get with the plans, man (and rule!)

Once the architect finalized our construction plans (this happened right before we went to the bank for a loan and the city for permits) and right before construction started, everybody gets a hard copy of the plans. We asked for three. That's probably overkill (the architect seemed surprised we wanted so many), but we figured we wanted a copy for home (for the cat to sit on) and a copy for each of our cars. That way there's no remembering to bring the plans to the site and, if we see something that looks wonky while we're on site, we have the plans right there. So far this has served us well.

You might be asking yourself: Why not just have them plans digitally? Good question. We've worked with the plans digitally through the entire process up until now, but having a hard copy printed at the proper scale (that is, on the properly sized paper) allows you to much more easily measure length on the plans.

Architects and builders like to work from what I call "scale ratios": x inches on the plan = y feet in the real world. For example:

If you look at the fine print, a quarter of an inch (on the plan) equals one foot (in the real world). If you have this plan digitally, you don't really know what a quarter of an inch looks like on your screen, ipad, or smart phone. If you print the plan, intended for much larger paper (see my feet for scale above), on your 8.5 by 11 inch printer, a quarter of an inch doesn't equal a foot anymore. So you have no clue what the size of anything is (unless you do some ratioing from items of known length, but that's irritating, especially after the cocktail hour). In short, you want a copy of the plans printed on the right paper.

The other thing you want to make your life easier is an engineers ruler:

You could use a regular ruler and convert the quarter inches into feet manually, but that's tiring and subject to mathematical error (especially after cocktails). An engineers ruler, also called an architects scale, makes the conversions for you. In other words, if your map has a scale of 1/4" = 1 foot, you find the corresponding scale on the ruler (1/4" = 1 foot) and off you go, measuring feet! These scales are fairly common: I picked mine up at a big box office supply store.

The one shown above is coolishly triangular (as they often are, but they are also flat) so as to include various scale ratios since plans tend to include various scales. For example, our plans include several different scales besides the one above:

and the occasional:

So if you want to get with the plan and rule, you need to get the plans and a ruler. This is the only way you'll measure up.

Somebody's ready to move in!

Was checking on the location of vent fans last night. Had to get up and find something somewhere else and returned to find this. I think he thinks this is his house!

we have (house) pad!

woo hoo!

(big thanks to Steve's ladywife for the photo)

mad for a pad

The rains postponed the pour for the house (the guys did the garage on Tuesday), but, on the good side, it allowed us to get out and savor the work thus far (and get some good photos with everything all blue with the vapor barrier). Before the pour, the architects have to sign off on the work, the engineer has to sign off on the work, and the city has to sign off on the work. We have no idea what we are looking at, but it looks good (the bride thought the foundation was ready for an earthquake). As the bride says "[insert first name of builder] doesn't [insert appropriate epithet] around."

The builder came out and had his crew clean things up on Friday in preparation for the pour. They also started work on the footing for the "privacy wall" out in front of the house.

The only question I can think of asking is: Donde esta la conduit for the outside wiring (for the light out front and for the power to the tub [and stage]). Maybe that's all getting done from the box...

As always, every week we update the "time lapse" photos under the tab above to show a lo-fi time lapse of progress.

design dilemma: light over the kitchen sink

We would like to hang this light above the sink:

However, at 27.5 inches across, we're concerned it's not at the right scale (oh the things you "worry" about when building a house...).

I scaled the image above to the elevation of that side of the kitchen to get a feel for it there. The top one has the light centered on the upper window, and bottom one has the bottom of the light alined with the top of the bottom window (got that?!?!).

Hmmm.... Not sure what to think... It looks too big and awkward, perhaps.

This has prompted us to consider some other options.

One option is to simply use the same light we plan to use over the peninsula:

It's slightly less than 10 inches in width, so perhaps at a better scale and would tie the pendants in the kitchen together.

We both rather like this LED fixture:

It's 13.8 inches in diameter and it looks like a jellyfish:

The bride found this one:

which is neoplasticish and 12 inches wide and 16 inches tall.

The bride also found this one:

Yet another option is to not have a pendant there at all, just a can.

Leaning, at this point, toward the jellyfish...

Decisions, decisions... Design thoughts appreciated.

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?

HVAC attack...

We've had a curveball thrown into our HVAC choice: to be eligible for more than a two (or three?) star rating from the city's Green Building Program, there can be no more than 1 ton of cooling for 600 square feet of house. Our current system is spec'd at 4 tons. Our square footage (2,281) divided by the spec'd tonnage equals not good (570 square feet per ton). We could go with a 3.5 ton system (652 square feet per ton), but the variable speed compressor we covet only comes in 1 ton increments, so we'd have to go with a 3 ton system, but that's 760 square feet per ton. Given the amount of windows we have, the architect's concerned that might not be enough cooling.

My understanding of a variable speed compressor is that it runs at just the right speed to deliver just the right amount of cooling. If that's the case, it seems to me that it doesn't really matter how big the system is (as far as energy efficiency is concerned; system size impacts cost). Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the city's rating system takes this into account, probably because these variable speed systems are relatively new. Ironically, the rating system may "force" us into a less efficient system (we're still thinking about this; not sure that a 5-star "false" rating outweighs real efficiency).

We've requested a manual J analysis (an HVAC sizing analysis required for any rating; the 4-tons mentioned above appear to be a shoot-from-the-hip estimate) to see what the actual fit is, and I will be verifying my understanding of how a variable speed compressor works. Based on those answers, I may try to talk to our rater (the person at the city in charge of overseeing our green rating). Also need to investigate whether or not variable speed compressors from other vendors come in half ton increments.

We're starting to lose our cool...  ;-)