11-30-11 Progress and Transition

 Monday morning  the Cor-Ten arrived...deck supports.  A whole new stage underway.

 A lot of consulting of the blueprints has been going on...a sign of a new direction.

 Andres had to resort to a jack hammer for the third hole for the posts.  The asphalt was way thicker than I had thought.

 The stringers are marching along at the front of the house...I can almost see the new deck but it will be a while yet.

 Two views of the house with the south side all finished.

 A moment of peace on a windy day with the Buddhist Temple Flag flying in the wind over Cache Creek.

Finally my new vent for the downdraft stove is in place...and I don't freeze in the kitchen...
The ledger is almost ready but whoa, I had forgotten about the noise!  We all hunkered down and hopefully that noise level won't be continuous.  And all of this took place in strong strong winds, but at least once the frost melted, it was a warm sunny day.

11-26-11 Random Things on a quiet Saturday

 OH woe!  Some how during the sheet rock debacle more paintings were shoved into the back closet and things looked grim when I took this photo this week.  But as I unearthed the mis-stacked painting, there was no obvious damage.  I put them in a better position and will be dusting and checking them very carefully.  I would hate to have to take any back to the Frame-Up in Santa Rosa.

 A work in progress, the new closet in the downstairs bathroom...hopefully it will be all finished on Monday.

 I shouldn't have to do this, but the door to the stairway has decided not to obey and is sliding when it shouldn't...this happy frog helps when I am upstairs, but there is nothing to stop it when I go downstairs.  Monday we will have to find a permanent solution.

 Both KOKO and I agree, the house is looking beautiful, especially in the sunlight...love the golden tones.

 My Buddhist Temple flag from Chiang Rai found a home fluttering on the banks of Cache Creek.

 I added the copper element to my arrangement in the hall...it is just folded and standing there...now I have to decide if it should be placed there permanently or not.  It suits me today!

11-25-11 Back At It...Turning the corner and down with the deck

 Hard to cut down the last rememmet of the old deck when you are standing on it, Right Mat?  Especially when the darn cord come off the drill!  But down it came.  I locked the front door so no one tries to walk out that way.

 Daniel holding the corner in place...he is not really stepping off into space.

 I had a bright idea and Rick ended up in the cabinet adding a shelf and my last rolling drawer down in KOKO's room!

 Oh that Ledger...setting the trim around the ledger, so the water doesn't flow right onto the deck...tricky work...

Danny and Jose rounding the corner...this sheet involved so many different cuts that it basically took all day to get it just perfect.  Can't ask for more than that, can you?  I sure appreciate these guys...they really take their jobs seriously.  Thank you all!

 Now that the night is coming earlier and darker than ever, it is very neat to have these lights up in the loft.  They look beautiful inside and out!

 Working in the rain isn't much fun, and pondering all these cuts in the metal siding while high up on the scaffold is really a head scratcher.

 Thanks to Nancy Downard, the dining room is starting to look very festive even if the sun isn't shining.  Yay for Rainbow Balloons.

Very frustrating for Danny and Jose to have to stop when they are so close to the second corner of the house.  Unless it is really raining tomorrow, they will be back to try to make it around this challenge.

11-22-11 Thanksgiving surprise, and more of KOKO's room

 Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope these wild Turkeys aren't on anyone's agenda...for Thursday.

 Today, while Andres Painted and Rick worked on the last of the sheet rock in the new closet, I groomed the ferns and cleaned up KoKO's room..beautiful.

The other side with the recycled kitchen cabinets and the old bathroom cabinets...I have more storage space than I know what to do with...now to organize all those spaces!  But it will be fun, in such a neat room.

11-22-11 Ferns on the counter!

 This morning Mat cleared all the mahogany out of KOKO's room so we could bring in some of the ferns so that KOKO's temporary room wasn't such a jungle nightmare!  The result is that now you can't really see the beautiful counters except on the ends.  I left a lot of plants out in the studio, but at least now you can move and breathe in there.  Now I have to start cleaning out the plants and sweeping up the debris...They do look beautiful though.

Andres doing touch up work to the kitchen windows, finally going from white to dark brown.  He also stained the newly framed windows down in Luke's room.  Tomorrow the bathroom window.  Apparently, the shower guy will be here on Wednesday to fix the screen for the shower...then maybe on Thanksgiving I will have something besides life in general to be thankful for!
The Saga of the Screen Door will wait until it is back in place...yikes, too much excitement for me.
The yard looks a lot better with all the debris picked up and organized with all the extra stuff being returned to wherever it came from.  What a relief.

