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4147. thoughtful - 4/15/2008 2:52:49 PM butter is better than margarine.
4148. alistairconnor - 4/15/2008 3:15:04 PM I even take moderation in moderate amounts.
Amen brother!
Excess is OK too, in moderation. 4149. thoughtful - 4/16/2008 3:01:31 PM The hole is growing by the day.
The mountain each of dirt and soil and stone around it is also growing to phenomenal levels. The project mgr said site prep on this job would be the biggest expense and now I see why. In addition to burying the lower half of the house in a hillside, they have to go down even deeper to put in the footings. Yikes.
In addition, it took the excavator 2 hours to get one rock out of the hole...the thing is shaped like a cube and is about 6 feet on each side.
Anybody want a rock?
4150. wonkers2 - 4/16/2008 5:48:59 PM Tea Partay 4151. wonkers2 - 4/16/2008 5:50:29 PM Income Disparity Growing 4152. thoughtful - 4/18/2008 2:14:20 PM House update...we hit ledge. Ugh.
Fortunately its only in the last 10' of the foundation and it's only in the northeast corner of the foundation so it isn't much. No blasting. They're going to hammer it. They'll also then be able to hammer that gargantuan rock into smaller manageable pieces.
Today I meet with architect to do battles on windows. We disagree on style and we'll need to figure it out as windows need to be ordered ASAP. So many decisions. So much fun! 4153. thoughtful - 4/20/2008 1:33:13 PM Not so big a mountain:
Not so big a hole:
 4154. thoughtful - 4/20/2008 1:35:39 PM Much bigger mountain:
Much bigger hole:
 4155. thoughtful - 4/20/2008 1:37:19 PM What's bigger than an out house? The rock:
 4156. thoughtful - 4/20/2008 1:39:43 PM The rock pile and the two guys making it happen...project mgr Ken on the left, architect Joe on the right:
 4157. arkymalarky - 4/20/2008 2:49:51 PM Wow, what a project!
Decisions were fun, even though I am not a shopper. I did virtually all of that myself. Bob wasn't interested in that part--he liked all the dirt and wood and hanging out with the carpenters, which suited me fine. I hope you'll keep us posted on all that stuff too--what you go with wrt materials, and why.
I bought and modified house plans and had to fire our first carpeneter for, among other important reasons, failing to implement my adjustments. It was by far the most stressful single thing Bob and I have ever done. Bob was the one who did it after much drama, when I finally convinced him that I could not--not would not--keep control of myself. But once that was done things went very smoothly. WOrking with the architect would be great, but no way we could do that, unfortunately. As long as everyone respects that you have the final say, you'll get a lot of great advice and guidance we had to do without. Our house was built by two great carpenters with our guidance, and no other professional assistance. 4158. thoughtful - 4/20/2008 3:38:26 PM A good carpenter is worth his weight in gold.
A good mason too. We're looking at samples for the stonework on the front of the house and even the same stone looks very different depending on how much spacing and grout is used...it can be the difference between something that looks great and something that looks awful.
The biggest challenge will be in controlling costs. The house is already 50% more than hubby thought, though about where I thought it would be. But each choice we make seems to add more, not less. I have a feeling we'll be double the cost of the first estimate before we're done.
As a bud of mine who has built several houses for his family over the years told me, we've got a really nice size hole now to pour lots of cash into! Yikes! 4159. arkymalarky - 4/20/2008 5:24:01 PM Haha! Yep, that's about right. We spent about twice what we originally planned, but we have about that much more house than we had planned, as well. I spent the least on the floors, because I knew they weren't for the lifetime of the house, I have to have very short-pile, tight-weave carpet which was cheaper anyway for the carpeted parts of the house, and we were at the end and money was short. One other thing I didn't spend much money on that lots of people I know did was cabinets and countertops. I tried to make sure that if I really wanted it and knew I couldn't get it later (like enlarging the windows considerably from the floor plan, adding a balcony and french doors on both floors, widening the wrap-around porch two or three feet beyond the plans, etc) that it got done. Something else I did that I'm happy about (we got lots of good advice on little things that we never would have thought of on our own) was widening my living room window sills so that they're actually shelves. 4160. arkymalarky - 4/20/2008 5:35:07 PM IOW, we were on a tight budget of borrowed money, so where we had to cut money, we cut it on things we could change later. After 11 years, the floors are the thing I want to change first, and I'm thinking about cork with very washable area rugs for our bedroom. 4161. thoughtful - 4/21/2008 1:41:00 PM That's good thinking arky. It is very difficult to prioritize, and i think the idea of permanent vs changeable is a good way to do it. On widening the sills, we'll be doing that in the dining room and the window juts out in a box. I want to make that surface stone or something water proof as I'm sure it'll be a great place for my orchids. We are also running the kitchen counter top deeper into the kitchen window area which also juts out so that the counter top becomes the sill. I'll be using that area for herbs in small pots so I have a year-round supply.
We met with architect on windows on saturday and we've agreed with him on the style...which unfortunately is the most expensive option. Naturally.
Well, it's only money... 4162. judithathome - 4/21/2008 2:57:14 PM Anybody want a rock?
My son! If there were a way he could get up there and haul that thing back, he'd take it in a heartbeat.
He has a rock garden in the backyard and one near the curb next to his driveway...last week before his surgery, he chiseled his last name on a big chuck of sandstone that he'd hauled from the Big Bend area...luckily, he has a five letter last name...everyone thought it was rather morbid, especially after he started calling it his tombstone...ha!
4163. thoughtful - 4/21/2008 4:43:30 PM J@h...he can have it...for free! All he has to do is come and get it! I wonder what the shipping charges are on 10 tons...
:-)
So glad he's doing well. 4164. robertjayb - 4/21/2008 6:40:23 PM Hummingbird sighting yesterday, about a week later than usual. But they returned today with a party for lunch. 4165. thoughtful - 4/21/2008 7:09:29 PM Hummingbird don't fly away, fly away, do do do do...
4166. arkymalarky - 4/21/2008 10:31:59 PM I think I saw our first hummingbird a couple of weeks ago. We need to put up feeders. Things have been blooming around here better than I remember them blooming for years.
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