The house is almost done

[jlbos83]

Final inspection is supposed to be today!

Here is a picture of the front, taken a week or two ago. It has been painted since. I need to get some pics of the floor, I did not take this one.

I will post some more pics and details later.....

Jeff

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[jlbos83]

Family room from Dining room---

[jlbos83]

Kitchen from family room---

[jlbos83]

Just heard that the final inspection was passed :yipee: Now we can cal for the gas hookup so we can have hot water and heat (not that we need that, someone has been there quite often through the night lately, and been fine, 70 inside at bedtime, 67 or so in the morning, insulation must not be too bad) and we can start unpacking!

How this related to tile.....we thought that we would do the tiling ourselves and save a bit of $$$. Well, after the first day, we realized that the time was going to be just too much (mostly mixing thinset, ugh!), so we did the bathrooms and under the dishwasher so the plumber could come in, and waited for our builders pro to come in and do the rest. I'll get some pics of what we did eventually!

We did do all the painting inside and out (I guess I should say we are doing, there are still a few odd and ends to finish up, probably always will be :bang: )

[davem]

:yipee: :aparty: :yipee:

Great! I'm sure this is a huge day for you. :)

[John Bridge]

Looks great, Jeff. I love the Southwestern style. None of that over here in Houston. They cut it off in New Mexico and West Texas. :)

Painting and tiling under the dishwasher qualifies you as an official weekend warrior no matter what. Even I know there are other things besides tile (such as they are). :D

[jlbos83]

Not long ago I would have never imagined having a house that looks like this one. It is so different than anything I ever saw growing up, or even through my thirties! And it seems that you stick to what you know. But we did it for a couple reasons, it really does look good, and a tile roof would have cost a fortune! It also let us design the house without having to worry about the roofline too much. My wife drew out the floorplan (well, using the computer), and we took it to a draftsman. He showed her some example elevations, and she chose one in this style, with the battered parapets, vigas (they will be there soon, we have to stain them this weekend!), etc. I think it came out really nice. The vigas and beams add a lot of character without being really damaging to the budget :cool: .
We did tile the bathrooms, too. Foot for foot probably the hardest part, using a version of the $99 tile machine from E-bay (more like $60). The clay stripe you get is kind of interesting :eek: ! We had to wait a few weeks for the tileguy to get to us, but he did the job for $1.80 a square foot (including thinset and grout), so it was worth it. (He needs to raise his rates. He is too busy, and works too much. Pretty much seven days a week. I pretty much told him that he needed to charge more and work less, but he seems to be one of the sort that is afraid of not having work every single day :( . It's his business, though. He even seemed to know what he was doing :D )

The best news is that our builder has been great. The only thing that he was over budget on was a $500 lumber issue involving some LPIs or TJIs. Whichever one was used by the draftsman wasn't the one that our builder's supplier had, and to get the span he had to go 16" rather than 24" on center in one part of the house. Of course that is really good, since the ceiling drywall should be better! But it cost a little, and he had to add a bit of framing to get 24" skylights in that part. Every other budget problem came from us, we upgraded the front door a bit, and went over on appliances (we planned that from the beginning) and the central vac. So much for the horror stories of runaway budgets! We changed very little as we went (my wife had thought the plan through pretty well), and as long as we did it before it was built the bulder didn't charge us more (unless it cost him more). Anyway, if anyone needs a builder in Tucson, I would recommend him :nod: !

[cx]

Yeah, well, I was jist gonna axe you when they was gonna start framing the roof and all. :D

Proof once again that builders ain't all bad, eh? :shades:

[jlbos83]

Yep! It's a good thing the inspector didn't notice the missing roof!:devil:

It was great to find a good builder. He didn't charge an arm and a leg, and we liked the subs he used, and they seem to like working for him. I guess it helps that he pays them, and seemst o be quick about it. They were almost always there when he said they would be, and were always polite and helpful when we were there. An all around good experience!

[Sonnie Layne]

Jeff, it could be that he pays them because you pay him.

I'm very happy for you that the total project turned out without great without suicide, homocide or worse. That's a joke :) but it is tough to go through.

Do you use evaporative cooling there? Do we have pics of that?

[IBJT]

Job well done! (Well almost done.) You deserve congrats and your builder too!

http://www.hadoa.org/images/clapping_hands.gif

[John Bridge]

Jeff,

I'm really happy you took the time to brag up your builder and his subs. Around here, as you know, we more often hear it the other way. There are good people out there. :)

[cx]

Jeff:

What type of roofing material do y'all use on flat roofs out in your part of the country?

I'm guessing it ain't buffalo hide, but wondering if it's one of the EPDM types or an asphalt build-up or what.

And I didn't see an answer to Sonnie's Q about use of evaporative cooling. Is that a pretty standard feature?

[jlbos83]

The roof is a built-up asphalt. Smells and make an awful mess when they put it on. Then, last thing (like yesterday) they paint over it with some kind of elastomeric stuff.

We done have a swamp cooler (evaporative cooler). Lots of people do, but the newer houses I think lean more to the AC. The problem with the cooler is that in July and August it actually does get a little humid, so they don't work nearly as well as they do before and after. We also can't have it on the roof (homeowners assoc) which is where they usually live. I think the ideal system would be some kind of combo, but I am not sure that is easy to do, since the ducts that are best are different for the two types of systems.

