Mike and Jeff's New House

A compelling article about the state of home-building in the US Today

2011-10-03T13:07:00.001-07:00

More photos of the finished patio and fountains

2011-05-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

Our fountains bring a bit of sound and movement to the patio, the vessels are from Green Acres Nursery in Sacramento and the patio was installed by Lee Reveles Landscape.

main patio area just before they finished

2010-09-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Our installer was Lee Reveles Landscape, HIGHLY recommended, they did excellent work...

The rear driveway is done!

2010-09-16T23:01:00.000-07:00


Pavers in the driveway that leads to the alley

Controlling the weather

2010-09-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

We installed a Weathermatic irrigation system controller. It is connected to an on-site weather station that monitors temperature, rainfall, windspeed, and humidity. As the seasons change, it automatically adjusts the station timing, very handy!

Fire in the hole....

2010-05-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

We are building a fire-pit into the patio on the freeway side of the house. The first step in the process was building a masonry bench on one side of it, the bench is done and the gas line is installed, next up is installing the burner and the patio pavers...

A stained reputation

2010-05-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

We have been staining fences for 5 weekends and have lured many friends into helping us...it takes a long time, but the results are worth it...

Fountain Installation

2010-05-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

We are installing a fountain system that will use 3 linked aqua basins from Aquascapes.

South Side Privacy Screen

2009-11-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Shown here is the privacy screen solution that we devised to help both us and our neighbors have some privacy in our respective dining rooms....the glazing material is twin-wall polycarbonate that is used for commercial greenhouses. Light transmission is excellent and it obscures the view just enough that one has a sense of privacy.

Summer is over, back to work...

2009-11-20T23:33:00.000-08:00

After 5 years of no vegetable gardening I am SO excited to have 2 raised beds for the 2010 season!!!

The fence along highway 50 is steel that is designed to rust, this photo was taken in October when the fence was installed and it is already starting to take on a nice reddish color...

This is the rear garden shed where the potting bench will be...

This is the front storage shed...It's basically a fancy-pants way to disguise our garbage cans.

We didn't do many garden projects over the summer months as we were both swamped with our jobs and with volunteer work....This fall we finally decided that if we were ever going to get finished with the yard we were going to have to have some help. Thanks to the guys at Deome Builders, we now have two garden sheds, our fences are all done, and we have interior garden `walls' that will help to give some sense of garden `rooms'....

first video to blog..

2009-03-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

This was taken today just after I finished planting a couple of deciduous azaleas...

Front Courtyard Progress

2009-03-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

I can not believe how hard it was to get all the gravel screened out of the planting beds in the front courtyard... Notice to home builders.....protect your planting beds if at all possible....the compaction was intense....

Freeway side garden design

2009-03-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

Jeff spent some time re-thinking the design for the garden on the freeway side of our house. We are going to going to tackle this garden this summer.... The `floor' will be 18'' by 18'' pavers. The `walls' will be wooden (or steel) fencing offset with 3x3 steel wire for growing vines. The rectangle in the middle of the drawing is a concrete table that we are going to try to cast ourselves. The three circles on the lower side of the drawing are 3 large ceramic fountains...The lower left corner has an L shaped bench that will surround a firepit..

plants and gravel - not a good combination

2009-03-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

I used this steel screen to sort the gravel and rocks out of the dirt..... Gardening is not always glamorous...

I already sorted the gravel from this bed last year, alas, when I started to dig holes for these Teucrium chamaedrys ( http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/teuchamaedrys.htm ) , I discovered another lower layer that meant another round of screening...

this bed is deep....and my back is sore....

some of our winter projects

2009-03-22T12:52:00.001-07:00

Here is the `eyebrow' over the front door with the twin-wall polycarbonate installed.

Here is the `eyebrow' over the south facing french doors in the dining room.

Here is the underside view from the dining room, the twin-wall polycarbonate keeps the patio dry in the winter and only cuts about 5 percent of the light transmission.

The finished roof on the garden shed.....Now, to get to the walls and floor....

Roof Raising...

2008-12-02T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Garden Shed now has a coat of stain on it and the tin roof has been attached, here is a middle of the weekend progress photo....

Bathroom cabinets are finally done...

