squalling over the squall

About 10ish last night, a heck of a squall line squalled through the area. Hail, sudden straight-line winds, horizontal rain. After the excitement passed, I wandered about in the back yard in the dark to see if there was any damage (I've been leery of the neighbors' dying pecan tree hanging over our house...), and sure enough, a giant limb was resting on the roof with several large-size limb bits scattered about the ground and on the fence. After running upstairs to check for damage (and not finding any), I was good morning'd with the above. 

After crawling up a ladder, I found a fist sized hole knocked into the roof. The entire weight of the branch is resting on that tree-fist. The neighbor speculated about where to cut the limb to bring it down, but with his electric line underneath and the promise of more damage to our house, methinks a professional is in order.

It's amazing there wasn't more damage. Windows could have been knocked out (I don't think it will be easy to replace the solid panes in our house...), gutters down, more holes, structural damage. But there are more branches up there, waiting for us...

Our home wasn't the only one affected...

week 16: powwow at the howhow

I know, I know: Another late post. And you probably want your money back. But here we are...

Been a lot going on. Been having to do a lot of researching and decision making, and the decisions are needed sooner rather than later (and the blog suffers...).

Not a lot of visible progress on the outside of the house, but a lot has happened on the inside, primarily on the electric side of things.

powwow at the howhow

We met up with the builder and the electric sub (the "powwow at the howhow"; I need a job naming fights!) last Friday to talk about electric and plumbing, among other things. The electric sub has been doing a great job: Stuff is straight as Tom Selleck at a gay bar. However, there was one issue with the plan, a few conflicts with already-installed infrastructure, some forgotten items, and general homeowner changing-their-mindedness. I won't discuss all the issues (Thank Gawd!), but here are a few:

One issue is the location of this can near the back door (not the back-back door) of the house:

When its location was chosen, it was assumed the ceiling height was the same here, but it ain't (note the one footish drop just to the left of the light). So this can will get moved to the right and another one added to the "dropped" ceiling to the left.

Another issue that turned into not-an-issue was the nature and location of the lighting fixtures in the hallway. After seeing how cool the stairway space is, I got concerned that pendants would hang in front of the windows and detract from the space. However, the electric sub talked me out of changing these to cans because, holy cow, how do you change the bulbs? (The bride, ever the practical one, said "Put in 30-year LEDs and let the next homeowner worry about it.") So we decided to keep these as pendants. And then I got worried that they were located too close to the wall. They're designed to be centered on the stairway landings, and indeed they are. They are fine. I'm done worrying about them.

A bigger issue is running the main power line to the house. We were greeted by this collection of wires at the back of the master bedroom:

This is where the main electric box is going to go (on the outside, of course). This is a bummer because it's in the middle of the back wall, visible to all our peeps hanging out in the back yard. "Why is that going there?" I asked, a bit perplexed, already hearing Big D's snickers at the wall wart. Turns out the underground service got forgotten (not part of the electric sub's bid but part of the house's specs). Oops. So that needs to get added, but it's unclear if all those wires can be moved at this point or not (I sure hope so!). Worse case: Taller shrubs!

As a side note, we'll still have to run the line to the garage before we can go underground. Not great because the pole is toward the other corner of the property, but better than running straight to the house (the foreman noted that wasn't going to be aesthetically ideal with a stage and hot tub beneath).

We also chatted about where certain fixtures go, heights of sconces, locations of plugs, and some stuff that will show up in wallet-draining change orders. So it is. As the builder says, now's the time to change stuff. Gets a lot harder later...

dreams become reality?

One of the issues the electrician brought up was the ventilation fans. Instead of being just ventilation, some were ventilation + light models and ventilation + light + heater models. This is an issue for the electrician due to switch space. And he was wondering why we were putting cans in places where the fans already had lights. The end result? Looks like we're gonna get our dream fans! Woo hoo!!!

where does the telly go?

Spent some time at the house on Sunday figuring out the locations of wall speakers, recessed plugs, and speaker-wire bays. Because the framing is what the framing is, I had to goof around with where everything would go. To help, I cut a piece of cardboard to the size of a 70-inch Samsung LCD TV:

In order for this telly to work with 16-inch centered studs, we'd have to have the in-wall speakers at the side of the screen too close (for my taste...) to the side wall (wall on your right). Moving the TV over 16 inches (to the left) to get the speaker away from that wall moves the screen too close to the other side. The solution? How about a 65-inch screen instead:

Not that much smaller but creates enough space to put the speakers in the "bay" right next to the screen. Well, OK then.

mo HVAC

The furnace got installed, and the access hole to the ERV got cut, which freaked out the builder: "That ain't gonna pass code." Not sure what the issue is (sealing, I believe), but I'm sure he'll get it figured out!

