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| Russet release (red) being stamped |
Hello and welcome back to
Local Fruit!
Our home now has flatwork, which is construction talk for the finish concrete used in patios and stairs. The back patio included stamped concrete for the porch and garage steps; the front concrete work includes a short sidewalk. The back yard was designed and framed a few days before, but Rich was still modifying the shape of the front steps on the morning of the pour. It was fun to design the shapes ourselves, collaborating with spray paint and a tape measure. We love the stamp pattern called
Roman Slate. All of the concrete in our home was delivered and installed by skilled tradesmen, and it was a pleasure to meet them and admire their work.
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| Pouring front steps |
After the concrete pour, the next thing was to build the fence. Unfortunately the fence fails to keep rude people out of our yard. The day the fence was installed a couple walked in the gate expecting to tour our home. The next evening we found large dog prints and a pile of poop in the patio area. During the day someone had brought a dog with HUGE paws into the yard and left behind a HUGE pile of dog poop. Peeeewww.
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| White Oak - with the oil in progress |
Today was exciting as we met the floor subcontractor, Phillip Hawk, and saw how beautifully the floor finishing is progressing. First the raw wood was installed, covered in putty, sanded and oiled. We won’t be able to walk on the floors for three days while the oil application sets. Next week the floors will be given two coats of urethane coating. Our flooring subcontractor is truly an artisan!
The $/SF of prefinished flooring was a little lower at big box stores and the wholesale distributors, but when considering the cost of flooring parts and installation on stairs the cost for prefinished floors would have been higher than the cost of flooring using raw materials and local craftsmanship. The quality of our floor is superior to prefinished floors: it feels very solid and will have a smooth water impervious coating. Solid wood flooring is more durable and easier to maintain that prefinished flooring. It has a long lifespan and can be repaired and restained many times if needed. Sorry that these photos are grainy, they were taken by a Palm Pre cellphone.
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| White Oak - Raw wood installed |
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| Oil application in process |
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| Oiled white oak really warms up a room |
Big news today! The solar PV meter was set today! I don’t know if it was connected to the utility, but I will check over the weekend to see if the meter is spinning backward. An upcoming blog entry will talk about our experience with the solar installation and the anxiety of dealing with our electric utility (
SMUD) for solar meter connection and energy incentives.