2008-11-24T23:38:00.000-08:00

After a leisurely summer, we have kicked back into project mode..... The master bathroom has twin sinks, and each side has the same storage unit configuration of 3 drawers and 3 open shelves....Jeff used IKEA drawer panels that matched our drawers to build the box up at the top, he cut a hole in the panel for the low voltage lights and now we can really see the things that are on these shelves...

Garden Shed Progress

2008-11-24T23:36:00.000-08:00

Jeff has finished cutting the headers for the garden shed...Next up is the staining and then we'll attach the tin sheathing...

Bamboo is in...

2008-11-24T23:31:00.000-08:00

We found a great guy who has started a small specialty nursery focusing on bamboos adapted to the Sacramento area. The name of the company is Mad Man Bamboo and he helped us to pick out a cultivar B. multiplex `Alphonse Karr' that is a clumping type that will not get too big. http://www.madmanbamboo.com/

We put 3 of them in the ground outside our dining room window on the south side. Now that they are in, we will put in the twin wall greenhouse glazing in between these posts....

Fall is for planting!

2008-11-24T23:25:00.000-08:00

Alas, before planting we have a bit more work to do. The front courtyard area is where gravel for the foundation was dumped and then compacted by construction vehicles. On top of that, the guys that did our stucco mixed all of their concrete and sand in this area... So, shovel by shovelful, Mike spent an entire Saturday digging up a bed about 2.5 feet wide by 6 feet long and running it over a steel grate to filter out the gravel and concrete pieces... Flowers by Spring!

suck it up....

2008-07-21T23:55:00.001-07:00

We installed the vacumn unit for the whole house vacumn cleaner out in the garage in late May...All the tubing was run during construction, we were finally able to afford the actual unit...the first and second floor each have two outlets, the third floor only needed one as it is not as big..... We LOVE it...works like a charm...dragging the vacumn cleaner up three flights of stairs lost its charm long ago...now we just drag the hose from floor to floor..

cover it up

2008-07-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

When we first built the house we knew that we wanted solar shade screens, but we ran out of money...In anticipation of having the money one day, we installed the wall switches and wiring for all 5 screens and we also put smurf tubing through the walls so that when we were able to afford the screens, the installation would be easy.. After two years, we finally were ready to bite off the expense and had the electric screens installed on all the big East, South, and West facing windows. The difference is amazing. Our house just does not warm up during the day....

Garden Shed Progress

2008-05-19T23:08:00.001-07:00

Over the past 3 weekends Jeff has been busy with the garden shed....He has installed the treated 2x12's that will be the base for the walls, he notched the top of the 4x6's, he has crafted the headers that tie the system together and he has started to attach the top pieces that will serve as the point of attachment for the roof...one weekend at a time, we're getting there.

Mulch Time

2008-05-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

Tree Care Incorporated delivered 5 yards of their nicely ground wood chips a couple of weeks ago. Mike spent a Saturday morning making the front of the yard look a little more cohesive.....It has dramatically cut down on the amount of watering that has been required.

Post Hole Blues....

2008-04-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

This is the `before' look......The chain link fence separates us from our neighbors....We are replacing that fence with a wooden fence that will do double duty as a fence/garden shed.

Here is the `After' look.....It was a nice view into our old garden next door....

And this is what it looked like at the end of the weekend....We put in the 6 posts that will be the support posts for our new garden shed. It will have two sets of double doors that open to the driveway.....

Just Handle it...

2008-04-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

The final drawer pulls (16 of them) were installed by Jeff this past weekend......The Laundry area finally looks `done'.

The Numbers Game

2008-04-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

One does not want to rush into some things, that's why it took us almost two years to locate and install the perfect house numbers....but this past weekend they were installed and they look great....

Here is the finished product....

Here is the mock-up just prior to installation and down on the ground is the house sign that has been there ever since construction.....

Post Primer....

2008-03-30T11:00:00.001-07:00

We were going to rent a laser level but discovered that Home Depot sold one that cost less than the one-day rental.... This thing is very helpful in making sure that the posts are all set at the same depth....

This weekend is Jeff's birthday, our friend Mike Fuhr came up from Irvine to help us celebrate and to get a lesson in the careful art of precision post hole installation......We had a lot of fun and are VERY grateful for Mike's help....

