Finally Final?

Just got the final signoff on the job card from the Town of Fairfax Building Department Inspector. That means, in the eyes of God and our gov, the job is complete. I know it's been a looooooooooooong time since an update, but as many of you know, it got ugly with the contractor, but we now have an even more beautiful home. I will be doing a photoshoot of the new place once I finish up some final trim and painting. Whooooooooopie!

Moving Right Along...

The walls are up, the ceilings are in place, and now it's time to close it all in. Our team of builders have been kicking some booty to keep the job in gear in 90° heat and it's starting to feel like home. Bucko and I actually made it through a trip to Home Despot and Lams Plus yesterday to pick out carpeting and look at some light fixtures - yes, we are still married after that! Stay tuned...

Peek-a-boo : Stained Glass Window for Bathroom

Here's a look at the stained glass window that will be going in the upstairs bathroom. It will be replacing a 24" x 24" window between the new den/library/4thBedroom and the bathroom for privacy. It came out of an old home in Detroit.

Look Out Any Window...

Here are the twelve wood-clad casement windows currently occupying one half of our garage. They are still wrapped in a ton of plastic and cardboard - will send more pics when they are out of their shells. The other half is filled with everything that was moved out of the house for the project. Can't wait to see these in place.

We Have Walls...

Just a quick check-in on the project. We have a whole-lotta walls now. It's cool to see everything taking shape. Also, our 12 windows came in all ready to be 'slammed' in as our contractor says. Look forward to seeing the stained glass window in an upcoming post...

A New A Gate

One of the latest detail items I added to the house is this gate that now leads to the new path alongside the garage. I wanted to design and build something that referenced the A-Frame shape of the main house and would give a visitor something special to introduce them to the whole scene. It's built out of redwood and has spring-loaded hinges so it closes and latches automatically to keep doggies and kiddies inside.

Concrete Pour

Today was really cool and kinda scary. I made sure to be at the house for the pouring of the concrete footing. Somehow they got a huge Shamrock concrete trunk into the parking space next to the mailbox and poured an entire truckload of cement into the foundation. Loud, crazy and full of excitement, here it is on video. Take a look...

If you were wondering - here are the plans...

Posts are in, The Cage is next...

So the foundation is almost totally complete. The piers are poured and the 'cage' for the footing is being built as I write this. We finally cleaned out the dining room also and Umberto, our builder on site is officially tearing off the side of the house where the new addition will be. Everything is really trashed right now and it's hard to look at, but we have to always keep in mind what the end of the road will bring.

A New Path...

So here are pictures of the new path I mentioned. It makes getting into our place a lot nicer from the parking deck. It turned out a lot better than I planned 'cause our contractor brought in his stone specialist. Mexican dudes are really good with stonework.

Formally know as a Dormer.

Remember Gigi's loft room? Well we put in a dormer that will add a lot of light and space to that bedroom to make it a lot more livable. The dormer will look west out towards Mount Tam.

Although you can't see the mountain, it will be an amazing view and really open up the space with two large double transom windows that have wood interior frames and paintable fiberglass exterior frames made by MilGard (see www.MilGard.com and look up Wood Clad) as most of the windows will be. Here are a couple of shots of the work being done.

Tonka.

After a two week delay, the digging has begun, and is almost done. The drilling team who is in charge of the foundation showed up with a small front end loader that would in no way be able to reach down to the foundation level. So after a week or so, they brought this big old thing and parked it in our spaces up by the mailbox. Kinda scary, kinda cool. I'll follow up with more photos to try and show just how nutty this process is. The jackhammering this morning was a nice touch and my lead contractor told me about another $1000 'uptick' we didn't plan on. C'est la vie!

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Glad to say that whenever anybody comes to visit us, you will be comfortably warm or cool now that we have a full house forced air Heating and AC system. We went with a high-efficiency York and the brand new flexible ductwork that was strung throughout the whole house looks a bit 'Brazil' (movie reference). The guys who did it were really great and knocked the whole thing out in a few days.

Uptick. Uptick. Uptick.

If you don't know what an uptick is, listen up, tick. Any time your contractor gives you an estimate, it's usually for average finish. If you want to do something a bit nicer or something that wasn't specified on your plans, that's called an uptick.

Day One : Curb Appeal

Day One went fast and furious. Our entire front area was ripped out including all plants. We saved our Callistimon (Bottlebrush), two rose bushes and a small flowering plant Bucko just planted. The saddest part was sacrificing two beautiful Italian Cypress, but we will replace them once all is said and done. Gigi's room is now open to the world 'cause the dormer is going in, and the HVAC system is in place - yes, if you come in the summer, it will be Air-Conditioned! Wheeeeee!

The Big Addition

Well, here we go. Today was the kickoff of our big two story addition of two bedrooms. We've been planning and working on this for years, and now it's actually happening. Gary Scozzava of Arrow Deck and Construction in Fairfax is the lead contractor on the job and things are definitely happening. We are putting a dormer in the upstairs bedroom and a house-wide HVAC system in the next few days. The drilling team shows up on Monday to start drilling for the foundation - yikes!