Tuesday, August 10, 2010

CMR Update August 8 - We got Rhombus

The pouring of concrete two weeks ago was dramatic. Visually (for us at least) is was the first real indication that we were going to have a bottom level. With rooms. And a floor. Oh, and some stairs. Exciting. This past week, well - it wasn't so dramatic. Although my GC says lots of stuff is going on. You just can't "see" it.



What you can see - - or specifically what my GC could see - - is that our nifty little mid-century modern house is not technically a square. Maybe it never was a square. Now - and forever in the future- - it is a Rhombus. See above photo of cool upstairs hallway (this is a before picture, since you can clearly see the atrium floor which is now air). According to Paul (the GC) this hallway narrows from where this shot was taken to the end of the hall. And here we thought it was just the perspective of the photo. It narrows by about 3 inches. Say what?

Now 3 inches isn't a great deal of yardage, unless we're talking about a chunk of plastique explosives or the size of a man's johnson - and - - apparently - - where construction is concerned. Who knew? So, we need to decide whether we wanted to make the new lower level square - so we would have a rhombus sitting on a square - - or just to make the lower level a rhombus too. We decided on homogeneous shapes up and down. If you've got a Rhombus, you should stick with a Rhombus. My GC said not to tell anyone. Ooops. Cat's out of the bag. If you come to stay with us in the future, know that you will be staying in an un-square house.

And on to the weekly photos...

Current exterior view of the front corner. I am sure our neighbors are so pleased. The house behind us is for sale. They've gotta be pissed.



We got exterior waterproofing, gravel, drainage pipes and some fill dirt. Soon the giant pit surrounding the front of the house will no longer be a tragedy waiting to happen.



Somebody left the ladder right in front of the "entry" to the upstairs, and left the door open. George the Elder is a boy. He had to climb the ladder to shut the door. Am thinking that since George the Elder is entirely unable to shut most doors in his own home once he opens them (kitchen cabinets included) I should just go buy several ladders and place them strategically through out the home. If climbing a ladder is all it takes. Color me in.




The lower level looks a bit like the pleasure garden of the Marquis De Sade. Unbearable pain or suffering anyone?? We got chains. We got spikes, we got pits of despair. Fun for the whole sadistic loving family.


And, the most important thing this week... We got a new beam. This beam will hold up the floor of the living room above it. It will not come crashing down in to G3's new bedroom below it. I believe that this will be helpful. I was told there used to be a wooden post that helped to hold up the living room floor when there was only crawl space below it. I wouldn't know that since it was in the crawl space. I don't do crawl spaces. Spiders live there. I let them live there alone. But, GC Paul says there used to be a post there and he hasn't lied to me yet.





And a final note - - George the Elder and I went on a little reconnoiter on Saturday down to the Noe Valley Whole Foods store. No, we weren't food shopping - - although we did grab a couple of nice rib eyes and a great bottle of red for later - we were concrete floor shopping. Whole Foods has a really nice polished concrete floor with some eye-catching aggregate exposure. Bet you never knew. I didn't. It's an awfully "pretty" floor - but we have our hearts set on trying to achieve the magnum opus of "High School Hallway Speckle" as opposed to "Grocery Store Floor Chic Chunk." The bulk of the floors in the lower lever will be finished concrete (decidedly Eichler, classic mid-century). The exception will be the bath - - tile, of course. And the laundry room where we will use Marmoleum in a quintessential 1950's green/black/white pattern.

Yes, we will end up with a giant shiny concrete rhombus garnished with marmoleum. Can't wait. Five months and counting.....

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