Here Mike and Jeff are using the laser level to check the depth of one of the holes before we placed the post...

Here is the laser and the tripod that it sits on....

Once the hole was about an inch deeper than the target depth, we put gravel into the bottom of the hole....

After the gravel is poured in, we put the post in the hole and then re-checked the depth with the laser level and then used a level to make sure it was going in vertically (on both sides). We put in the two end poles first (and used a little geometry to figure out the exact location so that the line of posts would be square to the house and the lot.) and then rang a string between them so that the entire line of posts was lined up.

After the posts were aligned properly, the fast part was filling in around each one with bags of concrete post hole mix. These posts were set 30 inches in the ground.

Here is the first wall of the future utility enclosure that will store our garbage cans and yard furniture in the winter. The four tall posts in the middle will be repeated on the other side of the yard and we will string steel cables between them and string cafe lighting over our patio.

Do you know what I mean? light strings like these...

The First Posts....

2008-03-24T01:08:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we put our first posts into the ground. These 4 will be the frame for a screen between our house and the neighbors. The `filler' will be made of Lexan, the double-walled rigid plastic panels used in commercial greenhouses. Privacy and good light at the same time.

Direct View

Jeff cut the tops of the posts to mimic the roofline of our house.

On Sunday we put our first posts into the ground....

The Hole Truth....

2008-03-24T00:56:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we rented a two-man auger with a 10 inch bit and used it to dig 21 holes...It took lot less time than it would have taken to do it by hand.....It looked like this, except without the hard hats....

Here is where our utility storage area will be......

This is the other end of the patio area....It's sort of a mindfield out there...

Clear Cutting....

2008-03-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

After talking with a friend who is an arborist, we decided to take out the redwood that was damaged in the January storm. As long as we were doing that, we decided to have two other redwoods removed so that we would have more room for a patio and a hot tub.

Here's our tree guy taking out the tree just outside our kitchen window.

Don't do this at home....

Soil Building....

2008-03-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

Good soil is comprised of three primary building blocks: Sand, silt, and clay. One of the challenges of post-construction soil building is getting rid of the rock and concrete chunks that inevitably end up scattered around the site.

Here is what the `soil' looks like in our front courtyard. This area was the primary site for stucco mixing and a large load of gravel was dumped here when they installed the foundation. In addition to that, the area had a LOT of compaction.

What to do?

I knew that in order to get anything other than weeds to grow here, I was going to have to get some of the gravel and concrete and stucco layers out of the soil.

One shovel at a time, I screened the soil in the planting bed on the freeway side of the sidewalk. I'm not sure what this steel grate was originally used for, but today it was a gravel screen.

After removing five 5-gallon buckets of gravel from the right side of the sidewalk, I added some compost and it is starting to look like garden soil once again.

Magnolia stellata, welcome to your new home..

2008-03-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Spring Fever hit hard this week in Sacramento...It was 70+ degrees all weekend and it was a zoo over at Green Acres Nursery on Saturday. We picked up this Magnolia stellata for our front courtyard...

A Steamy situation...

2008-02-28T18:32:00.001-08:00

The Steam generator has been installed for over a year but was not hooked up, we finally finished some connections and it is up and running..... It works great....

The steam emitter has a depression on the top for oils like Eucalyptus or Lavender...

Audio System Updates

2008-02-27T01:18:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges that we had when we first installed our audio system was that we couldn't afford the fancy Russound media server that goes with our Russound amplifier. A solution that we could afford was to install a mac mini from Apple Computer and hook it to our amplifier via the Russound iBridge Bay kit. It allows us to wirelessly access the system and change the music from anywhere in the house via laptop.

Our friends Mike and Jeff came from Chicago this past weekend and hooked it all up, they also programmed an RTI universal remote control for our TV room so that we could get rid of the 5 remote controls that we had been fighting with and use only one. It's an amazingly elegant solution and we are very grateful for their help with this project. Here it is:
http://www.rticorp.com/products/T2plus.html

Mirrors Galore

2008-02-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Guest Bathroom

3rd Floor Bathroom

We liked the wall-to-wall mirror in the master bathroom so much that we had the mirror people come back and install mirrors over the sinks in the guest bathroom and in the 3rd floor bathroom. If you live in the Sacramento area and need custom glass or mirrors installed, we HIGHLY recommend `Accent Shower Door', they do great work.

