The house is emerging, or as one of my new neighbors likes to say, “growing up out of the sand.” Recently, on my drive to the site, I looked up at the top of the dunes and could see a sliver of our roof rafters above the other houses. The scale of the house is confounding. Sometimes it seems small, now it seems quite tall in reference to the surrounding homes. They and we are squeezed on all sides, though that is very much the norm for living on the peninsula, and for this beach community in particular.
The best news so far has been the beautiful views from the house, especially from the second floor. We can see all of the harbor and the beach and even the waves. Although our architect had taken pictures using a camera mounted at what he estimated was eye level, still it was a question until we could see with our own eyes, and it was a thrill, because it was not less, but more than we had imagined. To be sure there are houses in front of us. It is easy to become a pig about it. The more you have, the more you want? I know we are extremely lucky to have such a view, and I am very grateful for it. It’s the kind of view that requires a special chair so that you can simply sit and gaze at the beauty and be happy to be alive, a perfect activity for retirement!
I have been here for five months and we have gotten a lot done even though we started a month later than planned because of delays caused in getting the construction loan. The old house was demolished on August 13th, after the asbestos was removed, which took about a week or two. Then began sand compaction began, a requirement for all construction on the beach. You have to have a soils survey and the sand is removed and a large hole the size of the house perimeter is carved down, about 8 feet in our case, until it measures a strength that the soils engineer approves and then the soil is put back in 8-inch lifts compacted to support a two-story, single family house and the concrete and steel foundation that will next be laid.
The foundation was in two stages. First trenches were dug, forms built and rebar cut and tied into the forms before the concrete was poured for the footer that goes into the ground. The second installment of the foundation is the stem wall which actually lifts the house up off the sand and provides a “crawl space,” an important element of the house detailed in the architectural plans.
This stem wall outlines the walls of every room on the first floor and rises up 16″ from the footer. As well, there were piers poured at mid-points in the main rooms to support the floor joists. Before the stem wall was poured, the plumber came to lay the basic sewer lines through the wall. On September 19th, the foundation was completed, one month after we had begun. Concrete was poured quickly into frames, over rebar, rods and pipes that had taken weeks to construct. It set in less than 24 hours and then all the surrounding lumber was removed to be recycled for use in the construction of the house.
Then the framing began. Allan, our contractor, had told me enough to know this is a high point of their work partly because it moves so quickly. However, last week plan changes forced a slowdown, just as the rains arrived. I could tell Allan was perturbed. The house is built in a certain order and you cannot proceed out of order. He is driving to get the roof on and the house dried in.
The primary change came when we decided that we did not want the exterior siding to be Hardie board, a cement product often made to look like wood. This was one decision I didn’t have to make because it was Harry’s–although I completely agreed with him. There were townhomes being built next to ours in Houston that had Hardie board siding and he did not like the look at all. It was at that same time that our landscaper, Dan Finklea began to talk to us about making the outside deck flooring of Ipe (pronounced EE’-pay), an exceptionally hard and beautiful wood grown sustainably in the South American rainforest. Once we had this in mind, we thought to extend it to the portions of the house exterior that called for siding. Changes began to snowball from that to a new plan for the siding and both the front and rear decks which, in both cases, are over the roof of the first floor which cannot be permeated in any way. Add to this the deck railing system changes that we made since the plans were approved, and it had sent us back to the structural engineer. While I had not met the structural engineer, Alex Ott, I had certainly heard tales of him in high dudgeon. Reportedly he has people lined up, awaiting their plan changes, all wanting them today. I had even taken a drive through Seaside, like Lil Red Riding Hood, with a basket of pink lady apples from the Farmers’ Market for the big bad wolf, hoping to induce him to speed things along for us.
But, we are still waiting, and it is raining, and I am worrying, and promising myself not to make any other changes that will delay us again. I rented a house for a year through the end of March, but it’s clear now we won’t be finished by then. I have asked Allan when he thinks it will be done, but I don’t yet have a firm answer, and I can see why given the unknowns. Even the known and important items, like the windows were delayed in the ordering.
The windows were specified at the outset by the architect to be Kolbe Ultra Clad or better, a very highly rated window. We ended up with a slightly better line, the Kolbe Vistaluxe with extruded clad aluminum for the exterior, a wood interior, and a 30-year warranty which we need living so close to the salty air. These are largely casement windows which means they have a crank to open out and, in our case, they have the advantage of no bars within the window to mar the view. The reason for the change to VistaLuxe was the slimmer frame allowing substantially more glass pane to maximize the view. But, the order for all the windows also includes awning windows that open from the bottom, and there is one particularly complex set of six windows with an arched transom to correspond to the barrel-vaulted ceiling in the dining room—talk about measurement complexity. As many times as we thought we had the order completed, we would meet to finalize it only to end up making slight changes. Allan pressed that we needed to get the order in or it would hold up construction. We had an expert salesperson in John Phillips from the Visions Design Center in Pacific Grove. He was meticulous and extremely knowledgeable. The delay was not all his doing; first he would find errors and then we would. In one of our most relaxed conversations, after the order was done and I had paid the 50% installment of $17,000, he explained that in the past there were few choices about windows which only came in standard sizes. But new manufacturing procedures allow infinite detailing. John, measurer extraordinaire, actually calculated for me the million permutations these windows might take. This is why they are individually manufactured to specification. He had earlier made clear there could be no changes once the manufacturing process had begun. They will be built in a factory in Wisconsin with Low-E 270 insulated glass to meet the latest in Federal Title 24 regulations, some of it tempered, but none of it tinted or rough glass blocks to interfere with the view either in or out.
Before I left that day, John was enjoying telling me he thought we had the best windows in the industry. He told the story of an especially large picture window that had been designed for a home in Pebble Beach and made in Europe. The problems with it were legend until it was finally replaced. Nevertheless, as I was walking out the door, John followed me to explain that, the story was not over yet. Once our windows are constructed, they will be put on a truck and driven over the Rocky Mountains probably mid-winter, the time of posting for this blog, and, he hoped, they would make it here just after the New Year when they would go to a warehouse to be unpacked and inspected for damage before they are delivered to the construction site. We placed the order in mid-October. I wonder if they are done now and started on their journey west.
The house, is a dream come true. Yet it consumes so much money, it is a constant worry too. I find it difficult to say “no” to any improvement. We would like to strike a balance between good quality on the one hand, and luxury on the other. My guilt at having so much interferes with the ability to appreciate it. My poor irascible side is hardly allowed to come out any longer and dust up her feathers. For the holidays, I resolve to do a better job of giving generously not just of money, but time, to be of good cheer and spread it around!
Phebe Force 