Wood sills and cabinets!

They started the wood window sills. Although not quite done, you get the idea. This is a sill in the main house first floor bedroom.

and here is one in the casita bedroom.

They also started to install the casita kitchen cabinets too.

And finally, here is Karin Lynn in her gardner's shed. :) It is not quite finished, but is built from nearly all recycled materials. She is SO excited to have her own gardner's shed. It will have a couple of windows and door on the front...should be done in early January.

Happy holidays dear friends and family! Here is our gift from NM...a view of the Sandia's and the lavendar fields at Los Poblanos Inn and Farm...where KL now works and right down the road from our house! We enjoy it every day and now you can! :) Love you all!

Stained concrete!

Although it is not completely done, the staining of the concrete floors is far enough along to share! I thought it was sort of fun to see this "before" picture (during framing) and now the "after" with the walls painted and concrete stained. It's really come a long way. :)

Here is a close up of the stain itself. It's called Padre Brown.

And here are swatches of our new leather chairs (color=cigar) and couch (color=citrus) from C&B. We think they are going to work. :)

So the concrete gets sealed today and then waxed tomorrow. What comes next (as we understand it) is that the wood sills and trim will be installed; then the kitchen cabinets installed; and then the concrete countertops will be templated, formed up, poured and installed. Tiling of the bathrooms should start sometime in the next couple of weeks too. We are hoping to have lots of reasons to update the blog over the next couple of weeks! We're about 6 weeks from move-in so lots and lots will be done between now and then! Stay tuned!

A sneak preview at painting

I've been holding off on posting photos of the painted rooms because I couldn't get there when the light would do the colors justice. But I've decided to go ahead and post anyway so you can get an idea of what things look like.

Here is a photo of what what we are calling the "mud room" which is really the vestibule that leads from the garage into the living room. The YOLO color is "Leaf.o4" In fact, we used this color for all entries into the house.

Walking through the house, the next room is the living room. We picked a light, yet warm color for it called "Air.02." This color runs through the main living room and up the stairs into the upstairs hallway.

This is the first floor bedroom. The color is "Air.04"...a little more color than the living room.

Here is a photo of the east wall of the dining room and part of main kitchen..."leaf.04" again (we really liked that color!!)

Here is the kitchen of the casita (and Joseph, our concrete-meister)...this color is "Stone.01." In fact, the entire first floor of the casita is this color.

Here is a picture of the bedroom in the casita. The plastic has yet to be taken off the windows, but you can still sort of appreciate the warm color called "Clay.01." The floors will be a wonderful yellow-tan marmoleum which we think will go nicely together with the paint.

I don't have photos of my office but it will be the most dramatic color...Clay.03. Very close to terra cotta. Also our bedroom is a warm, yellow-ish "Grain.03", which we also really like. I couldn't get to these rooms because they were barracaded off. Joseph had cleaned off all the concrete floors the past two days and is preparing to stain them today. It will take 3 days...stain, seal, and then wax. We plan to go back on Saturday and take photos of the floor. :) Stay tuned!

Stella in winter

Well, winter has arrived in New Mexico. We had a nice dump of snow last night and I though you all might enjoy seeing Stella in all her winter glory.

I know many of you will find this hard to believe, but I was out the door by 6:20a for workout this morning! I was a little amazed myself! Supposed to get down to single digits tonight. Brrrrr!

The walls inside the house are supposedly all painted...we can hardly wait to see. I am traveling to Minnesota today so we'll stop by the house on the way to the airport. We'll post more pictures later if the painting is done.

2nd (brown) coat of stucco in process

There are three coats of stucco...the first is the scratch coat. Here's a cool picture of the scratch coat.

The second layer is the brown coat. here are a couple of photos of that.

and another pic of them applying the brown coat to the scratch coat.

The inside of the house has been primed. Today's word is that they will finish all painting inside before staining the concrete floor. Target to begin staining is Dec 12.

Other news...we are headed into some chilly night-time temperatures here down in the teens. Therefore, it is time to winterize Stella (the Airstream trailer). This means that we will no longer have running water in the trailer for washing dishes, etc. bummer. But the inconvenience of hauling water will be outweighed by the peace of mind that we won't have broken pipes!

Also, today was Karin Lynn's first day on the job at Los Poblanos (http://www.lospoblanos.com/). Very exciting!

1st coat of stucco to be completed today!

Hi all! Here are some pix that KL took this morning at the house. 2/3s of the house had been stuccoed and they were moving the scaffolding to the front so they could finish today with the first (scratch) coat. Not certain when the next coat goes on but I know this one needs to dry a bit. But it is looking so much more house-like, don't you think?! :)

back of house with first coat of stucco

Casita with first coat of stucco

Stucco scaffolding moved to front of house to finish 1st coat

Other exciting news...priming is underway inside. And next week the concrete floors will be stained. It's all good....:) Happy thanksgiving to one and all!

Stucco has started!