A close shave....

2008-01-28T23:38:00.001-08:00

Low Voltage wiring, hooked to light switch.

The finished product

The heating mat duct-taped to the mirror just before installation.

The shower now sports a shaving mirror with a low voltage heating pad mounted to the back, it's supposed to keep it from fogging up, we'll see...

UPDATE: The heating mat works OK if one turns it on just before going into the shower, but it works great if one turns it on 5 minutes before taking a shower and it warms up a bit.

Shelves and Mirrors are in

2008-01-28T23:33:00.000-08:00

Our master bath is just about done....The glass shelves, main mirror and shower mirror were all installed this week.... We like it.......

Movie Madness

2008-01-20T23:46:00.000-08:00

One of the last things we did before putting on sheet rock was to pull speaker cable from where our TV was planned to be over to two location flanking the back of the sofa. This year Santa Claus brought a set of surround sound speakers from Aperion Audio. They sound great and we've been watching LOTS of movies. The installation looks very clean thanks to the already installed cables. Are you remodeling? Don't forget to pull some wires if you even THINK you might buy surround sound speakers one day. Mounting the TV onto the wall also helped to make it seem more like a movie house experience.....

Bathroom Mirrors and Glass Shelves

2008-01-20T23:10:00.000-08:00

Our next step in the master bathroom is to take off the round mirrors above each sink and replace it with a complete wall of mirror. Hopefully it will be installed within the next week or so. The same glass company is cutting glass shelves for the upper portion of the shelf `box' on both sides of the sinks.... And finally, we are installing the anti-fogging electric mat behind an 18x30 shaving mirror in the shower....

It was a dark and stormy night....

2008-01-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

We had one HECK of a storm hit northern California in early January. Over 200,000 people were without power for up to a week...This pic shows the view of our redwoods from the third story windows as the wind was whipping them around....The wind gusts were measured at 70 miles per hour....It was kind of scary, we lost lots of trees and large branches in the neighborhood..

Storm Damage

2008-01-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

The answer to the question: `Are Redwood Trees brittle? is a resounding YES. The top 15-18 feet of one of our redwoods snapped off in the storm. Mike planted these trees 15 years ago and they were in one gallon pots....

A 5-way grafted fruit tree

2008-01-20T22:03:00.000-08:00

We had a much beloved grafted fruit tree in our old garden. (It grew right about where the washing machine now sits.) It was a four way `Fruit Cocktail' tree with a white peach, a nectarine, a plum, and an apricot. We liked it so much that we went and bought one to replace it. This tree is a 5-way graft and it has 3 peaches and 2 nectarines grafted onto a hardy root stock. It won't produce much fruit this year, but watch out in 2009!

First Tree in back yard

2008-01-20T22:00:00.001-08:00

And into the planting hole it goes......

Front Yard Planting Progress

2008-01-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

The Front yard finally has some plants in the ground. We are using two different types of grasses plus 3 flax plants as vertical design elements, they will be in geometric lines that will reinforce the existing architecture while also creating some distinctive movement in the landscape. Thanks to Fred R. for his help with laying out the design....

Master Bath progress

2008-01-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

We finally got started on finishing our master bathroom. Jeff bought some solid core doors and milled them to fit into the two corners of the bathroom that flank the sinks....

Door City

2008-01-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

Jeff came up with the solution of using doors as the frame around which we would construct bathroom shelving. It meant LOTS of careful measuring and detailed cutting as messing up would mean a trip to the door store to buy a new one. Thanks to Al B. for his help with the cutting and fitting process...

Electrical Change

2008-01-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

There are three light systems in the bathroom, flourescents on the mirror wall, spot lights for art, and low voltage for the glass shelves, all of them can now be preset and one switch will turn them on. It meant drilling through the wall and putting the master switch on the outside wall, it actually makes it easier....

