Found this page in an edit that never got posted years ago.  Thought I would add it in, but I can't get it into sequence for some reason

Here it is...

After close to 5 years of planning, we just closed on the construction loan on "Villa Costo Mucho"

I'm not really sure how much blogging I want to do, because there is a lot to talk about and I would rather focus on building the house rather than this blog, but I will try to post pictures and explain the project as much as I can...

First, some rules...

1. If you can't be nice, then at least be gentle.

2. No contractor names.

3. No builder names.

4. I'm not here to plug brand names, but I will promote good ideas, so sometimes I'm sure a brand name will come up...

5. Be open minded about this project, it isn't like any other...

OK, for the description of the project...

We live in a very humid climate here in Texas... Especially hot in the summer, and surprisingly cold in the winter. If you were to adjust the indoor temps that define the number of heating degree days and number of cooling degree days, they would almost be equal...

So, this project is all about increasing comfort. To do this, we are trying to reduce the humidity in the inside air as much as possible in the summer.

More on that in later posts... But for now, here are the "specs"...

1. 4700+ sq ft single story home

2. 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, 3 1/2 car garage, with lots of trimmin's

3. Sealed attic design (1/2 pound open cell foam sprayed under the roof deck)

4. Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) on exterior walls (minus garage)

5. Excellent use of shading to keep down solar gain through windows

6. Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) with desuperheater

7. Hydronic radiant heating system throughout slab

8. Hard wired lighting control system

9. Home automation (to some extent)

10. Future rainwater collection system

11. Future Solar Hot Water heater

12. Future Solar photovoltaic system

 

 

Wow,

Thought I would make a post.

It's been a very long time since I have updated you all...

Short story long, we have now been living in Villa Costo Mucho for over two years and we are LOVING IT!!

One of the things about a massive "LIFE" project like this is that we put so much on hold, personally, financially, professionally, etc to get this house done that once we moved it the house itself almost came to a grinding halt.  All those little projects that seem like no big deal seem to pile up.  I think that is natural. 

Plus, for a project like this it's just hard to really define "done".  But we aren't there. 

I could give you the list of things we still want to do, but how about instead I'll tell you what I have done since we moved it...

1.  Mounted 6 televisions into their respective "holes".  Not all are up and running yet, but at least the "holes" look better.

2.  Entire security and automation system is programmed and up and running.  I am super thrilled that I can hit a little button and walk out the door and everything that needs to happen just does.  The big thing here is that the lighting goes into a completely automatic state.  The other thing I love is that the garage doors are monitored and automated as well, so if they don't close at the appropriate time that happens automatically, and if even that doesn't happen, we both get phone calls on our cell phones to let us know.

3.  Numerous changes to our lighting control system.  Even added a few lighting circuits (3 halogen lights over the desk to minimize shadows).  Some of the lighting control has been simplified over time as we learn what works well and what doesn't.

4.  Massive amounts of decorating by my wife...  All those little things that drive me crazy when she brings them home from her bargain hunts, but without them the house would seem cold and empty.  We have also purchased lots of furniture, but we try to be patient with that as much as we can and wait for the right piece at the right price.  Here are some shots...

I love this room...  The top of the mantle is 6 feet tall.  That old window frame is from an insane asylum and is made out of solid metal...  

Sometimes she changes things...  The metal window doesn't move unless I'm feeling really strong. 

Pic below into the Family room.  The TV is mounted on an articulating arm inside the cabinet so it can sit flush to the cabinet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back into the Kitchen.  This is hard to take a picture.  For those of you that don't have two 4 x 9 foot islands, we don't regret it.  Normally homework all over one of them and food all over the other one.  We thought we would eat here a lot, but we hardly ever  do???  We tie a green ribbon onto the handle of the "clean" dishwasher.  Green is clean.

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast nook, with some new furniture.  Couldn't resist the lazy susan for intra table deliveries...

