Another month passes and our wonderful journey continues.
The test is time, and on a project like this, time will either prove you right, or prove you wrong. It is a challenge and a stretch, an artistic journey, to build your dream house. As we get further into the project, Herons’ House is becoming more special, our beliefs in what we are doing and the choices we have made are solidified, and our contentment and happiness with the whole effort is increasing. We really have something special going on with our home and we can feel it in our hearts. Julie and I are so grateful to the talented artists/craftsman who are working on , who are building Herons’ House.
I cannot stress enough finding an architect that can convey your ideas into an approved set of plans. That process is the most important of all, because if you don’t get that right, the rest that follows will be disappointing. Bart Smith and DZN Partners www.dznpartners.com put together a great team of design professionals and engineers. As I write, their work product is leaping off the plans into reality. It’s pretty amazing.
We estimated an eight-month time frame for building, and so far so good. We expect to be weather tight by mid December and to begin the drywall in early January. From there it will be approx three months for finishing work. The unknown is the weather and how much rain we will have in November and early December. Once we are weather tight, rain is not so much of a problem. The target remains April to move into Herons’ House.
October was very exciting and productive with the installation of the moment frame, the pouring of the slab, the construction of the vineyard wall and outdoor kitchen, and the backfilling and grading of the lot. Julie and I walked the slab which has been “snapped” for plate thus defining the rooms, and we celebrated the transition out of the earth into the lumber and carpentry.
We are letting the slab cure for four or five days before we start with the plating and wall building. During the time in between, we brought in a bobcat and backfilled all the walls and smoothed the lot over so the framers and carpenters have a safe work environment. We also took advantage of the bobcat, and dug all the footing in the back landscape areas, the herb garden planters that border the kitchen, and all the pilasters that give definition to the different spaces in the backyard. We also excavated for the sunken fire pit.
The upcoming schedule is for the plate to be done by Saturday the 5th of November and for the walls to start going up on the 7th. We expect the first floor to be framed in a week, and the second floor the following week and a half. So in just two short weeks we will be able to see the shell of Herons’ House and walk through the rooms, experiencing the feel and seeing the view sight lines that we have only imagined as of now.
We are treasuring every step in this journey, November will be very exciting!
Peder