[flatfloor]

Nice job, many, many happy years in it. :)

[Cami A]

Wow, Jeff! It's great to see pics after all your planning. It turned out fabulous- kudos to you and the wife!

:bow: :bow: :bow:

[John Bridge]

Jeff,

When I left Phoenix in the early eighties they were using a piggy-back unit on the roofs of new houses. You could use the AC during the really hot months and the swamp cooler the rest of the year. :D

The ducts were communal. I didn't realize there was a problem. Back then all the duct work was till galvanized for everything.

[Sonnie Layne]

dang...

he's got all the answers don't he??? :D:D

and he makes it all sound so easy. Could it be he's a true genuii???

Now Juan, don't get all critical and ... well I started to say embarassed for me calling you a genius....then I realized/remembered that you think you are a genius!! Heaven's to Betsy, Boy, ... well, hell, maybe you are a geniuous...at least we're glad to have you aboard....

Uhhh, I guess I've had to say all I had to say 'bout that,... seams I left Mr B a little trifle of time to explode his enerjeez...

No. no. no. pleeze. I was making fun for John B and after reading it, it came out wrong. It was only fun parked at JB, not you at all. It was only my concept that you could put up with this anonymous redicule that I'd even make such a remark.

I extend my personal apologies to the other members of this forum if I've caused anteroiumalistic (pl) mental concepts that may lend to the conceiving of undefined and thus misunderstood uhhh... well,

At least it ain't ballistic anymore.


No one wins.

I'd vote for the owls, second to the Jaguars.

I'm only a painter. And it's really late at night.

[jlbos83]

My 'understanding' on the ducts, such as it is, is that the swamp coolers work better with bigger ones than AC, but I sure could see come kind of compromise working, and I'm sure it has been done!

[Sonnie Layne]

gettin' above my expertise there. my only experience is with greenhouses that have close to 100%% or dew point neutral anywaye.

Good thiing we don't adjust our scales for every sea-bearing vessle, huh?

[jlbos83]

Okay, here are some pictures of tile....
This is the kids bathroom. We did the tile in the toilet room, and on the bathtub room which is behind me. Tile guy layed the talevera and the room with the sinks. We used the talevera threshold so that it would not be obvious where we stopped and he started. It works pretty well. He used a narrower joint, with no 'fancy' pattern. We messed around a bit, as you might be able to see. I think that our joints look more like saltillo, but his should wear better, and look better out in the hallway.

[jlbos83]

This is in the master bath. Behind me is where the jet tub isn't. instead currently inhabited by canaries. We did this room first.

[jlbos83]

One more with tile, master bath toilet room. Lots of work in a little space.

[jlbos83]

Master shower that I mentioned in another thread. It's not tile. but the cultured marble looks pretty good, and squeegees great!

[jlbos83]

And the threshold.

[jlbos83]

The family room, cause I like how it came out. You can see the tile on both sides of the room, and the bar separating the family room from the kitchen. The sink is on the other side of that bar, so you can participate from there. After the kitchen we had in Germany, which was smaller was down the hall from the family room, and had to have the door closed to get into the fridge, this is an improvement! You are instructed to ignore the unpacked boxed of books. I know that you guys can ignore! Still need to paint the French doors, too! Ignore them.

[jlbos83]

And the family room from the other side.
I'll try to get some exterior when it is light, and maybe some kitchen when it is clean!

[tileguytodd]

Very nice Jeff.I particularly like the Log post and Beam.It seems to me that would be kind of unique down in your country(of course never have been there i could be wrong)Lots of that stuff up here in the woods :)

P.S. I found it easy to ignore the doors. I practice ignoring everyday.My dining room cieling has a very large hole in it that ive managed to ignore for 2 years now :D

[Cami A]

Looks great, Jeff. You've been getting lots of work done, I see. :D

Where do you plan on putting the canaries when you want a bath? ;)

[John Bridge]

Jeff,

I'm impressed. :)

Not with the photo processing, though. :D

Email me a couple and let me play with the original files. I won't steal them from you without permission. :D

[jlbos83]

Cami-
I think the canaries will move into an as yet unbuilt aviary on the porch, someday......

John-
I will take some pics during the day to get a bit better light on the subject, and send them along.

Todd-
Actually the posts and beams are pretty common here. They use a lot of peeled poles. The indians built with the big logs as sort of ceiling joists, and then layed the little poles across and then mudded it up, I think. Here the big round logs are called vigas, and the small peeled poles, somtimes used in ceilings (we used in a couple awnings that I will post pics of when I take them) are called latillas.

Thanks for the nice comments!

[Hobbit]

Gosh Jeff, Looks like home!! Makes me want to head back left.








Almost.;)

[Sonnie Layne]

I like the fact that you included a bar.. ;)

great work. keep the photos in your album.

[cx]

I was afixin' to axe you if you finished those door yourownself, Jeff, but I didn't wanna sound tacky. :p

Looks nice. Very Arizonian. (Is that a word?) :)

[Hobbit]

Anything can be a word in these forums!:D Usage dictates the rules!;)
:):)