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 21: doors and more!

Big news this week: The doors are (finally) installed! Layer 2 of the stucco is on! And the slow inexorable ironing out of details on plumbing, electric, and HVAC...

The Doors!

Very excited to see the front and rear doors finally installed, and they look great!

And there's now glass in the powder room window as well:

The front door is BIG! (The builder: 'That's a big front door." The bride: "That's a big front door."). It needed the height in order to have the to windows line up with the windows above the bookshelves. Looks good.

stucco: layer 2

The rest of the detailing got done, including by the front entryway:

and the second layer is completely on. It's less rough than the first layer but still somewhat rough to provide grippiness for the third layer:

Here's a panorama of the back courtyard:

I imagine the third layer will go on this next week, dry a week, and then the final layer, paint, will go on the week after that. Yikes! At that point, the outside of the house will be done barring the limestone on the front, the eaves, the lights, and the gutters!

shower sealing

The shower is fully sealed and appears to be passing its leak test:

still MEPing around...

The plumber, electrician, HVACer, and framer are still attending to details, some due to inspection deficiencies. The changes aren't particularly photogenic, but were are a few:

A vomit of wires out the back of the house.

Faucet in the powder room. 

One yuck what-were-they-thinking discovery we made over the weekend: The vent for the laundry room exhaust fan. The HVACers hadn't put the penetration in before the roof went on, so they hacked one in. Then they left the hole and hose (uncovered) sitting out in the elements. I crawled up there to cover it ahead of the expected (but unrealized) rains this weekend, but the hose sat uncovered through the week's earlier rains, so peering down into the hose shows rain (and stucco!) in the pipe. Hope that didn't screw up the fan...

Really?

Not sure if the builder knows about this (but he will!).

In general, the lack of respect certain sub employees show for other's work is appalling. For example, the buffoon that decided he needed to clean his boots off on the drywall stack. Really? Then there was the yahoo who chewed gum and spit it on the floor (thank dude...).

It all works out in the end, I reckon, but still, the sausage making can be a little stomach turning...

week 20: stuck on stucco!

The big news this week: Stucco is getting stuck on!

stuck on stucco

A big pile of sand showed up early last week, and I wondered "What's that for?" Now I know: It's for stucco! I happened upon the stuccoteers just starting at lunch earlier this week:

By this weekend this first coat of an eventual three had dried to a pleasant light grey. It was nice seeing the place brighten up a bit after being clad in that dark paper for so long.

They're not completely done around the house with the first coat, but they're close. I imagine the second coat will be going up soon. The stucco man was proud that he allows each coat to completely dry between each application. Apparently that doesn't always happen...

shower floored

The tile guy showed up to begin the process of building the shower floor. He first poured an inch or so of concrete to build the floor up to the bottom of the drain:

And then, after that dried, he built the bench and sealed the floor with fiberglass. Holy cow does that stuff smell nasty! You could smell it from the street!

When I saw that the fiberglass had gone in without the linear drain installed, I thought "They plum forgot about the linear drain!" But after researching shower installation at Fine Homebuilding (you have to be a subscriber [well worth it, btw] to see the article...), I see that I'm wrong:

In our case, the fiberglass is the membrane which is sloped and directed toward the weepholes in the base of the drain. The tile, which goes on top of the mud base, directs most of the shower water to the drain. But the grout between tile is somewhat permeable to water (as may the tile themselves), so all this membrane business is to allow water that seeps through the grout (and tiles) to eventually work its way to the drain weep holes (not good to have water sitting down there, especially if it's in contact with wood or, even worse, on the second story of your house). That mud base for the tile is itself designed to be permeable to water.

Learn something new every day...

new fans (some centered!)

In earlier posts I lamented about the wrong ventilation fans getting installed and the fan being majorly off center in the powder pooper. Well, not only did the wrong fans get installed, but several were installed with lights and heaters when we only wanted ventilation. Those extra features created some electrical problems and thus the opportunity to switch them out with the ones we originally wanted. Hip hip hurray! Furthermore, after deciding that it was going to eat me up every time I saw it in the future, I asked that they move the (non-loading bearing) ceiling joist to center the fan in the ceiling of the powder room. And it is done.

The right fan (and it's centered!).

drywall is here

The drywall for the ceilings and walls is now sitting in the various rooms about the house, waiting for the final inspections and insulation before installation. Once the drywall starts going up, we'll really get a feel for the final feel of the rooms!

ding dong

The doorbell arrived. Kinda swanky! It will (hopefully) have an orangish glow once it's connected (the instruction say that some digital chime boxes don't put out enough power to light the LED...).

off into the sunset...