Trick? No! Treat!

We got a couple real treats this week as we met with John Hammerschmidt. First, cabinets were going in to the kitchen. Clearly, Laura approves. And no, not one frame of this panorama was staged. Laura just happened to be signalling her appreciation as I was framing that shot. I do admit to shooting that frame quickly just because it was so apropos.

Our second treat was that not only was the tile on site from yesterday's visit to Terico, but also that mud was going up on the walls, at least in the surround for the guest bath. Even more, the appliances had migrated into the house from the container, as had the electrical fixtures. John's anticipating that the container might leave the site by the end of November! Another big milestone in progress!

Outside, the third coat of stucco is almost done. There's one plane on the garage front that needs the finish coat. You can see it in this picture. It's on the extended garage bay, the plane perpendicular to the front door. The other planes will be covered with architectural stone, and the sub thought that all the planes would get the stone. That same sub will be laying the driveway pavers, so we expect he'll be able to weave in that last little bit of stucco on that plane.

Next week, we should have the interior doors installed.

Terico

Today we picked out tile at Terico. This place is legendary in the Bay Area with folks remodeling their homes. They have the lowest prices around. Now, there are tradeoffs.

The first noticable tradeoff is ambiance. Very minimal. OK, really, none. Lynn Hammerschmidt described it as having a 3rd world atmosphere. Inside, it's really just a big warehouse with crate upon crate of tile. There are handwritten signs posted everywhere with things like "DO NOT TOUCH" and other charming reminders. Outside, it's also packed with tile, and only enough room between the stacks to get a forklift through. Not until we got to the back of the building did it really take on a 3rd world feel. There, the stacks get a little higher and narrower, and there are things like cast off pieces of heavy equipment and tires. It might make a great place to hold a paintball tourney.

The next tradeoff is selection. What's there, is what's there. No special orders. And if you hesitate, or have to come back tomorrow, it could be gone, having been sold to someone ready to act.

The final tradeoff is terms. No charge cards, only cash or check, with a minimum of $250 cash and $350 for a check. And, the price is THE PRICE, no negotiating. In the cross cultural mix of the Bay Area, this can sometime lead to some interesting exchanges when folks coming from cultures accustomed to dickering run up hard against this limit. We're told that such customers wind up in the category of (another handwritten sign) "we retain the right to refuse service to anyone."

Our experience was really pretty pleasant. Lynn had made a scouting run last week so we had some idea of what the selection was likely to be. Pretty quickly we picked out tile for the east wing floor, some 16" multicolor slate. The master bath was pretty easy to locate, some 12" tumbled travertine. And we had to hunt a lot for the well hidden crates with the 4" multicolor slate for the tack room and mosaic 12" copper slate for the kitchen backsplash.

The folks at Terico were really pretty pleasant. We got smiles back whenever we talked to anyone. Maybe it was because business was slow; Rain was on it's way, and my guess is many builders were spending the day getting jobs weathertight before the storm. Spending effort at a job site means fewer of them were tile shopping. But really, we only spent about 2h from our arrival until the first load was going into the truck of our tile sub, Jorge Garcia:

And it only took a few more minutes to fill his truck. Take a look at this second picture as Jorge's truck is leaving Terico. The truck looks level, right? Now, look closely at the tires relative to the body, especially the rears. Notice that the front wheels are on the pavement, and the pavement is lower than the yard at Terico? Yup, there really was that much weight in the bed. And that was only about half the tile purchase - Jorge and his brother Sergio brought two trucks back for the 2nd load.

Now, it's gonna get fun to see colors and textures like this start to appear in our new home...

Taping

This week, taping went in over the screws in the wallboard. Texture will go on next. Next week, cabinets will start in the kitchen. On the exterior, the final coat of stucco will go in. The following week, interior doors are expected, as is casing on the windows.

Sean's projecting a February 15th move in now - a direct 1 month impact in his estimate due to the snafu on the rough inspection. Laura and I are still puzzling on that completion date. Once the cabinets, casings, doors are in, it seems there's painting and floors (both tile and wood) inside, painting and stone work on the outside, plus electrical fixtures in and out. We'll be asking about trades for each running in parallel, as it feels to us that crews for a couple at a time could be working without getting in each other's way.

Happy Anniversary!

You know us, and you know Laura and I often have an unusual approach to things. Today was right in line with that.

Today (October 21) is our 19th Wedding Anniversary. As Bernie's HP job was eliminated last month, we're watching our budget very closely in this economy. Instead of taking a getaway (boy, would a vacation be nice!) or going out for a fancy-ish dinner, we decided to put our own spin on things.

We figured, what better way to celebrate than to have a quiet dinner at home - our soon-to-be-renewed home! Instead of going out, we took pizza, a good bottle of wine and a camping lantern, plates and chairs over to the remodel just before dusk. We set up our picnic table cloth on the worktable that the crew had conveniently left right in the dining room. And we had ourselves a lovely time, enjoying the twilight in the great room.

