many things in the works

well. the foundation is poured. the waterproofing is ordered and going on next week. the foundation survey is ordered. as soon as that stuff happens the foundation needs to get inspected, then the electric can get ordered. the footwork is under way to get a good price on moling under the street for electric. the plumbing pipe is supposed to be dug-in next week. and the joists and framing is about to begin (as soon as i get the as-built approved). i need to find out from ryan if he needs me to get the corrugated flooring that goes over the joists and takes the cement before backfilling takes place. still haven't ordered the kit (gulp!). here's what it looks like right now.

here's a close-up of the ICF's (insulated concrete forms). they look just like styrofoam packing material. because basically that's what it is.

so actually work did continue today...

um. snow.

a lot of freaking snow. like a foot of freaking snow. heavy, wet, sticky snow. (which is beautiful to look at, but kills transmissions on plow trucks and makes a nasty burning transmission-y smell, and if you couple that with the smell of pickles... well, let's just say it's a very questionable combination)

the upside to the snow was that i got to ride shotgun with the plowmaster. this was very cool for many reasons. i love nasty weather, i love riding around in nasty weather, i love trucks, i love trucks that kick ass in nasty weather, i love getting ideas for paintings while riding around in trucks that kick ass in nasty weather. i don't love pickles. so kudos for jimmy for not kicking me to the curb until almost 2am. because i know i am a pain in the ass but he is just starting to find this out. (revised plow lessons i learned last night. 1. things break 2. you can sing the plow song you made up for 7 hours straight 3. keep the plow driver awake without touching him)

i do very much hope i still get to ride shotgun the next time it snows.

oh, so basically there will be no work on the foundation, and for how long, i don't know.

they started the foundation...

waterproofing quandry

i am on the fence about my foundation waterproofing. i don't know whether to go the way of a spray on waterproof or a peel and stick rubber membrane. it seems to me there are pros and cons on either end of this. cost being one of them. i have about a week to decide what to do. if anyone has any opinions on this... please let me know. i do have tons of info on both products, just no real world experience with them. thank you jimmy for asking around for me on that. and thank you for going back and pulling the dirt away and not punching anyone in the head, namely me.

in the meantime... they are delivering the forms this morning and should be cranking on assembling a foundation this afternoon. the window bucks need to be set into the forms before the concrete is poured, that's how i will get those cool windows going down to the studio level. ryan busted those out this week. thank you ryan. at some point i am supposed to meet sanchez or junior or someone at the site to talk shop on the electric service and what kind of damage i am looking at for going underground.

damn

a punch in the head

ok, so there will be earth moving this afternoon. and hopefully there will be no foundation dudes present at the time.

the very tiny cave in

i was hoping to save jimmy from a trip to the lot by taking these pics...

now some gratuitous dog pics...

oof

so i just got a call from bo the foundation dude and he needs jimmy to go back and pull more dirt away from the foundation on the driveway side because of a small cave-in that could become a bigger one... eesh. also found out the foundation is even more money with waterproofing stuff. eeeeesh. jen not happy. jimmy really not happy. i am going to run over there and see what's up right now. then i am going to go to dinner and eat copious amounts of raw fish and seaweed and drink myself into a sake stupor.

footings

after i was told that jimmy did the most perfect job on digging the cellar hole (no, i had no doubts that he would have) by one of the foundation dudes named bo, they put the footings in.

uh... wow

ok. here is what happened over the course of about 2 hours, or how long it took me to go see a movie that was supposed to be about vampires, but i instead spent the whole time worried that the dog would die and then when she did, i cried my eyes out.

january

of course i did catch some shit about this slope, it's ever increasing angle, and how i will pay dearly if the machinery slides down it.

all permit-ed up

finally in late december... i have a building permit. i don't have any money to start the kit yet, but hey, why worry over the little details.

in late november...

i finally walked the lot with the guy who was going to excavate it. he wanted to calm me down because on the phone i sounded a little anxious about everything. i mean, wouldn't you be? what the hell did i get myself into here.

about the kit, the lot, and the patron of the arts

ok. where to start. my friends lou and fred and i went out for some drinks before a movie. i decide we should all brain storm about ways to come up with money to buy this land i fell in love with. some ideas involved bank robbery, internet porn, the macarthur genius grant and i think pole dancing came up. fred finally stepped in with 'well i could buy it and you could have a mortgage with me'. silence. surely he must be kidding. we go to the movie and don't speak of it again. the next day lou calls and says 'i think fred was serious'. followed by 'i didn't want to say it at the time, but, you SHOULD'.

the rest of the summer was filled with things like perc tests. a super fantastic real estate agent named amy who was seemingly sent straight from above to help me. lawyers (hi tom). a crazy builder guy who got canned. the putting together of the 'dream team' with the help of jason my septic engineer. and finally meeting ryan (oh my god you are so young) over at the lot to talk logistics. oh, and where i am going to come up with the materials for the type of house i want, and not have to resort to any of the things mentioned in the first paragraph to pay for it.

i suppose i could go on and on about all the reasons i chose a noble home kit. but, since they have already gone to the trouble of doing it on their website... you can just read what they wrote. http://www.noble-home.net/ i found out about them on treehugger.com (i know, i know)

i had originally thought i was the first guinea pig to order one, turns out i am the second. and lucky for me, the first ones started a blog of their own about the process. they are a few weeks ahead of me. http://brengelmannoblehome.blogspot.com/

i think it was april

i did a search of available land under a certain price and came upon this lot.
when i walked out into the open meadow at the bottom of the hill, it was like angels started to sing.

ok. so i had to look past the super steep slope, the weird rock garden that looked like a ufo landing pad, the boat parked there and the fact i had no money.

but still... birds were singing and the air smelled like pine, i was only 3/4 of a mile to the bay, and dammit my dog would sure love this place.