Week 11

Not much happened this past week with the architect or the septic designer. I expected to get a review PDF of the house design from the architect, but it never arrived. We are meeting with him on Wednesday at 4pm to go over the design - hopefully we'll get the PDF before that so we can spend some time studying it. I'm surprised I didn't hear from the septic designer, two weeks ago he was asking for help to get the AutoCAD file opened.

I heard from the Cahan European Door company, they sent the quote I requested for the fold & slide doors I'd like to use in the pool room. As expected, the price was outrageous - around $20K to cover 24' of the 32' wall. I sent them email saying thanks, but way over budget.

I did find another fold & slide door company - HH Windows, in Seattle. They are actually a better choice than Cahan because they can go up to 20' wide (see below). I'm thinking that a 6x6 column at mid-span of that pool room outer wall would work well. That would require two sets of fold & slide, each having 6 panels of approx 30". Five of the panels would fold & slide, the end panel would be independent and swing inward. So, using two sets we'd place them so the independent doors meet at the center and the fold & slide panels would travel left and right. When the doors are open there would be approx 14' of opening on each side. Using that 6x6 post the rough opening would be 189.25" W x 95.50" H. I haven't worked this out with the architect yet, but will do so on Wednesday. I hope the HH doors are reasonably priced.

I received a magazine from the AquaQuip Pool Company - called Oasis. It's a good resource because it introduces you to a variety of pool equipment suppliers. One thing I want to employ is laminar flow water fountains (see below) with fiber optic lighting. These fountains are supposedly silent, engineered to make the water enter the pool at an angle and speed that make it silent. Another fountain I'll add is the FyreFly Jet. It sprays a number of streams into the pool, and is not silent. The fountain supplier is Water Crystal Fountains, and the lighting supplier is FiberStars. I'll also put some LED lighting in the pool and spa. A good supplier is O'Ryan Industries, especially their StarBurst series lights. I think the lighting will be very dramatic when the room lights are out.

The pool decking I'd like to use is Acrylic coating over concrete. One supplier is Kover Krete Systems. The materials come white; color can be added if wanted - I want it bright white.

Week 10

Attended the Seattle Home Show last Sunday. Walked around for about 5 hours. There were a couple hundred exhibitors. I went primarily with an agenda to visit suppliers of Swimming Pools, Spas, HVAC, Windows, Floors, Counters, Roofs.

I complained to one of the AquaQuip guys at their booth that the rep I was dealing with hasn't contacted me in a few weeks. I said he was suppose to get me a quote on a Pool and Spa, but nothing yet. He took my contact information and said he'd look into it. I received the quote by noon the next day. It was about what I was expecting, $63K for everything but the concrete work, so I am giving it some serious consideration.

I met the Hawaiian Pool rep - Bruce Anderson with Hydro-Tek Pools. I was surprised that Hawaiian had a rep in this area, when I did a search on their website using my zipcode nothing came up. It's good to have a competitor for the pool & spa! I sent Bruce email on Monday asking for a quote, but have not heard anything yet.

One important feature of the Pool Room is that its Eastern wall (which faces mountains) open up as much as possible. I've heard about accordian style doors for patios from a couple architects, so was on the look out for them while there. A local area firm - Cahan European Window Company, in Bellevue - produces Fold & Slide doors, and had them on display. They would work great. They only come in widths up to 12 feet, so at least two sets would be needed across the 30 foot Eastern wall. They offer a variety of wood species - see website - and have about a 14 week lead time from time order is placed. This long of wall would require a vertical post about mid-span of the opening; regardless if we go with the Cahan doors or Andersen's Slider we'll need a post. That probably works better from a structural standpoint anyway. I have relayed this info to the Architect, asking him to place a post there.

I did send email to Cahan on Monday asking for a quote, but no reply yet. I guess the exhibitors are really busy with all the leads they acquired while at the show - hopefully I'll be hearing from them all soon.

Bev and I found a couple of stone veneer suppliers - one we like best (so far) is Eldorado Stone. Their local rep is West Coast Masonry Supply. The veneer we have agreed on is called Monarch in Northwestern Canyon Gray - you can see it on their website. We would install it using the "Dry-Stack" technique. One thing I have to look into with the veneers is how they are used on gate posts - we intend to have a double swing gate across the driveway entrance - so can you apply the veneer under the gate mounts?; they seem heavy and likely to crack a veneer. Stone mason can probably answer this. I intend to build the gates posts myself - some of my sweat equity. BTW: Stone will be placed around the house in what I'm told is called a belly skirt, and around the posts for the porte cochere. Probably same stone will be used for the two fireplaces. I haven't decided yet if I'll be doing the belly skirt myself; Eldorado has a helpful video that makes it seem easy. I like doing tile floors, so this type of masonry should be similar.

Speaking of fireplaces, Bev decided she's OK with a gas unit in the Master Bdrm - she was debating whether to use wood or gas. We saw some nice examples at the show.

