Wall texture and paint

Once the wall board was installed texturing of the walls quickly followed. We went with a heavy texture so there are noticeable strokes on the wall. The idea is to look reminiscent of hand plastering. Right now, without paint, the walls have a varigated color pattern. That will become more subtle when painted, but will have lighter and darker areas as the heavy trowelling adds subtle shadowing.

I've picked the tan color, Desert Fawn, which will be used throughout the house. I'm considering using a sage green called Mosele for the upper master and possibly the lower master. The painters are starting to prep this week and will mix some lighter versions of Mosele for me to look at. I like the tint of the color and it goes well with Desert Fawn, it just needs to be lighter.

Stucco and Doors

Now that the sheetrock has been installed, the first layer of stucco was applied two weeks ago. Apparently, the weight of the sheetrock moves the exterior of the house enough that stucco is done afterwards to reduce cracking.

Last Saturday the finish coat of stucco was started. This layer has the finish applied, a rough texture with lots of rough spots visible.

I found a house to serve as an example in a high-end neighborhood on Bluff avenue. The contractor said this was an older style finish. That's fine, because I really don't like the style in vogue now where they make it as smooth as possible. It's so smooth it reminds me of the Grenache melted chocolate frosting they use on Cold Stone ice cream cakes. That look makes the house look like a mission and that is not the style I'm after. The rough look, I think, fits better with the rustic style we're going after.

In strategic places we'll be adding manufactured stone made by El Dorado so the exterior won't be all stucco. The main corners of the house, the outside wall behind the great room's entertainment center, the bay window wall and the outside wall of Rob's bedroom, and the first floor exterior around the garage doors will have stone. It's impressive how real the stone looks. They have multiple different sized and colored pieces which are placed by hand like real stone. Be picked a rough, irregular shaped, style called "Country Rubble" in a color style, Bella, that has the various shades of rock we see around the property. There are even some pieces with rust marks, just like we see on some of our real rocks. This same rock will also be used for the wood stove areas and some accents in the house. The "rock" may be delivered Friday for installation starting next week.

The doors were also installed last week. We have lots of French doors with solid glass centers, for the front door, and both master bedrooms. That will give us great views from these rooms. We also have two cafe doors to the outside that have glass in the tob half of the door. This way we'll get more light into the lower laundry and the lower masterbath. The remaining interior doors have verticle slats in them which seems to fit better in a country house like ours. We found out that they are so new our house is the first in California to get them and only the second house in the west.

Fixing Mistakes

Now that everything has been covered with wall board, we discovered a couple of oopses on lighting fixtures.

Over the stairs there are four can lights. With the wall board installed one of those lights was obviously out of alignment. Since the ceiling is going to be covered with wood planks we were concerned that their lines would make the misalignment even more noticeable. So there was nothing for it but to cut out the wall board and reposition the light. It turned out that it was approximately 3 inches off. When the ceiling wood is installed it will cover the hole.

The other lighting problem also involved the stairs. We both did not notice that one of the stair lights had not been installed. Unfortunately, this was discovered after all the wall board was installed in the under stair closet. After cutting out the wood where the light goes, Rob then had to carefully cut out a piece of the wallboard under the stairs so he could feed the wire. He was able to keep the wall board in good shape and reinstall it.

So with texturing on the walls and wood on the ceiling it won't be possible to tell where these fixes were done.

Things are moving fast

In the three weeks since the contractor has been able to progress on the project lots has happened.

Even as Rob finished up the home automation control panel and the outer island electrical wiring, the insulation was going in. We went with R38 in the ceiling and R19 in the external walls. In addition to the required ceiling and wall insulation we also had some internal walls insulated for sound dampening. Our master bedroom has insulation to quiet things between the master bath and also the laundry room. Downstairs we added insulation between the lower master and Rob's office/bedroom and in the hallway walls for his bedroom and the guest bedroom. A friend told us that an added benefit of internal wall insulation she found in her house was that less heating and cooling was needed as well.