HVACers also hooked up the ductwork through the giant beam:

Mastic'd ductwork joints (yay!):

They've been there for awhile now, but the controllers for the zones are installed:

I'm going to need to document where these things are in case they have to be dealt with later. Hopefully not since we'll have to cut through the wall or ceiling to get to 'em...

pole dancing

The metalists were installing the poles for the art wall on Friday. Dang, they are stout!

met the plumber

The plumber was also at the "Powwow at the Howhow". Later, the bride asked if I yelled at him. First of all, I'm not a yeller. And second, he was kind of a sweetheart. Hard to yell at sweethearts (unless you are a yeller without a soul). My philosophy: No need to get all hoothollery until they don't want to fix a problem. If there's a problem, and they have an acceptable solution to the problem, why give yourself an ulcer? Anyway, we talked about the issues I found, agreed on solutions, and saved the hoothollering for the Cowboys (on one screen) and Redskins (on another screen) games.

the car fits

Been parking under the cantilever lately. It fits!

the schedule

After chatting with the subs, the builder and I sat down on his tailgate to chat. I was surprised to learn that he's an old raver and still attends electronic music and DJ shows (!!!). I was in several Austin electronic music bands in the 1990s that got a wee bit of press and (local) radio attention, and he had even heard of one (the Dell Diamond used to play one of my tracks during baseball games). And he's going to Marfa for the holidays, so we got to yim and yam a bit about that (I loves me some Marfa...).

And the schedule? We are ahead of schedule! The weather has been bad for our reservoirs and yards but great for building. There's really only been the one week with rain of any substance during the build (November was the driest in over 100 years). I was concerned about the weather since there was an El Nino watch earlier in the fall, but El Nino conditions didn't develop. The recent prognosis by the state climatologist is dryer than normal for the next 4.5 months.

hopdoddys

On Sunday, after figuring out the telly bidness, we partook of brew and burgers at Hopdoddy, a local joint that recently opened a spot on the northern side of the 'hood. Not only are the beers HUGE and the burgers delicious, but the dodders have a modern edge to 'em. And we got to hootholler at those football games. A good week, I say, a good week.

construction update

Lots going on: hard to keep up!!!

rain delay

We hoped to have the foundation for the house poured on Friday, but the builder called off the pour early that morning. I was surprised it was still on as of Thursday evening with rains predicted for Friday, but with the rains not expected to hit until later in the day on Friday, I suspect it was OK (not sure how long concrete has to sit before it can take a downpour). Things looked far more uncertain Friday morning, and here's what the radar looked like at 5ish:

The stuff to the south of Austin was coming north and the stuff to the west was coming east (we eventually got it from both sides).

The pour is now scheduled for Tuesday, and the forecast is looking good:

Fingers crossed!

hob knobbin'

A good thing about making fixture and appliance choices early is that you've made your choices early. The bad thing is that after you've found the perfect choice, it may then go out of production. As it turns out, this happened to our hob (the word the Brit's use for cooktop). After plenty of searching, this hob by Whirlpool Europe is the one we totally fell in love with and, to a certain degree, designed the kitchen (at least the cabinets, range hood, and sink) around:

Since the local providers aren't able to provide it, we set out to order it a couple weeks ago and discovered that it had been discontinued. We then discovered that Whirlpool was selling their remaining few on Ebay UK, but then found out that they would not ship to the good ole U S of A. After more hunting and several emails back and forth, we found a place in Italy that (1) had some and (2) is willing to ship to us. As an added bonus, while amidst the process of ordering the thing (as in between putting it in the basket and confirming the purchase), the sucker went on closeout and dropped in price by 200 euros (from its previously lowered price; this confused the hell out of me because I was then not convinced what I had ordered is what I had ordered). Ultimately we got the thing for 40 percent off. Not bad (although I'll truly believe we've succeded when the thing arrives).

So a good thing about making choices early and having them discontinued is that you can (sometimes) get them on closeout!

The bride, worried about losing the hob, researched back up plans, shown below. That's a pretty hawt hob as well! From Australia...

