Today the focus was on prepping the deck. Dave, Justo and Corey spent most of the day sawing and nailing the substructure that will support the deck portion overhanging the garden below.
Kevin had a few meetings on campus and afterwards took a detour over to Laughton Cabinets to drop off the hardware catalog John had loaned us. It was really just an excuse to see the finished cabinets waiting for the BBQ room.
John wasn't there but one of his crew, Jesus, showed Kevin over to the area where our cabinets stood proudly on their dollies. The small prototype we've had in our house for a few weeks is a piece of beauty but seeing three full-height cabinets standing next to each other was almost too much to bear. They are incredibly beautiful in a Charles Eames kind of way. Pretty sure Mr. Tombleson would have loved them. We already do. And, no surprise, Jesus loves them, too.
The Tombleson crew removed the second Mesa painting and its frame so they could get to the last of the knotty pine. And look what they found: a horizontal metal i-Beam. We assume it's there to support the three chimneys of the roof (one for the BBQ, one for the smoker, and one for the fireplace).
Jack stays in the house all day and the earliest he gets to go outside (if we're home) is after the Tombleson crew leaves sometime after 3. Poor old guy isn't quite sure why everything in his yard seems to be different than it was at 6:30 in the morning. Different everyday. Hmmm, maybe tomorrow he'll get to see a new deck….
Dave and Justo worked their magic the last two days and the BBQ room is mostly gutted.
We were a bit worried about how the bar would survive the demo but it turned out to be a non-issue. It looks fine. And there's lots of other wood leftover so the Sonoma folks can customize their new "old" bar any way they want.
Now that the room is mostly empty we're rethinking the copper range hood that hangs out over the built-in barbecue. Its light works but the exhaust fan barely does. And since the barbecue has its own chimney and flue, it seems like overkill. And speaking of rethinking, we've been tossing around the idea of converting the barbecue into a wood fired pizza oven. So we're asking ourselves, which would we use more often, electric infrared grill or pizza oven? Haven't come up with the answer to that yet. Meanwhile, we're thinking the next step is to find someone in the area who builds custom barbecues and bring them in to see what is possible in terms of modifying the existing space.
Today, Scott the electrician is back to finish up on the guest house and to start on the BBQ room. Our intent is to replace the wiring and to add ethernet cable in all of the buildings. We also have another inspection scheduled for the solar installation. And Corey is prepping the deck so maybe that might get done, too.
Saturday's cleaning out of the BBQ room proved one thing: We have a lot of stuff. A lifetime of collecting and a lifetime of never throwing anything away. And all of those books--some of which we've never read and probably never will. And posters--lots of posters. Some of them are still kind of cool but some of them illustrate how much our tastes have changed over the years. And the funny thing is, our house is mostly windows. We have very little wall space to hang any art. We're thinking there may be a trip to Goodwill in our near future.
Oh, and the chairs. We have a lot of MCM chairs. They're not going to Goodwill.
So the stuff had to go somewhere. The artwork went into the master bedroom, most of it under the bed. The larger pieces are now being stored in the office behind the gym equipment.
We did learn something new, however, when we removed the original painting that hung above the bar. The painting is a scene of a high desert mesa landscape with a moonrise. When it came down we noticed a (burned out) light bulb behind the moon and a circular cutout of the canvas to accentuate the moon glow. We'll be rehanging the painting and we'll definitely be replacing the light bulb. Very cool.
The books made their way to the living room which made Zoya our cat very happy. Lots of new surfaces to lounge on! When the BBQ room is done, it will have built in shelves for the books and all of our Native American art (which is now occupying the tops of all our dressers in the master bedroom). There isn't a space in the main house, other than the bathroom, that isn't a temporary holding zone for things which will eventually make their way back to the BBQ room.
Everything else ended up in the garage. We were able to keep a path to the washer and dryer as well as the freezer, but barely.
Some of our friends are sad about us getting rid of the bar. We're not. It's going to be gently disassembled and will be moving up to its new home in Sonoma. Staying in the family. We think Mr. Tombleson would like that.
We did have a new idea as we were finishing up. Rather than fix the built-in barbecue, why not replace its innards with an electric infrared grill instead? It would be cleaner and more efficient. Now we have something new to research and shop for….
Mike says we're on target to having phase one done before Thanksgiving. Wouldn't that be nice.
Wednesday morning the Solar City folks showed up an hour later than they said they'd be here. A different crew than Tuesday and a bit more eager to get to work. One of the first things they did was to tape off a zone around the house which made the place look like a crime scene. Fortunately, there was no need to call in the Coroner.
Although the installation takes less than a day, we're going to have to wait at least five weeks before the system gets activated. Why? Well, there needs to be a fire inspection, a county electrical inspection, and a PG&E inspection. Patience, patience, patience.
As the Solar City guys were pounding away on the roof, on the other side of the property the Tombleson crew were busy finishing digging the holes for the steel I-beams. Apparently, the ground was quite hard and it took them longer than they expected. It was very, very loud on Steinback Mountain which made it easier to justify going into campus early.