The holy grail, bathroom storage

2008-01-20T21:38:00.001-08:00

We used IKEA cabinet bases for the shelving units in between the wooden doors.

painted frames and attached drawers

2008-01-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

Once the shelving `box' was installed by Jeff, Mike primed, sanded, and painted the cabinets. A little trick from our painters proved most helpful in creating a super smooth surface. AFTER the primer coat went on, the entire area was sanded with 220 grit sandpaper and rubbed down with a dust rag before the final coat went on, they are now MUCH smoother than after the first coat of paint. This photo also shows that the drawer fronts are installed. These are the same eucalyptus veneer drawers that we used in our bedroom and kitchen.

13 feet!

2008-01-20T21:32:00.001-08:00

We went to the same tree farm as last year, but this time we came home with a tree that was just a bit over 13 feet tall....Who knew a tree that size would take so many ornaments....

Let the Sun Shine....

2008-01-04T23:43:00.000-08:00

We were thrilled to get our final 2007 electric bill from SMUD, our electrical utility... We achieved our goal and produced more electricity than we used. In other words, we paid zero dollars to the utility this past year...

It's a good thing...

One down, three to go

2007-10-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

The guest bathroom is done, done, done!!!!!!! The plumber finally showed up and did his thing and we are in business.....There are three other bathrooms in the house, all of them need a bit of work to be declared `done'....One weekend at a time....we're getting there...

punch it...

2007-10-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

Jeff drilled holes in our kitchen and laundry room sinks and installed under-counter soap dispensers in both. In the kitchen sink he also installed a deck-mounted air switch that is used to turn on/off the garbage disposal....it's darn handy...

The hills are alive.....with the sound of traffic...

2007-09-13T10:22:00.001-07:00

We live right next to an eight lane freeway...it's LOUD out there....To make the problem worse, we're going to add more noise and attempt to divert ones focus.... We'll have 4 speakers in our narrow freeway-side garden. Hopefully it does some good.... All the conduits are run and will be ready to go when we have the walls and patio installed....

gas and electric lines are done

2007-09-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

We ran gas lines to both the future greenhouse and to the end of the sunny patio in case we ever want to hook up a BBQ or do a gas firepit....In addition to that we had three exterior outlets switched from inside so that we are able to control features like lights or fountains from inside the house. All of those conduits are now in place as well...

future shady patio

2007-09-13T10:11:00.001-07:00

This area is right outside the dining room/kitchen and it will be covered in large concrete pavers soon....We're looking for a long narrow table that can seat 10....We may make it ourselves and use light-weight concrete...this area will have one of two fountains, lots of landscape lighting, and speakers....

future sunny patio

2007-09-13T10:06:00.001-07:00

This area will be the sunny patio (at least for a couple of years, then the redwoods will shade it most of the time.) It will have one of two fountains and speakers galore to attempt a futile effort at reducing the noise from highway 50.

future hot tub site

2007-09-13T10:03:00.001-07:00

Right between these two redwoods will be a hottub and an outdoor shower.....I guess that means I have to find a new place for the compost bin.....

future greenhouse site

2007-09-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

We now have water, electrical and gas lines run to the location where we plan to install a small greenhouse next year.....It will be on the right side of this photo....In the foreground are the irrigation pipes for what will be two raised beds for vegetables....At the east end of the beds will be a small orchard area right next to the alley...

who knew?

2007-09-13T09:56:00.001-07:00

Before we put the driveway concrete in we installed a couple of 4 inch conduits under the driveway so that we could run water and electrical from our irrigation manifold and electrical box. We should have put in three....

The guest bath is almost done

2007-09-13T09:51:00.001-07:00

The tile is finished in the guest bath and the shower curtain rod (a high tension steel cable) is installed...Once the plumber shows up to change out one of the fittings, we'll be back in business...

Laying Pipe...

2007-09-06T22:48:00.001-07:00

We rented a B.A.T. (big ass trencher) a couple of months ago and spent a weekend digging trenches all over our yard....The draining pipe is installed in this trench, the water pipe is in this trench, and the electrical conduit is in this trench. This coming weekend we'll finish up by installing the gas piping, the low voltage wiring and the control wiring for the irrigation valves....fun stuff....

Tile Drama..

2007-09-06T22:38:00.001-07:00

Last summer as the house settled, the light green glass tiles that we used in our guest bathroom started to crack. After going round about round with the tile folks, we ended up installing the same limestone that we used on the floors on the tub surrounds and just covered up all that cracked tile.......Like so much of life, random things like this reminds us of how little control we really have...