It would have been even better if Bernie had remembered to bring glasses for the wine.

Solid Form

All the insulation went in last week, and now the wallboard is just about done. Each space is really starting to take form. We're planning for a "halfway" party this month for folks to get a sense of the space before the finishes go in (and we risk getting unsightly scuff marks from rowdy party goers).

The Air Conditioner item got cleared. To meet the sound / noise code, we'll need to use a quieter unit than spec'd so we can locate it closer to the property line. And we confirmed exterior paint colors, but you'll have to come by later to see those!

Good Vibes

We passed our rough inspection! Now substantive progress will resume!

Signs of the coming progress were profound today. Cabinets for the kitchen and tack room made it on site. Wall board was being delivered as we arrived, with stacks in each room for easy installation. One item yet to resolve is around the air conditioner's location in the back due to sound/noise regulations.

Good Vibes were also the activity of the day. We coordinated this week's meeting to include a Feng Shui evaluation and rough landscape ideas. Laura brought in two experts from her network, Linda Lenore of Green Chi Designs, and Courtney Feinstein of Leaping Designs. Linda is a Feng Shui Master, and Courtney is a Landscape Designer.

We took our experts around the house, inside and out to get their perspectives. Our Builder, John Hammerschmidt was eager to listen in. While John and Linda had met independently through their network, this was a first meeting for Courtney and John. Now, John's original business was landscape design, so we could tell he wanted to find out about Courtney. When it came up that they were both graduates of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, they were instant buds.

In the Master bedroom, John had some questions for Linda about the door placement with respect to Feng Shui. In moving the door from the footboard facing wall to a side wall, we'd made a good decision with respect to Feng Shui principles. In the guest room, Linda made some suggestions for better EMF sheilding in what will be the headboard wall as the electrical and telephone service panels are there.

As we got outside, we traded ideas with Linda and Courtney on how to arrange and use the space. We discussed our intention to bring in a hot tub off the Master bedroom in the future. The east side yard will be a dog run and service yard. John had already thought out how to place a gate in the front so that the utility access was separated from the dogs. On the west side, Linda and Courtney brainstormed ideas to give the space a feel of a "secret garden" visible through the windows on that side.

All in all, the house has good alignment with basic Feng Shui principles. Between the landscape design and interior decorating, we will likely be making several mitigations to improve further. That evaluation from a Feng Shui Master reinforced our own sense of Good Vibes for the house.

And We're Off!

Yay! Progress on resolving the inspection hitch was visible today. There was a new 4x4 support in the offending shear wall, and the pediments for the floor joist supports in the living room were dug, with rebar ready for the concrete.

Shear Wall	Pediment

Month Five - Weathertight Tour

Remember 5 months ago? When we held a party prior to demolition? Or the video entry of 7 weeks ago? A bunch has changed on the exterior, and is about to change on the interior. Come give a look see:




And while you're here, see this month's progress evolve in these slideshows...

Panoramas	Progress

The Fix

Our delay due to the structural items flagged in rough inspection will soon be over.

Our builder's Engineer is back from vacation and has studied both of the inspector's objections. The shear wall with the window through the post simply needs another post beside the window. That will drop the factor of safety from 4 to 2. Considering that in school we were taught that most commercial airliners fly with a factor of safety of between 1.2 and 1.5, both Laura and I are content too. New piers will be needed under the living room, as the Engineer can't mathematically prove that the floor is strong enough for the new ceiling load - and pointing out to an inspector that the house has held that load for 50+ years might lead to more delay. Thankfully, ours is a fixed price contract, so the only direct hit for these is in time.

The delay means we're unlikely to be back in the house by Christmas. John, our builder, does assure us that he could make arrangements so we can have a pretty credible party on Boxing Day (December 26th), even if we haven't moved in.

We brought Bell along as Job Dog today. She was a hoot. As soon as we took her out of the car, you could see the thought go through her brain, "Hey! I know this place!" And as soon as she stepped inside the construction fence, you could see another, "Hey! This is *my* place! I remember this!" She wiggled and smiled all through her tour today, including posing for this picture in the tack room

Beyond it being her turn to be Job Dog, Bell came along so we could confirm some colors, and coordinate with her (our black dogs match everything). One color match was stain for the front door (Cherry). Bell approved mightily of the sidelights on that door. The other color was for the guest bath vanity top. There we were picking between a Cane Sugar (White), Black and Tan, or Ember for a Kohler Thistledown vanity (if you wanted to look it up on their website). The colors on the web were tough to make out, so Lynn Hammerschmidt had located some color chips for us. Seeing those chips in the natural light of that room made it easy to choose. Wanna know which one?