A Word on Drainage . . . And a Kitchen Stove

The last two weeks have seen the outside drainage system go in. Don't get too bored here, but where water goes is very important, this is SoCal and a hillside home, so it has to be directed somewhere. The house's building pad is level--up to a point--but even on a level pad it has to go somewhere. For Casa Montana Alegre it's going into this white drain which was put into this trench.

This week this concrete swall was poured so that water is directed to the metal grate, which is connected to the white drain pipe. The metal grate is to the right.

The pipes lead out to the street so that rain water is directed toward street sewers. In this earlier photo the pipes are shown at street level before they were covered by dirt and retaining walls.

Here is drain pipe with another story, but that's for a future date. Meanwhile it is sufficient to say that it is a sewage pipe for the adjoining lot which will take access to the street sewage through my lot. As part of the sale of that lot I enhanced the deal by agreeing to grant an easement for a sewer line. And since I was already laying my own sewer line I decided to lay a second for the adjoining lot.
Finally, as of last week I finished deciding on most of the interior details, with the exception of all the counter tops and some of the kitchen. The kitchen is turning out easier than the master bath. The defining wall in the kitchen will be set off by this stove!

More Decisions

I've been absorbed in various decisions lately and they've been coming fast and furious. When I asked contractor Mateo today how it felt working on this house, he said it was different because a lot of stuff is being worked out as we go along. For example, the master bath has three sets of tiles shown below. It wasn't planned that way, and I'm working it out as we go along.I'm trying to match this with other stuff like the lights (to be used in all three bathrooms). At first I went to Lowe's and bought a different set of lights and five minutes later turned around and got these instead. I'm matching this up with faucets, counter tops, and mirrors.Another set of tiles which I really liked and decided to use for the kitchen backsplash. Or maybe somewhere else. I had to think twice about this. Both these tiles and the lights were at the high price range.

Here is some real work on the run. On a Friday Mateo told me he wanted to lay the concrete for the front patio. Even though there is a plan I decided to modify it and drew this up that night. I told Mateo and Rene, the project foreman, that there was to be concrete everywhere in this drawing except the parts that are colored green. The plan involves creating concrete "pads" to be used for poolside chaises and with blue glass rocks inserted in between the pads that run between the house and the pool--suggesting the idea of "water" running up up to the house.

Or I might eventually fill it in with grass. Design on the run. Many designers have told me that if they try somethint and it doesn't work, they start over, but I don't have that in my budget so if the blue rocks look stupid, it's cheap to replace it with something else.By the next week it was poured, and everyone seems to like the concept and way it turned out. This is also the final color of the house (untinted, unpainted, smooth stucco).