week 22: stucco done (and more fun to come)!

Big stuff on the outside, details on the inside. It's week 22!

stucco done!

The last coat of stucco is complete, and it looks great! We didn't go with baby-butt smooth stucco (= mucho bucks), but the level of smoothness we went with (teenager-butt smooth) looks pretty slick. The quality of the framing is shining through right now: sooper-dooper flat! We don't see anything that makes us go "hmmmm...."

The house at this point looks very New Mexico-y to us (we've both lived in the Land of Enchantment in the deep dark past), which is not a bad thing. Paint will likely bring the house from the Earth to the machine aesthetic.

Seeing the house with the stucco complete makes it more "real". The outside is nearly complete! Whoop! Whoop!

stucco about the powder pooper window

a corner of completed stucco

the cantilevered wall next to the (soon-to-be) limestone wall

back outside wall of the master bedroom; those lines are expansion joints

stucco "slag" (the loose stuff that sluffs down the wall when they apply the stucco) about the base of the cantilevered wall.

the back of the house (master suite)

stucco on the cantilevered wall with the reveal at the window

paint?

Now we need to choose paint colors, and pronto! The builder uses Sherman Williams, so we stopped by there yesterday to pick up chips and whatnot. After we choose some colors, the builder will throw up paint so we can see what it looks like. That will be helpful (and buys us more time before making a final decision).

look toward the left, not the right...

limestone

The builder had a chunk of limestone onsite this past week, and it's on the money: Texas Cream. The final pieces will be somewhat sizable, about half the width of the windows above.

cabinets

After a meeting that included two bowls of queso and three margaritas, we finally finalized the cabinet order. I reckon the cabs will go in right after the drywall goes up, so they will be coming soon!

Nope: Our bed won't be in the dining room. Nice try, Cabinet Lady, nice try...

final (we hope) "we wiring"

Due to finishing details on the electrical and responding to inspection deficiencies on the electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and framing (they always find them, I am told), our project is now about 30 days behind schedule. The builder is apologetic, but we've appreciated the extra time to contemplate and install speaker wire and network cables. We were back out there yesterday to run network cable for wifi stations (one in the hallway between the kitchen and dining, one in the back of master bedroom, and one upstairs). We also ran an extra network cable to the TV area in the living room. TVs are getting smarter, so I can see direct network connections coming soon (if not already). Another network cable might allow us to keep the cable box in the pantry and control it remotely (and allow us to serve the telly signal about the house). We also ran network cable in the garage for a couple video cameras.

In all, we ran cable for all the speakers in the house and the garage, network cameras for video cameras, network cables for glass break detectors, and network cable for wifi stations. Including what the electrician's ran for network cables and cable cable, we have 34 returns to the pantry. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things (I've seen insane photos on the interwebs), but a fair amount nonetheless. I think this is all we will do.

the bundle on the right is theirs, the bundle on the left is ours

wood for ceiling and soffit

We had decided on cedar, and then undecided, and then decided on pine, and now have undecided on that. And now there's a new wood in the mix: cypress. We would absolutely love cypress. We saw it on the house below during a home tour, and gasped with joy. The builder says he now has a good source for cypress and will check in on price. Cypress or cedar, that is the question...

this photo from here

landscaping

With the exterior nearly complete, here come the serious discussions on landscaping.  We have a fairly healthy budget for landscaping, but at the same time, we don't think it will cover everything (it's an allowance at this point). First things first, we need to have a master plan for everything. It's always good to have a plan, but it's even more important if you plan to phase stuff in over time (which we may have to do depending on the cost of things). You want to think about the big picture before putting in the little picture stuff now so you don't have to tear stuff out (and waste money) in the future.

We've been working with the architect on finalizing the hardscape features (the most recent version below ["I notice more walls," noticed the builder]). We've also talked about the stage design for the back yard as well as planters.

