It's really finished?

We moved in around December 28th after Christmas in the old house.
Amazingly quickly we were unpacked and settled. Something to be said for not being a rat pack. The kids are sooooooo happy each their own room, a luxury. Lots of freedom to explore woods, animals, tree swings, stars. The kitchen was designed for the kids user friendly and it works. We gave the larger bedroom (master) to our guests. Friends come for weekends and stay the night, none of this drinking and driving.

Party Deck

The deck is so large we are calling it the other house.
This is definitely a spot to party. Remember we wanted inside /outside living, low garden maintenance, we love to travel and yet some space for a veggie garden. The architect has done an amazing job on our design.
By the way Architect: Harvey Hacker in San Francisco
Inside they are busy with mudding the sheet rock, unfortunately I did not hire the best crew for this. I wanted smooth wall also called 5 wall, on a scale of 1-5.
The sanding is the key here and that was not done properly. Our painter has taken over and is working his butt off to get it back on track.

Insulation, Drainage and Sheet Rock

Now everything is moving very fast.
Before I can say yes sir, the next thing has to be ordered and installed
We hired some guys off of Craigs list and they installed the insulation over a weekend....your typical R19 Kraft for the walls and R30 for the ceiling.
Donny, my main man for sheet rock and mud has moved in and is jamming.
Drainage is overkill and a joke. The county is basically making us take care of their problems to the tune muchooooo money.
Bob is busy with the deck and that is a large heavy project.
Stay tune for deck

Siding

After having tested many colors of stain and trim colors. Making sample palettes to match with our beautiful Bronze Marvin windows
We came up with beechwood for the siding a semi transparent oil stain and Onondaga clay for the trim, a latex paint.
This is not easy, many samples must be made big to really see colors that will go together. The windows are in except for a few that are awaiting the roof.
Our customs windows are really gorgeous.

Everyone wants more fotos

I am pleasantly surprised how many people around the world are viewing my blog, from Holland to France, Australia and Brazil. Friends of my parents ages 75-85 and every other age in between. Everyone wants more fotos. I was overseas for 10 days and the first thing Edwige said " we must go see the house, the blog needs more photography".
I am deep into the siding ( cedar t/g tight knot) for the outside of the house, instead of windows and doors going next, siding has become a priority because of a nicer looking venting detail. Here you can see the stairs going to the top floor kids bedrooms, the back of the house and a view of the main living area.

Walking into rooms

As you can tell Matisse is pretending she is taking a bath and Edwige is cooking dinner at the make believe stove. Yes you can now walk around and get a really good feeling of where the rooms are downstairs, how big, size of closets. I played a game with my daughter called, run to the bathroom, where is the tub, Moucheopa/oma room. We started looking at where lights would fit on walls. Edwige has bought the coolest scones by Luce Plan. They were inspired by swimming googles and we are planning to install them (3) for the kids, bathtub room. There is a tub/shower room, two toilet/sink rooms and a walk in shower room. Four bathrooms, but not in the traditional American way four people can each get ready in the morning. But there are only 2 toilets and 2 sinks and 2 places to shower.
My kids have no idea how lucky they are to be able to build a house. Maybe not till they get older and have kids of their own will they realize, my parents built a house "that was pretty cool"
And we got to paint our own room. There is promise of a dog at the end of this tale. This is dog country, it seems that all of the 2000 Montara residents have a dog. There is also talk of hamsters, but with our cat that will be short lived I am afraid.
Every time we drive out there, which is often I see the sun, a welcomed reprieve from Pacifica.
Apparently, this area in the back of Montara is called sunshine valley, hence all the commercial flowers fields.

WOW what a roof line

I drove up last week to say hi to the "guys", my eyes bulged out of my head, what a roof line.
It is one thing to see this on a drawing and another to see it in person.
I was shocked with happiness, my reaction was this is not your "neighborhood house".
My dream is coming true. This is a wild house full of things that are possibly if you dream.
I have always been a believer that if you want something bad enough it will happen, but you must focus on it with all your positivity, with your heart and hopes and never lose site.
I love his roof line.