 

 

 

 

Main hall...  These little chandeliers look awesome with garland at Christmas...

 

 

 

 

Front foyer... Doors are awesome.  Somehow all this came together despite me having no idea how to make it happen. 

 

 

 

 

5.  Garage door openers times FOUR!!!  Thank you to my dad for this one.  Who can sit around for hours and wire things up and it looks like a professional did it... Oh, that's because he IS a professional.  He also helped me with a lot of the tedious work at the security panel.  Really serves him right for teaching me when I was just stick high about everything under the sun, which is why I fell in love with all these gadgets.   No pictures, sorry.

6.  Completely hooked up and insulated all the piping from the solar collector into the hot water system (great help from Dad again).  Which is working pretty good.  I have a mix of glycol in there, but the solar controller also monitors for freezing, which isn't too often.  I have also added a few items to the plumbing system to make it work better.  I used a swing check valve out of the hot water supply in a vertical position... not to act as a check valve, but to use the weight of the "flapper" to keep hot water from thermosiphoning through the system.  Oh, also added more "comfort" valves in the Grundfos hot water recirc system.  That thing is the bomb. 

30 evacuated tubes.  I've seen about 180 degrees out of these, but if the pumps stop, look out... Mayhem...

Here is the controller and pump.  All the pipes are insulated now.

7.  Added several sets of speakers here and there.  Rear patio, family room, master bedroom, master bathroom, garage... I have lots more to add, but my A/V system is in it's infancy.  I've been studying a system of programming things through WIFI and ipads/iPhone rather than using infrared like I do now.  Looks promising and I can integrate well with other systems. 

8.  Major promotion at work.  OK, that had nothing to do with the house, but it sure makes it easier to pay for it, which counts...

9.  Hooked up the radiant floor heating system.  But I have not operated it very much, just a few hours.  I was having problems trying to figure out why the computerized pumps were operating differently, and discovered I had a cracked resistor on one of the control boards.  Good thing I figured it out because I fixed it with a 16 cent resistor rather than a new $500 dollar board.

These are the controllers and pumps.  TACO Radiant Mixing Block. 

 



Radiant distribution manifold in the guest room closet.  If you go back far enough in my blog you can see these once upon a time sticking out of the ground on steel fence posts...  During the coldest and most miserable week of my life putting all this tubing down.  Next winter I'm gonna run this solid for about a month and see exactly how it works...  BUT, I gotta say, I had no idea how energy efficient this house was going to be be until we moved it.  It literally can take weeks for the temperature to change with a season change.  Even a single degree.  Amazingly, all this tubing and all these connections and not a single leak.  The only problem I have had was the control board on one of the pumps.  I must have defeated the odds here.

 

In case you didn't get a charge out of that last picture, here is another manifold in my daughter's closet.  Did you know, that you can hide stuff in here??  Candy wrappers, gum, generally stuff you don't want to explain to your parents???  Why do kids always think they have outsmarted their parents??

10.  Mounted a very nice professional style (1/2 inch glass 60 inch board) basketball goal in the apron of the driveway.  Kids love it and actually go outside occasionally??   Wow...

So, I'm digging the recommended "hole" for this goal when the truck shows up.  One lift of the backboard (something close to 180 pounds) hanging on a 4 foot overhang... I doubled the hole and added 5000 PSI concrete to the top section.  Hole is 42 inches deep and over a ton of concrete.  BTW, digging holes in our clay soil is NO fun.  Backboard is adjustable.

 



11.  Gradually clearing brush and debris still from construction (mainly concrete chunks left in place that my concrete contractor tossed aside when he poured all the flatwork).  That has become a major thorn in my side, because I have not officially landscaped yet (an appropriate plan eludes us) so I don't want to waste money on just a clean up project.  That may change soon with spousal pressure.

12.  Added a WIFI extender... YUP, too much wood, concrete, and rebar for one wireless router to get everywhere.  So the extender is the only way we get a signal in the master areas. 

