House; mostly text

Progress on the house continues. The spectacular stuff is just about done -- most of the action has moved to the interior spaces.

The electrical work started about the time I flew to Dallas on November 15, to attend a symposium in my profession (failure analysis). We did a walk-thru and wound up putting in more lights and switches than the original quote covered (partly because we wanted to make the upstairs storage area a lot more usable). And some other odds & ends, like the 240 foot run of 3-wire to the old garage and pump house, power outlets under the eaves for Holiday lighting....and 10 outlet drops in the basement, at $75 each (they have to be mounted to the concrete walls and use metal conduit to protect the wiring). Oh, yeah, and a switch box for an emergency generator (no generator though: that may come later since that would be at least another $3K). The end result was about a $4K uptick in the cost for the electrical work. Youch -- that stuff is expensive!

But one thing we had to do before doing the electrical was to get the place secured. The exterior doors are installed, but the walls between the garage and master bath/closet/utility room and garage were not in yet (they are dry wall & that's waiting for the dry-out and insulation to be done). So the place was basically open to anyone who wanted to take the copper. And that is not a hypothetical concern....our electrician said that he had put in THREE sets of wiring in a house he had worked on recently, because two sets had been stolen for the copper!

So right now we have temporary plywood walls up. We had thought that plywood would be OK for a permanent install, since it IS a garage wall; but there are power outlets on the wall, plus access will be needed for the electrician and inspectors. So I guess we will get dry wall for the permanent walls. We will re-task the plywood as floor decking in our attic spaces to get more storage space. Like we really need the storage....

Speaking of the Dallas trip, while I was there I won a raffle. The prize was a plane ride in one of the vintage planes at the Cavanaugh air museum. I chose a WW2 trainer, the AT-6 Texan. One of the big reasons for choosing it was that it has a closed cockpit, since the temperature was just 50 degrees...at ground level. The plane is driven by a 600HP radial engine. Pretty noisy. The pilot flew over a nearby lake that had been created by damming the local river & thereby also creating some really expensive "view property" estates. One of them, owned by an NBA football player, had its own full-sized football field. No wild & crazy acrobatics, which was OK with me. We did do a few maneuvers which produced some 2-G and 0-G sensations. In the 0-G maneuver the wingtip was pointing almost straight down. Whee!!!

We _have_ finalized the house siding design. It's going to be very stylish, with three different types of siding. The main level will have lap siding with a 5" reveal. Above that, a board and batten "band", and then the roof peaks will have shingles. The siding work will start this coming Monday, after the electricians are done. We went with Hardie board, which is a cement/wood fiber material that is rot-proof and fire-proof. It has been used for quite awhile now and has a good track record for reliability. No mushrooms grow on it! Now all we have to do is decide on the paint colors.....about a zillion options there (Gawd help me, a mostly color-illiterate engineer!).

The siding will make a large difference in the appearance of the house, so I will make sure to post some photos during and after the siding job.

More decisions to make: Flooring for the upstairs. Flooring for the main-level foyer and utility/kitchen areas (if we decide we won't want to put Ipe' in the kitchen). Kitchen counter tops. Stair runners. What to get Lisa for Christmas.

Next post: more photos.