We've discussed the sidewalk with the builder. We can put in a sidewalk per city code or write the city a ransom check (for twice the cost of putting in the sidewalk). I'm amenable to a sidewalk for the front of the house if we could get a "curb hugger" (a sidewalk that's up against the cube instead of set back two feet), but the builder said that the city will insist on the two foot setback (gives pedestrians more time to dodge careening vehicles, apparently...). A curb hugger, in my mind, would make it easier for passengers to get in and out street-parked cars and look less goofy than one house on our side of the street having a sidewalk.

ready for the runway?

The builder suggested that the architect ought to consider getting professional photographs made of the house when it's done. That's a good sign! And the architect has felt us out about being on a home tour at some point. Sign us up! We've appreciated the many good folks about Austin that have opened up their homes to us (and many, many others) in the past, so we're good to give back.

The neighbor has the best view of the house.

overall...

...things are going great! Little glitches here and there, sure, but the balance weights heavily-heavily o-so-heavily towards "Totally awesome, dude!" Lots to do, but it's all terribly exciting, and getting us closer to our move in.

Fahrvergnügen in the back. Fahrvergnügen in the front. 

week 17: petal to the metal

A lot of metal work and plumbing and electrical mods going on this past week.

paper, lathe, and stone

On the metalwerk side, the stucco sub has been slowly but surely turning the house black with building paper and "chicken wire" in anticipation of stucco. They've also been installing drip screed, expansion joints, and top joints. It all looks good and straight.

We can tell that they're getting close to applying stucco since they are setting up scaffolding all around the house in preparation. This week?

The stucco sub is also responsible for installing the limestone panels on the front of the house and has been prepping the surface for that:

He's using a finer lath (chicken mesh) for this. I guess the limestone panels will, in part, be "glued" (thinset) to the wall.

Because a steel ledge (a lentel) wasn't specified on the plans, one wasn't installed (surprise! surprise!). This created a problem in that there was nothing to support the limestone panels, originally spec'd at 2 1/4 inches. The solution? Get thinner panels at 1 1/8 inches that don't require a lentel. The thinner panels also help deal with with the reveal of the edge of the window on the left above (a thicker panel was going to cause asymmetry in the reveal on either side of the window). The thinner panels cost more ($800 bucks more), but they solve the problem.

plumbing adjustments

The plumber was back out to make some changes and install the in-wall toilet and plumbing for the showers and baths. Here's the in-wall toilet:

Looks like he had to cut through the wall to install this baby:

Not ideal, but it's in and it feels solid. The plumber recommended that the inside wall be sheathed in Hardy rather than drywall since it will support the cantilevered toilet better. Hardy would require tile. This would be fine with us since we were already thinking we should put tile there.

The plumber also installed the tub in the upstairs bathroom (complete with water!):

The outdoor faucets shut-off valve is moved to under the sink instead of instead of in the backsplash of the bar (the "Suds and Buds Room" we call it):

He also installed the valve for the master tub, which looked at first blush too low, but the tub is only 19.5 inches tall, so that valve is just fine:

And he installed installed the ceiling tub spout:

Hard to see it because it's covered in tape (to keep the spiders out?).

mo wires

The electrician came and ran cable and CAT5 (we switched the phone line out for CAT5 [thanks for the tip, Beaker Bro!]). Here's the central repository in the pantry:

The electrician also installed (most of) the art cans, although this one (at the far end) should be lined up with all the other cans:

mo metal

The standing seam metal roof was installed:

It looks real sharp!

Also noticed that there is now a locking doorknob on the garage. Nope, we do not (yet) have a key...

even mo metal

I collected this pile of metal earlier today from around the perimeter of the house. This is all from the past week! I'm convinced the workday starts with someone spreading nails about the property like grass seed...

treats!

Afterwards, we checked out Verts, a former food trailer gone brick and mortar that serve up Berlin-styled kebaps (yes, I spelt that correctly...). We went with a native from Germany and a lady named Gretchen (not from Germany). That's a hefeweizen in the background. A delicious one!

to come...

