Week 12

Little actual building happened this week -- they installed what I'm guessing will be part of the bathroom wall:

And they nailed many more tiny pieces of wood to the forms. Lots and lots of them.

But 2 more important milestones were hit this week!

One milestone is we passed two of three pre-pour inspections:

And we got a street space permit to clear the parked cars from the house to the top of the block, so that the cement truck will be able to pull in & out. This gives an idea of the distance (about 100 feet):

One last inspection will be happening on Monday morning -- the inspection of the ufer ground, which is this coil of wire in the wall...

...that then runs along the rebar and into the ground:

Once that's approved, they can move forward with the pour, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

The other milestone this week is that we ordered the windows and doors. We had originally wanted the 12-foot door opening to be fully openable, using accordion doors like this:

We learned that those doors don't do well in this area, though, due to the blustery weather & the way the ground shifts around over time. The salesman at the lumber store said that he would sell them to us, but would have gone as far as to write on the bill of sale that we ordered them against his recommendation. It's disappointing, but the Plan B he recommended turns out to be pretty nice, as well -- sliding French doors:

Similar idea to sliding patio doors, but with a little more visual heft to them (& better locks). The actual door opening will be about 6 feet, but the full 12-foot opening in the wall will still be all glass, so we'll still get a ton of light & a sense of integration of the indoor & outdoor space. And these cost a third as much as the accordion doors, so we could afford to get nicer windows for the second floor (& actually still come out ahead on budget) -- French casements:

The really nice thing about these, versus regular casements, is that there is no bar in the center of the window when they're open. These also have this fancy mechanism that makes washing the windows very simple -- the fine clay soil gets everywhere when the wind blows up here, so being able to keep the windows clean is going to make a big difference in that room. 

We chose oil-rubbed bronze for all the hardware, & we're going to stain the interior to match the color of the wood that we are recycling into the two rooms (the new counter in the kitchen, and parts of the new bathroom downstairs) That should look pretty good. 

These, plus 3 double-hung windows for the side of the room, and a fire door for the entrance to the garage, are now on their way!