Starting to look like something...

Michael and I were talking about this whole project the other day, marveling at how this idea of a house that we designed from scratch, batted around, worked on, and refined for the better part of two years is now actually becoming a "real thing" out there in the world. For me, there is something almost eerie about it -- as if all these concrete guys and carpenters and plumbers somehow got inside my mind and took something out of it when I wasn't looking. I really can't explain it, but it is definitely weird -- good, but weird.

I guess it is starting to hit home because this truly isn't just a dream or an idea any more -- there is a very solid, undeniably real structure taking shape before our very eyes. Here is what those eyes have seen lately...

It was something to behold when all the forms were taken off the concrete and we had a complete foundation in place. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted a bunch of photos showing what it looked like at that stage, so this one will have to do.

Me, welcoming future visitors to enter my future front door.

The day we took the above photo, we brought our dog Jake up to the property with us. He loves to go there, and as he is not at all the type to wander more than a few feet out of sight of us, we feel comfortable taking him and letting him have fun. Jake's definition of fun is hunting any creature that falls into either of the two categories of beings that interest him: "Geckos" and "Bugs".

The Gecko category (so named because Michael erroneously referred to the little fence lizards we had back in Redding as "geckos") includes any and all lizards, as well as all other things that scurry and hide but which are larger than bugs. Squirrels and outdoor mice fall into the gecko catagory. Indoor mice are of no interest at all -- those are cat toys and not to be trifled with. Bugs, on the other hand, are to be vigorously pursued, indoors or out. Bugs include all manner of insects, both flying and crawling, as well as the entire arachnid family.

So, what happens is, you let Jake out of the car, point in any direction, and say, "Gecko!", and he runs around trying to find it. On our property, you are pretty much guaranteed that there is a lizard within ten yards in every direction, and plenty of squirrels, rabbits and whatnot, so you are really not sending him on a wild goose chase. On the day we took pictures of the foundation, he found at least one lizard AND a squirrel (two well-known species of geckos) in an uprooted tree -- kept him busy for eons!

Jake, diligently hunting down those pesky geckos!

This was on a Sunday -- the day before the carpentry work on the floor joists was supposed to start. We had thought the lumber would have been delivered by then, but as we saw no lumber, we had a sneaking suspicion that we might be looking at another delay. Sure enough, Monday came and went -- no lumber. Turns out the sub-contractor dealing with that was out of town and the carpentry would not start until later in the week.

Fortunately, this delay provided a window of opportunity for Jason to get back up there and do some more work that would make things easier for the carpentry guys. He was able to do the backfilling around the foundation, dig trenches for wiring and waterlines, and start the trench work for the electricity. The electrical trench has proven challenging, to say the least, as it has to be five feet deep and go through some tricky terrain full of trees, not to mention the fact that the ground is basically solid rock in some places, brutally hard for even Jason's big machine to break through. Kind of gives new meaning to the term "trench warfare".

Trenching in tough terrain

Broken rock, after Jason smashed through it and dug it up for the electrical trench.

There were also a few tense moments when Michael went to lay in the water tubing he had purchased in the appropriate trench. His measurements, taken some weeks before, had prompted him to buy a certain length roll of tubing, but when he was actually rolling it out, both he and Jason had some concern that it wasn't going to be long enough. Turns out he was exactly right, and relieved that there wouldn't have to be a join in the tubing -- always a weak link when you have to do it.

The perfect length of water tubing.

Once the trenching for all the non-electrical stuff was ready, we had to have the county inspector up again to look it over. They sent Kristin this time, and she made sure we had all the proper depths, the right kind of sand to line the trenches with (so that whatever conduit or piping you put in there doesn't get punctured by rocks). Everything passed with flying colors.

The Inspector with Michael, checking the trenches.

Sand for lining trenches.

Another thing the carpentry delay gave us time to finish up was preparing the garage floor and the drive up to the garage. This involved more compacting and measuring, as had been done on the main house part. Once again, Michael was up there manning the machinery and gittin' 'er done!

More grunt work for Michael.

 Then at long last, on Friday, the carpenters arrived to get started on the floor joists. We had everything ready for them -- only just in time, as Michael was still getting things set up with the generator (and sending me running for gas for it) early in the morning.  There was only one problem: no wood. When I got up there with the gas, I saw what no owner/builder wants to see: an idle crew waiting around for materials to arrive. I refused to get flustered, however, and instead asked a very nice fellow named Isaias to help me get the gas cans (heavy!) out of the car and to fill the generator.

The wicked gas can spout.

But here was another problem: neither Isaias nor I could figure out how to get the deviously evil gas can spouts to pour! We fiddled with them for far too long, to no avail. If gas can spouts could laugh devilishly over thwarting the best efforts of mere humans, these would most certainly have been cackling away.
 
