Day 142 & 143: Cabinet handles andt tile work complete

On Tuesday, Alan from Live Oak Design installed handles on the cabinets. Here is a pic of the peninsula.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Joshua completed the floor mosaic and vanity backsplash while I cleaned up in preparation for moving in. Below are pics of the tile work. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 125: Kitchen cabinets, heating and net meter

On Wednesday, Alan from Live Oak Design installed all of the drawers on the kitchen cabinets while I continued to layout plumbing for the heating system in the utility room. Here is a pic of the kitchen peninsula cabinets. They look fabulous.

PG&E installed the digital electric net meter which we are now officially spinning backwards. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 124: Shower completed, cabinets and heating

On Tuesday, Joshua finished applying grout to the the remaining shower tile joints. Here is a pic of the completed shower from the bathroom door. It looks amazing!

Alan from Live Oak Design continued work on the kitchen and bathroom cabinet installations. Below is a pic of the kitchen cabinets in progress - they look beautiful. It is exciting to see the finishes work out so well.

I continued to work on layout of the water and space heating system in the utility room. I'll close with a pic of that work in progress for the thermal geeks out there. I told Joshua that this is my plumbing mosaic art ;-) Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 116: Final grading

On Thursday, Steve did final site grading. All of the walls have been backfilled with soil to the final height, and surface storm water drainage paths are complete all around the home. Here is a pic of the east wall showing final grading to compare with yesterday's pic.

Here is a pic of the kitchen peninsula cabinets from Live Oak Design in process.

I'll close with a pic of Joshua's shower tiling in process, WOW! Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 107: Kitchen cabinets and site cleanup

Friday was a nice light day after 3 intense days of plastering. Alan Dodd from Live Oak Design installed the bases of the kitchen cabinets.

Trevor and I did a bit of site cleanup while Joshua applied waterproofing to the shower floor. We pulled the masking tape and plastic protecting the soffit area to reveal our plaster work up top. We are pleased with the results. Below is a pic of the northwest corner and porch area (please ignore the temporary downspouts). Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 83: Swales, plaster preparation and another retaining wall

Steve completed creating 2 swales; one to the east (uphill) of the home and one to the west (downhill). I will plant fruit and nut trees in the downhill sides of the swales. Winter stormwater surface runoff is slowed down, spread out and sunk into the soil by a swale. Soil under a swale will still have water in the drought season after surrounding soil has dried out. This will reduce the amount of irrigation water needed for the fruit and nut trees. The east swale will reduce the amount of surface storm water reaching the home. The west swale will reduce the amount of surface water running off the property from the south yard. Here is a pic of the east swale.

Some of the other tasks started or completed today:

• In preparation for plastering, Joshua cut and installed pieces of diamond mesh metal lath to the exterior of several windows.
• Justin applied weatherproofing to several second story windows
• I applied foam insulation around the interior of several windows
• Alan Dodd of Live Oak Design delivered beautiful doors for the bedroom, bathroom, closet and entry. Alan is also building the kitchen cabinets. All of the wood used is FSC certified.
  
• Erik installed some Cat5 cables and began working on a conduit to run audio wiring from the north to the south side of the family room
  
• Trevor waterproofed the southwest retaining wall we built yesterday
• Trevor built a small retaining wall on the northwest corner of the utility room. The retaining walls were built from leftover pieces of APEX block.
  

Stella status:
She is still getting bigger and about 5 months old,

Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.