Last evening was our scheduled meeting with Laurel and Angelito, our designer and builder from Novell Design Build. As I walked up the alley to the house, I couldn’t see much in the way of progress.
But my eyes deceived me! For lo and behold, when I got nearer it was plain that the slab had been poured!
(All images click to embiggen)
Check out that solid concrete floor! It really looked great, and not just in the garage.
Looking south through the bathroom toward the lane:
See that little window? It’s actually going to be replaced. Last weekend I was passing by (as I do!) and saw the hoses had been placed all over the floor. I didn’t want to step on the styrofoam they were sitting on, so I looked through the bathroom window to see. And then I thought “Hey, I shouldn’t be able to do this! I don’t want my bathroom window to be clear (especially at eye height)!” So I pointed it out to Laurel, and sure enough, an error had been made and the window will be fitted with obscure glass. **whew** You can see the roughed in drainage for the shower on the left, the toilet in the centre, and the sink on the right.
If you look north, to where the closet and the bedroom will be:
you can see where the hoses are all connected and will be accessible through the back of the bedroom closet (which is actually outside the bedroom). Over to the left is the under-stair storage:
the original header has been removed, so we will have access though a panel that will be much higher. Angelito and his crew will make sure it’s as invisible as possible, with a touch latch so no hardware — it will look just like another part of the wall. You will also note: stairs! The bottom two still have to be fixed so that we can install drawers in them for our shoes, but it makes going up and down so easy.
Note on the left-hand wall, there’s a smallish square window at the bottom of the stairs and a large rectangular window at the top. Between them rising up the stairs, there will be built-in bookshelves, in increasing size, so you will see small window, medium bookshelf, larger bookshelf, large window. This place is so well designed!
Up those stairs and around the corner look into the corner where the sitting area will be:
See that big, beautiful door? It will go into this corner:
We talked about a bunch of other things, too. Like the bedroom closet. It was designed so we can insert a 200cm wide closet system into it. But then I thought about putting in a regular closet, except it would be up to the ceiling. Angelito pointed out that the framing to support the doors we would want to put in would take up valuable closet space, and we kicked around some other ideas, but in the end we decided to go with the original plan. That’s what is so great about talking with the designer and builder right there. We can make so many decisions on the spot.
We also talked about putting shelving in, custom shelves versus out of the box; the drainage installed on the roof and the deck; the kitchen cabinets; the next steps. For the builders it will be sheathing and waterproofing, installing all the exterior doors and sealing off the house, getting inspections and putting on the torchon membrane in preparation for the living roof.
For us it will be getting in touch with their technology expert about the security, the vacuum system and the entertainment. Plus shopping for an arrangement in the sitting room that can give us maximum seating in a space 80 inches by 50 inches.
This morning I hopped up to the big house to babysit my grand-daughter. We had a great time, she made me “breakfast” with her play kitchen which was heavy on the plastic ice-cream cones and light on nutrition, and I thought “I can hardly wait until we are neighbours!”
In this story on their site, they tell the tale of Marya, her two cats and (cute) dog, who all live in 350 square feet in her home in Florida. She also works out of the space, which is why she has boxes piled up.
The Lady Who Lives Down the Lane 