While the insulation was being installed the sheetrock supplies were delivered. As soon as insulation was done, the sheetrockers went to work. Covering the walls makes a dramatic change. First you go from darker wood to bright white which lightens the rooms up. The enclosing of the walls also changes the feel of spaces in various ways. In the master shower, it actually feels bigger and more elegant now that the walls, seat and outer support beam are enclosed. Conversely, the lower master feels more intimate than it did when the walls were open.

The sheetrock was finished last week. To our surprise the next step of taping the sheetrock seams began last Sunday. A crew of several guys spent super bowl Sunday from 7:00 am until 5:00 pm getting the first pass of the whole house done. That dried for a few days and they came back on Wednesday for the next pass. Next will be the wall texture, but with the rain this weekend there will need to be more time for drying the taping so there will be a delay.

On the weekend we also designed the layout for our walk-in closets and the pantry. The contractor suggested we find unfinished drawer furniture that he could have his carpenters build into the closets. He's found this is a cheaper way of getting a custom closet. So we looked at unfinished furniture and a brand, Rocky Butte Mfg. that makes dovetailed drawers, full slide out extensions and simple exteriors that will work well built in. Wednesday I found a local dealer, "I Got Wood" that gave me a very good deal and worked on arranging for the shortest delivery time possible. So I placed the order yesterday for 4 pieces that should arrive by the end of February.

I've also found the look for the stucco texturing, rough and chunky, chosen the look for the internal wall texture, heavy, picked the wood and stain for the cabinets and the Zodiak countertop for the kitchen. Oh yeah we picked the doors too. Whew! Next is plumbing fixtures, internal wall colors.

My question is how soon will the house be done with things going this fast?

The Wiring Is Done

Since July, we've been wiring the house. Now after 6 months its done!

Rob actually began work on planning the wiring back in June. We had Jim Ashjian from Jim Ashjian Lighting come out and walk through the house with us. He helped us decide on what type of lights to wire for and where to place them. He also helped us work out where ceiling fans will go. As we went through the house he drew out diagrams for what to do in each room. His expertise helped us figure out how we could use can lights for the kitchen instead of pendants that would cut the view and be more expensive. He also told us we could get small enough ceiling fans for the master bath and for my closet vanity area. In the photo, Rob is going over Jim's drawings and the lighting plans.

About mid July we made the first trip to Home Depot to buy electrical boxes and wire. Rob started putting in the boxes and got a couple weeks of help with the wiring from two guys who work for our builder's electrical contractor. But there are a lot of light fixture and boxes in the house. The photo at left show's Rob installing one of the can lights for the kitchen. To do this he had to purchase a 17 foot ladder so he could reach the ceiling to nail in and wire the light cans.

Rob worked for several months, weekends and vacation days to get all the electrical wiring, boxes, fixtures and panels installed. We've got far more switches and outlets than most houses. And we've been able to insure the placement and functionality that meets our needs. for sure everything has been thought out. I'm sure that when we live in the house there will be some things we discover would be better done a different way, but we've done all we could to plan this as thoroughly as possible.

Near the end of November Rob had just about finished the electrical, which passed inspection,and then started on the low voltage wiring.This was for the home automation system, which includes audio, video, computer network and alarm. The lengthy time for electrical was costing us in monthly interest charges and delays to construction so in mid-December he took a leave of absence and worked for 5 weeks to get the low-voltage in. With the help of friends Steve and Clark, his sister and her husband Dave and me, we got thousands of feet of wires pulled. In the photo at right, Kathy and Dave pull speaker wire in one of the bedrooms (aka Rob's office).

All of the low-voltage wires terminate in a control center under the stairway. As you can see in the photo at left there was a mass of wires and they nearly ran amock! This past week Rob finished up organizing the wires in the command center box under the stairs. Just as the sheet rockers were about to cover up the wall and his wires!