Month: November 2017

Drainage Avoiding a Flood

Ed Building a House , 0 Comment

Given our hillside location, we’re concerned that in a heavy rain water might pour down the slope until it ended up inside our house. A few weeks ago, I raised this issue with Kevin. He said Francisc had some drainage planned, but I asked them to beef it up.

The trench digging and gravel and pipe work has been going on over the last few days. These trenches are designed to carry the water around to the sides of the house.

Digging Ditch in Front
Digging Trench in Front
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Drainage Gravel
Drainage Gravel
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It looks like they are covering the gravel with a landscape fabric of some type.

Drainage Gravel and Fabric
Drainage Gravel and Fabric
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Drainage Ditch Filled With Gravel
Drainage Trench Filled With Gravel
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On top of the gravel and fabric, I think they’re going to place the topsoil.

Drainage Ditch Being Filled
Drainage Trench Being Filled
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Seeing all this in place makes me a lot less concerned about a flood.

Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Finally Some Stairs

Ed Building a House , 0 Comment

Anne has been wondering for a long time when the stairs would go in. I surmised that since they are above the utility room, they were waiting until all the mechanicals were installed. That may not be the case, but we do now have a stairway underway.

Stairway Base Looking Up
Stairway Base Looking Up
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Stairway Base from Top Floor
Stairway Base from Top Floor
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An Update

A couple of days later we got shots of the concrete base of the stairs.

Bottom Half Stairway Concrete
Bottom Half Stairway Concrete
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Top Half of Stairway Concrete
Top Half of Stairway Concrete
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Here are some other shots of work in progress.

Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Portone Being Built

Ed Building a House , 0 Comment

Back in June, we decided on the general design of the portone. Now it is being manufactured, and Kevin sent us pictures of the work in progress for our approval.

We like the look of the arch and details, so we gave the OK for work to continue. As of now, it’s the only door or window that hasn’t been installed.

Portone in Progress
Portone
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Source:
Door photo: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Master Bathroom Countertop Trying to Choose a Stone Slab

Ed Designing a House , 0 Comment

Earlier this week, Kevin sent us a photo of the marble slab Angelo had picked for the master bedroom countertop.

Original Proposed Slab
Original Proposed Slab
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Anne was concerned about the diagonal vein running up toward the left, and we wondered just where the sink would placed and whether it would serve to interrupt the seam enough that it wouldn’t be too apparent.

Kevin came back with an alternative slab picked by Angelo. In his comments, he noted that this slab was VERY big.

Second Option for Slab
Second Option for Slab
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Now, this picture shows even a bigger vein. But it also is a totally different color cast than the first. So can we rely on pictures to make this decision, Anne wondered. When we redid our kitchen here a few years ago, we went to a stone yard and looked at potential slabs. Even then, it was hard to make a choice.

I was unclear on just how either of these slabs would work. I needed to understand how the countertop would be cut out of the slab and where the sink would sit, so I sent Kevin a couple of drawings to indicate the impression I was getting.

Guess of Slab Cutout
Guess of Slab Cutout
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Second Option with Guess about Placement
Second Option with Guess about Placement
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Kevin and Angelo responded with a third option, saying it was the best they could do. It shows where the sink will set and what veins will show.

Third Slab Option
Third Slab Option
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We’re going with this one.

Source:
Tile images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

An Update on the Landscape Plan Very Slow Progress

Ed Designing a House , 0 Comment

This is the longest. most painful process we’ve been through yet.

survey tool

Given the slope of the property, having a good landscape plan is very important. We need to have various levels and will need plantings to soften some of the slope.

We first started in earnest on the plan during our visit in May, when we met on site with a landscape designer, Paula, and our geometra, Jimmy. We thought we were making progress on the plan in July when we had another site visit. Little progress was made until late September, but it looked then like we were ready to get it all put together..

Wrong. Now it’s November and we still don’t have the terrain map Paula needs to design the landscape. The latest holdup was caused by Jimmy not being able to get the special gps machine used to work out details terrain plans. Apparently, it’s in very high demand.

Finally, this week, Jimmy was able to produce a CAD file with the terrain. (You can get a feel for the steepness of the slope, especially behind the house where the contour lines are very close together.)

Detailed Terrain Map
Detailed Terrain Map
 Click image to enlarge

Now the holdup is that Paula works only on paper and neither she nor Jimmy seemed to want to get what we had printed. Fortunately, Kevin stepped in, contacted the gps guy who had done the measurements and produced the CAD file, and got him to deliver a pdf version.

Kevin will pass that off to Jimmy and Paula to get printed on a large format printer.

So we’re not out of the woods yet.

Grr.

Sources:
Survey tool image: Copyright: phatthanit / 123RF Stock Photo
Terrain map: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure