and we can get back to a steady stream of work.

Most of the visible effort has been in stone work on the remaining front arches and window treatments. It isn't surprising how painstakingly slow this work seems, yet arches are getting finished. This picture below is the outside left-hand arch/wall in the front entrance. The cup is an added detail we considered. :D

Left-side front entrance arch and wall.

Same wall - inside arch and wall.

Since we have four masons on the job, more than one wall can be worked on. The trick is not to have too many masons working on the same house because stone placement starts to look 'individualized', or distinctive to a mason. We've been fortunate in that the four have somewhat the same 'eye' regarding the size and mix of stones. (Also lighter on the fried chicken pocketbook.)

Work on the Dining Room window arch.

Finishing the arch.

Done except for the ledge stone at the bottom.

We also saw some work on the pool last week as the pot scuppers were installed on the rock columns. These will add sound and a 'visual' as water (theoretically) pours out of the pots into the pool. Pool water can get stagnant, particularly in hot weather, so these types of water effects keep things flowing when the pumps are on and significantly minimize the amount of chemicals needed. Hopefully, with rainwater and the water effects, we can use the very least of pool chemicals to keep the water balanced and safe. This is also the last of the pool work that will be completed until the house is completely done. At that point they will apply the deck finish, the final plaster coat, and color for the pool.

Pot Scuppers.

Demysticizing the simple technology of the pots.

Outside progress also continues in shaping the motor court  garage area in preparation for laying cement to bring the level even with the garage floors. The foundation team returned to start building the forms for the back retaining wall which will support the motor court foundation. The pad for the air conditioning compressors also was formed next to the pool equipment pad. 

Retaining wall at the back of the Motor Court.

Supervising the forms for the air conditioning compressor pad.

Additionally, our 1000 gallon propane tank was finally delivered and set on its' sand base. (Looks like a Red October submarine!) The tank will have a couple of gas lines installed this week for the house and pool heater (later addition) and then buried completely (like the septic system).

Propane tank

Different view

Buried! (almost)

The next big step inside the house is the painting and installation of the cabinets that have been built-to-measure for the house. We have elected to turn the detached garage into a paint booth rather than having the cabinets painted in the house, as is generally customary. In this manner the painters can control the environment with dust removal equipment and heaters. The cabinets have started to arrive from the cabinet maker, and as soon as the closed garage setup is weather-tight with vinyl wall coverings, we'll start to see finished cabinets.

A small sample of the cabinets waiting to be stained and finished.

A variety of other activities are happening as well as the builder starts the final push to completion. The electricians arrived today to start putting in electrical plugs, lights, cans, fans, switches, etc. (Not sure what the rush is since we don't have power to the house yet, but hey, we're not the project managers.) 

Ceiling cans.

Ceiling fan for Office/Den.

Outdoor garage lamps.

More outdoor garage lamps.

Power distribution panels and new rainwater collection lines.

That's all for now. See ya later!

- Jan and John - 

THE UNVEILING!

Howdy Y'all!

This is probably a good time to thank you for your continued support and positive comments about the blog. When we started this, it was a way for us to memorialize the building process and build a story around this house project, and to consolidate all of the responses to questions we were getting about "how is the house project going?". But, along the way it turned into a stress-relieving vehicle for us, and gave us a positive outlet for the invariable frustrations that come with building a house into a home. So, thank you all!

Of course, just as soon as we sent off the last blog, lots of things started happening around the house. Yessiree, things have picked up! 

Most notably, the stone masons have reached the halfway point in their efforts to kill off all of the stone piles. The entire front of the house is almost complete, except for the front entrance. They have almost completed the garages so that we can begin constructing the forms to pour the motor court wall and driveway. Garage doors are slated for next week, so the clock is ticking to get the rock up there.

Powder Room exterior wall. Done!

As we watched today, quite a bit of rock work was done after the setting of the transom beams over the garage doors.

Starting the base level.

Here is an example of the iron "L" beam (lintel) that was set above the doors to act as a 'ledge' on which the rock will sit. This puppy weighed 300 lbs. and took five of us to get it in place. Once positioned on the stone columns at the ends, it was bolted into the transom beam, and can now pretty much support any stone weight from above. Clever, simple technology that is pretty standard for stone-faced garage doors.

Placement of the L beam (lintel).

The finished look.

Side view of the main garage.

Part of the complexity of the stonework, and the length of time to get it completed, is the number of arches we have on the exterior of the house. To be honest, Jan and I were simply not aware, during the architectural design phase, of what that really entailed, and the amount of detail involved to get the 'look' right. (None of our previous homes had arches.) Having said that, it isn't an uncommon stone process here, so the craftsman are familiar with what it takes to set the stone properly. In our case, and those of other ranches here, wooden templates have to be constructed for each individual arch in order to set the top stones properly. Like Roman aqueduct architecture, the smaller arches can literally support themselves and the weight above, but the larger arches need the lintel steel beam technology. 

