Life At Villa Boswell

I spoke with Chris tonight.  Both of us are feeling tired and overwhelmed by our work loads (he on the house and me on house/job stuff).  It’s been such a long haul, and it never seems quite done.  We broke ground in May of 2007 and spent 2 years prior to that in intense design/planning/structural.  I tried to cheer him up, and as I did so, I couldn’t help but do this little exercise, because by training I document stuff.

So, when someone sees the completed house, practically everything that you lay your eyes on will have been created, installed, modified or highly directed by Chris, Lora, Brian, me, or Clay. 

Let’s Start with Lora

She made her presence available daily since the time the roof was up and she could feel like she could physically contribute.  Aside from being a constant material gopher and general neater-upper, Lora has done:

• fill in and sanding on almost all exterior trim on the house
• installing the exterior door with chris (just the two of them)
• painting that trim… this involved climbing around a scaffold at age 72, no, wait, 76
• scraping endless stucco slop off the exterior window areas
• tiling the fancy bathroom #1 with slate tile, mostly herself
• helping chris put up the decking
• directing and participating in and buying all the base paint for all the rooms
• helping place electrical boxes
• rough carpentry
• rough plumbing work, like around the kitchen
• key advice on radiant floors
• endless trips to the store to get stuff and assist with pickup/delivery

And she’s not done.

Brian/Clay

Clay was involved in the project only in the early phase, but when he was working, he and Brian both spent many long days tying rebar and making rebar frames for inserting them into the 18"x15′ deep piers.  Brian continues to help on the house and he does faux paining (quite nicely) and is available 2 afternoons a week to do lots of gopher-type stuff, like drilling holes through concrete, stringing wire and cutting tile.  He’s gotten very comfortable with the compound mitre saw.  This last summer, Clay worked for a couple of days while on vacation, doing some rough carpentry.

Me

I did the painting, so that doesn’t count for much, but the visual design and color schemes (right down to picking out the colorant for the concrete and mold release) is something I oversaw quite carefully. I’ll do some tile work. I also did some welding for the window railings. I ordered and followed through on most of the items and did lots of project managing stuff, and since I speak Spanish, I interacted with Alberto and Rigo and Saul a lot about the driveway/walkway.  I also worked 4 days a week, since I’m the income earning part of the operation these days.  Purchases, orders, and follow through on:

• most of the paint (they know me by name at Ocean Shore)
• appliances
• every faucet and shower valve and trim kit
• doorknobs (locking, passthru, closet)
• cabinet handles
• windows
• doors, interior and exterior and garage
• door trim sets (ebay)
• sinks (6)
• toilets (oy, the master bath toilet saga…)
• every tile (flooring, backsplash, 2 distinct bathrooms–two suppliers)
• cabinets for baths, kitchens, and living room (involves multiple plan/meeting/design iterations)
• granite/limestone for kitchen, two baths, two fireplaces (10 separate design areas)
• radiant boilers (ebay, no kidding)
• all light switches and receptacles (dimmer, 3 way, 4 way vacancy sensors, 15a singles) (ebay…)
• light trim (recessed lighting housing and trim design by me, placed by chris and moved by poor chris when I didn’t like it)
• motorized blinds to hand-create the TV concealers so we don’t have to pay $$ for the already-made kind
• baseboard and crown molding
• stucco (the right color took multiple orders)
• roof tile
• concrete colorant and powder release
• concrete stamps
• light fixtures, interior and exterior (lots of these)
• steam shower components
• built-in speakers and being "pusher" for stereo wiring with grumpy chris

And there is still furniture, window treatments, and rugs to order.

Chris

Chris, however, has been involved in practically everything.  When I think of it, there are only two things that happened in the house that he didn’t have much input/change in:  stucco, roofing, and drywall.  Even the drywall, though, he did under the stairs and around the curves.  It’s astonishing when I reflect on the things he’s done and will do yet:

• directing all foundation work: rebar in piers, form construction, retaining wall construction, perimeter construction
• directing and directly participating in erecting all SIPs walls and rough framing
• all that yucky, boring, back-breaking drainage design and work, directing and participating in
• placing, mitring all exterior mold/trim around house
• installing the windows and exterior doors and garage doors
• creating the window railings and deck railing system
• creating a custom mold that we’ll use for decorative posts for the railing (on his days "off")
• designing/creating/modifying all exterior hardscaping elements: driveway, walkway, stairs, stair repair, lane boundary
• 2/3 of the rough electrical
• 2/3 of the rough plumbing
• designing/creating the master staircase, finishing the garage staircase
• radiant system design and installation of all heating components and ventilation components
• radiant floor tubing and pouring prep
• tricky construction of kitchen bar (tied into the steel ibeam) and all arches in the house
• wallboard installation for 3 shower areas
• very detailed, specific design of the master bathroom steam shower, including waterproof membrane and custom work around the window for tiling
• cabinet installation in kitchen and baths
• customized cabinet installation in bathroom #1
• finish electrical
• finish plumbing
• exterior stairway to deck
• custom installation of stair treads and design of master stair with travertine/tile
• custom modification and installation of our copper range hood
• tiling, lots and lots…
• door installation, trim installation, handle installation
• All cabinet handles in kitchen
• All crown moulding for kitchen and master bath cabs
• Moulding and trim for walls
• figuring out all that work with gas and electric for service lines, requirements, and scheduling
• customized tv sceen concealers
• customized kitchen table

It’s just amazing.