Week 17/18: Grab Bag

This is a collection of a couple of random things from the past few weeks.

This is our septic field, all covered up now. It's amazing how much more open it looks out when all the underbrush is gone. It's still pretty hilly, but you could actually walk in a straight line for twenty feet if you wanted to.


Since our plumbing rough-in is imminent (starting this coming Monday) we needed to go ahead and figure out what types of fixtures we wanted in all the bathrooms and kitchens and what parts of those need to end up inside our walls. We decided that it made more sense to just get it done with and get it all at once, rather than only what we needed right at the moment. Melanie spent many hours picking them all out and deciphering which pieces required what. So here is our hall below. It's pretty much all Grohe, with a mixture of different styles in the different rooms.


If you're ever looking for a fun way to spend a Sunday, this is not a good choice. On some of our lumber there was black discoloration. It wasn't terribly clear what was mold, what was markings on the lumber, and what was dirt. We also had no idea if the mold was harmless or nasty. Since we couldn't really get a clear answer from anyone we talked to except the mold removal folks, who may be a bit biased, we decided we would feel better if we did something about it. However, we weren't exactly thrilled at the prospect of paying an arm and a leg for someone to spray toxic things around our house. We discovered that you can actually use borax (as in the laundry product) and it will not only kill mold but make the wood deadly to various wood eating insects. Plus it's much less toxic than a lot of other options. So Gail and I suited up (my Darth Vader mask was probably a little bit overkill, but it was handy), got a couple of garden sprayers, and a few boxes of Borax, and went to town.

Week 17/18: Dry at Last

At long last we are safe from the elements. The house is framed, the temporary roof covering is on, and the windows are in.

This is from probably about a week ago. At this point they were working on putting on the tongue and groove planks. We have these on the edges wherever the underside of the roof is visible. Unfortunately, our framer didn't order enough of it initially so we had a delay of a few days waiting for more to arrive. Especially irksome was the fact that while we were waiting for it to arrive, our windows, which had already been shipped sooner than they were supposed to, were sitting around being fragile and vulnerable. In the end, they all made it through safely. There was a crew of unfortunate guys out on the 4th starting to put them in place and cover the insides with plastic (to protect them until the roof was done). By the middle of the following week they were all up and the roof was moving forward again.


And here it is, done for now, with tongue and groove, plywood sheathing and a waterproof barrier on top. The permanent roof shingles should be on in a few weeks, along with a few skylights. Once the framing was going up we could start to see the space more easily, and we found a nice bit of space under the eaves that we could expand the master bedroom into. Our architect also happened to have some extra skylights that went unused in a prior project that he let us have at a good price. After a little juggling of trusses, we decided to put three of them in to these new spaces, which should hopefully make it much brighter and nicer up there.


This is the end of the guest wing with all the windows in and roof on.


And here's part of the main wing.


Finally here is the latest panorama. This was taken on the 3rd, so this is pretty much how it started out at the beginning of these two weeks.

Week 17/18: The Lesser Wall of Creston

There's a lot that's been happening in the past two weeks, so I've broken it up a bit this time. First, our retaining wall, which should stop our driveway from cascading down the mountainside. Our new excavator has been hard at work, and by now it's nearly done.

It started off with a large pit carved out of the side of the hill. This is right next to the guest wing and you can see some of the braces for it at the edge of the picture. At this point the footing has been poured and is ready for some blocks.


And here's the 1st pallet of blocks. We had about a dozen pallets like this, and a fair number are still there for use in the larger retaining wall in front of the house (with even more still to come0.


This is where it's at now, there are only a few more feet to go before it is up to grade. By next year hopefully this will be looking as lush as the pictures we showed you a few months ago.