One of the patio arch templates.

View of multiple wooden templates built for each patio and window archway.

Window templates for the front entrance arches above the door.

Wooden arch template (inserted) for the Media Room fountain wall.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….(always wanted to say that!), the Pool Guys were busy with the 'good and the bad'.     The Bad - we found a few tiles on the infinity edge that we weren't happy with (chipped), and a couple of stone scupper pot caps that we felt were substandard quality, so the pool guys were out replacing those today. To their credit, they also recognized the problems and moved to correct them before we asked to have them replaced. 
The Good - work started on building the fire pit on the lower deck. Do S'mores go with wine?

Laying the firebrick and exterior stone facing.

More of the same.

Note the steel lintel beam for the main patio arch. (Feels like St. Louis.)

The finished product just waiting for wood and fire.

(Shhhh. Jan thinks it's her new hot tub.)

And, finally, the unveiling of the trim paint began today that had been covered up while the room walls were being painted last week. Note that Jan and I were in Seattle when all of the trim work was being done, so today was the first opportunity to see it sans the plastic covering. Overall, it looks terrific! There are a couple of things that will go on the final 'punch list' for rework (there always are), but in general we are very happy with the color, finish and tone depth of the woodwork.

Great Room doors and window.

First look at the Great Room fireplace.

Prep Kitchen trim work.

Main Kitchen.

Master Bedroom windows and door.

Office/Den windows and door.

Either we made the pool too deep, or I'm getting shorter.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

This is for all of the Seahawks fans out there (minus those who think Sherm Richard's comments were cool). 
Go Hawks! (Graphic courtesy of Beau Granger. Thanks, Beau!)

Super Bowl! Go Hawks!

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

WATCHING PAINT DRY

Howdy Y'all!

Building a new house in the last trimester of a yearlong process is definitely like watching paint dry. Even though progress is taking place, everything seems to have slowed down in terms of "big" changes. And, the desire to 'just get it done' also increases exponentially. [Probably has something to do with cabin fever after living in an apartment for so long. Even the cat wants more room!]

This last week we seemed to make some progress in spite of two days of rainy weather. [Acclimate weather days are a great excuse for our building friends to stay home.] However, we are now at a point where the 'personality' of the house is emerging, and refinements are being made to the building plan to correct oversights or missed issues that weren't visible earlier in the process.

The stone masons continue to make headway against all of the piles of rock distributed around the house. There doesn't look like much is getting done, but at the end of the day - presto! - another wall is up! If I were the stone masons, I'd get depressed looking at all of the piles still remaining.

Two of six piles of stone around the house.

Exterior Media Room wall and Powder Room.

Prep Kitchen and partial Dining Room walls.

Bathroom windows.

Work also started on putting in the septic system and 1000 gallon propane tank. Both of these systems are buried beneath ground, so on Wednesday they started digging. Unfortunately, they ran into bedrock about six feet down, and spent most of the day breaking stone with the backhoe attachment. [Actually, this is a good thing from our perspective because the tanks are now sitting on stone ledges that will ensure that there is no movement whatsoever of the tanks.] The septic system is a three-stage aerobic system, and from the looks of it, the builder is assuming we are going to have lots of guests! 

The drain field lines will run about 250 feet away from the house, and will provide super-green grass for the cattle to munch on. Happy, happy cows.

Pile driving and chipping out the bedrock ledges.

Leveling the ledges and sanding for a smooth base.

Lowering the first of three tanks for the septic system.

Done!

View from the drain field side. 

Most of the work inside has stopped this week as the paint dries and cures. Paint work will start on Monday again as the remainder of the rooms are painted now that Jan has selected all of the interior colors.

As is always the case, minor changes to the architectural plan are required to address minor inconsistencies. We had a small issue with the masonry this week that was corrected by adding a header beam across the top of the garage door spans to address the weight requirements of the stone. The architect had drawn the stone ledge with no supporting beam; a bit tough to hang stone on unless it levitates. The project PM caught it in time before the stone masons started work in the motor court. No biggy, but it was a good catch nonetheless.

Measuring for the new header beam.

Voila! Done!

The guys also completed the framing of the front entrance so that the stone arches can now be built. It turns out that stone walls greater than 12 feet high require metal 'lintels' in order to support the weight of the upper stonework. Our front entrance is about 20 feet high, so the carpenters needed to build a support structure in order to attach the metal beam.

Cross beams to attach the metal 'lintels' to. [We just watch and learn.]

This week the Pool Guys came out and removed all of the forms from around the decks and steps. We can now visualize how the landscape and fencing might begin to look now that we have a clean surface to work with. 

Lower pool deck.

View from the opposite side with swim step.

View from the patio across the pool deck.

Back of the house from the North 40.

View of the front of the house from the main driveway (hopefully soon).

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