Electrolux EHGF93CX Kitchen Cooktop

that's plumb good

The builder has pinged us to make final choices on plumbing and electrical fixtures; thus far, we've finalized the plumbing fixtures. As it turns out, the plumbing fixture supplier, Ferguson, can't get our preference for bathroom faucets for the master and guest bathrooms, so I set out to order them over the interwebs. Before doing so, I checked to see if there were any deals on our true loves, these (much more expensive) asymmetrical beauties by Graff:

and I found a place that had 'em at 40 percent off with free shipping! We'll stick with the (still less expensive but similar) symmetrical Fresca Orba for the guest bath:

interweb shopping

The builder is not too keen on us shopping for stuff over the internet, and for good reason (a single supplier that caters to builders means that if there are issues, there's a known single supplier to deal with familiar with builders' time issues). However, if the single supplier can't get our choice (or can't sufficiently entice us with an alternative [and we are picky-picky-picky]), we're gonna get it ourselves from the interwebs. Furthermore, if we find something online at a crazy low price (like that potfiller), we're gonna get it. Prices at the single supplier (Ferguson) are pretty darn good, so we're not worried about getting "ripped off" by the supplier.

Buying used items from the interwebs really gives builders the heebie-jeebies. We're not going there, but if you do, make sure that all the parts are included, and, if they're not, order replacements. Builders don't want to sit down to do their job and find out that parts are missing. In fact, checking for all the parts is good for new purchases as well.

The fact our cooktop is coming from Europe has some risk. Missing or broken parts are that much more difficult to get in a timely manner. However, it's a risk we're willing to take. If you do this, make sure you are extra understanding with the builder if things go wrong.

remedial framing

We have really been pushing for advanced framing on the house, and to the builder's and framer's credit, they signed up (after some initial reluctance) despite having not done it before. However, the stucco installer put the kibosh on it, predicting cracking problems. After some online research into stucco and advanced framing that confirmed these concerns, we've bailed on advanced framing. Lesson learned. Stucco and advanced framing do not mix.

If you're hawt for advanced framing, we've learned that it's critical to go into design with an advanced framing (ahem) frame of mind. If you do advanced framing right, the house is built on a 24 inch grid with windows and whatnot placed to fit within these constraints.

Maybe the next house?

weather or not; drain pain; it's a gas gas gas; progress

weather or not

Back when we were looking at building the first house (remember?), I was (selfishly but mixedfeelingsly) pleased that we were entering a La Nina phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, a year-to-year variation of sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial region of the western Pacific Ocean (the cool kids call it ENSO). La Ninas (cooler-than-normal sea surface temps) tend to favor drier conditions in Texas, and drier conditions are better for building. Now we are entering an El Nino phase (warmer-than-normal sea surface temps). El Ninos correlate to wetter conditions in Texas. Rain is not good for building, at least the earlier phases of building.

I just so happened to meet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ENSO expert earlier this week and asked him about the impending El Nino. He projected a weak El Nino this winter (an El Nino kicks in when sea surface temps are 0.5 degrees Celcius warmer than normal; we've been at this level for a couple months now). He said a weak El Nino portends wetter-than-normal conditions in the lower Rio Grande valley (think Brownsville), drier-than-normal conditions in West Texas, and mixed in-between. So we shall see. Although we're hoping for dry conditions until we get the house dried in, I'd sure like to see some rains in drouthy West Texas...

drain pain

Laying the drain pipes for the house has been a pain, in part because the builder made an assumption on the depth of the city sewer line that turned out to be wrong. Typically (based on info from the builder and a pal of mine) city sewer is about 48 inches below the street. City sewer in front of our house is a mere 23 inches below street level. Given the length of our drain lines and the code requirements for the slope of such lines, we have to add another six inches to the height of the pad and raise the drain lines, all of which the builder has already done.

it's a gas gas gas

While digging the beams for the foundation, the builder ran across a couple gas lines. He was concerned about whether or not they were live, so I called the gas company. GasCo told me that they didn't have an active account for the address (of course) and that their files didn't show that natural gas had ever been used at that location (hmmmm....). They suggested that we call to get the location of their lines identified, but that wouldn't address whether or not the lines were capped at the street or somewheres unknown on the property. The builder dug up the lines today and found the ends, uncapped. That was the green light to cut into them.

progress

After placing plastic liner over the soil, gravel, and sand and installing rebar, the garage foundation is ready to pour, which is expected to happen on Tuesday (yay!). Most of the forms for the house have been raised the aforementioned six inches and additional sand placed on the "pillows" (areas between the beams). They still need to place the plastic liner and the rebar, which will happen next week. The gravel, sand, and plastic provides a moisture barrier between the slab and the underlying sediment. The gravel and sand provide a capillary barrier between the soil and the concrete, but they're not perfect. The plastic "perfects" the seal.

The builder is planning on pouring the house slab on Friday if the weather cooperates. What does the 10-day forecast look like? hammy.....

status

According to the last weekly memo we got from the builder (the weekly memos from the builder are a nice touch), we are presently 1 to 4 days behind schedule. If all the pouring goes according to schedule, they'll start framing on October 1st!

Rain, rain, go away?