Pardon progress problems people, please practice patience.

Well the week before last was a bit of a disappointment.

On the upside, work on the septic system is well underway. The hole was dug for the holding tank ...

... and it was delivered and put in place and then enough water was added to keep it in place on the off chance that we should get some much needed rain.

And cedars were cleared to make a place for the drain field down on the lower level of the property. Some more will be removed to clear a path for a truck to deliver materials to the site. They'll all be piled together where they can dry out while we wait for enough wet weather to end the burn ban and then it's "Goodbye Cedars"!  There will still be plenty left to provide cover for wildlife.

The stucco work has been completed and painted.

All our cabinetry has been manufactured, and would have been delivered for installation last Monday, but the drywall was holding up progress. The drywall material was delivered Wednesday of that week, however by midday Friday nothing had been done with it.

But by some seeming bit of magic, all the drywall was hung by Monday.
Our problem is that taping and floating of all the joints didn't get started.  Why not?  Well .... it seems there was a shortage of drywall workers!  Can you believe that?!?!?!?!?
Which of course delayed putting on the texture.
Which in turn pushed back the delivery of all the cabinets.
And delays painting the interior.
And we'd discovered that the painters had painted the window frames on the front of the house with the trim color, but hadn't painted the windows on the back.

The week just past wasn't much better in terms of progress.   The trenches for the pans for the septic field were being dug and the pans were onsite, so that was good. And the taping and floating drywall joints was done, and we would have been ready for the texturing to be put on Saturday, but on Friday I discovered that in the dining room and master bedroom around the tray ceilings there was supposed to have been a 90 degree edge and instead I found they'd used a bullnose.  Same was true in the studio with the overhead beam.  So those places will have to be redone, which of course again pushes back texturing, cabinets and painting.
All in all, in the past two weeks, while we're still moving forward, progress hasn't exactly been stellar.

We know, we know, .... patience.

And the beat goes on .... and on ....and on

A lot has been happening since our last post.

 

The low voltage infrastructure has been installed, which includes conduits for hookups for television in two different places in the media room,

 

 

  the security system (with intruder detection for all windows and doors along with internal motion sensors), all the wiring for speakers throughout the house and studio and data lines for internet hookups.

In the master bath, the pocket door frame has been installed, the waterproof membrane has been installed in the master shower and tested for holding water (it passed inspection, as did the upstairs and studio bathtubs) and the windows were installed above the master bathtub.

 

 

The AC unit that had been installed in the second floor attic was determined to be inadequate for the task so it was replaced ....

 

 

 

 .... and the rubber membrane was installed on the second floor balcony (so rainwater can't leak onto the front porch below it).

 

 

The Hardieplank across the back of the house and studio and through the breezeway has been painted.

 

 

The insulation has all been installed ....

(Shown here are the upper south ...

... and west walls of the Great Room.)

We even added insulation to the garage walls ourselves, (so it can be advertised as having an insulated garage), but having it there will make things much more comfortable in there for the art classes.

And the stucco crew has been hard at work, with first the wire mesh being nailed on and coverings put everywhere you would not want to see stucco, ....

 

 

....followed by the first of three coats of stucco ...

 

 

... including the walls around the second floor balcony.
Two more coats of stucco and then it all gets painted to match the Hardieplank.

 

 

The drywall, (or wallboard, depending on where you live) has been delivered and is ready to hang. Yet to come is taping and compounding all the joints, finishing with the Monterrey drag texture, and then a little paint (a little? HA!)

Cabinets, counter tops, plumbing fixtures and the list goes on. And so do we.