When we returned home Wednesday evening, the solar panel installation was complete and the I-beams were delivered but not yet in place. That took place Thursday.
Also on Thursday, Dirk from Monterey Glass showed up to measure the shower window for the guest house. Dirk is married to Carol who we know through the amazing Imagine College program that has its summer workshops on the CSUMB campus. Dirk helped us find the perfect windows last summer when we replaced all of the original glass with dual pane windows. The window we're speccing for the shower will have an openable window at its top that will be the same size and shape as the transoms above the other windows. We needed to decide whether we wanted it to open into the shower, out towards the trees, or to slide right to left. We chose right to left.
After Dirk left, John Laughton showed up with another catalog. We're needing to rethink the vanity's open bottom shelf because the sink's waste pipe is going to be lower than we expected and would be visible. So the vanity's two shelves with one drawer will now be covered with two doors instead. John brought the catalog so we could choose some metal pull-out shelving specifically designed for areas below sinks. The catalog has all kinds of cool cabinet accessories so we're going to hold onto it for a few days to see if there's anything we might want to incorporate into the BBQ room or main house kitchens. Speaking of the BBQ room, John said he's almost finished with its cabinetry. He also said the cabinets have been very popular at his shop with everyone commenting on how cool they were. He said they first are attracted by the unique smell of the stranded bamboo which draws them over to where the cabinets are stored. John said they've become quite the conversation pieces….
This weekend we'll be clearing out the BBQ room, moving all of its contents down to the garage. Dave says they'll start removing the cabinets and bar starting Monday.
Labor Day weekend was a relatively quiet and restful break from the first week of school craziness and a month of construction noise. Saturday the SolarCity installation was supposed to happen but two days before they called to reschedule. So, instead, we drove into Monterey to the Sand City Home Depot to shop for door hardware. Had not one but two extremely helpful clerks guide us through the decision process. When we asked Francisco, the guy we spent the first half hour working with, which brand he'd go with he said he went with Baldwin on his house and then added, "but I live in Salinas." Monterey County's largest city has a reputation for not being the safest place around and when we lived there before moving to Steinback Mountain, it was not uncommon to hear sirens many nights a week. Back to the locks, the Baldwin door hardware was obviously well made and there was one style we kind of liked but we ultimately decided on two Kwikset styles that were a much better match to the other fixtures we're using, especially the Delta Trinsic faucets. And they were significantly less expensive. But by no means, cheap.
We needed four exterior and lockable doors and five interior doors. We spent some time debating whether we wanted to have a single style but ultimately chose a square trim for the exterior doors because of their inset square and rectangular windows and a round trim for all of the bedroom and bathroom doors. The Sand City store didn't have four locks with the same key but there were four available up in Watsonville so we paid for everything and drove there to retrieve them.
Returned home feeling pretty good about our purchases. Cocktails in hand, we walked out to the front patio just in time to witness one of the prettiest sunsets we've ever seen on Steinback Mountain.
Sunday was going to be a beach day but based on the holiday traffic we experienced on Saturday we decided to avoid Highway 1 completely. Instead, we went to the Monterey County Fair. No corn dogs or funnel cakes, but we did indulge in some deep fried calamari and more deep fried artichokes. We both had our cameras and spent most of the day taking pictures. Kevin remembered the last time he went to a county fair was more than 3 decades ago. Back then he also took his camera but it used rolls of film. Kodachrome 64….
Monday we did almost nothing which means we spent most of the day on our laptops.
This morning, the Tombleson crew arrived followed by Scott the electrician. The SolarCity folks were supposed to show up sometime after 12:30 but still hadn't arrived by 2 when Mike and a second plumber drove up the hill. Mike thinks this second company may quote a cheaper price so he wanted to make sure their rep knew exactly what they'd be bidding on.
Shortly after 3 the SolarCity guys arrived in their two trucks and it became immediately obvious they weren't too keen on starting what was supposed to be a 5-7 hour installation so late in the day. So they called their manager and another person who handles the scheduling but were not having any luck getting through. At one point, there were three of them each with two smartphones--and all of them were trying to contact the same two people. Twenty minutes later they drove away. Apparently, a different crew will be arriving between 7 and 7:30 tomorrow morning. We'll see….
Mark the tile guy called today to clarify some details about the floor and backsplash treatment on the BBQ room half bath. He's almost finished with his quote and thinks he's going to be able to get the Dekton countertops we really like for "just a little bit more" than the Caeserstone. That would be awesome. We're really liking the quality of service we've been getting from C. L. Frost so far. They seem to really put the client first.
By far, the most exciting (and loudest) thing to happen today was Corey and Justo drilling the four foot holes for the steel I-beams that will be holding up the deck. We kind of figured the deck would be the last thing to get done but Mike said they're starting it today and it gives his crew something to do while the subcontractors do their work inside and on top of the guest house. Next on the list is the sprinkler guy who will be working mostly on the roof. Then the plumbers. Then the tile guys for the radiant heat and flooring. Then the cabinet guy. Then the countertop guy. Somewhere in that sequencing will be the shower door and window guy. And in between almost all of them will be the county building inspectors.