13.  Dedicated in ceiling computer speakers.  For those of you that haven't done this... stop what you are doing right now and add this to your system.  In short, I use relatively inexpensive ceiling speakers running off a computer subwoofer/amp at my desk.  Then I stream music and video and it's awesome... Plus, the desk is pretty much cord free, with my computer monitor mounted on an articulating mount, you can sit and either side of the desk and it no matter. 

Some of you really sharp ones may have noticed that this is not a picture of the speakers in my study ceiling, but indeed this is the luckiest cat in the world.  Rescued from a hotel parking lot eating bugs and covered in fleas, he now lives in a posh castle impervious to predators, where evidently there are no rules for cats.  If you would like to sit in the cabinet and watch birds outside...go right ahead.

 

 



Again, no rules.  If you jump up on enough cabinets, you can get into the windows in the Master Bath, which are 10 feet high at the bottom.  Sorry I couldn't rotate the picture.

 

 

14.  Probably a million other things, but the one I've been working on lately is the central vacuum system.  I'm mostly done, but a few things to mount still (hose and tool racks)...  I bought a 240 volt system, which meant I had to rewire an outlet (no big deal because it was a dedicated outlet anyway, so just a breaker change and receptacle  change).  The system uses TWO cans... The first can is a dust/dirt canister that uses cyclonic swirlies to separate the junk from air, then the air heads to a second canister that houses TWO huge motors.  Trouble here is that I had to add an extra exhaust port, as each motor requires it's own muffler and dedicated exhaust port.  This is hard because I had very limited access to my soffits.  But by using a "flex" connector I was able to do it... I just had to be brave enough to reach my arm and hand into the soffit and snake it through.  Thank God for our opposing thumbs...

The tubing looks pretty confusing, which I never meant to be, but he dirt comes into the can on the left, the motors are on the right hand can.  Exhaust out the top.  This thing sounded like a jet engine before I got it plumbed up and muffled... Now, it's not too bad.  The red cap on the white tubing is an emergency air admittance valve, so that if everything blocks up, the motor will be allowed to breathe a little...

 

 



 

 

 

1 of 3 utility valves in the garage, also another in the attic.  I'm going to wish I had put one on the front courtyard as well as the rear patio too... 

 

 

 

 

 

And some other random pictures...

My Craigslist tractor.  Mows the rocks and takes a lot of abuse.  Note the pegboard and shelves in production... Another project I'm constantly working on.  The baseboards are concrete board and don't care too much about getting wet.  We will see over time.

 

 

 

 

 

This is eventually going to be my workbench.  I can't even get it built without leaving everything I won on top of it.  SAVOY cabinets makes these nice stainless steel cabinets, and my Dad puts them together pretty fast with his only charge being a place to sleep and some food.  The shelf on top is not flush with the cabinets, but contains 4 two inch PVC pipes for storing long things that normally sit in the corners. I have pipe clamps, threaded rod, molding, and my extra super long drill bits up there.  The Pegboard cabinet at the right will hold my supply of screws and nails, which of course I won't need anymore when I get this all complete ;-)

 

 

 

 

Outside again, who says it doesn't snow in Texas???

 

 

 

Concealing the "tube" with some rock.

 Kitchen ceiling...

 

 

 

 

Lots of appraisers??? as well as others who ought to know better ask what the "Pot Filler" is...  Really???  We never use it, but it works...

 

 

Center island with the "leather" finished Cambrian Black granite.  Love it... easy to keep clean and wipe down. 

 

 Master bath... My side.  Even with lighted magnifying mirror for extracting overgrown nosehair.

 

 

Master Tub (the only tub), usually contains a cat.  I think this pic is old because it is all decorated in there now.

 

another shot, it's hard to take pictures of this room, but it's one we get perhaps the most comments on.

 

 

 

Outdoor kitchen.  Simple...  Grill, countertop, and sink.  We use this often, especially when we dont' want to cook inside...

