With sprinkles in the weather forecast for Monday and rain on Tuesday, we needed to complete welding the final nine posts in place.  We had welded five of the fourteen posts on Thursday.

Welding the Posts

Tony Gutierrez and ‘Little Pete’ arrived just after 8:00 am this morning at our project site.  It was foggy and a bit cool. 

Bryan had the site prepared and the remaining posts laid out.  We were able to start quickly and soon completed the welding on post 33, at the top of the stairs.  This was a complex post as it needed base plates put in and grinding so we could align the bottom of the post correctly.

After post 33, we put post 28 in place, which is on the corner.  This one was a bit tougher and went ok.  Then, we struggled with post 27, an intermediate post.  Finally, it lined up on the third attempt.  We all wanted it perfect.

Back to the top of the staris and we put in post 32, which lined up nicely with post 28.  However, the next intermediate post, post 29, required cutting into the hollow core so we could weld it on all sides.  Posts 29 and 30 were a snap.

Posts in protective wrapping from Paramount Modular Cable Railing Systems

Little Pete welding a shim in place for post 28.

Tony Gutierrez holding post 28 in place while Little Pete welds it.

Tony holds post 27 as Little Pete tacks it in place. We got this one right on the third try.

 Reed and Cole Drop Off a Router

We need to put some temporary railings on the posts so Reed Kingston came by with one of his boys, Cole, and dropped off a router.  They did a quick tour of the site and even tested the stairs.

Reed pointing out some key elements in the plans for his son, Cole.

Cole and Reed posing behind the plan table.

We’re Done

Then, we moved to the front of the house, to weld posts 16 and 19 into place.  These are the first posts our visitors will see when they enter the house.   Post 16 was perfect.  Post 19 was a bit tough as the cap plate was rotated by 90 degrees.  Tony assessed the situation and explained how we could fix it easily.  Fifteen minutes later, it was in place.

We finished by tacking covers over five openings in the steel where concrete could possible flow when we continue pouring.

Then, we packed up and were done.  Bryan closed and locked the gate just before 2:30 pm.

Our posts are in!

Looking up from the bottom of the atrium. It was a beautiful, blue-sky California day.

Our posts are in and looking great!

Posts 33 (left) and 32 (right), showing the bracings, etc. that will buried in concrete shortly.

Completed posts. Very nice.

Posts 16 (left) and 19 (right), which are the first two seen when coming in the front door. Note the clean face of the posts (no holes).

Ute called me yesterday and mentioned that she saw our construction blog and was most interested in seeing our cistern.  She is completing a project in Los Altos and would like to include a rainwater catchment system, including a cistern.

Ute explained that she is a client of John Rider.

Hosting the Site Visit

Ute arrived at our site and Bryan took her on a full tour.

After the tour, Ute called John and he dropped by for a quick visit.

John Rider and Ute on site.

Lana Malloy and Don Perry Visit the Site, Too

Just as John and Ute were leaving, Bryan spotted Lana Malloy, one of the Council members with the City of Monte Sereno, walking on Via Sereno.  Lana was on VIa Sereno to review the sidewalk by Winchester Boulevard.  Given she had not seen our project site since construction started, Bryan took the opportunity to give Lana a quick tour.

Lana was on Monte Sereno’s Site and Architecture Commission before joining City Council in November 2008.  She was on the Site and Architecture Commission that approved our site development permit in July 2008.

Just as Lana was leaving, another Council member came by.  Don Perry had to review the same sidewalk area on Winchester so, after doing so, he was able to see our project site.

Monte Sereno council members Don Perry and Lana Malloy on Winchester Boulevard at Via Sereno.

Paul had a narrow window to fly into San Jose for a quick site visit.  He did.

Catching Up with Paul

Since Jo-Anne, Nik, Kate and Lucky (the puppy) were in Kelowna, Bryan was extremely flexible and could host Paul’s visit and meet whatever timing was required.  Due to a number of issues, Paul caught a flight from Toronto to SFO, arriving on Saturday evening.

After a well-coordinated pick up at SFO, Paul and Bryan caught up over dinner in Los Gatos.

The plan for today was to do some measurements with Bryan’s new laser level.  With the concrete floor, two bridges, stairs, etc., establishing the elevation for the finished floor is critical.  Based on the advice from the general contractor that installed a GlassWalk bridge in Atherton, we invested in a top-of-the-line laser level.  Now, it was time to learn how to use it.

On Site

Paul and Bryan spent several hours on Sunday using the laser level and measuring elevations.  However, they were somewhat stumped on how to rotate the laser to show a straight line on the concrete.  And, technical support was not available on Sunday. 

After a light meal, Bryan drove Paul back to SFO so he could catch the red-eye to Toronto.

As always, a great visit with Paul.

Paul reviews progress on Sunday morning.

Ah, some wasps are making a home just outside our site office. This is not good.

Paul reviews the bearing wall in the lower level.