Working to install guides for the speakers, figure out security, and decide on a central vacuum (bid came in some $800 more than the hefty allowance...). Will also be working to solidify plans for the hardscape, ordering the lights, and finalizing the cabinets (more on that later). Lots to do! Lots to do!

housewerk: cabinets, tile, loan, walls, contract, budgeting, permitting

cabinets

We visited with the Kitchen Craft lady on Friday and had a good, solid chat. She explained that when working with a builder/architect she's never worked with before, she's learned that that she needs to fit the specs to a tee, regardless of cost. Makes some sense since she doesn't know what the budget constraints are, if any. What we've learned through the bidding process is to press for details. If we hadn't pressed for the room splits (how much the cabinets would have cost for each room), we would have bailed on the Kitchen Craft bid (and it behooves bidders to note or hint at stuff in the bid that gets crazy; it can save the job!).

Anyway, we talked about why certain things cost so much (those $8,000 drawers in the living room...) and ways to lower cost but maintain style (including, at her suggestion, using IKEA in the laundry room). It also helps that her personal aesthetic leans heavily toward modern. She described her own modern kitchen in which she can add a splash of color with a large lemon (if she wants to). Based on the visit, we're keeping Craft on the list with details to be worked out later when we get closer to installation.

tile

Got our tile samples, and... (drum roll please): They ain't gonna work (boos from the crowd; someone throws a chair at Geraldo). The silver NeosTile, of course (of course!) is a go:

but we had already seen a sample and just wanted one of our own, so it doesn't count. But the Daltile just ain't gonna work:

It looks gorgeous, but we feared it would be too creamy, and it is. In fact, it's WAY more creamy than the photos above would suggest. And that top tile (with all that beautiful horizontal bidness going on) is HUGE! Like twice as big as I expected!

Back to the tiling board...

construction loan


Finally chased down some more details on loans from our bank to compare apples to apples to the "deal" our broker found. And we've found that the broker's deal is not much of a deal at all (sigh...). His recommended product is a construction loan at 6%. Our bank offers a straight up construction loan at 4.50%, a single close to 5-year fixed following by a 20-year float at 4.24%, and a single close to 15-year fixed at 4%. No additional closing costs for the single close over the double close unless construction goes long (attorney fees to extend), but their construction loans are (seemingly) fixed at 12 months, so that shouldn't be a problem. In fact, I think that works to our advantage: it gives us some flex time with the builder and, assuming everything goes according to schedule, gives us interest only for a few months before the full payment kicks in (with the extra money going towards house incidentals).

We're inclined to go single close, hopefully the 15-year if we can swing the payment. If not, we'll go single close with the 5-year fixed to 20 year flex and shoot to refinance before the note floats. The builder says that Mutual of Omaha has single close to 30-year fixed, so that's also an option.

Now we have to decide which way to go with the bank...

sound wall

The builder went out to look at the prospects for a sound wall. There's an existing retaining wall owned by the auto dealership that he said we could probably go up 4 feet on before having to get an engineer. But four-feet just ain't going to be enough. If we build our own wall, he says he thinks he can do it for $2,200 for the footing and then $6 to 8 per facing square-foot. So 70 feet by 10 feet (will need a variance for that...) by (scribble scribble) equals $6,400 to $7,800 for a wall back yonder. As the bride says, "We have to have it." But that's a chunk o change.

I'm scratching my head over the $2,200 for footings. Ten feet of footings for the Mies wall out front is running $890. I asked the builder about that (because the back wall would be 70-feet long), and he thought that was way high and would check into it.

don't fence me in

One thing I realized that is missing from all the plans and bidding, including the landscape plans, is a fence around the property. The builder allowances that out at $20 a foot. It looks like there's about 180 feet of fence, so that works out to (scritch, scritch, carry the 2...): $3,600. That's a decent-sized miss from the budget...

contract

Reviewed the contract the builder likes to use, AIA Document A101-2007 with AIA Document A201-2007 defining general conditions, the standard contract paperwork from the American Institute of Architecture. Looks fine.

budget

Sharpened the pencils and got the budget finalized (as final as we can get it at this point). We're still below our tippy-top, so that's awesome!

permitting

The architects are off and running on getting permits!

housewerk: rent, driveway, allowances, and windows, oh my!