We saw a couple different HVAC systems. A water boiler type seemed interesting, it's produced by Conematic Heating Systems, Inc. It's a gas-fired unit that doesn't take up much space in garage, and provides hot water for heating as well as for plumbing. They claim that the majority of heating cost is in plumbing hot water, rather than heating. The Conematic costs about 15% more than a typical heat pump system. I'm leading towards a Trane furnace - Trane's quality is legendary, and their units tend to be good at energy conservation. I've considered a heat pump, over a furnace, but we just don't need the cooling around here. Spending around $12K for a HP, when you can get a furnace for around $8K seems wasteful.

Another big decision to be made is the type of roof. I like the look of a tile roof, but they can be a lot of trouble for maintenance (crack easily). Wood shake doesn't seem right for our style house. I guess a composite using the Presidential TL in the Yosemite color (dark charcoal) would be best. We used Versatile Roof a couple years ago to replace the cedar shakes on our current home, and will probably use them for this house - fair price and great service. I'd like to use a gutter-less design, that lets the rain drop onto a concrete splash barrier on the ground. This may be too expensive, but I'll have it price quoted by a concrete curbing company.

We looked at Granite Counter and Wood Floor exhibitors - didn't come away with much other than brochures because these are fairly standard items and we'll pick the suppliers when the time comes. Our friend, Jim Houtrouw, owns Sammamish Floor in Bellevue. His guys did a great job when we remodelled a couple years ago, so we probably will use them for this house. One thing we do agree on is the type of wood floors we'd like - Brazillian Cherry!

That's it for the major things we came away with from the show.

I heard from Huard Septic on Friday. Dave Huard emailed saying he couldn't open the AutoCAD file I had on my server, so I put 2000 and 2004 versions out there. He's suppose to get back with me Monday letting me know if either of them could be opened. I went ahead and bought ProgeCAD from ICAD Sales (I spoke about this great, low cost AutoCAD compliant software a few weeks back). I bought the $375 Pro version - I might need 3D CAD again someday, and since it was only an extra $125 over the Std 2D version, I figured it was money well spent. I hope Huard can add their septic design to my DWG project file - same with the architect and other suppliers that come on board.

Week 9

Boring week - accomplished very little.

Met with Dave Huard the septic designer at the site and walked the land with him and his asst Leah. They marked off the areas that Leah will bring the backhoe to and dig the perk holes. He said we should be able to place the septic in the area that we want - below the home site in center of property. He also said he would use the AutoCAD drawing I started, and add the septic design to it.

It's been 3 weeks now and I haven't heard back from Jim Bergstrom, the AquaQuip outside sales guy. He was suppose to get me a quote - how long does it take! He hasn't been very responsive - can't email him because it always bounces back (he didn't seem too concerned when I told him this a month ago; I also contacted AquaQuip's IT group by email, but no answer). You'd think he'd call a hot prospect for a $60K sale - business must be really good for him. We're going to the Seattle Home show Sunday. There are several pool companies on the exhibitor's list - we'll see if we can find a better vendor.

I'll report on the Home Show next week.

Week 8

This makes two months since we officially started - time flies; feels like we're crawling!

Met with architect on Tuesday for a couple hours. We showed him markups of the floor plan to show him the changes we would like to make. Biggest change is kitchen - we are removing the island and and moving the counter inward a few feet to tighten the layout up. We want a larger pantry, so we are removing the small closet in the utility room and using that space to add to the pantry in the kitchen. We also wanted more cabinet space in kitchen, so we are removing the desk and adding a built-in hutch with a food prep area.

Another thing Bev wants is a window seat in the Adult Conversation Room. So, the architect is adding a window on the side wall that looks out on porch, next to the existing window (90 deg opposed) and adding a built-in window seat. He will also move the outside wall, which faces front of house, out about 4 feet.

The dining room won't have any changes - maybe the window will be smaller so that pool room ducting can be installed on both sides.

The Master Bath will see much change. The architect said he has some ideas on improving the space, so the next time we meet with him (2 weeks) he should be able to show us something interesting. One thing we want is a fireplace in the bedroom - Bev wants a wood burning fp, but I think a gas unit would be more practical.

We are also adding a coat closet to the wall outside the Home Office, on the angled space that appears in orig design to have a statuary place - we're not statuary people.

We talked about the Bonus Room also. We'll have the bath moved over to the stairs side, so that the room could someday be split into two rooms.

One thing we want to keep from the original design is all the windows that look out over the pool area. All the first floor rooms have a view of the pool from various angles, which makes it seem like you are on a large body of water.

Huard Septic got started this week. They didn't accomplish much, mainly visited the property and looked around. They said there appeared to be a recent survey and asked if I could get a copy. I'm not sure what they were talking about, the current owners had a survey done in the 80's, but nothing since. I suspect they saw the markers for an adjacent property and assumed it was my property. I am meeting them at the site next Tuesday morning to walk around with them.