As Completion Nears, Thoughts and Pics

As the house nears completion I have been focused on finishing enough work to secure a 30-year fixed-rate loan at 4.38%. However that loan rate lock-in ended Friday and I may be able to extend it by paying more points. Meanwhile the construction loan is costing $85 dollars a day and while we’re ahead of schedule (I think) it would be nice to use that money for things like, furniture. I never realized how much window coverings could cost.

I might also add that at 4.38% the monthly payment makes a possible early retirement offer at my job even more possible.

So my focus on the house is toward stuff like that. However, after I walked through the house today with my friends Tony and Todd I went back and was able to reflect at how far I’ve come.

It was one thing to realize the house on paper—a process that took three years before I was satisfied. It’s another to flesh it out with colors, materials, finishes. For these details I waited, or changed my mind as the house took shape. It’s been fascinating to watch and have decided that overall, I am quite satisfied.

Probably the most important decision was how to site the house on the lot. It may have seemed obvious--“take advantage of the views!”-- but with raw unlevel land that needed grading, it wasn’t obvious how the view would turn out. It’s turned out great.

Despite having worked in the City’s Construction Services Center for 17 years as a supervisor, I found the process daunting. The part that I supervised was fine, even though I missed an embarrassingly simple deadline causing me to undergo a second public hearing and 6-month delay. However, the rest of the permitting process was, frankly, almost overwhelming. It was only my familiarity with the personnel and their functions that got me through it.

But as I viewed the almost finished results today I found myself satisfied. It works. I designed the project as a mini-resort, a great common space with fabulous views, bedrooms that give it’s occupants privacy, and architecture that is pure, clean, unpretentious, and functional.

And I have so many people to thank, but that’s in another blog . . meanwhile, there is a landscaping plan to revise.

Big and Small Items

After getting the insurance straightened out today the only big construction items left are the detached garage and front courtyard. The insurance was needed to guarantee to the City that the street improvements in front of the garage and courtyard will be completed. And as you can see, they are big items. This area is to the left of the garage where the entrance stairway will go in that provides access to the upper level of the lot where the house is located. It's a 17 foot rise from the garage floor to the house level.Cabinets went in for the kitchen, bathrooms, a bedroom and a den. This is the kitchen.
These are the cabinetry at the far end of the great kitchen/dining/living room. The cabinets to the left are incomplete and need to be added to in order to wrap around the corner. The idea, apparently not communicated well, was to break up the book case with some windows behind the book shelves--kind of mixing up inside and outside.

Door locks and handles are going in, Andy is quite happy with them.

And finally, the sewer pipe for the rear house was added. There is an easement provided along this side of the house for the lot and the pipe that went in can be seen above and below the wall.

A Little This, A Little That

I've been trying to figure out closet and laundry doors the last two weeks, it's taken a few trips to Ikea, and I still haven't got it worked out. The trick is matching sizes between closet openings and closet doors plus I'm also trying to tie in the black bamboo floors, white walls, silver reveals, and oak entrance doors of each bedroom with the closet doors.

One more view of the facade at an angle taken from the edge of the garage. Although this is almost the drawing's exact elevation, it is a view that will not be visible from the lot unless one is standing at the edge of the garage roof--not a likely prospect once the metal roof and solar panels are installed on the garage roof. The point being is that no matter how specific the drawings are, their representation of the finished project is not close to reality. Drawings are one dimensional drawn from a specific reference point.
The pool equipment enclosure, the wall behind the bucket of trees, went in this week. In front of the wall, barely visible in this picture, is a gas line. The gas line will be used to create either a fire pit or fire wall. One of the design concepts was to be able to see, from the living room: fire, water, and sky.

This little retaining wall was not in the plans but necessitated because apparently the survey was off.

The footings for the retaining wall along the street are being laid out.

Construction would probably have been finished by now were it not for street improvements that need to be built, mostly curbs and gutters. The street improvement plans determine the finish level of the garage, the entry courtyard, and the stairs leading up to the house level.