taking the final city hurdle

On Friday we finally passed our last inspection and today, we obtained clearance to get a gas connection. The gas company won't be able to come out until the end of next week, though. And we expect the touch up work to take another 4-6 weeks anyway.
This concludes the construction updates that have been a bit splotchy in the past months. Too many things have been happening at the same time and it was not easy to stay on top of everything. I will make the next post once we move in and will give then irregular updates about the performance of the house and - of course- how it feels to live in it.

Landscaping

Once the irrigation pipes were in the ground, we started with the installation of low shrubs and ground cover plants. With saving water in mind, we selected a variety of native and adapted drought tolerant plants -and checked them against the California invasive plants council (http://www.cal-ipc.org/list) to make sure we don't get anything we would regret later on. The photo shows the ground covers around the Dypsis Decaryi- We used the red paddle plants Kalanchoe Thyrsiflora with lavender and native Pentestemon. In the back you can see blue Agave Americana creating a dramatic contrast to the neighbor's greenery.

Drip by Drip

With completion only a few short weeks away, we’ve now started to install the drip irrigation which will be used in areas where plants don’t have access to the graywater pipes- We are using a mix of desert plants and drought tolerant Mediterranean species to reduce the water demand by landscaping. However, since the graywater pipes are only on the downhill side of the house (and we have landscaping on all 4 sides) we need to provide for additional irrigation. We decided to go with a low flow drip system- Home Depot has a good variety, but one should read about the subject before starting to install. First of all, drip irrigation works at a lower water pressure, so a pressure reducer needs to be put in place. Secondly, a filter needs to be installed as well to avoid the small emitters from getting clogged (emitters are rated in gallons per hour, rather than gallons per minute, as common for regular sprinklers). Care should be taken in laying out the risers (the visible portion of the pipes to which the drip lines will hook up. You have to make sure that you can reach all the plants that will go in after and also avoid having the unsightly black drip pipes in clear sight.
We expect to get our plants this coming weekend and -weather permitting- hope to put the first ones in the ground as well.

Graywater ready for inspection

As we are slowly approaching the finish line, more and more finishes are being completed. One of them are the cabinets. Michael, our cabinet maker made sure, that the panels of doors and drawer fronts have a continuous grain (on all cabinets). This gives the whole cabinetry a coherent look and puts the emphasis on the beauty of the wood- The grain is only interrupted by the narrow gaps and the door hardware. Last week, Abe poured the new curb and the driveway- the street facade is almost done. On the interior, the graywater tank went in and is ready for inspection- see photo.

True to the design

The scaffolding and fence have both come down and now we can get a good look at the exterior of the house to compare it to the rendering done 2 years ago (see above). The computer generated model gave us a very good idea of what we are going to get- It is quite fascinating how accurate it really is.

Graywater pipes are going in now

On Friday, Abe started to install the perforated graywater pipes and the supply lines from the building. The pipes have to be made of an approved material and be able to percolate the graywater through a gravel bed into the surrounding soil where it will be available to the plants. The rest goes down to recharge the aquifer. Our landscaping layout was arranged around the graywater system- All plants that need water on a regular basis will have a graywater pipe nearby- the fruit trees get even two. Everywhere else we are using drought tolerant or desert plants.
Parallel to that, the cabinetry is almost completely installed, the holes for the plumbing fixtures are drilled thru the countertops and Abe has started to work on the curb- He wants to pour concrete for that tomorrow.

Installing the Finishes

In the past couple of weeks, most of the tile and slabwork has been installed and the rough- cabinet boxes are in place - the photo shows the dining room-kitchen areas with the bookshelf and the pantry-fridge cabinet in the back. On the left, a small piece of the high bar counter can be seen- we're using Eurostone's Lido, a quartz-resin man made material with small sea shells cast in. The backsplash is a glass tile in random brick pattern and the kitchen floor consists of 16" square polished Absolute Black granite tiles. The cabinetry in the kitchen and the dining room is clear vertical grain Douglas fir- a beautiful material (matching the doors), but very soft and not cheap. In some other parts of the house we are using grade "A" rift cut oak which matches the flooring ( a glimpse of it can be seen in the bottom right corner- unfinished, though) and has a similar appearance but is much harder and less expensive. Something to consider for future jobs.
On the bottom right shelf you can see a sample piece of the Mangaris Diamond Decking we have to use on the exterior deck- Being in a wildfire zone means, that only ignition resistant materials can be used on the outside- and this includes the decking material. Originally, we had a 5/4" thickness spec'd out, but one of the swing doors got installed too low and was likely not to open when the deck was wet and soaked with water after a rain. Consequently we had to change to a 3/4" thick plank. With that, we could not use the concealed fasteners orginally selected any more but had to go with stainless steel screws- a pity, but that's not the first time we had to change things- It's simply part of the reality of construction.