Solar Panels

One year into construction now.
We originally had planned to celebrate Thanksgiving in our house- but the numerous delays did not allow for that.
On Wednesday, the solar sub started with the installation of the substructure for the PV array- aluminum channels mounted on S-5T! clips that attach to the standing seam roofing without penetrating it, The panels will be delivered and mounted early next week-
Note that Mt Baldy in the background has snow on it's top again! Winter has arrived in Southern California!

A stucco safety net

Past Friday, we started with the main building's stucco (The Saturday before, we already did the bathroom box). In order to reduce the risk of cracks in the finish plaster, we applied a self-adhesive fiberglass mesh to the brown coat (after all brown coat cracks have been fixed and the control screeds cleaned and taped). The mesh installs easily- The hardest thing is to get it off the roll though. The stickiness makes it somewhat hard to unroll.
In areas of rough brown coat, we helped a bit with 3M-77 spray adhesive. In one day, we covered a bit more than half the building (the stucco crew actually applied two coats of the 30/30 sand finish on half of the area and one coat to the rest, since it was already getting dark. The subsequent rain on Saturday prohibited us from continuing and the stucco sub will pick up teh work tomorrow. With a bit of luck, they'll be done on Wednesday- if not on Monday after Thanksgiving.
On the inside, the tile work is almost done (except for the backsplash areas and the grouting). Michael, our cabinet sub, started to put in some boxes already and we hope that we'll finish the rough work by Thanksgiving. The doors are on-site and being stained and the solar panel installer will start with the framework tomorrow. On Monday, the garage door installer will then follow suit.

Bathroom finishes

Over the past week, the finishes of the bathrooms have been one of the focal points of construction- Mortar beds and waterproofing have been added to the walls and the first pieces of tiles- in out case Cafe Creme Marfil from Daltile, a limestone, set in place. The main focal point of the Master Bath is the "picture of a tree", a piece of a Rainforest Green slab that has been put in the center of the wall. The natural veining of the stone resembles the branching of a tree. The tree appears to be leaning towards the bathtub on the left and you almost have the impression to sit in a pond under a tree.
The rest of the slab will be used for countertops in the basement to minimize waste.
We also set some more trees in the ground and now have only 3 of the major trees left to plant: The Butia Capitata, the Bismarckia and the Brahea Armata. They have to wait until the scaffolding is removed from the site to avoid damage to the plants.