 

 

 

 

 

Daytime. now 

 Love this perspective of the house, because most don't see this angle.  We still LOVE the tile roof, stone, and stucco.  Trust me that landscaping is on the list, but it's not so simple... Gutters, drain lines, dirt work, 100 tons of boulders, sprinkler lines, proximity sensors, rainwater collection system, planning for pool equipment and associated electrical... That's all before the BARN!!!  So I am more comfortable remaining paraliyzed...

 

 

 

 

Another little project I got a hair to do one 3 days.  Yes, projects have a weird way of making themselves bigger.  Note the mount on the air compressor, which is inside a closet hooked to a twist timer so I don't forget to turn it off.  It's mounted on the springed platform design but can't move.  It was a pain getting the plumbing in there, but SO SO SO much quieter when it runs.

 

The hose reel is the only way to go.  50 foot of hose reaches anywhere in the garage and into the driveway.  24 various types of wheels at our house and who knows how many balls need air constantly....

 

All right, I gotta run.  Time for some sleep...

 

Hope all is well with you and yours...

 

Summer Electric Bill Results

Hello again, and it's getting longer between posts.

I have been working too much, and I'm not getting my projects done around here fast enough, but I have some serious time off coming up soon, so I've been ordering goodies, so hopefully I'm close to some real progress, which if I get the gumption, I might even take some more recent pictures and post them.

Anyway, we are fabulously impressed with our summer electric bills, so I thought I would make a little chart here with cost and kilowatt hours.  Please note that we keep the house at 76 degrees F during the summer, and at that temp the humidity usually worked out to about 40%, which is dramatically less than outside.

 For those of you that have to turn your A/C down to 60 degrees at night, your results may differ...

Month              kWH                    Dollars

Jan                    2566                     $204.71
Feb                   1661                     $135.38
Mar                   1704                    $138.68
Apr                    1304                   $ 110.74
May                   1877                    $ 170.70
Jun                     1452                    $133.90
Jul                      2077                    $188.02
Aug                    2809                    $251.41
Sep                     1824                    $163.18


Now that we are into November, things are pretty much just the lighting load and very little A/C, but the house still shows some interesting behavior.  For example, it was relatively cold outside last night, mid 50's, and we had the windows open last night until I got cold at about 2 AM, so I closed them.  Woke up this morning and the A/C was actually running to cool things off for a minute.  I guess what that shows is a great big thermal lag from the air heated in the attic yesterday, and long term effect of the walls still being warmer than you would think from the summer.

Hope all is well!

July Electric Bill

All,

Just got my July electric bill, and as promised I will post that result...

$188.02
2077 KWH
29 day period on the meter, ending 5 Aug 2011

Our daily high temperatures were pretty all much in the 104 to 106 range for this entire period, and the nightime lows were almost always around 78 degrees.  Not a drop of rain in this period, and almost always full sun with no clouds.  (yes, 105 degrees with sun is worse than 105 degrees under clouds).  I would also say our average dewpoint was a tad higher than Texas norm and I'm guessing around 70 degrees. 

If you read my blog for the last 18 months, I once said our climate is "profuse"...    I think the above paragraph pretty much sums that word up...

But, as unhappy as I am with our climate, the house sure is performing well...

OH, one more note.  Since this meter was read, a few days ago, we miraculously got about 1/2 inch of rain, which was a single thunderstorm just over our neighborhood.  Might just save our trees.  Anyway, my neighbor's geo loops are running very hot, about 115 degrees returning from the ground.  We have been discussing what options they have, and his geo contractor is in the loop, it will be interesting to find out what they come up with...

OK, off to bed...

Lego Design... Please vote

All,

My son has been crazy about his Lego's lately, and having a really great time designing his own when he can...  So just from parts, he designed this set Pharaohs Quest Jackal Escape. 

We tried to contact Lego with this design directly, but that ends up being pretty non productive because they design them in Denmark.  He was hoping they could put his design into a set and then people could buy them in stores. 

