Stone and Sheetrock

We were thrilled to see that the stone is almost finished. We love the color. Hopefully it makes our choice of trim color make more sense. I took this at about 7 PM, so the color is subdued because it was in the shade:

The drywall is all hung. Taping will come next. The kitchen cabinets could go in as early as this weekend! The kitchen is almost ready:

Roof Finished, Insulation Sprayed, Sheetrock Arrives

Things are moving so quickly now that I've fallen behind in my posts. Here is a shot of the finished roof:

The spray foam insulation is in. Don used a closed cell product. This wiki page describes the advantages of closed cell spray insulation. When you walk in the house now, the sounds from outside are almost totally cut off. We were on the deck and a neighbor was practicing on his drums. It was quite loud on the deck, but when we went in the house and closed the door, you couldn't hear it unless you stood right next to the door. Here is the living room after they sprayed and rasped the walls down to be flush with the studs:

We happened to stop by while they were bringing the sheetrock in (you might want to lower the volume before playing) :


The workers were carrying two of the 4X12 sheets--I guess a common occurrence for them, but it looked difficult to us:


The rock for the front of the house was also delivered. The picture colors are a little off because the photo was taken in low light. The facade will be creamy colored overall, with some gray, orange, and rust patches to match the roof and trim. The majority is limestone, with another type (forget the name) mixed in. The limestone is quarried locally, which mimizes the impact of transportation.

I've mentioned the wildflowers and birds before, I have a few pictures to post this time. Here is Kuma, enjoying the bluebonnets:

And, here are a few visitors to the bird feeder:

Yard Work

Pedro's crew has done some grading and stonework. This short wall will help retain the slope and tree above the rainwater tanks:

Because the area in front of the decks is so steep, we requested a set of steps to provide access:

Don has provided a bed alongside the garage that we hope to use for flowers, herbs, and vegetables:

Speaking of flowers, we've had an unusually good year for wildflowers. The Bluebonnets have been beautiful:

Metal Roof

The garage roof is almost finished and the house is getting started:

We chose a metal roof for several reasons:

• It reflects the heat in the summer
• It is much more durable than shingles -- especially for weathering hail storms, which we experience a lot
• It is the best surface to catch rainwater from

Don had prepared us for a screw down application, which isn't as nice looking as the standing seam. But, when he got the bid back, the standing seam was in our budget. And, for that we are grateful!

We put up a bird feeder a little over a week ago and have started attracting some of the locals:

We've also seen Cardinals, Chipping Sparrows, Chickadees, and Titmice in the feeder. But, the smaller birds are so fast, I wasn't able to get a good picture.

Bobcat Work for Rainwater Tanks

Tom got this video of the Bobcat. It is just amazing what this little machine can do. A load of crushed stone was delivered and dumped up on the street. They have been moving it bucket by bucket down the hill. You might want to lower your volume before playing it!

Decks and Railings

The deck and railings were completed last week, but I'm just now posting the pictures. The wood will be stained later.

The railings are made of a framed wire grid called "bull panel." I didn't want conventional railings because code requires them to be so close together that you lose your view when you are sitting down. And, I didn't want to have to clean the Texas dust off plexiglass. As you can see, they almost disappear:

Stained Concrete Floors

We are putting a few drops of sweat equity into the house. Our first major project was to stain the concrete floors in the entry and downstairs billiards room. The biggest effort was cleaning up. We had help from Jim and Dave on that.

The staining itself was not that much different from painting, but it took a few trials and errors to get the technique right. We used a paint roller to apply the stain and went over it with a paint pad to spread it out evenly. We used a soy-based stain and sealer. They had no smell at all and the rollers and pads cleaned up with water.

This picture shows the entry. You can see the raw concrete in front of it, which will be covered up with bamboo flooring.

This is the billiards room with a coat of sealer on it:

Waste Management

The National Home Builder's Association estimates that the typical 2,000 square foot home results in 8,000 pounds of waste being added to the landfill. Don was happy to tell us that he still has not had to rent a dumpster. The wood used for concrete forms has been saved to use on other jobs. Some of the waste has been and will be chipped up to use for mulch. A friend of ours is picking up the leftover nails and metal pieces to take to the salvage center. A pile of remnants remains in our drive, and the workers pick from there to do small jobs.

I haven't posted pictures in a while, so here are some you might find interesting...

The Japanese soaking tub and shower pan have been fitted in the Master bath:

This shot shows the electrical wiring terminating on the outside of the building where the two main boxes will be installed. In Texas it is seems to be typical to put the box on the outside of the building, however, that is strange to us. If you did this in NY, you might need to go out in some rather nasty weather to reset a circuit breaker. Apparently, it isn't such a big deal here.  One real upside is the emf's(electro-magnetic frequencies) from these circuit breaker boxes are outside the house with the backside of it to an exterior wall. The other side of this wall is inside a closet in the foyer.  So hopefully, less emf's transferred into the house into a main living area.  Also, if you notice the picture here, there is a two foot overhang.  (Hopefully soon we will have pictures of the main electric cable going into the ground with cable and phone in a separate conduit in the same trench...)

In spite of the unusually cool spring we are having, the trees are starting to leaf out:

This is from the top deck:

And, the mountain laurel is beginning to bloom. It smells like grape candy:

We took a walk out on the property today and enjoyed hearing the birds singing--even though the North wind was blowing like crazy.