With the high speed internet to the job site, we can now get our ‘construction cam’ working.
Try clicking on the link below:

What do you think?

Low VOC Epoxy Paint in Mechanical Rooms

We put the second coat of low VOC epoxy paint on the floor in three locations on Thursday afternoon, and then the clear coat on yesterday.  It was dry today.

The mechanical rooms will look good with a bright, shiny floor.

Our construction cam, is a Panasonic BL-C210. Indoor use only, light duty camera.

The beige epoxy paint looks much better than the gray epoxy paint.

The sewage ejector is connected and ready for inspection.

The electrical components are coming together nicely. The cover for the transfer switch will hide most of the wires here.

Looking from the back of the East Mechanical room shows the better match on the floor colors.

The West Mechanical room looks good with the beige epoxy floor paint.

Were insulating the two steel beams with Aerogels Spaceloft insulation. After the first layer of 0.4 inch Spaceloft, we will use closed cell foam. The layer of Spaceloft gives us R-12, and we will have two layers between the flange of the steel beam and the window frames.

We will be installing a generator in the back, as the City of Monte Sereno requires us to have an auxiliary back up power for our sump pumps. Since the harness will be in 170 feet of conduit, we have to make our own cables. This is one of the two harnesses that Bryan picked up on Thursday.

And, here is the second wire harness. Also included is the legend, on a sticker. There are five wires in one harness and nine in the other. We need two data cables, 170 feet long for each of these harnesses.

Based on advice from Bob Wise, we will be using smurf tubes in our soffits and other locations so we can run cables in the future to keep up with the latest in cable technologies.

Our house is (will be?) ultra-modern.  We are using concrete, glass and steel and very little ‘trim’ so it will have a clean, bold look.  This could result in a somewhat ‘harsh’ feel so, at the same time, we need to soften the boldness with wood and make the house more gentle.  Of course, the materials must be from California …

With our ceiling being made of the reclaimed Redwood from the original house in 1969 (it is a remodel), we thought the hardwood flooring could be extremely complimentary if it was made of Madrone.  The native forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains are mainly Redwood, with some Madrone sprinkled through.

We investigated Madrone hardwood flooring and came across Out of the Woods, which is a local producer of native Caifornia hardwoods and is located close by in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  Bonny Doon, to be exact.

We have been working with Dave Merchant, from Out of the Woods, in order to use Madrone hardwood in our house.  Dave has been very patient with us as it has been an exceptionally long ‘sales cycle’ with us.   Bryan first toured Dave’s operations on May 20, 2009 (see Touring the ‘Out of the Woods’ Operations in Bonny Doon).

Knowing where we are with our project, Dave called Bryan and invited him to come see the pallet of Madrone hardwood flooring that Dave had allocated to our project.  If the wood meets our needs then Dave would like a deposit on the wood until it is delivered to our job site.

Bryan drove to Bonny Doon and reviewed the Madrone hardwood …

Dave has a shop that is located on a unique property, which overlooks the Pacific. It was a rainy, damp day in the Santa Cruz Mountains so the spectacular views of the Pacific were hidden.

This pallet of wood looks like it is ours ...

Yes, it is ours. The tag reads, '60 Bundles, Bryans Flooring, 1,520.8 sq. ft.'

The wood looks good - nice and dry as it has been cut, kiln dried and then seasoned for more than a year.

View from the end of the pallet.

We mocked up our zinc fascia today.  And put three yellow cedar shakes on.  It is cool.  Way cool.

After we finalize the design, the installation crew from Wildcat Metals will arrive on our job site on Thursday morning so they can work through and finish putting the zinc facia on the gables by Tuesday, December 21.  The natural zinc material is from Rheinzink and the yellow cedar shakes are from BCF Shake Mill in Shanty Bay, Canada.

Time in 2010 is dwindling quickly – we leave for Edmonton early on December 22.

Designing the Cooling Panel System in Our Wine Cellar

Our home will be heated using geothermal heat exchange.  As a byproduct of making hot water, we will make cold water.  That cold water will be put back into the ground.  Instead of putting the cold water back into the ground and making our overall geothermal system less efficient, we will use the cold water to chill our wine in the Wine Cellar.  How cool is that?

Way cool …

While a great idea, using the waste cold water to keep our Wine Cellar cool requires an immense amount of design work.  Fortunately, we have an outstanding design team!  Markus Benzenhofer, from Twa Panel Systems, and Ken Martin, from Silicon Valley Mechanical are world class professionals, and know how to move BTUs from room-to-room, and from the exterior of a structure to inside that same structure.  And, of course, visa versa. 

Bryan met with Markus today to specify the cooling panels for the ceiling of the Wine Cellar.  As well, there are other aspects of the design that they reviewed, including how to move the chilled water to and from the West Mechanical room.

They took detailed measurements so Markus could calculate how many BTUs could be ‘dumped’ into the Wine Cellar and how those BTUs could be controlled by the system that Ken Martin is designing.