So, without further delay...  Pharaohs Quest Jackal Escape...  From scratch...

Please let us know your comments.  He is 7, so keep that in mind...

Another Summer Update

Gosh, it's been so long since I did this I almost couldn't remember how to sign into this thing.

Thought I would throw out some more information on utility bills, etc.

First of all, to say it's been hot is one thing, we are almost 700 degree cooling days ahead of schedule for the summer and year.  One degree day is when the temperature is different from the normal thermostat set point for the whole day.  So if you average out those 700 degree days, that's something like 6 degrees hotter per day for the ENTIRE last 3 months.  One week we had 106 high for an entire week. 

That's not the worst news, though, it has not rained in that time either.  We have had a few sprinkles, and even a rain shower back in May, but just enough to get the ground wet.  The hazards are tremendous, but the fire hazard alone is dangerous.  Also worried about the trees lack of water.  Somehow, the weeds grow anyway despite the dirt being so dry.

Just this week, I broke down and started just putting a hose on some of the trees and dripping water to them for a few hours each.  Most of you would question why I didn't do this earlier, but the reason is that our trees are really picky about everything.  Just stare at them wrong and they will die.  The water here has a lot of sodium in it, and it gets plugged into the clay soils and the trees don't like it.  Our last neighborhood was pretty crowded with houses, and everybody installed lots of grass, which required water, and the trees all died.  The trees in question are Post Oak trees. 

OK, for our June electric bill................  drum roll..................  $133.90

I was shocked, in a good way.  For the several months up to this the HVAC didn't run much, and our bills were in this range.  June was hot, though, and the unit ran a LOT more. 

Some of you will want to qualify that with kWh, so here is that info...

1452 KWH used, at some mysterious ever changing rate somewhere around 9.22 cents.  The reason I say that is because the rates changed to summer rates some time in June, and now our rates are getting hit again for some building project somewhere. 

I don't have the July bill yet, but will any day now.

OH, this is interesting.  My loop temps have been steadily climbing.  I bought some electronic thermometers and hooked them up to all kinds of things.  My original ground temps were running about 72 degrees, but they are up to high 80's and low 90's now.  A lot higher than I thought they would be, but again, we are tremendously ahead of schedule for heat, and the ground can only dissipate that heat so fast.  The loop temps will climb during the day about 5 degrees, but tend to cool off at night again, indicating that the heat is dissipating out from the loop field, or underground water is sufficient to carry that heat away.  So, I called my HVAC guy and had a discussion about maximum loop temps, and the implications... Obviously, lower loop temps in summer and higher in winter is better.  Surprisingly, 130 degrees is the highest that will work with the unit, and he was surprised I was still under 100 degrees compared to his other clients. 

Also did some research with my friend Google, and discovered some technical papers on that issue.  From those, they were claiming about $1/degree/ton/month higher bill for temperature rise.  So if I am say 5 degrees ahead of schedule, for a 1 month period and running 3 tons, that's about 15 dollars more.  I was questioning one of our big decisions for install, which was to use another loop for a total of 6 loops, but we decided against it, thinking we had plenty of capacity.  I'm not entirely sure now, but wish I would have stuck another in the ground when it was easy.  BUT, so far everything is working great, and you can be sure that I will reap rewards from that heat this winter, and get some of that extra expense back, so on paper it would be hard to justify another loop in my case, even though it would have made me feel better. 

For the record, I would love to hear ideas as to how to get those loop temps down anyway.  Short of adding an in line cooling tower, the only thing I can think of is to put a soaker hose over the trenches that hold the feed lines to the loops, since they are most likely dried out from our lack of rain.  I'm even letting the kids take long showers to help dissipate heat out of the desuperheater, which does seem to help.  But the solar brings the temps back up in the solar and main tanks in a half day easy and I am back to hot tanks.  I wouldn't complain if it was winter, for sure. 

