A Roof in One Day

We had another busy weekend at the property, this time it was the roof going on. Who would have thought that 6 men could put a roof on in one day? These were hard working guys. They arrived at 8:00 in the morning, worked with very little break time and drove away at 7:00 that evening. It was a long day for everyone involved and we're so glad it's over but even more happy that we have a roof. We no longer dread the words, "It might rain"! Our carpenters are putting the siding on this week, so we will be dried in when that's completed.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend....

The roofing materials being delivered

Roof installation

Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures after the roof was completed. Next time!

Here are our stairs, finally done. Now it feels like a house to me because I don't have to go out through the garage, down the side of the house and into the french doors to get in the master bedroom.

For you people who work in construction here's the under side of the stairs. Built to last!

We also moved our 5th wheel from our neighbor's property (where it's been all summer) into our driveway. Thank you to Jerry and Mary Lou for being wonderful hosts and making us feel welcome.

Yes, that is fog you see in this picture. We couldn't even see the water for most of the day. The day dawned sunny, the fog came in sometime in the morning, and in the late afternoon it cleared up for a little while. That's a fairly typical day up on the north coast. What's not to love?

Buzzing the Bluff

Today is our 30th anniversary. Because we're building the house I didn't plan on doing anything out of the ordinary but Cliff had other ideas. His friend Travis has a pilot's license and goes flying frequently in small planes. So Cliff arranged for us to go flying. He told me we were doing something special and challenged me to guess a few weeks ago thinking that I would never get it right. But about a week ago I figured it out although our destination was still a secret.



This morning at about 10 we took off from Palo Alto and flew west to the coast. We headed up the coast from about Half Moon Bay all the way up to our property. It was absolutely beautiful! We couldn't have been blessed with a better day for flying on the coast - no fog and abundant sunshine.



After flying over our house, waving at neighbors and taking a few pictures we headed inland to Petaluma, landed, had lunch at the airport cafe, took off again and landed in Palo Alto. What a blast! We highly recommend it! Here's a few pictures of the day.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Point Bonita Lighthouse

Two views of our house (it looks huge)

The end of the day, parking the plane and tying it down.

More of Looking House-ish

When the decking is built and the X bracing removed we will have one more row of posts down below in line with those already installed.

Copper vents for bathroom exhaust fan and kitchen range hood. (Steve C.--keep praying that no one steals the copper!)

All the materials for the siding are on site and ready to be installed.

This picture is the overhang on the west end. It will be covered with 1"x 6" tongue and groove boards painted white.


This is our dining area with the stairs beyond which go down to the master bedroom.


This is our kitchen. It you squint your eyes and hold your head to the right you might be able to see the island and cabinets beyond. Under the window will be our computer/desk area.


We hate it here, it's always foggy. : ' )


This is the front door from the inside looking south.

Looking Quite House-ish

The construction is moving along quickly as you'll see in the pictures. Cliff and I didn't go up to the property for 2 weekends in a row and that's why we haven't posted for 3 weeks. (Sorry about that).

All of the plywood is on, including the roof, so the house is somewhat draft free at this point. We had a picnic lunch in the living room on Friday--what a view!

Cliff installed the front door, it looks wonderful. The roof structure creates our deck covering as you'll see from the next two pictures.

Our well is now hooked up to the pump and we have water!

Movin' Right Along

We have windows installed and electricity! We went up to the property for the Labor Day weekend which we managed to stretch out to a week.

On our first day there PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) came by to hook up our electricity. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilling that event was for us. We're on our own now and don't need to rely on our neighbor's good will for power.

The same day Cliff and our framer's installed all of our windows and the french door in the master bedroom. It was a long day with a few tense moments, like when they had one of the west facing 5'x8' picture windows swinging from a rope about 12' above the ground! The rope was a last minute idea, just in case something went wrong! I've learned that it just wouldn't be a building project without a few stories to tell at the end.

This first picture is of the south facing side of the house with Cliff leaning out the front door opening. We will have stairs leading up to the door from the sidewalk below. The next picture is the west and north sides of the house. There will be a deck breaking up that huge wall! The third picture is the view facing north/west from the great room.

The weather was beautiful our first 2 days there, actually it was hot out in the sun. Cliff and I pulled out our lounging chairs 2 nights in a row to stargaze. The night sky is amazing up there without city lights interfering.

Billy loves to play with water bottles and found one sitting around. I took this picture of him from inside the master bedroom looking out toward the ocean.

That's all for now.