All Steamed up....

2007-09-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

That blue box in this photo contains a steam generator....At the click of a switch in the bathroom, it pushes steam into the master bath shower stall.......kinda cool....

What a hottie!!

2007-09-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

At long last we have hooked up our hot water solar system. The tank on the left is not a water heater, per se. It is a hot water storage tank, the heat exhanger (that black U shaped thingie on the outside of the tank) is a double walled pipe that takes heat from the loop running up to the roof and foists the heat off onto the water inside the tank......The loop coming off the roof brings in 180 degree water.....Needless to say, taking a long hot shower no longer feels quite so indulgent...We worked with Heliodyne in Richmond to procure all the parts, they were very easy to work with. http://www.heliodyne.com/

Landscape Progress

2007-05-31T00:35:00.000-07:00

Today we started the process of getting our landscape started. Our tree guy (Bob from Busy B. Tree Service) came and took out the scraggly sycamore in front of the house. The city forester approved it for removal and they are going to replace it with a Dutch Elm Disease resistant cultivar named `Prospector'.

Find out more about this program here: http://www.cityofsacramento.org/parksandrecreation/urbanforest/elm.htm

It looks a LOT different:

Take it away...

2007-05-31T00:32:00.001-07:00

Our tree guy also took out a redwood tree today....It will be replaced by a greenhouse, hopefully in this millenium...This view is from the back of the house on the second floor looking out over highway 50 and the alley.

Poppies galore

2007-05-08T00:29:00.000-07:00

The South side of our house has 5 `Dynamite Red' Crepe Myrtles that I planted last summer. They made it through the winter great and have really started to take off, they should be in full bloom within a month. Right now the entire south side landscape is covered with California Poppy...Our state flower does incredibly well here in the Central Valley...

Wall Caps

2007-05-08T00:24:00.000-07:00

The stucco and wall caps have been applied to the courtyard wall in front of our house....Now to get to the underground infrastructure (irrigation, 110, low voltage for lighting) so we can get some plants in the ground...

A long break

2007-05-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

After several months of no blog posts, I thought I best put up some new pics....We spent the winter and spring not doing much work on the house...It was a VERY nice break, alas it is time to get back into gear and crank out the final big projects and the landscape...

One of the things we finally had installed was the countertop in the bedroom..Stokes Granite and Stone installed them and they were GREAT to work with. Highly recommended....
Above is a pic of the built-in bedroom cabinet, the built-in headboard above our bed has the same granite counter top...

Christmas Greetings!

2007-01-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas in the new house was a lot of fun.
We had a 10.5 foot tree....Next year we're going for 12 or 13!

Blow it out....

2006-10-29T23:14:00.000-08:00

Our HVAC guy came by last week to test the `tightness' of the house.After shutting all the windows and doors, he installed this plastic piece over the door and started up the fan to pump air out of the house. We've got to get him some ceiling measurements so he can calculate the volume of air in the house. Based on the measurements that his device measured, we have very little air leakage and should be able to heat the house with minimal energy...

It's almost time to turn on the radiant heat, the concrete floor on the first floor is starting to feel chilly.

Skins...

2006-10-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

The Eucalypus veneer panels are now installed on the cabinet in the master bedroom that defines the edge of the balcony.....The stainless steel skin has also been applied to the base that it sits on.....Now, to get the top of this cabinet finished....

UP for hot....

2006-10-29T23:07:00.000-08:00

FINALLY! After more drama than I care to recall, we finally have the correct shower valve cartridges and extension kits.....I know more about shower valve hardware than I ever thought possible...Turning on the shower with pliers lost its glamour after two months......

Our plumber also came back and hooked up the water line to the refrigerator so the ice maker finally works....

He also hooked up the faucets in the laundry area and in the garage...It's a regular water garden.....

All lit up...

2006-10-29T23:06:00.000-08:00

Before the open house we were able to get most of the art back on the walls and the lighting adjusted.....It's starting to feel like home...

The Return of Music....