Misc. random updates.

the rent is too damn high!

Got notice last week that we have to decide now (two months before our current lease is up) whether or not to renew and for how long. Oh, and btw: your rent is going up 20 percent. hmmm...

Decision #1: To move or not to move? We entertained moving closer to the lot/future construction site. We'd be closer to the lot and would be able to get a lower rent. But we'd have to move (which is a huge pain) and move into a lower-rent property (both literally and figuratively). Timing wise, the build is going to occur during the worst possible time for me: During the legislative session. Despite all my attempts to avoid this, this is where we are (thank you Architect 1.0...). Living downtown works better for that and we were going to live downtown during the build anyway, so... We're going to stay!

Decision #2: How long of a lease should we sign? The loose ends (finalizing the budget, financing) are taking longer than we thought, so it's a wee bit of a crap shoot when the house will be done. The builder estimates a seven-month build plus a one-month punch out. So let's round that up to nine months and plan on construction not starting for another two months, which puts us with a nine-month lease starting in September.

the unbidded

There are several large ticket items that remain unbidded: the driveway, the front walls, and the sound wall.

The builder has an allowance in the budget for 1,500 square-feet of concrete drive at $5,250. This number appears to be for the totality of the drive, including the bit in the back noted as Grasscrete (green in the diagram below). The part of the site plan marked as concrete (gray in the diagram below) is about 700 square feet. It's still unclear to me whether or not the sidewalk approach to the house is in the bid (shown in blue below).

A continuing source of confusion at this point is how the landscaping fits into the project and impacts the hardscape. The architects included some of the hardscape (driveway, sidewalk approach to the house, Mies wall), but the builder was expecting something from the landscape architect; however, the landscape architect honored the driveway/sidewalk hardscape features (which didn't surprise me), and his plans are not as detailed as the architects' plans (not even close). After a few emails and a face-to-face with the builder, I think we finally got it all cleared up (I think...).

The builder says that Grasscrete will cost $12.50 a square foot to install. That's considerably higher than the $3.50 a square foot for straight-up concrete and considerably higher than the 30 percent premium the manufacturer suggests. Earlier discussions with the builder (a year ago) suggested it cost about 50 percent more. But with those numbers, try 357 percent more. Whoops. There's about 500 square feet of Grasscrete on the plans. With concrete, that runs at $1,750. For Grasscrete, try $6,250, a $4,500 premium. Something tells me we ain't putting in grasscrete after all... I've sent a note to the local Grasscrete dealer to confirm installation costs. Something doesn't seem right here...

Not shown on the figure but accounted for in the budget is the sidewalk in the right of way. The city will require us to either install a sidewalk in front of our house at a cost of $1,050 or pay about twice that to not put a sidewalk in. This requirement is kinda massively goofy: There are no sidewalks on our side of the street. And what's the logic for charging more for not putting one in? Bottom line: We're not going to pay for the luxury of not having a sidewalk. If the city wants a sidewalk, by Lenin, we'll give 'em one (but hopefully not with Turkish rebar; friends of ours had to tear out their "city" sidewalk when the inspector noticed the rebar they used was Turkish. Build America applies to private funds building stuff on public property?!?!?!!?).

The footing for the Mies wall (the wall in front of the entryway) appears to be included in the budget ($890), and the builder says that it will be an additional $1,710 to finish the wall out (assuming I understand his number; which I don't completely [I can't tell if his number includes the footing or not... Sigh.]). If we want to add the other two front walls out front, we're looking at adding another $3,500. A later addition, perhaps?

We still don't have an estimate of what it would cost to build the back wall. Early discussion with the builder suggested $10 a square foot of surface area, which amounted to $7,000, but the front wall is coming in much (much) higher than that (albeit stucco'd), so I've got a bad feeling about that wall back there... We won't be able to go to the bank until we know what it will cost to build that wall. As the bride says, "We have to have that wall!"

no allowances allowed (except when they are...)