Now for those of you that may get carried away with all the technical advantages of GEO or high SEER units, please remember that the vast majority of our savings come from...

1.  Insulation (ICF exterior walls and open cell foam insulation with a "sealed" attic design)
2.  House placement (shading of windows)
3.  Windows  Low E 3 in our case, without a metal frame (vinyl, wood, or fiberglass)
4.  Tile roof
5.  Solar hot water (not a huge one but it helps)
6.  Lighting control system that minimizes light use when possible. 
7.  Reasonable thermostat set points... In our case 76 to 78 degrees depending on zone.
8.  Humidity control though proper sizing of HVAC system and minimizing air leaks and lots of thermal mass




I am blabbering again....



Hope this finds all well...

Summer Update...

Hi all,

It's been a long time since I posted. 

Since we moved in we have largely been trying to get our old house ready to sell and sold.  Not sold yet, but the summer market here seems to be pretty healthy, so we are hopeful.

Anyway, when we moved in in January, it was really cold for here, in the teens for more than a week straight.  Since we didn't have the solar hot water or the floor heat system hooked up yet, we just used the Ground Source as a forced air system to heat the house, which it was capable of handling with ease.

I spent a good amount of time programming the lighting control system, and even now I am still making tweaks, and need to do more programming on some rooms and outside lights.  It is kind of tedious to do that, and best accomplished at night when you can see what you are doing with the lights.  The lighting works exceptionally well, however, and even visitors catch onto it with very little or no instruction. 

Nothing is realy complete yet, I've just been tremendously busy with work, and trying to catch up on everything else in life that was dropped for almost two years of construciton mania.  But lately I have been getting more projects around here done...

We have the Solar hot water system up and running now, and it works great, making about 120 gallons of water per day heated to about 130F.  That seems to be dropping our electric bills by about 30 dollars per month, which equates to about a 4 year payback. 

As for the GSHP, it is great.  Our electric bill in the month of April, paid in May, was only $110 dollars... That is for 5000 sq feet of house, heating, cooling, hot water, pumps, lights, septic, computers, tv, etc.  We have only used about 5 gallon of propane since we moved in, for cooking, outdoor grilling, and running the direct vent fireplace a few times (which is awesome).  Our high bill has been $220, which was January.  I think some of that was construction and a lot of lights in that process.  The house was also pretty cold soaked when we moved in, so it took some time to get things warmed up. 

With summer now here, 102 degrees and humid yesterday, our A/C system runs more often, but usually only the back bedroom zone comes on, because that cool air returns down through the main hall and through the rest of the house.  I've never seen it come on to stage 2, and usually runs about 5 minutes out of every 30 minutes or so.  We have it set at 78 degrees now, and the humidity right now is sitting at 45%, about half of the equavalent dewpoint setting outside, so to say it is very comfortable.  I made some adjustments to the way the "Intellizone" system functions, by making the bedrooms both priority zones, so the unit comes on immediately if those rooms call for temperature needs.  The rest of the house is set to a low priority, but i've never seen any of those zones come on, and all zones right now are sitting at exactly 78 degrees. 

As of last night, my ground source loop return temperatures were 85 degrees, higher than I would like, but this morning those temps were down to 80 degrees after very little use through the night.  The desuperheater is adding about 3 degrees per cycle to the 50 gallon storage tank it feeds, and last night those temps were up to 110F without much hot water use throughout the day.  If we all have showers in the moring, that tank will drop to about 75 degrees, and then heat back up through the day.  The solar tank will easily get to 130 or 140, and the feed coming off the roof will get as high as 160 degrees, with the highest tank temp i've seen around 140.  I had to install a differential controller to the solar/final storage tank to command the mix pump for that operation, but it was only $80 dollars for that and it works very well.

Tons of other stuff to talk about, but I know most of you logged on for pictures.  We still have boxes everywhere, because we are trying not to put stuff away that would be better thrown away...otherwise it gets stored forever and you don't even need it. 

