fabbuilding

[fabbuilding]

December 9th : more fishy stories

Ever notice the retaining wall in the back of the house..... rather dull, CMU by the garage, stopping garden falling into driveway.  I have been discussing a mermaid mural for this wall for about 2 years, and finally Dennis, who collaborating with me, got me moving.

The structural part of the tail is made of keys.  Mandeville, when a client would give us a key, would copy it so that each of the teams and supervisor could have a full set.  When the client left they would ask for their key back, which we gave them and then we threw the spares into a box.  After 20 years we had 9lbs of keys in there.

Dennis convinced me to super glue the keys together and then plaster the back with 2 part epoxy... a system that worked. 

Now Dennis is working on the finny part of the tail... he has been obsessing about this for quite a time, so I am just letting him have at it.

Many friends have contributed broken crockery. We went to “Scrap” in SF for all kind of things, but we hit pay dirt when we went to the metal recycling place down on Ralston, and found copper coated steel nuts, and copper refrigerator tubing.   Dennis introduced me to new realms of resin. and glue.

I think the body is going to involve mother of pearl buttons from “Scrap”, but the teacups I was going to use for bosoms are not going to hack it.  I need something shiny for those.

The faucet in the middle of the star is the outlet from the rainwater tank

AND I have finally identified the Visitacion side of the house

[fabbuilding]

Dec 8 2017 : It’s been a year

This is the anniversary of moving in.  We have lived here a year and we are going to officially consider the house finished.... we have drawer pulls on the kitchen cabinets!!!!!!

For a year we have been using pieces of duct tape to open the drawers.  We have heard every possible joke about this at least twice.  We sold the Millbrae house to a very nice couple, and we have been n touch with them about various things.... rats in the roof, oven floors, how to prune the garden, you know important stuff like that.  They mentioned that they were going to refront the kitchen cabinets, so I immediately asked if we could have the drawer pulls if they were going to throw them away and they were happy to give them to us.

Why are these pulls so special.  That kitchen was built by Erik Antunez who loves working in metal.  He cut salmon out of copper sheet, and we were up until midnight the day before my 50th birthday party completing and fitting them.  

We had to do some renovation and and make up some extra, but we got by with a little help from our friends, Dennis and Jay, and Quincy had them fitted for the anniversary

[fabbuilding]

Sept 19th 2017:  NEW PROJECT

120 San Benito Rd,Brisbane, CA 94005 

2 beds 1 bath ; 740 sq ft 

SOLD: $842,60 Sold on 09/19/17

Hillside Home with Beautiful Bay Views!!! Bring your contractors and imagine building your dream home. Huge lot with tons of possibilities. New Construction or Remodel.. 2 Bedrooms and 1 Bath with hardwood floors throughout. Property has plenty of outdoor space to move about and detached garage at street level. Brisbane is tucked-in the San Bruno Mountain in a beautiful, natural and picturesque setting. Nearby amenities include several hiking trails, community pool and parks. Nearly 15 minutes from San Francisco’s Financial District and SFO, as well as close proximity to highways 101 & 280.

Facts and Features

Type Single Family

Year Built  1930

Heating  No Data

Cooling  None

Parking  Detached Garage

Lot  7,126 sqft

This is definitely taken in the best light and with realtor rose tinted specs!  The house has a terrible plan.  The walls are leaking. The kitchen is in an enclosed porch and appears to be damp. The north east corner is subsiding. I was bid up $100k.  However it has a lovely big lot which I can turn into a veggie garden.  The biggest deal is that this house dominates the front view of our home and the buyer would have the right to build up to 5000 sq ft of house there overlooking us. 

[fabbuilding]

June 19th 2018 : New distraction

This is our beautiful new grandson Rowan deMarie

[fabbuilding]

June 8th 2017 : sign off on the landscaping

Miguel and I have been working most weekends of getting the garden ready for inspection.  We have fired up the grey water pumps and balanced up the irrigation pots.

[fabbuilding]

Dec 8th 2016: Move in day

Things got pretty busy and the impetus to post here got lost in the moving process.  December 8th 8 large sober alcoholics (using Delancy Street Movers) turned up.  It is lucky we had thought everything through because there was considerably more action than thinking going on.  We had spent 3 months throwing things away, taking truckloads to the goodwill, filling boxes.  Unfortunately we did not co ordinate the box marking protocol.  We were of course reusing old boxes, kindly lent by Danielle.  I crossed out previous markings and wrote on the side.  Q ignored previous marking and wrote on the top.  Rosie just wrote “Rosie” which was in the winning strategy.  

IT RAINED (of course) and the van roof leaked.  

The piano was of course the most difficult item, although the gang were very pleased when I pointed out the way to get to the front of the house that had no steps.  Getting it into 119 was even more difficult, no way of avoiding the stairs there.  