Isaias finally gave up, screwed the spout off entirely, and poured the gas into the generator as best he could without a spout. There was definitely some wastage lost to splashing, and I found myself sincerely hoping that no one would light a match around this fellow any time soon, as there was no doubt that some was splashing on him.

It wasn't until he was just about finished that I noticed that the other gas can had INSTRUCTIONS on the front of it! Turns out you had to hook some little lip on the damn thing and get that to push down before it would pour. Who knew? Still, I didn't feel too bad that we had wasted all that time, as there was nothing for the men to do anyways.  Hoping that the wood would show up soon, I started down the driveway.

Naturally, because I left at that exact moment, the truck with the wood magically appeared, and I met it half way down the driveway, forcing me to back up and around several twisty corners with ditches on both sides -- not easy! The driveway was originally supposed to be 20' wide to allow vehicles to pass each other in case of an emergency. Well, it ain't there yet. Nonetheless, I was very happy that the wood had arrived and that Isaias and his crew could get cracking.

The wood truck arriving -- yeah!

And get cracking they did!

The carpenters getting seriously busy.

Those guys were fast and did a great job, perhaps driven to excellence by their watchful supervisor, perched high atop the exhaust pipe of  Jason's big truck.

Ever vigilant, the job site supervisor tolerated no slacking!

 With such a leader at the helm, it didn't take long before the site looked like this:

Wow -- our future floor!

They basically did all of that floor joist work in one day, and it is rock solid. I always said I wanted to let my horses come in the house...with a floor this strong, that would be no problem.

There may, however, be one problem. We can't for the life of us figure out how we are supposed to get into the crawl space, as there doesn't appear to be any reasonably sized "cut out" left for a trap door. There is one cut out, but it is so small that Michael would have a hard time getting through it.

This "cut out" might be the only way into the crawl space, but at only 18" wide, it would be a tight squeeze!

We have a call in to Mike P to see what the plan is. Could be that this munchkin-sized hole is IT! My friend Dona says that the trap door to the crawl space in their house is tiny, so small that her relatively slight husband has to become a contortionist to get in there. Time to start that yoga class, Michael...

Meanwhile, one thing that is definitely NOT a problem was the surprise we got when we drove up on Saturday, the day after the carpenters had done their thing. The garage floor had been poured!

My new rival for Michael's adoration: A perfectly poured garage floor.

I wish you could have seen Michael's face light up when he saw that, and the joy that suffused his entire being as he examined the work and concluded that Roberto's crew had done an amazing job. Pouring concrete sounds like it would be simple, but it is actually quite scientific and fussy, especially on something like this. It has to be just the right thickness to have the correct "slump factor", meaning that it will level just enough but not too much, which is what allows you to form an exact degree of slope.

Michael  was like a kid in a candy store explaining all of this to me, and pointing out how the concrete slopes very slightly from the back of the garage to the front, which will allow any water (from melted snow coming off cars, etc.) to run out of the garage.

If you look carefully at the low wall on the left, you can see that the floor is slightly higher at the back than in front.

He also showed me the rubber they put in between the stem wall and the slab, which allows the concrete to expand and contract (due to changing temperatures) to some degree without cracking.

The black stuff is a layer of rubber designed to prevent cracking.

Michael, as someone who likes to do things correctly and well, appreciates it when others do the same. He was so enamored by his new garage floor that he went back the next day just to look at it again. I told him that should I ever have need to twist him to my will in the future, all I will have to do is go stand in the middle of the garage with some old engine oil in hand and threaten to spill it on his beautiful slab. Unfazed, he replied, "Your threat won't work -- they put a sealer on the slab." Sigh.

So, as of today, the plumbers were up there starting to do whatever it is that they do. Michael went to the site this morning and went over the plans in detail with the head guy, which was good, as there were a number of things that needed clarification. I will try to get up there and get some pictures tomorrow.

And, speaking of pictures, did you think I would leave you without something cute and totally irrelevant to the building project? Of course not!  Here are a couple of photos from a few nights ago when I went to pick up the new pony that we found for little Skye, my friend Becky's four year old. The pony is gorgeous -- looks like a miniature version of my palomino, Lido. The first shot shows the looks on Becky and Skye's faces when the pony first stepped off the trailer from Oregon (we had not seen him in person until that moment). The second shows the pony with his new "mommies".

This is what sheer delight looks like.

This is what the new pony, christened "Maximus Aurelius", looks like.

Becky decided to give the pony a more interesting name than "Flash" (what he was called before), so she thought something big and grand for such a wee little guy would be fun, since most ponies have Napoleon syndrome anyway. She chose "Maximus", and I suggested adding "Aurelius", since that means "coated in gold" in Latin. The really fun part has been hearing Skye try to pronounce this mouthful -- it comes out different every time, but she has been getting pretty close with "Maxus Realius". I kind of think THAT should be his official name!