We've not met our goal of figuring out all of the allowances before getting a loan, but we made a good run at it. At this point, it's not worth holding up the loan and work to get the last items fully spec'd and bidded. Lacking at this point:

• handrail (which seems way low...)
• central vac
• tile
• audio

Window D, aka "The Mondrian Window"

One of the action items for the builder was pricing out Gerkin storefront windows for the entire house to see if they were comparable in cost to Milgard. It was an interesting result. In short, Gerkin was about $4,400 more expensive than Milgard. However, the subcontractor Gerked the large Mondrian window (aka Window D [as it is indicated on the plans] shown below) out the rear of the living room and it came in $3,400 less than the other sub using some other source of storefront.

The only problem is that Gerkin has size limitations that won't allow the above configuration. Instead, the sub priced out this approximation:

A valiant attempt, for sure, but not nearly as artful as what the architects first came up with. The Gerkins can't be wider than 48 inches, and casements (windows that open) can't be higher than 60 inches. We've asked the architects to redesign Window D to accommodate Gerkin's limitations. Their original design is simply perfect, so we'll see if they can come up with something better!

If we want storefront all about the house, we can have it for $1,000 more. Architect 2D, keeping an ever-watchful eye on budget, notes the Gerkin plus Milgard results in an overall savings of about $3,400 (although it would be a wee bit less than that because it would be cool to use storefront at the front of the living room). The bride loves the storefront, so I'll let you guess where this is heading...

housework: the werk continues...

Busy, busy, busy...

• Financing: After talking to our bank and calling a couple banks the builder recommended, we've thrown up our arms and are going to use the mortgage broker we used to buy the lot to help us find financing. We weren't finding what we wanted, and the options/rates/programs were starting to get dizzying (as were the sales pitches from the banks). Looks like a single-close to 30 is a no-go these days...
• Action items: Sent the builder, the architects, and us a list of action items from last week's meeting. We talked about a lot of topics, so I felt the need to write it all down and get it all out. In general, this is a good thing to do no matter what you're working on. The challenge is getting people to read the darn emails! In short, what needs to get done:
• Builder
• price out storefront for the whole house 
• price out custom cabs (can they use IKEA fronts? can they reproduce the look of thermofoil?)
• price out the driveway, sidewalks, and Mies wall
• price out an ERV system for the house
• update the bid sheet with our allowances/upgrades
• send over a contract
• Architects
• any issue with a wall-mounted toilet in the powder?
• do plans need to be revised for storefront?
• need details on the metal eyebrows
• do the overhangs need to be re-detailed?
• revise the electric plan once we provide comments on low voltage items
• start permitting once we're under contract with the builder
• Us
• Figure out what we want for low-voltage and send to architects
• Figure out what needs to be changed on the budget allowances/upgrades
• sign contract with builder
• get financing
• Allowances: We've reached a point in the process where the process shouldn't be stopped while we figure out the rest of the specs. Therefore, we'll have to go forward with some allowances. However, we can put in more realistic (for our tastes...) allowances given what we know now. For example, we haven't finalized tile choices, but we have a pretty good idea of price points at this point. 
• Landscaping: Got a bid back from the landscaper: 40 grand (gulp!). Take off the back wall, and we're probably at 30K. That's a lot of dough, but probably in the ballpark of what'll get spent to build the landscaping plan all the way out. Still thinking about how to proceed on that one...
• Solar: Heard from a sunny pal that the solar rebates have gone dramatically down (she got this from one of the firms she had do a site evaluation on her house). Another sunny-in-a-solar-kinda-way pal said, yes, rebates are now lower, but only to reflect the better prices for solar. She also said what the city will pay for solar power is now better (probably has something do to with the recent electric rate increase). Sunny pal #1 said that the first company that looked at her house said that her place wouldn't qualify for the solar rebate; the second company said that it would. There you go...
• Electric/low voltage plan: Got that done this afternoon. Whew!

housework: good (and gooder!) news

Been vaguely busy on the house the past several days. Lots going on! Here's the latest stink:

