CMR September 15 - The team and The work

See the smiling face of this nice man? This is GC Paul. He smiles like this even though it has taken us way to long to determine what we want to do with doors and windows. Who knew that sticking, casing, hardware and wood type would cause such angst? He still smiles even though we continue to urge him to finish on schedule while we screw around with the delivery dates of doors and windows cause we can't get everything we want with a single manufacturer. Good guy.





This is the smiling face of Foreman Luke. He joined the project a few weeks ago and I love having him around. He is there on site everyday keeping everyone motivated, working and on task. He asked a guy to stop sawing something this morning while we were there meeting this morning so we could hear ourselves talk. We turned and all yelled together, "Keep working!!! We will talk louder!" - but Foreman Luke sent him off to do a quieter activity while we finished up talking about the merits of Oak, Fir and Pine.

The guy in the black is our newest team member - now officially named Wine Guy Steve. We found him in Napa (lucky us that the CA wine valley is so close!) and he's going to design for us the coolest (double meaning) and quietest wine closet ever. It's going to be a combination cave/ cellar - but will be disguised as a pretty closet so we can see our stash. Discussing the details of soffits, placement of condensers and remembering NOT to put floor heating pipes under the wine cave is Foreman Luke, George the Elder and our architect John in the red shirt.

After the meeting with Wine Guy Steve and GC Paul about the windows and doors, we got to take a look around. So much progress over the past week. It's so incredible to see it all coming together. It makes writing those bi-monthly checks a tad more palatable.

This is a view of the pool room towards the kitchen upstairs where they are dismantling the wall to widen the kitchen for the stairwell. I need to retract the thought that the stainless steel piece was the "moment frame" from a couple o' updates ago. That nice shiny piece is just a steel shear wall. The big expensive piece of steel is it's ugly step-sister now in place right to the left of it to which that large piece of wood with head-sized bolts has been affixed in the horizontal to start the ceiling/floor in the atrium.

All the waterproofing on the interior walls has been completed and they are starting to level all the floors and fill in all the pits and spread lots of gravel around. It makes the rooms look more like rooms - you know - a floor really helps with the visuals! This is looking in to Henry's room from the pseudo hallway by the rumpus room.

It challenging to get back in to the pool room and George the Younger's room now. The wall and framing is up to separate these rooms permanently from the garage and the new stairs that connect the two halves are not completed. You need to walk the plank in the pool room to get there - and this morning the plank was not usable. So, here a photo from the top of the imaginary staircase looking towards The Younger's room.

See how the wall to George The Younger's Room and the Pool Room now separate the garage from the rest of the house? They were using a great noisy dirt-patter-downer in there yesterday to press the dirt down. Loud, but effective...

A view from the kitchen and demolition in process of the kitchen wall. You can also see the top of the Moment Frame where the new floor/ceiling joists are attached. The space between the moment frame and the house/upper windows? That's where the ultra cool, light producing sky lights will eventually be installed.

And the wall in completely gone!! The library is now just one big room. I think this is going to be a great space.

And that's all the news that's fit to print. We did finally figure out that all the trim in the upstairs was a variety of Oak, so we're going to go with Oak downstairs for the windows and the casing. I never much thought of myself as an Oak Gal - but it seems that there are a few stain colors associated with Oak. Who knew? So - Oak it is. At least that's one decision that will no longer be keeping me up at night. And yes, these are the things that wake me up and keep me up. The thought that I am not getting enough sleep because I cannot seem to get a bead on the polished nickle versus polished chrome is distressing. Who knew?