Four Steps Forward, One Backward . . . and More On When Drawings Meet the Construction Process

Clarifying the street improvement issues enabled a number of construction items to go forward. The detached three-car garage and entry courtyard with stairway is the last major structure left unfinished but once the street issues were settled the level of the flooring was set. Rebar and concrete could now go in.

This is the garage floor with fresh cement.

There are several storm water drainage pipes from the house's upper level that could now be connected so that the water will run off to the public sewer through these curb cuts.

The sidewalk is poured. With all the fresh cement around, I have yet to see anyone leave their imprint (this is not an invitation).

The metal courtyard stairs were created off-site and assembled here. I'm not sure what color to paint them. The rails and concrete landings for the stairs were placed.

One step backward: construction is stalled on finishing the street. It seems like construction is coming up on a year. Everyone who took out insurance (myself included) need to renew, and that is one big bureauracy.

Where Drawings Meet Construction

Finishing the garage is like building another structure, and actually it is another structure. While Edel and I were drawing the garage we knew how separate it was from the house. Yet architecturally speaking, now that it's going up, we can see how wedded to the house it is. So the details for the garage's facde became very important.

At one point I had to create a separate drawing to clarify how the horizontal lines interacted with the vertical columns. Additionally, the roof on the elevator shaft was improvised by Mateo, I believe, or the carpenter. But this detail was not clarified in the drawings yet it contributes a strong unifying element to the house's look. You can see that in this photo where the elevator roof matches the three in the background and the two horizontal lines of the garage.

Rene, the foreman, advised me that in order to get a Certificate of Occupancy for the house the grading inspector needs to sign-off on the, grading. He said the grading inspector would not sign off on the slope below because it was not landscaped. The house is not attached to this area and is on a separate pad altogether.So because I am racing to get a 30 year fixed loan and my one year half million dollar construction loan is due in two weeks Rene and I ran down to a nursery. Has anyone seen where I put the landscape plan?