I'll try to get some pictures on here when I can, but this venue is pretty public and now we have moved in we don't really want pictures of our interior out there for just anybody to look at. 

I'll try to find a few that will work, though and post them back here soon... Also some summer electric bills too...

Thanks and till then...

Some Final Pictures...

I would be silly to say we are really complete... But, we are complete enough to obtain an appraisal, and that is what we need to obtain permanent financing.  Everything works...heat, water, electric, lights, etc.... So, we can move in... What's the catch...

We are waiting now for all the ducks to get in line, planets to align again, so we can finish the loan and then close.

I think it was the 22nd of Dec when we had close to 30 people working on things all at the same time, things were flying... concrete coming, corbels going up on the soffits, people cleaning, touch up paint, cleanup on electrical stuff, etc. 

The next day, wasn't quite as busy, but all the sudden I looked around and I was the only one left... 

It was weird....

So anyway, I will post a bunch of pictures.  We are getting ready to probably lose our internet for a few days, as it is getting moved first, so I figured I would take the opportunity...

Oh, to say we have not been busy... ha...  Right after we get done, a virus takes out my computer...completely.  We do a quick trip to San Antonio to see the river walk lights at Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas, then I am back to work 6 days straight, and wife and the kids take a flight north to see family... 

I have also done some trouble shooting on the Centralite system, which was ignoring 1/3 of the house inputs...  That required some thinking and a part, but it is now fixed...

OK, here we go... What starts with shovels and dirt ends with shovels and dirt.  The concrete crew we hired for the driveway and sidewalks (flat work) was wonderful.  Could not have had a better experience.  I chose this time to buy materials and pay labor, which means more coordination but less expense on my part.  The little excavator died the first second of three pour days.  This is the concrete truck dragging him out.  Thanks to my dad for trouble shooting the diesel fuel system over the cell phone and we eventually got that running again...  When I googled the owners manual for a John Deer ZTS 27 excavator on my iPhone the Hispanic crew looked at me like I was crazy... You already knew.

They did a exposed aggregate look... Pea gravel basically in the concrete and then they wash the surface to expose the rock.  When the concrete truck couldn't reach something, they formed a human chain and pulled the concrete by hand with a metal concrete rake.  Some of it they put in wheelbarrows...  It's hard work.

Mailbox is a massive foundation.  Took almost a yard of concrete for this hole they made, but I guess it'll never go anywhere.

Looking up the driveway.... NO NAILS EVER AGAIN!!!

Re bar on 12 inch centers, 4 1/2 inches of 3500 psi concrete.  Lots of expansion joints, and immaculate prep.  I was really happy with this crew.

Ah, the center island finally relieved of it's burden of debris and exposed and clean for the first time...  Love the red and black...

Better Picture here of that.

Looking back the other way.  Kitchen is pretty massive, but we have every single cabinet pretty much spoken for.

This is probably the same picture, but I'm too lazy to take it out.

We have tested all the cooking equipment.  Warmed up my burrito one day on the cook top griddle, wife made soup on the cook top and microwave, and the kids wanted hot dogs, so we cooked them on the grill outside... 

I probably went a little wild with the concrete on the front, but we ended up bringing the sidewalk up with NO steps anywhere.  Something we will all appreciate.  Kids have already logged several miles on scooters and bikes as they can ride all around without problems.

Corbels... they are like jewelry to this style house.  You got to have them...  They make the house look even more massive and substantial.  There were something like 70 of them.  I could go into business just cutting them on a bandsaw...

Yes, I know there are still stickers on the windows... but they need washed off before we peel off the protective plastic on the glass.

Walking from the street, you have to go onto the driveway, but then you can take this shortcut to the front door.  If you go right here at the "node" you will go to the parking pullout, and then to the garage.  It all flows very nice, and the concrete guys were very helpful laying things out well.

As you walk down and the trees thin, you start seeing the entrance and courtyard.