• Met with the builder and architect to discuss the bid and path forward: The long and short of it: We're building a house! Our evil plan to design toward a spec house and then add gewgaws later worked wonderfully. Instead of being in a position of deciding what to cut from the house, we're in the much more pleasant position of deciding what to upgrade. Trust me: That's a much better place to be! What we need to do now:
• Sign a contract with the builder (one will be forthcoming soon after some budget adjustments).
• Start working on getting permits (the architects will take the lead on this...).
• Get a construction loan (preferably a single-close loan).
• Refine the plans a wee bit.
• Start building!
• Deciding what to upgrade:
• Because the non-storefront window bid came in higher than expected, we're going to price out storefront for the whole house. At the very least, we'll storefront the windows in the front of the living room and the door for the master.  
• Instead of feeding air into the HVAC system and creating a positive pressure, we're going to price out an ERV, a neutral pressure ventilation system where air is removed as it is added. The builder has put one in before and says it runs about 2 grand (less than the 4 grand I was thinking...).
• Putting in the cubist pooper! (O hell yeah!) Will need to put in a "false wall" for the tank. Builder has done one before, so here. we. go!

• Need to refine the plans a wee bit: We need to revise the electrical plan to include the speakers and surround-sound system (and make the other changes we need). 
• Landscaping: The landscaper has gone AWOL again, so if we don't hear from him soon, we're bailing on him. The builder says he can install landscaping at most likely a lower cost. 
• The bids: I don't think it's typical, but we requested to see the detailed bids for certain categories (HVAC, appliances, plumbing, cabinets) to verify certain things and get more information to inform design and material decisions. In response, the builder gave us all the bids. This was cool since it's neat (for me) to see the breakdowns. What we learned looking at the detailed bids:
• We wanted to gawk at the HVAC bid to confirm that the contractor picked up on the flex-duct-no-longer-than-8-feet rule. Can't quite tell if they if they picked up on this... We did learn that the system is a Bryant system (not a Carrier) with 18 SEER and that the bid includes jumper ducts (awesome!).
• We wanted to gawk at the appliance bid to verify that they had our cooktop (and to see why the darn thing was costing so much). The builder got two bids on the appliances, and he shared both with us. Half a year ago I visited with one of the bidders about the cooktop, and they did not want to talk to me about the cooktop (hence my suspicion on the bid). As it turns out, my suspicions were justified: Neither bid included the cooktop we wanted. Even worse, they substituted other stuff that was crazy high: $3,600 v. $1,500 for one bid and $2,200 v. $1,500 for the other. Looks like we'll have to order that top ourselves (if we can get it shipped to the U.S.; starting to wonder if that will be an issue...). Setting aside the cooktop, the $3,600 bidder had far better prices than the other, coming in $700 less (and they even included the garbage disposal!). In fact, we could get better prices online through Amazon than one of the bidders. So much for the builder discount... 
• The garage door is not the one specified by the architects and has no windows. Will need to discuss...
• The plumbing bidder (who is also the $3,600 appliance bidder) can get stuff less than I can online. Yay! Except for the tub (Boo!). They couldn't get the bathroom faucets, so they're not included in the bid.  
• Solved the problem on the 23K v 30K (really 31K) cabinet bid. The builder didn't include the drawers in the living room in his spreadsheet. Stop a moment and do that math...  That's right: 8 grand for 12 (shallow) drawers in the living room (not including the shelves above). Holy buzzing bug butts! There's gold in them thar shelves!!!

• LEGOhaus! I brought the LEGOhaus to the meeting, and it was a big hit (and a useful reference point as we talked about the house during the meeting). Camera phones were poppin', the architects were bopping', and the soup eaters were sopping'! The builder said he had been in the business for 16 years and had never had a client build their house out of LEGOs. Well, there you go. The architects were excited when we offered to leave the haus with them for a bit. They want to take some nice photos of it. 
• Speaking of LEGOhaus: We went to the LEGOstore a couple weeks ago to get the windows I got hoobled out of as well as a number of other random pieces and LEGO versions of ourselves. Hey look! There we are! CELEBRATING!!!