The mechanics of moving the waste cold water to the Wine Cellar is important as the structural elements of the Wine Cellar must be designed to work effectively.  The order of construction must be determined as well as the structural strength required by racks that hold the wine bottles.

If the capacity of the Wine Cellar is 2,900 750-ml bottles and each bottle weighs 1.0 kilo then the total weight of each of the three racks (when full) will be more than 2,000 lbs.  When we experience an earthquake of, say, 8.8, we don’t want the wine rack to collapse.  575 gallons of wine would make a huge mess.  The wine racks must be strong.  We don’t want to cry over spilled wine (but we would).

During the discussion, Markus raised a very important point.  We should consider having some ‘fast’ heating in the Wine Dining as anyone in there needs to be comfortable in order to enjoy the wine.  We will consider and evaluate using electrically operated radiant in the floor where people will be seated.  This is important, especially for Jo-Anne’s comfort (Bryan can suffer cold feet, Jo-Anne cannot).

The first piece of natural zinc (from Rheinzink) is fastened to the gable rake fascia over the Garage. It looks great!

Bryan took three shakes and used a 1-inch overhang to see what the shakes would look like. We could probably have the seam extend anothe 1/2 inch, so the flat expanse of the zinc would be reduced.

We measured the zinc fascia seam on the lower flat roof and it must change. We'd like to keep the same proportions with the gable roof rakes so the seam on the lower flat roof should be at 10-1/2 inches (not 11-1/2 inches),

Bryan, with our daughter Kate, went to K&L Wine Merchants in Redwood City to review the design of their wine racks.  As they say, “Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

We see things a bit different.  We want to take someone else’s ending point and use that as our starting point.  Essentially, we want to take someone else’s idea and make it better.

Yes, we’re lazy.

Various Wine Rack Design Elements Are Acceptable

K&L sells wine to consumers.  They have many people going through their branches and handling their wine bottles.  Also, K&L has been around for years so they know that earthquakes happen.  Consequently, their wine racks are designed to be robust and take a lot of punishment.

One of the interesting things that we learned was that K&L has several designs for their wine racks, indicating to us that nothing was ‘best’ and that various designs were acceptable.

Prior to taking any photos, Bryan bought a case of wine then asked for permission to take the photos.

Kate played patiently on her iTouch.

Rack with three rows of display bottles with the individual bottles under each.

Detail of rack, showing the mitering of the edges of each bottle support. All the racks are made of Redwood.

Detail at base of rack. The racks did not appear to be anchored to the floor as, probably, to allow for flexibiltiy in changing traffic patterns in the store.

Magnum bottles (1.5 l) ... we need some of these but not too many.

Structural detail on side of racks, showing 3/4 inch by 1-1/2 inch Redwood framing.

A distraction! Bryan got stuck in the section with wines from Argentina. This is a bottle of the ultra premium wine from Vina Cobas.

Another fine wine from Argentina. We haven't tried the wines from Durigutti. Yet ...

Shameless, and without any pride, Bryan pulls out his tape measure and gets to work recording the dimensions.

Depth of the display rack ...

Width of the rack ...

Dimensions for magnums (1.5 l) ...

Dimensions for 750 ml bottles ...

Display rack slope measurements ...

Height of display. Note this is for retail purposes, with people wandering through the racks.

Verifying the depth of the racks, again.

Our friends at White Cap Construction Supply delivered our yellow cedar shakes today.  Our garage is filled.

Now, we need to get the shakes onto the roof.  Except the zinc fascia goes on the gable ends (rakes) first. Wildcat Metals is putting the zinc fascia on the gable ends for us, and this needs to happen.

Selecting Hardware for Our Front Door

We committed to selecting the hardware for our front door so this was at the top of Bryan’s agenda for today.  He had lots going on at the job site so he juggled several items while identifying the exact part numbers from FSB.

In the afternoon, Bryan called Nathan Merrill, from American Ornamental Iron, and agreed to meet him at his shop tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 8:30 am.  They will go over all the design and corresponding hardware details so Nathan can start fabricating the door.

Installing the Sliding Glass Doors in the Wine Cellar

There are three sliding glass doors that must be installed by a Fleetwood-certified installer.  The three-panel, 24 ft wide door on the ground floor and the doors to the Wine Dining and Wine Cellar.  We engaged Phil Murray to install these sliding glass doors for us.

Phil sent Theron Boulden to the job site first thing this morning.  Then, Phil came by at 10:00 am to ensure the installation would progress as planned.  With everything on track, Phil left before noon to another job.

We need to have the concrete edge on the ground floor cut to a nice crisp edge, so Bryan called Penhall and arranged to have a techician on site at 10:00 am tomorrow morning.

Our yellow cedar shakes from B.C. arrived at the job site this morning on a truck from White Cap Construction Supply. Unloading the two pallets of shakes on Via Sereno took minutes. Way, way cool ...

The shakes filled our garage!

View from inside Wine Dining of the frame to the Wine Cellar being assembled. Note the temporary lighting in the lower level. It is definitely starting to operate like a house!

We have numerous penetrations from the ground floor to the lower level through our hollow core concrete panels.  Today, we had Penhall Company core the first 12 holes.

