In the beginning ...
Dec. 2000
January 2001
February 2001
March 2001
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001
Sept. 2001
Oct. 2001
Nov. 2001
Dec. 2001
Jan. 2002
July 2001
Well, it's now July and no the framing is not complete. That story would fill a book, so we won't get into it right now. This is not to say that we aren't making progress, we are but basically because Randy and the boys are working very hard everyday. Our contractor disappeared for awhile so we took on the task of putting up the dining room walls. With any luck, the framing will get done soon, but no one hold their breaths.
I still think the dining room is small, but I know it's at least adequate for use. I think we over did for the kitchen, but the reality is that the kitchen is where we will live.
Here are the proud builders showing off the dining room walls.
Well, just when we thought we would be building all the walls ourselves, the carpenters decided to show, and thank goodness because I don't think we could have raised the kitchen walls with out them. Take a look and see how high Juan had to climb to connect the two walls.
Juan is about 15 feet off finished floor, but if he were to fall to his left, it would be another 5 feet to finished grade. I knew that the ceiling was going to be high, but until you see it, you really don't get a feel for how high it is.
One Garage Door
Two Garage Doors
Three Garage Doors
The garage doors appeared on July 10, quite out of the blue. We had no idea they were coming until they called us about 10 minutes away for directions clarification. We had to scramble to move some things around in the garage and to put up the redwood trimmers. Luckily, we had the trimmers primed and ready for weeks, we just hadn't gotten around to installing them.
Buying the doors was an adventure in itself. Believe it or not, we started looking back in March. The first company came out, and promised an estimate in a few days, would you believe I still haven't heard from them?! After leaving three messages, I crossed them off the list and moved on. The next company came in with bids just way too high, our budget would have been totally blown. The next company was more reasonable, but it was still pulling teeth to get anything from them.
So... we decided to go to the source. Two of the companies had brochures from Garage Doors, Inc. located in San Jose, so we went there, saw how they manufactured the doors and chose these. I'm really glad we went with the glass because there's a great ocean view from the garage. Of course we went over budget, but not by too much and we really think these doors will enhance the appearance of the house.
Now you know the rest of the story....
This the wall that divides the boys room. The picture is taken in Spenser's room looking into Bryant's. Now that the walls are actually up and they can see the framework of their rooms, the complaints have started as to who has more square footage. Sorry Bryant, but you should have looked at the plans more closely before you choose.
Randy and Bryant are standing in the bedroom, Spenser is in my closet. You can't tell from this picture, but the opening is for a sliding glass door that opens onto a small deck. The view is incredible.
A skeletal view of the house so far.
The garage roof is now completely sheathed and the guys are enjoying their lunch break on the roof. The boys really enjoy going up there and watching the birds. There is one turkey vulture that loves to fly low over the house. Sometimes you think you can just reach out and touch him. One day the boys watched an air battle between two hawks, one a peregrine falcon the other a red tail hawk.
There was a flurry of activity at the end of July and the place is really starting to look like a house, but we are all saddened by the reality that our faithful dog of almost 14 years will never enjoy it. Ranger died on July 28 at the vets with all of us there to say good-bye. The boys are devastated, but comforted by the fact that her paw prints in the garage slab will be a permanent memorial to her. She was a great dog and we miss her.
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