2006-10-29T22:57:00.000-08:00

The last weekend of September we had an open house to celebrate the completion of our house. Our friends Mike Lewis and Jeff Mathieu came out from Chicago to help us celebrate and to install our Russound distributed audio system. THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!!!!! We now have 6 zones of audio control (2 per floor). Each of these controllers run a pair of speakers and control the inputs. They can access regular AM/FM , Sirius Satellite Radio, CD's, or MP3 files. The system is great, we bought speakers from Home Tech in Cupertino and have been very pleased so far.

All Wired up...

2006-10-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

In mid-September our friends Mary Bushette and Mike Balak came out from Minnesota for their annual visit. Mike is a computer network administrator and he did virtually 100% of the work to hook up our 110 punchdown panels. (THANKS AGAIN MIKE!!!!!) We are now able to distribute high speed internet signals and video signals throughout the house. The house also has a wireless network and future expansion capacity in that we have two coax cable drops in every room. The coax is not yet terminated as we have no need for it with SureWest (they distribute video on CAT-5).

The pic shows our Surewest fiber optic gateway at the bottom of the box and then the mass of punchdown blocks and the wireless MIMO router up on the wall above.

Bay Alarm FINALLY got our alarm system to work...we had truly poor customer service with them and would not use them again.

Excel - lent !

2006-09-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a firm to do concrete work, we had a great experience with our contractor, Excel Concrete. They did the slab for our house, all of the steps and driveway and finally our sidewalk....highly recommended!

Here they are shown finishing the sidewalk in front of the house...

Walk on by....

2006-09-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

At long last our front steps and sidewalk are done...

We also replaced half of the sidewalk in front of our old house next door. The city had flagged it for replacement due to tree root damage(at our expense of course - thanks to Proposition 13) six months ago.

We worked with the new homeowners to repair their landscape and now we both have great looking sidewalks.

Putting it together...

2006-09-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Our friends Rob and Kent are moving to San Fransicso and will have a much smaller home over there. Soooooo, we bought their beautiful cherry veneered Techline Murphy bed and paid the Techline studios guys to come and move it and install it. The bed has 6 heavy duty springs that serve to counter balance it and allow it to easily be lifted up to the storage position.

It is kind of like installing a sliding garage door, easy if you know what you are doing, dangerous if you don't....

Fold it up....

2006-09-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here is what the bed looks like when it is folded up.

Sit a spell....

2006-09-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

We looked at a lot of places and finally found some chairs for the living room that we liked. They were delivered on Saturday afternoon and we really like them...

We fired up the gas fireplace unit last night, it is
almost starting to feel like fall....

Movie Time....

2006-09-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

We found the perfect rug for our media room. It
looks great on the cork floor. Now, all we need to do is buy
a big-screen TV and we'll be ready for movie night....

Handle it!

2006-09-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

The kitchen drawers are finally all done...The drawer pulls are aluminum and they went on last weekend....Next weekend we are going to install the stainless steel kick-plate underneath the cabinets....This cabinet system is all from IKEA and is a Eucylyptus veneer.

Let there be light!

2006-09-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

At long last our dining room light fixture is up and working..
This fixture is a modern homage to the crystal chandelier...

Our new dining table is from Room and Company in Sacramento..

Pantry and Floor

2006-09-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to IKEA we found the perfect storage shelves for the pantry under the stairs...
One of the challenges we are dealing with is that the polyurathane that Mike put down on the entire first floor is failing....It just peels up in big sections...The manufacturer said `Sorry, that was a bad batch, we'll send you another jug'.....Needless to say, we won't be putting any more polyurathane down...we are going to pull it all up and put down a concrete wax instead.....oh well....

Bathed In Light

2006-09-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd floor shower is currently the home for Mike's orchids that are not in bloom....We hope to put in a little greenhouse next year, but until that time they have to live somewhere...

Hot Rack....

2006-09-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Jeff put all of the towel bars and toilet paper holders onto the walls in all 4 bathrooms. The master bath has a heated towel bar that is on a timer so that our towels are warm in the AM....Since our solar panels continue to make more energy than we can use, we don't feel too guilty about having it....

NOTE: Since being connected to the power grid in May we have yet to pay any money to our local electrical utility, we have almost 1 megawatt of excess capacity stored in our `energy bank' so we are ready for the foggy days of winter.

