Today was our first inspection.  It could have gone better.

We called for the inspection last week and, since the Building Official for the City of Monte Sereno was not available on Friday, we had our inspection this morning at 11:00 am.  We needed to have the reinforcing steel (rebar) inspected, as well as the rough-in of the plumbing and the electrical conduit inspected.

Ready for inspection.

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With the delay on the inspection by the City of Monte Sereno, we worked with Larson Steel and made some changes to the design, and agreed to move forward on this project with Larson Steel.

Larson Steel, Inc. in Gilroy

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Our plan is to pour the foundation slab on Monday, March 2.  This requires having the City of Monte Sereno inspect and approve the progress to date.  Bryan called the City of Monte Sereno to request an inspection for Friday, February 27 and learned that no inspections will be done on that date.  OK, we just slipped by a day and the inspection will be between 10:00 am and noon on Monday, March 2.

Jessica from Duquette Engineering arrived to review the structural steel.  Since she had not been to the project site before, Thien had her look at this construction blog to prepare for her site visit (that rocks!). 

Jessica inspects the reinforcing steel (dimensions, spacing and overlaps).

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We were delighted to invite all of our neighbors on Via Sereno and adjacent neighbors on Winchester Boulevard to come to our ‘Open Hole’ Party (it is not quite an open house at this phase in our remodel).

Of the other 15 Eichler homes on Via Sereno, 6 neighbors attended so we were very pleased.  We learned that the largest house footprint on Via Sereno is 3,500 sq ft (ours is 3,048 sq ft).  There were several discussions regarding how the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake shook the Eichlers on Via Sereno and how no windows broke in any of the Eichlers.  One question that we will address is to show the actual composition/layers from the finished floor in the lower level to the raw earth.

Preparation and Set Up

Setting up a temporary table using High Load 40 and a tablecloth on sawhorses.

We set out the concrete stain samples, high density foam samples, and the re-milled original redwood decking for everyone to view and give us comments on.

Samples of concrete stain colors, high density foam and the re-sawn original redwood deck.

Temporary mounting for corkscrew (gift from Donna and Mike circa Y2K).

Kate and our Toy Fox Terrier, Lucky Star, waiting patiently for our first visitors.

John Rider (Jrider + Design) explaining the design to our neighbor, Ray.

Our neighbor, Ned, reviewing the site with author Jerry Ditto.

Our neighbor, Eric, discussing the plans with John Rider (Jrider + Design).

Jerry Ditto and Ned reviewing rendering with Bryan.

Our neighbors, Paul and Siri, arriving with their daughter.

Pia and Bryan discussing rendering.

Baby Martin, David and Pia's son, enjoying the afternoon.

View of the event.

Bryan reviewing rendering with Diane and Bill Brown.

Our son, Nikolas, with his good friend Ryan.

We enjoyed hosting an event so everyone could see our progress.

Paul, Dave, Laurie and Robert reviewing the site.

The railing was a nice touch, especially when leaving the excavation.

After securing the site, Robert and Laurie hosted a wonderful, impromptu dinner at their home in Los Gatos.

Thank you everyone for coming to visit our site!

The weather continues to be with us – today was a beautiful, warm, blue-sky California day, which allowed the team to complete the waterproofing and prepare to pour the working slab on Monday.  It was one of the warmest days in January for Los Gatos.

Morning break time on the project site.

Bryan completed collating the plan set with engineering calculations to submit to the City of Monte Sereno – and then submitted the revised plans before 2:00 pm.  The changes in the plan set included:

• One concrete wall was removed and replaced with a stud wall.  The wall that was removed was under the north side of the garage wall and affected the weight of the structure (so the engineering calculations relating the hydrostatic pressure were updated by Duquette Engineering).
• Electric sump pumps located in the south window well and stair well were replaced with drains and overflows going to the sump pit, which has redundant electric sump pumps.
• Location of the sewage ejector in the south east mechanical room is more precise, as it requires excavation detail.
• Utility trenches for underground services were changed, as requested by Pacific Gas & Electric.
• Shower stalls have changed from 36 inches by 36 inches to approximately 36 inches by 40 inches (as requested by Jo-Anne).

Update submitted to the City of Monte Sereno on 01/30/09.

The waterproofing for the heavy, 20 inch mat slab was completed today.  As part of the warranty from Grace, photos are taken of the installation and reviewed to ensure the installation is as specified.  Bob came out to take photos.  Coincidentially, our plumbing contractor, Wes was on site so we have a quick impromptu scheduling meeting with Tim and Jorge. 

Impromptu scheduling meeting (left/right - Wes, Bob, Tim and Jorge).

Given the weather and the progress, Tim scheduled the pouring of the 3 inch protection slab on Monday and Wes will have his crew on site on Tuesday morning to do the plumbing rough-in.

The protection slab will allow Bill Brown’s team to complete insulating the east and west walls, then put the Grace Preprufe 160 on all the exterior walls, and then have the rebar placed.  After that, we’ll be ready to pour the 14 inch structural slab and then shotcrete the perimeter and interior walls.

South window well completed, showing the waterproofing and drain.

 

Waterproofing completed, ready to pour the protection slab on Monday.

Bryan was ensuring the site is ready for our ‘Open Hole Party’ on Saturday afternoon and our neighbor, John McLaren, stopped to see the progress.  

John pulls up to the project site.

We’re ready for the first showing of our project site to our neighbors and friends on Saturday afternoon! 

 

 

 

 

I picked up our building permit from the City of Monte Sereno today at 10:15 am! After paying the school fees yesterday and engaging Charlie Touchatt to excavate the basement, having the building permit in hand was sweet!

I called Bill Brown and everyone else involved so we could start mobilizing to start the excavation on Monday morning.

At the same time, I was looking at the materials that were delivered yesterday to build the temporary deck to cover the swimming pool. I wasn’t particularly pleased with the quality of the materials as the tongue and groove plywood was badly warped. I suspect that this will make the installation more difficult and time-consuming, but it was too late to replace the materials.

Warped Plywood for Pool Deck

It is a beautiful blue-sky California fall day and I’m looking forward to Paul’s arrival so we can get the deck built to cover the swimming pool.

Pool Cover Site

Charlie delivered the excavator to the project site at 4:30 pm so we can ‘break ground’ on Monday morning.

Yeah!

Oh, I almost forgot. I engaged Jose’s tree service to remove the 75 ft tall Canary Island Pine tree on Saturday. It is time for everyone to pay their last respects to the tree. I have to confess that I was saddened by the upcoming event.

Last respects to Canary Island Pine