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December

Monday, 3 December --- Video: MPEG

The windows in the front finally arrived & were installed today. We're only waiting on a couple of more windows: the kitchen and office, it looks like one side of the front door, and the sliding doors to the family room which came the wrong size.

Tuesday, 4 December --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 5 December --- Video: MPEG

I met with the door man about our doors. We're doing some basic panel doors inside, with standard hardware. We're not putting moulding around the doors like normal people, rather we're simply going to have the drywall rounded into the doorway. One less place for dust to collect. It turns out this means we need to know a bunch more about the doors now than normal.

We're doing something similar at the floor -- the floor moulding is going to be flush with the wall instead of the standard which is sticking out 1/2'' or so. Where the wall meets the floor, we're going to use some small quarter-round. This is what we have now & we really like it.

Thursday, 6 December --- Video: MPEG

Friday, 7 December --- Video: MPEG

The remainder of the driveway was poured today which pretty much finishes off the drainage system. This guarantees no more rain this year!

A couple of years ago we had to pour the driveway approach. This seemed rather odd (building the approach before even having house plans), but Santa Cruz Public Works insisted that either we do it straight away, or they'd do it & charge us. So, we did it. Obviously it wasn't going to be correct when we built the house, and it wasn't. Part of it needed to be removed & re-poured. Oh well.

Finally, we had the name, ``Casa de York'' embedded at the driveway entrance in 4'' brass letters. This should make selling the house (if we ever do) interesting. Lynn also etched all of our names into the concrete to one side.

Monday, 10 December --- Video: MPEG

Over the weekend the back of the house (to the left) was covered with felt & wire to prepare for stucco. I think the stucco is going on fairly soon, possibly before Christmas.

Tuesday, 11 December --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 12 December --- Video: MPEG

Thursday, 13 December --- Video: MPEG

Friday, 14 December --- Video: MPEG

Monday, 17 December --- Video: MPEG

Tuesday, 18 December --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 19 December --- Video: MPEG

Thursday, 20 December --- Video: MPEG

Friday, 21 December --- Video: MPEG

Monday, 24 December --- Video: MPEG

Tuesday, 25 December --- Video: MPEG

Wednesday, 26 December --- Video: MPEG

Thursday, 27 December --- Video: MPEG

There hasn't been much to say, so I've not been saying much. The biggest thing to happen in the last couple of weeks is the explosion of the budget. Until recently, we had been at or under budget, then, all of a sudden, it simply exploded! It was ugly. Green & red everywhere (oddly appropriate for the season). Here are the details:

• doors -- all of our doors are going to be panel doors. It was bid for plain (ick) doors. Oh well, over budget here. It wasn't too much though.
• kitchen cabinets -- yep, we went over here too. Again, not too bad.
• other cabinets -- here's where the explosion hit. We decided on a bunch of built-in and custom cabinets that were not originally bid:
  • office -- book cases & cabinetry
  • family room -- entertainment center
  • dining room -- we've an antique buffet & want a matching case above it.
  • kid's bedrooms -- the closet floors are going to have drawers underneath, raising them 2'.
  • kid's bathroom -- custom vanity. This might go.
  • master bathroom -- custom vanity
  • washer/dryer closet -- a simply drawer underneath for supplies

Like other things, these should all have been in the original bid & we simply weren't paying enough attention to detail. We knew what we wanted, why didn't everyone read out minds?

That being said, everything is going smoothly. No catastrophes, few surprises. We've had quite a bit of rain over the last few weeks & the drainage system is working really well. A lot more water is coming from the sump pump at the bottom of the retaining walls than I would have expected. Aaron has made a few good suggestions about things we should either do, or consider doing when we're in.

I'm working on the driveway movie, and am thinking about doing a ``month-in-review'' movie for each month.

Friday, 28 December --- Video: MPEG

Saturday, 29 December --- Video: MPEG

Sunday, 30 December --- Video: MPEG

Monday, 31 December --- Video: MPEG

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