11-20-11 New siding without scaffolding

These three photos show the front of the house and the eastern side.  I love the way the longest sheet of siding wraps that corner...beautiful.  But then as my cabinet fellow said, everyone has different tastes.  I am starting to get antsy to see the parapet after I discovered the pieces all ready to be put on as soon as the siding is finished on each side.  Also, anticipating the screens over the skylight openings.  I will have to ask about that on Wednesday.

11-19-11 Happy Happy Homecoming

 Had a great trip to Montreal, but it sure felt good to get home into my own spaces...and what beautiful changes there have been in such the five work days I was gone!  I had to rearrange the altar...

 Almost all the windows were sealed and stained and look great as you can see in the dining room
The kitchen windows got painted a good dark brown...now to the bathroom!

 The biggest changes were to KOKO's room...the screen that masks the washer and dryer from the slider was built and Mat and Rick did a great job...I am very happy with the panels.

 The long door on the old cabinet looks great, and the lanyard?  no that is not the word, but the handle is beautiful as are the magnetic closures.  The doors on the long counter look great too, but it was hard to photograph with stuff all around so I settled for this.

KOKO, instead of lolling about in her luxurious new room, took advantage of the brilliant sun shine to lie in the sawdust and roll around while she could.  She is now one dusty dog.  So glad to be home and have two days to enjoy the house before the work starts up again on Monday.  Thanks everyone, you are all doing such a great job.  Dang, I just realized that I forgot to post the photo of the front of the house...I will save that scaffold free photo for tomorrow! 

11-13-11

 The bench, the pillow and the tiny altar...

 Detail of altar as it is now...I plan to rotate stuff and add fresh flowers on a regular basis...am thinking of copper behind it....I have my old sheets!  My singing bowl really sings in that hallway.  It is pretty amazing.

The front of the house is almost covered in the siding and real looks great.  They hope to finish out here on Monday...then the action will more to the east side...wonder what the time line is for the screening to go up at the skylight openings.  I bet the woodpeckers move in there soon if we don't take precautions.  Memo to self:  Send email to the GUYS...Trent, Rick and Greg.  Welcome home Greg!  See you in less than a week!

11-11-11 Rain, Holiday, work

 Ah, the mirror/door is now on the medicine cabinet...Ellen and I are admiring it.

 Mike and Brent install the small shelf and bench out in the hall.

 Hall way...I can't believe I didn't consider coathangers...might have to talk to Mike again.  I also forgot to talk to him about the stool I need in the bathroom, and the frames I need for my stove backsplash in the kitchen.  Too much going on, too many distractions,  When I get back, Mike is at the top of my list.

 I love the glass shelves in the cabinet along with the neat electric outlet so I can keep my toothbrush out of the way...

And now to KOKO's room...very hard to photograph the cement counters, but here is one show with the recycled kitchen cabinets, and the recycled metal roof used as a backsplash.  It is really great.  This room is really going to be amazing...and we think we have the perfect place for the leftover pieces of ecoresin...yay!  It was a totally creative day...thanks Mat and Rick!

Hanging the doors, and holding up the siding.

 Yesterday was very cold but still provided lots of excitement as Daniel and Jose first bent a very long sheet of the siding so that when it went around the corner, it would be more able to make that sharp 90o turn.  Then with Jose up on the very slippery roof, and Daniel pushing, the project began.  As Daniel moved up, they need more help.

 Jose on the roof....

 Andres arrives to hold the bottom part in place and actually to shove it up and over so that it will all line up with the previously marked lines.  Just exactness when dealing with such long pieces of metal is pretty impressive.

 Meanwhile, Rick and Mat garnered a ton of experience in mounting the fabulous new doors with the fantastic new hardware.  They are now certified by me as the only experts in Lake County...it was really difficult and an afternoon long job.  But we all agreed it was worth it.

A detail of the hardwired on the door to the stairs.  Really beautiful stuff.  Now I guess I can climb up there and clean off the fingerprints!!!

Doors, concrete counters and solar...11-9-11

 Starting to work on the bathroom and hallway sliding doors.  As usual, Mike of Mike's Cabinets did a wonderful job.  Attaching the hardware seems to be a bit of an issue, but it is such beautiful hardware...photos will be uploaded before the end of the day I hope.

 This is the door at the stairway.

 The ever-changing countertops in KOKO's room...really beautiful and fascinating.

 More Counter shots for Trent...getting much lighter than when I sent some earlier this am...

 These two displays are for Brian Hines so he can help me get on line so I can monitor, on line, the output of the two new endphase panels out on the pump house.  Too bad it is a high cloud day, but they should be producing anyway.