(Almost) final grading and working garden

Less writing, more pictures this time.

Sometimes we go up on Friday and struggle to see what has been done during the previous week. Other times, we arrive and are struck but the fundamental changes in the house. This trip fit the latter pattern.

Susan's working garden is really taking shape. The group doing the work is from the nursey across the road and they are doing a beautiful job. When all is done, Susan will have a collection of raised beds, each with a dedicated irrigation circuit, an area with fruit trees, and a separate area for row crops. Roses (for cut roses) will be scattered throughout. In addition, she'll have 20 amp electrical service and a site for a future garden shed.

Working garden.

Working garden from below.

Working garden from above.

Up at the house, the rain held off long enough to allow the last major grading to be done. We were very nervous about heavy rains setting in before this could be completed because if this happened, we wouldn't be able to do final landscaping before late spring or summer. By Friday, the grading had been completed and the excavation and grading for the driveway was under way.

The grading will allow the landscaping for what we are now calling the "courtyard" garden which is the area close in to the house. Above the retaining wall will be an intermediate garden which will provide a more natural transition to the oak groves beyond.

Courtyard garden (Click for a larger image).

Driveway work.

As a sign that the finish is in sight, the hot tub is being delivered on Wednesday. It will be embedded into the deck on the far side of the pool just like at our Oakland house. This makes the spa feel built in while preserving all the advantages of not building it in.

Hot tub platform. Deck will be built around it.

As another sign that the end is in sight, the painters have started. They began in the rooms by the pool and the first coat of finish colors are in the exercise room and garage.

Last year we had a picnic for a group of friends and family the day after Thanksgiving. At that point, there was some wooden framing but no walls or windows on the first floor. We're doing the same thing this year. Maybe next year we'll actually have Thanksgiving at the house.

More Sheetrock, Landscaping, and Siding

The sheetrock work continues and continues and continues...

All the rock is up, taped, and coated with mud. They are now painting on a sealer which will be followed by another coat of mud. Then they are done and it is the painter's turn. We've got a little more than a week of the rockers left.

What they've done looks really good. I've seen some sloppy drywall jobs and this is definitely not one. The architect was going for a very clean look where the drywall basically ends at the doors without wood trim to cover any residual sins. Theoretically, it sounded great but I was skeptical about how it would work in practice; now that it is done, it looks great. I asked the crew about it and they had the same reaction: initially skeptical but they like it.

We've picked out final interior colors and they are not radical but certainly not bland. Our architect convinced us a "color consultant" would be worth the small additional cost and he was right. (We trust him since he is almost always right but we revel in the times we can point out he wasn't.)

The cabinet maker has been hard at work and has only the library/media room and Susan's project room cabinets to complete. He is very, very good and has had some great ideas. The library originally had a wall of cabinets on one side and 9' bookcases on the other walls. After lots of discussions we're now calling it the "Eucalyptus room" since we've added a lot more wooden details to tie it together. I've always liked the idea of a traditional wooden library and I think that's what we've come up with.

We met with the tile contractor and finalized the tile selection and details of their placement including orientation, corners, trim, among other things. The only drawback is that one of the tiles is quite small and comes in 12x12 sheets mounted on a backing. The backing supposedly makes it easy to handle the placement but the backing isn't regular enough; the tile guy is going to have to take each small piece off the backing and place it individually. In order to compensate for the additional labor cost, we switched to a larger tile (which has lower labor costs) in the secondary bathrooms.

The exterior siding work continues and it really looks good. I finally got a picture that I think captures the look.

View from the shop towards the main house.

The landscaping work has started and it looks like we'll get all the hardscape and infrastructure in before the rain starts. The road to Susan's lower working garden is in and all the materials for the planting beds have been delivered. Power and water conduits have been laid and the connections should be finished next week. Susan is starting with 8 raised beds, some 4x8 and other 4x12. There is also space for plants, like roses and fruit trees, that won't go in the raised beds.

View from below the working garden up towards the house. Annotated with the intended layout. (Click for a larger view.)

Landscape work near the house is also in progress. The last retaining walls that define the "courtyard garden" are being poured this coming week. The planter beds near the pool actually have topsoil in them now.

Courtyard garden near the entryway.

Courtyard garden near the library/media room.

Our local landscape contractor did a yeoman's work last week and got a lot of the infrastructure for the irrigation system completed. When I looked in the in-ground valve boxes, all the wires were neatly bundled and everything laid out carefully. There were even pressure gauges on both sides of the water filter so you can tell the pressure drop and know when to clean the filter. You really can tell when someone takes pride in their work.

Susan and the landscape architects are hard at work selecting plants. There is a basic plan but the devil is in the details. For example, there are a bunch of olive trees next to the driveway near the house but what variety? Do we want to make oil or preserve them for eating? Do we want a mix of eating varieties? All these decisions need to be made relatively soon because planting season is rapidly approaching.