We could have put the sidewalk closer to the house, but why? 

Standing in that same spot, panning back to the right to get the garage into the camera.

Looking down into the driveway from the "node".  Why are we calling it that?  Long story.  I'll spare you, but I have a friend who just got his PhD with extensive commercial background in landscape architecture.  He was very insightful.

More kitchen...  The pendant light had a broken glass shade, and it's already been replaced from the factory.

Looking the other direction into the family room.  Fireplace with iron doors, and the entertainment center.  The fireplace even has a light inside it which is very cool.  Oh, the night we made hot dogs we ran the fireplace for a while.  It was pretty cold outside, but the fireplace just about cooked us out of there in short order.  It even has a fan inside that recirculates air around the firebox.

These lights are very cool, glass and iron look.

Main hallway, fully lit.  These were our version of Christmas lights this year.

Standing in the dining room looking over into the living room.

Now in the living room, looking straight at the front entrance door and dining room.

Not the best picture, but this is a combo pic of the recessed area for the master bed and a built in at the back corner of the house.

Turning 90 degrees left yields this shot of the bedroom entrance.  Will have a TV over a credenza or dresser between the lights.  Oh, and that's the master bedroom cat-hole low and to the right of the door. 

Just one example of lighting setup.  This is the Master bedroom door entrance.  Still working on  programming things, and learning the software, but all these buttons control various lights and fans, and can also put the room into certain lighting "scenes".  Top left button sets everything up as you walk in so you don't have to make multiple presses.  Bottom left is always the "room off" button for every room, and completely shuts it down.

Waterfurnace geothermal unit is working well.  Note it's 73 degrees with a set point of 66 degrees, for the first few weeks after they actually turned things on, the unit only came on once or twice at these settings.  It's been colder now longer, so the house has cooled off finally to 66 degrees.  I can bring up the temp in a matter of minutes, but the unit hardly ever comes on.  We are elated with the comfort of the house, but it's very hard to explain the feeling. 

Looking into the master foyer from the master bedroom.  Double alder arch top doors with the sand cast bronze hardware from Emtek.  Feels good...

Master bathroom, with the snail shower in the corner.  I haven't put the mirrors up yet because the walls are full of electrical and plumbing, and with the ICF there is no studs to hang things on... So... liquid nail to the rescue.  But I have to still figure out a way to hold the mirrors up there while the liquid nail dries, and they are heavy.  Oh, the makeup mirror... Yes, it's my vanity, but everybody got a makeup mirror.  The girls all wanted one so they could put on makeup.  The boys are just so good looking we gotta look at ourselves a lot  ;-)

The study... Wood floor is in, but I think in this pic they still had a few pieces of quarter round to tend to...  The computer cable is a bastardized version of what will be the interface from the office computer to the lighting and automation control stuff in the attic.  I can hook in here with my laptop now and continue to program buttons in my "spare" time.

Other end of the office.  Picture a 55 inch LED TV with some nice speakers in there.  I can surf the internet and watch tv and movies.  I'll never leave.

this turned out very well.  We haven't started a real fire in the fireplace, but I have some firewood just for that purpose. 

Out back looking at the east side of the rear. 

Looking west now towards the breakfast area tucked under the rear porch.

I think I will seal the exterior columns.  I think it's better to guard against various things...

Exterior porch and the wood ceiling... Fans and lights make it very nice out there at night.  those are actually halogen landscaping spots I modified into fixtures.  They have a ball joint on them and you can rotate them all around... They work great.

My poor man's outdoor kitchen.  Still haven't picked out a granite for this yet, and it will also get a stainless sink and faucet.

Well, that's it.  I'll try to check back later in case anybody posts any comments or questions.  I'm sure the blog entries will slow to a crawl.  I may be busier than ever for a while, but what changes now is the timeline.  I get to pick how fast I want something done, and I can therefore be as picky as I want... 

Hope all is well with you and yours...