Also, Al and Nep completed installing the temporary lighting throughout the lower level (basement) and then they worked with Bryan to put the first layer of GAF’s Deck Armor on the South face of the South gable roof.

We’re continuing the drive to be weather tight.

Engaging Penhall Company for Our Core Drilling

We need to have a number of holes through the concrete floor from the ground floor to the lower level.  These holes are for plumbing (drains, hot and cold water, and vents), the central vacuum system, electrical, radiant heating and cooling (supply/return lines), communications wiring, and air ventilation.  There were a number of ‘structural’ penetrations for Simpson Strong Tie connections (with HTT22 hold downs), which were completed and had to be in specific locations.

Provided that there are no point loads in the vicinity, John Minton, Chief Engineer for Hanson Structural Precast, advised us that we could drill holes pretty much anywhere through the hollow core concrete panels.  On the West side of the house, we have multiple penetrations for plumbing and air vents. 

The single person from Penhall Company arrived at ~11:25 am and Bryan oriented him to the project and site.  Then, he set to work with his core drill and completed 4 3-inch holes, 2 5-inch holes and 6 1-inch holes.  The first 3-inch hole was in ‘open concrete’ (not a framed wall).  After getting set up, the coring started at 11:58 am and was completed at 12:06 pm.  Eight minutes to core through 11-1/4 inches of concrete.  Including orientation, start up and shut down, the 12 holes took 4 hours.

The technician doing the coring advised Bryan that he could core at an angle, and could core any size in 1/2-inch increments, from 1 inch through to 10 inches with the equipment on his truck.  He came equipped with a vacuum to clean the cuttings.  Next time, Bryan will ensure there are garbage cans in the lower level to catch the debris from each coring.  That will make cleaning up fast and easy.

We need to put scaffolding in place for any holes we require in the wall or in the ceiling (from the lower level going up. 

Measuring Our Front Door Opening

Nathan Merrill, from American Ornamental Iron, came to the job site at noon to measure the opening for the door frame that he will be designing and fabricating.  Nathan reviewed the location and discussed design alternatives to ensure the door is watertight and airtight.  He wanted to confirm the dimensions in person and discuss the finishing with Bryan.

Nathan stressed that the door will be fabricated soon and that Bryan needs to identify and order the door handle hardware.  This is on the ‘critical path’ for completing the door.

We want to have the Eichler signature door in place quickly since (1) we want to be weather tight and, importantly, (2) we want to have our traditional holiday card photo taken in front of the red door.  This is a high priority item for us.

During the discussion, Bryan suggested that the door be insulated with the SpaceLoft insulation, from Aerogel.  This material, of which we have some 598 sq. ft. is R-10.3 per inch.  The material we have is 0.4 inches thick per sheet so Nathan will design and fabricate the door so we can put three layers into the cavity.  An added benefit is that the door can be completely fabricated and then welded together with the SpaceLoft inside.  The heat from the welding will not affect the insulation performance whatsoever.

Then, the conversation turned to painting.  Nathan liked the idea of completing the door before it was powder coated.  When Nathan mentioned powder coating, Bryan asked if Nathan had used Kynar paints before.  No, he had not.  Bryan explained that the sill pans and drip caps were being painted with Kynar paints, and being completed by Top Gun Industrial Finishings in Santa Clara.

There are a couple things for both Nathan and Bryan to follow up on.

The red front door will be way cool …

Protecting the Gable Roofs

The plywood deck on our gable roofs needs to be protected for two reasons.  First, we want to be weather tight soon so the forecasted rains this weekend will not delay the installation of the shakes, once they arrive from Canada.  Thus, we need to put something over the plywood decking to keep it dry until the shakes go on.

Second, the plywood deck itself needs to be protected from the shakes.  We need to have a breathable fabric, such as a 30 lb roofing felt.  However, since we have a TPO single-ply membrane flat roof, we cannot risk the ‘leakage’ of any asphalt- or oil-based substances from contaminating the TPO.

We selected Deck Armor from GAF to use for underlay.  It is a premium product and is very lightweight and lays very flat on the plywood deck.  importantly, it is water resistant yet it still breathes.  Any moisture in the plywood decking below will escape through the ridge vent as well as go through the Deck Armor.  Thus, the shakes should have a longer life as will the plywood roof deck.

Deck Armor can be exposed to UV for up to 180 days.  It will be exposed in our location for less than 30 days.

Bryan picked up two 10-square rolls from Ford Wholesale this morning and then worked with Al and Nep and installed the Deck Armor on the South side of the South gable in 75 minutes.  It was too late to take a photo today.

Anyone driving North-bound on Winchester Boulevard will see our light-blue colored roof now.

Truck from Penhall Company arrived at ~11:30 am.

Core drill set up for the first 3-inch hole.

Drilling in progress ... almost there.

Done! The actual drilling took eight (8) minutes (set up and tear down time not included).

Nathan Merrill from American Ornamental Iron arrived on site to measure the front door opening and review the design with Bryan.