Armoire with a secret

2006-09-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

This armoire was in our old house and is one of the few antiques that we are keeping. It is Italian and the dealer estimated it was built in the early 1900's.... It is now standing on a platform at top of the 2nd floor landing.....The nice thing about this armoire is that it was built to be taken apart, which is just what we had to do to get it up the stairs...Those Italians....always thinking of design....

Library Time

2006-08-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

Our new bookshelves finally arrived from Room and Board in Minneapolis...They are made out of recycled lumber from an old lumber mill in Forestville, CA.

In addition to the shelves, we bought an Eames Lounge chair....it's a great place to read....

SOLD!

2006-08-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

Our least favorite words this month? `Your house has some dry rot'

Fortunately our friend Al is an amazing carpenter, he replaced our dry rot damaged siding in record time...

The couple that bought the house needed to move in quickly as they were both starting new
jobs in Sacramento this week...thanks to Al, we closed escrow in only 21 days....

Goodbye Little Bungalow....

2006-07-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

The market here is flattening.........In today's market, this 900 sq. ft., 2 bedroom, 1 bath house just 50 feet from the freeway fence is worth $379,000..We missed the top of the market by 6-9 months and would have gotten at least $400,000 back then.....crazy...

Walled up.....

2006-07-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

Since moving into the new house we have largely been working next door on getting our old house ready to put onto the market....It now has a new roof, refinished hardwood, new vinyl floor in kitchen, lots of garden improvements, and on and one and on......

The old house went onto the market this past Friday, this past Sunday the realtor had an open house, we received an offer on Sunday night, we countered their offer on Monday night, they accepted on Monday night, we are going into escrow today (Tuesday.) It's a happy thing....

Here is a shot of the front courtyard that we had built this past weekend at the new house. Once we get the pre-cast concrete cap picked out, the mason will come back and install that. After the cap is in, they will apply stucco so that it matches the house color.

A long time coming.....

2006-06-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well....we did it...

Two long weekends of hauling stuff from one house to the other has come to an end...

Does the blog end now?

Heck no!

We have to finish the trim work, we have to start the landscaping!! And the old house is undergoing a huge amount of work to get it ready to put on the market..... Stay tuned!

Sassy Sofa

2006-06-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

The first piece of furniture is now unpacked and ready for movie night....

One day we'll have a TV worthy of this 108'' long sofa....

A lot of our new furniture came from Room and Company, a modern
furniture store here in Sacramento that is at 48th and J Street.

http://www.roomandcompany.com/cgi-bin/index.pl

Introducing the Washlet by Toto

2006-06-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

Our house has 4 toilets, 3 of them have POTS (Plain Old Toilet Seats)

The one pictured below is in our master bathroom. It sort of looks like a regular toilet.
Then one notices that it has an infrared transmitter on the left corner?? Then one notices that it has 4 winking LED signals to alert one to the status of the toilet????

What could it be? Why of course, it's a bidet seat with a remote control!

I think their website explains it FAR better than I can.

http://www.washlet.com/default.asp

The wall mounted control panel

2006-06-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

This control panel is mounted on the wall next to the toilet but it is designed to easily
detatch so that one can adjust settings while comfortably facing forward....

Leave it to those Japanese engineers to come up with an ergonomic solution to the pesky
problems associated with hi-tech hygiene.

Words Escape Me....

2006-06-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

Although I know that the comments on this one will be numerous and earthy,
one really has not lived till one has tried this thing.

Our HVAC guy tried it....he forbid me to tell his girlfriend about it
because he knew she would want one. (Actually, he spent a fair amount
of time in there, maybe she'll get one after all.)

It has a built in water heater - variable of course.
It has a built in seat warmer - variable of course.
It has a built-in dryer - variable temp of course.
It has a wand that moves back and forth - either oscillating or pulsing.
One can control the intensity of the water and the `region' it is aimed at.

But best of all:
It has a catalytic converter to suck odors out of the toilet bowl- yes, I'm serious.

Floors are DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-06-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

This is a view I took today at about 5:45 PM. When the afternoon
sun comes in through the living room windows, the place
just glows....

Mike spent the better part of four days prepping these floors and the
cork floors on the second and third floors for their final coats of polyurathane.

Like a bowl of home made ice-cream, it was worth the wait....