So there we were as night fell, with 8 enthusiastic men hauling boxes out at random.  All of Rosie’s boxes went to her room.  Everything that we couldn’t find a label for went to the garage. Mercifully Q installed lots of gorilla shelves the moment the building inspector gave the habitation certificate.  We then spent a week playing tetris with the boxes, until Katie and Mark turned up for Christmas.

[fabbuilding]

October 15th : The house is clean and clear

This time last year we were just finishing the retaining walls and getting the site stable for the winter rains.  This year with the first rains of the season, we have a clean and lovely house.  The inspections start on Monday.  PWD would have happened last week except he was distracted by another building site in town burning to the ground.

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room

Guest bedroom

Rosie’s room

Sarah’s Office

Hallway

Master bedroom

[fabbuilding]

October 14th : Let’s get finished

The push is on to get sign off on this house and stop the City from looking at us.  There are functional stairs to the driveway from the back door

The first people to sign off are the Public works department.  This means we have to have everything around the sidewalks and streets looking good, or at least legal

I have harbored an insane urge to have a stone mosaic star in the driveway, why should anything be easy if it could be difficult. 

We strained every piece of trigonometry in our memories to create a pentangle, but in the end we counted stones!  Miguel did a fabulous job of cutting the steel edging

and I have been laying a lot of the stone, while Miguel and Bukhari were laying the cobbles.  Rain due on Friday and it would be close to impossible to level all that quarry fines if it was wet

The treads are in on the stairs.  This is such a lovely house

[fabbuilding]

September 30th : Landscaping the front garden

We have broken out the concrete around the heritage Oak tree, and I have been making sure that the buttress roots are exposed to the air

The Bay Slime Dragon has moved in with us

Jay has organized the handrails to the outdoor steps

Jorge has started on the deck

and the grey water processing plant is in place

[fabbuilding]

September 23 : Ahhhh

September 17th Katie and Mark got married in New York.  It was a lovely wedding but it meant we took our eyes off the house for a short time

However back on the farm everything carried on

The stairs are finished

Upstairs flooring has started

and the concrete stairs are starting to looking like landscape

[fabbuilding]

September 16th : More concrete

TaDa.... a sidewalk

Stairs into the front garden

Idiosyncratic door pulls

and the stairs and coming together

[fabbuilding]

September 9th: San Benito sidewalks

Jorge and Isreal soldier on inside while the upper sidewalk gets laid.  Miguel returns next week and Sarah leaves for New York.  Hey ho!

We did have an interesting animated discussion with the Public Works inspector persuading him to measure the street in such a way that we did not loose half the flower bed on top of the retaining wall.  I didn’t have to cry, but it was close.

[fabbuilding]

September 3rd : Kitchen counter tops and upstairs floors

Israel is finishing the store room and Jorge is prepping cherry wood for the staircase but neither of those is very photogenic. 

However the kitchen is starting to be very photogenic with the amazing counter tops that have a multitude of pictures in them

Upstairs Alphonso has given the place a good clean and is laying out the hardwood flooring.   HOORAY IT IS STARTING TO LOOK LIKE A HOUSE 

[fabbuilding]

August 26 :  Concrete at last... and bathroom counter tops

YEAH!!!!

That’s the extra parking space the city extorted from us as a quid pro quo in the permit process

On my.  The tiles are finished and sealed and covered with protective paper

The appliances are in place, but not connected because Israel is going to tile the store room next.

Sarah’s Bathroom

Quincy’s Shower

Starting to prep the upper road for sidewalks.  We have had to move all the rock off the road.  The “lawn” is an artificial turf off cut I had laying around which is there as a giant doormat.  Try and get into that house without wiping your dirty paws!!!

[fabbuilding]

August 19th: Water

There is a shortage of concrete because of the building boom.  The form works have been set up and approved by Greg our friendly PWD guy and we are awaiting an allotment of concrete next week.  

The plumbers have brought the water main to the side of the house.  That’s it in the diagonal trench

 The kitchen is taking shape as the floors are completed

[fabbuilding]

August 12th : Drama on the lower sidewalks

We need to finish the sidewalks.  There is a lot of landscaping to do and a much of it can’t get going until the Public Works stuff is completed. Discussions with the PWD inspector Greg reveal that he believes that we should build what is on the drawings even if it makes no sense so that is what we are doing.

At long last the hole in the road is filled.  Gas and water are on the site, and next week we pour the sidewalks

Meanwhile Jorge and Israel carry on on their knees tiling the floor

and the front door frame is fitted.  The door is on site but Q is worried about it getting damaged during construction.

[fabbuilding]

August 5th  :  In Context

Michael and I were up on Humboldt discussing a garden installation and Michael got this wonderful picture of the house nestling under its tree