The stucco on the outside of the house started today. Evidently it takes them about one day to put one layer of stucco on a house the size of ours(!). They will need to let it dry some, then put layer 2 on. the final (color coat) layer will go on at the very end of the project. Here is a great picture of the stucco process starting up!

Mudding it up

Mudding and sanding is nearly done which means painting can begin on Monday! Here are some nice pix of the mudding.

Mudding the arch

Main kitchen

Main living room

Other news...the outdoor kitchen has been polished. It's all ready to receive the sink, grill and 2-burner stove. Gorgeous, isn't it? :)

Drywalling near complete

Almost all the sheet rock has been hung, although there is the the mudding and garage to finish. Here are a few photos of how things are looking. Sort of a mess (the nature of the beast) but it is really starting to look like a house inside!

drywall in great room

casita kitchen

stairway transition

Drywalling well underway!

Drywalling started at the end of last week and they are making great progress. We are hopeful that it will be completed by the end of next week. Once the drywall is done, we understand the concrete staining comes next...and then painting...on the inside. Also the stucco and roof move forward on the outside. We are hopeful to see BIG progress in the coming few weeks!

The subs do such very careful work. We are very pleased! Karin is taking them cookies today! :) Keep 'em in carbos!

The grillers out there are gonna love this!

The outdoor kitchen was "unveiled" today. While there is still a bit of finish work to do, you can see by the photos that it really turned out fantastic! Joseph was quite pleased with himself...as he should have been! :) It's a beaut!

Insulation complete; concrete outdoor kitchen poured.

The insulation was completed today. Most of it was cellulose (paper) in the walls. They blow it in wet and then they need to wait for it to dry before they cover it with drywall. We're hoping it will be dry by end of this week so they can start hanging drywall. Here are some photos of the insulation and process:

Here is a cool picture of the icynene (foam insulation) they put in the cooling towers.

Monday was a big day. They poured the concrete for the outdoor kitchen. It was quite the process. they have a big concrete truck, quickly put buckets of concrete in the form, and then vibrated it all to get the air out. They will unveil it on Wednesday or Thursday...and fingers crossed...it will all look beautiful! I'm sure it will though since Joseph Austin (owner of Counter Intelligence) is excellent at his craft! Here are some photos:

Attic insulation and outdoor kitchen move forward

Yesterday they insulated the attic. First they "netted" the attic by attaching a white cloth on the underneath of the rafters. Then they blew in 16 inches of fiberglass. Below is a photo of the process.

Another exciting development is that the outdoor kitchen is due to be poured on Friday. I am particularly excited about this because it is more-or-less be "my" space! (Karin Lynn has been consistently supportive about funding aspects of this project that encourage me cooking more! :) )
Below is a photo of the concrete form created by concrete-meister, Joseph Austin. It may not look like much but it will hold a grill, 2-burner stove, and a banco (bench) so that others can keep the cook company! :)

Finally...an update!

It's been a long time since I've actually had some substantive info to share. Without going into all the details, we had about a 3-4 week set-back. It seems that although we resolved the HVAC issue pretty quickly, the installation of it had a ripple effect on the plumbing and electrical. All needed some modification which means those sub-contractors had to come back and un-do/re-do some work. And all of this required a delay and reschedule of the necessary inspections. <sigh> Such is life in residential construction. BUT, the good news is that all inspections have been completed and we are back on track!

The photo below shows the entire house wrapped in insulative foam board and chicken wire, ready for stucco and a roof.

However, there are a few interior steps that must be completed first.
* finish caulking and sealing everything--should be done today
* do a "blower-door" test. This lets us know the size of air gaps in the house...very important for a passive solar house. we think this test is scheduled for Monday.
* hang dry-wall
* stucco outside of house
* put on roof

Once all this is done, they return to the interior of the house to do things like stain the concrete, mud and sand the drywall, trim, install cabinets, yada, yada... Hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to show soon! Stay tuned!

Prep for roof and stucco

The prep has begun for the roof and the stucco on the exterior of the house. For the roof, they seal everything very well before the standing seam metal roof is attached. For the stucco, they wrap, attach foam board, and then put chicken wire all over it so the stucco will better adhere. We think the roof may get attached before the end of the week and hopefully the stucco starting soon thereafter.

Also, below is a photo of our awesome construction team...Carl, Kaye and Leslie...Foreman, Contractor and Architect, respectively. These folks are all doing a phenomenal job and we feel so fortunate to have them on our team!

KP3 Construction Team

KP2 big adventure to IKEA

For our kitchen cabinets, we opted for IKEA. We really like them AND since we have two kitchens, going this route will save us 10s of thousands of dollars over custom cabinets. Only problem is that ABQ does not have an IKEA. So...Karin and I flew to Phoenix, rented a big U Haul truck, loaded it with 3 tons of kitchen cabinets, drove it back to ABQ and unloaded it in the storage space for the house. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. See a few pictures below of our "big advenutre." :)

The mother ship has been sited!

