House Status

Shingles - check
Stonework - check
AC - check
Plumbing - check
Electrical - in progress
Inspections/Dry wall - next week

The stone work turned out beautifully. We were able to salvage the original house stone from a rockwall in our back yard for the new second floor. It looks like it has always been there.

Four years ago we moved into this house. One day I was musing that wouldn't it be nice if we had the stone that was removed from the back of the house when it was remodeled in the early 90's. Almost a year later we realized that the rock removed from the back of the house was indeed in our yard in the form of a low garden wall.

What a nice find. Thanks to the previous owners the old stone was able to be reclaimed and is now part of the house again.

House Next Steps

Not much progress was made on the house remodel while we were away. They had some AC placement issues to resolve. We are currently finalizing our electrical plans. Once the outside electric issues are resolved they can finish the siding and add the shingles to the roof. That will feel like progress.

Meanwhile, here is our latest kitchen design.

Overhead view.

North wall with farm house sink and stove under windows.

East Wall with pass through to front den and space in lower cabinetry for wine fridge (high priority).

I'm still unsure if we should have open floating shelving on these two walls or regular upper cabinets.South wall with island open to casual dining room and three pull out pantries to make use of the space under the stairs. I like how he put paneling along the rest of the wall to look like additional cabinetry.

West wall with refrigerator and closed upper cabinetry. We reluctantly decided against glass fronts so we could have more storage and hide the microwave. I'm still not sure I want to give up cabinet space for the microwave, but it seems better than having it on the counter top or giving up other lower cabinet space.

I love our new farm house sink.

Overall I like how it is coming together.

We Have Windows

Our windows have arrived and they are beautiful.

French doors for the dining room and master bedroom.

New Roof

The second story is completely framed and we have a roof. The will be finishing out the eves and adding the shingles over the next week.

I love this new larger dormer window overlooking the park. The window seat will be about nine feet long and over three feet deep and will be a great place to hang out. It looks like may have views of downtown and possibly the UT tower when we trim back our bamboo.

A view of the new roof line at the back of the house.

before

Progress

Our contractor took advantage of a dry day to start the framing. Woo-hoo! Let's see how much they can get done before the big storms hit this Friday.

Let The Light Shine In

Yesterday they were to start removing our roof for our remodel but instead we had torrential rains, rivers flowing down the street. But today there is not a cloud in the sky and they have already made great progress. As the framing goes up we will finally get to see our project take shape.

*End of day update*

Views from what was previously our kitchen.


View from dining room and den.

Permit Blues

Everyone has warned us that construction projects are a pain, that nothing goes right and everything takes longer than expected. We were OK with that to some extent. But now we are facing issues and we have not even started yet.

Financing is all lined up - finally - and luckily there were two rate decreases along the way. Our rental house (only two houses down) is getting it's final touches and will be ready for us in a week.

But come to find out our construction permit expired. Our contractor was tasked with keeping it alive. They thought they did by scheduling the inspection before our contract expired. But the contract expired the day before the inspection and now the city is saying that the permit is dead.

Now, I haven't ever explained the history here. But right before the trips were born, when I was humongous, we rushed to complete the plans and get them submitted in order to beat the deadline for new McMansion laws. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this local legislation, the idea is to limit excessive development and retain the charm of these old neighborhoods. But in reality the actual rules don't defend the 'charm' and are arguably too strict. At least arguably too strict for a family about to have four children living in a bungalow in central Austin.

I'll spare you the details, but at a high level the rules say we can expand our house up to 2,500 sq ft total. However, with the latest rules - if our garage is less than 10 ft from the house (ours is 9 ft) then you have to count the square footage of our garage. I don't understand the rationale here, but that means the city wants our house to only be 2,100 sq ft.

We have protested with the city and our contractor is staked out there today to plead our case. If we lose this battle, we have to reapply for a permit and shorten the garage by one foot! (not sure how long re-applying will take and it will require some additional drawings) or apply for re-instatement (takes more than 30 days plus a fee).

The other thing is, we really went out of our way to ensure the plans retain the charm of the house, even at the expense of changing the roof line. From the front, the house won't look much bigger. The slope of the roof will be more steep, more in line with the English cottage architicture and we will be adding a big shed dormer window to balance the house and add views overlooking the park.

Either way, if we can't get this decision overturned it is going to cost us time and money. Either way we really need to move soon. There is no place to put Quattro in this tiny house.