Mike and Jeff's New House

Many of you have been to our home and have enjoyed the view of our garden from the kitchen window....Alas, like my size 32 waist, the garden is now just a fond memory from the past..... Here is the current view from our kitchen window.

Footings Dug - Check Forms Installed - Check Plumber - pipes under slab - Check Electrical - conduit under slab - Check Gas - Pipe under slab - Check Tie Downs - `Gee sorry guys, I was delayed' - (Welcome to the world of contractor drama.) First building inspection by city - `You have no Tie Downs installed' - try again next week. Monday April 25th was to be the day the footings were poured...That is now delayed.....

Who knew that foundation digging was so precise? Brian and John used a laser level to assure that the depth was correct....The plumber was here this AM to mark the places where he needs trenches dug...

Many of you are familiar with the Public Art installations by Christo and Jeanne Claude. We were inspired by their dramatic `The Gates' project in Manhattan and have started to install an homage to their vision....You can see the first phase below. http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/tg.html

You might notice that the intense yellow flowers of the Fremontedendron perfectly compliment the sky blue tones of the newly delivered Port-A-Potty....

The first floor is the heart of the entertaining zone....The front windows are ten feet tall. They open into a living room that is open to the second floor loft....There is a low concrete bench on the south side of the house..(We are getting one of those super efficient Danish stoves from Scan or Rais to sit on the bench.) The Dining Room will be flanked by french doors on the north and south side..The kitchen will also have windows on both the north and south side......Down the hallway you will find a half bath, the laundry area, a coat closet, and the garage.... We joke that the primary reason we are building this house is so that Jeff has a place to finally put together the 1960 Alfa Romeo Convertible that has been dis-assembled for the past 20 years.... He better, or Mike is going to start selling Alfa parts on E-Bay...

The second floor has a couple of cool features....The master bedroom is in the front of the house and it overlooks the living room below. The master bath will have a large glass enclosed double shower with a steam generator and a wall-hung toilet with an integrated bidet seat... In addition there will be a guest room and guest bath plus a large media room on the east end of the house.... Our current home has only one closet........The second floor of our new house will feature a wall of closets that is almost 40 feet long...

This floor will have STUNNING views of highway 50! It will have two 12x20 foot bedrooms that we will use for home offices and project rooms....It will also have a full bathroom that will primarily serve as a humid habitat for Mike's orchids. There will be two large skylights, one over the stairwell and one in the bathroom. Four toilets for two people?? Along with the previous residents of our nearly 80-year-old home, we have managed to survive quite nicely with only one toilet....Even though we designed the house to be very accomodating for guests, we still feel a bit indulgent....

The lot was scraped last week!! It sure was an odd feeling to come home and have 14 years of garden work all ripped out. Lots of the plants in the garden were dug up and moved to other gardens around town...