Preparing for the approach.

Karin Lynn and 3 tons of IKEA cabinets.

HVAC ... or giant squid?

Okay, I didn't think we'd have any photos to share for a while since only internal mechanical stuff is currently being worked on, but these two photos that Karin Lynn took yesterday are awesome! The HVAC ducts look like tentacles! :) Supposedly the duct work will be done today and ready for inspection. We are really hoping to see the roof go on soon!

Grey water permit issued by the City and IKEA cabinets

Yesterday we got the good news that the City of ABQ issued a permit for our grey water plan. This may not sound like a big deal, but evidently, our permit is only the 2nd one ever issued for new construction in ABQ! We (along with our architect!) were a bit stunned to hear this, as we figured many people are incorporating grey water re-use into their new homes. Kudos to architect Leslie for getting this through on our behalf!

Perhaps the reason there are so few permits issued is because there are some issues around using grey water that not everyone is happy about. Number one is that you can't put it in a holding tank like rain water catchment. The health dept won't allow that because, well, grey water contains a fair amount of organic materials and can grow bacteria and such if left to stand for a time. So instead, you have to run it out to gardens or some other yard use directly from the house. Another issue with grey water is that you have to use bio-degradable soaps. Since we do mostly anyway, this is not a big adjustment for us. But for some folks, this would seriously cramp their style.

Our plan includes having two of our three showers (both upstairs) and the clothes washing machine to have a toggle switch that allows us to either send our grey water to our landscaped gardens or to the sewer. (for example, if we need to bleach some clothes some time, we don't want that grey water going in to our gardens). We think this plan will work well for us and are very pleased that the City of ABQ thinks so too!

Other construction developments...the systems are all getting finished up. that includes electrical, plumbing and HVAC. Once these are done, then the insulation starts. Next the roof is placed followed by stucco on the outside.

Next Friday (Sep 23), Karin and I are flying to PHX to go to IKEA and get our kitchen cabinets. We have rented a U-Haul truck and will drive them home. Then Karin will assemble them in the garage to be installed by our contractors. Using IKEA (which we actually really like a lot!) fits well for our project. They are green (no off-gassing), look nice, are sturdy and very functional, and will save us about $40-50K over custom cabinets. Don't get me wrong...we loved the custom cabinets we had in our house in Champaign. But we'd prefer to use this savings to purchase photo-voltaic panels and solar hot water systems for this house. :) We are very thankful to Kaye Marshall, our contractor, for being so accommodating regarding the cabinets. Karin's assembly of the IKEA cabinets (they come in many, many boxes) is part of the "sweat equity" that we (that would be the ROYAL "we") are putting into the house. :) Yay, Karin Lynn! I will be sure to put photos of the cabinet assembly process on the blog. :)

Mechanicals and folk art

Well, we ran into our first big glitch...the mechanicals. We had planned on using a small diameter air flow system (Unico) that took the heat from our solar hot water, but we were getting conflicting information and were becoming increasingly concerned that the price tag was growing bigger and bigger. Our contractor, Kaye Marshall, brought in an HVAC guy she really trusts and he spec-ed out four different systems for us in just a couple of days. We all met with him today and ended up selecting a forced air system called "Lifebreath" (yes, the name is a bit on the dramatic side). We were opposed to forced air in general because our experience has been they are noisy and uncomfortable to have that hot air blowing on you. But it turns out forced air systems have changed a lot in 20 years. This one actually uses the heat generated from our solar hot water with a back up boiler, is quiet (has a variable fan that is smart), has a HRV built-in (this exchanges the air in houses that are built really tight like ours will be) and won't require ductwork to go into the attic or other changes in the framing, and we can get a humidifier on it which will be very nice in the winter. And...you won't believe this...but it costs $11,000 LESS than we expected to pay for the Unico (in fact, the Unico would have cost us an additional $14,000 more than we were expecting to pay, it turns out!!) So, it's been a very good day!! And shouldn't result in any huge delays. We are greatly relieved!

Also, we bought our annual family pass to the Albuquerque Botanic Garden, Aquarium and Zoo (they call it the Bio Park) today. This is very close to our house...only a short bike ride away so we expect to visit the Botanic Garden a lot.

Finally, we did some excellent shopping today at the Mariposa Gallery on Central Avenue in Nob Hill. This wonderful piece of folk art made from old farm machine metal will be our key holder. What do you think? :) We love it!!

Shade structures

All the windows and doors are now in along with the shade structures over the exterior doors...front, casita and back doors. On the front shade structure, Karin Lynn has planned to grow red grapes (for eating and wine). The back shade structure will actually be topped by the same standing seam metal as will be on the roof. Not sure what will grow over the casita shade structure...the landscape designing wheels are still turning on that one!

Also, today is my first day as a remote worker at CIC West! I've had three conference calls already and now it is time for lunch/yoga! :)