Managing this project is becoming more difficult and taking more time.  Driving from our home office to the project site takes time so we decided to invest in additional on-site infrastructure to increase Bryan’s productivity.

Adding a Docking Station with Two Monitors

After scanning the Fry’s advertisements, we decided to buy two 23 inch monitors and use an idle docking station for Bryan’s Dell D-630 notebook.  This would allow Bryan to use a full-size keyboard and have a full 48 inches of screen available.

Having two monitors is easy with a Dell docking station.  The monitors need to be identical and have both a digital and analog input.  The Dell docking stations come with both an analog and digital output so a couple cables and a few minutes of configuration and —voila— you have two monitors.

Two monitors with the docking station should help to improve productivity while allowing Bryan to be on site.

Of course, Canon was generous and bundled a PIXMA MX 330 all-in-one color printer/scanner/copier with the purchase of an LCD monitor and offered a $50 rebate off the low, low price of $79.  Yes, we bought one.

Our Meyer Lemon Tree Needs Some Love

We noticed that our cherished Meyer Lemon tree is not looking very healthy and it needs some love.  Or, maybe some water and a feeding.

All of the trees on site need feeding so we contacted Tree Solutions to assess what to feed the trees.  Jim Neve is away on vacation so our trees will be anxiously awaiting his return.  Also, we will put the Meyer Lemon tree on a watering program immediately.

Time to get the Meyer Lemon tree on a watering program.

Jim O’Brien Reviews the Job Site

It is always nice to host visitors and Jim O’Brien saw that our U.S. flag was flying so he dropped by for a quick visit.  AS you may recall, we got the dirt on the O’Briens.

Jim O'Brien stops in for a visit. Cheers Jim!

We believe strongly that water conservation is much more critical than most people recognize and water conservation will become equally as important as energy conservation.

To help reduce our water demands, we will use low volume plumbing fixtures and drought tolerant, native California species in our landscaping.  Importantly, we will have an underground cistern that will capture 100% of the rainwater that falls on our roof.

Rainwater Harvesting

Under the LEED-H guidelines, Water Efficient (WE) has three components:  Water Reuse (WE 1); Irrigation System (WE 2); and Indoor Water Use (WE 3).  At this point in our project, we need to ensure that the physical properties of our site will support our design (i.e., not constrain the elements in the design) so a cistern is critical.  The use of a cistern is covered under Water Reuse.

Water Reuse includes WE 1.1 Rainwater Harvesting System; and/or WE 1.2 Graywater Reuse System; or WE 1.3 Use of Municipal Recycled Water System.  There is a maximum of 5 points available in Water Reuse and up to 4 of those 5 points can be in WE 1.1 Rainwater Harvesting System.

We do not have a Municipal Recycled Water System and will not be utilizing a Graywater Reuse System; consequently, we need to focus on a Rainwater Harvesting System.

The design of our Rainwater Harvesting System will include 100% of our roof area and the cistern must be sized to hold all of the water from a 1-inch rainfall event.  Given our roof is 63’4″ by 63’3″ (almost a perfect squate), we have 4,006 sq ft of roof area.  For a 1-inch rainfall event, our roof will capture approximately 2,484 gallons of rainwater.

Cistern Requirements

Our property cannot support an above-ground cistern so we need to have a location for an underground cistern.  The swimming pool and existing trees at the back of the house limit our location to the front yard.  It would be great to have a cistern under our driveway but that would come at a significant cost.

Alternatively, we have some space at the East side of our front yard where we removed a Canary Island Pine tree.  Removing the stump will require an excavation, so it will make a feasible location for an underground cistern.  We will use the excavated soil to fill the remaining voids at the front of our house.

Our civil engineering team, from Bowman & Williams, were reviewing our alternatives and Casey Carlson recommended that we consider the CUDO System.  He was familiar with the CUDO System and though it could be integrated with our site easily.  We liked Casey’s design and recommendations.

CUDO System

The CUDO System is an innovative product that include 2×2 ft plastic cubes, which can be configured in a number of ways.  A bladder goes around the internal plastic cubes, creating the cistern.  The CUDO System could include a pump that can be connected to our irrigation system, thus reducing our water demands.

Given our space availability, Bownman & Williams recommended that we put in a CUDO System that is 4 cubes wide (8 ft) by 8 cubes long (16 ft) and 2 cubes deep, that is just over 24 inches below grade.  The underground cistern will have a capacity of 492 cubic ft, or 3,677 gallons.  This will allow our cistern to hold approximately 1.5 inches of rain.  Once the cistern is full, it will have three pipes to carry the overflow, via gravity, to our storm sewer.

The team from CUDO Stormwater Products, Inc. included Doug Allard, Ron Powers, Jon McDonald and Sue Lillo.  They tailored the design from Bowman & Williams and helped to establish the detailed specifications.

Site Visit by Sue Lillo

The sales representative for Northern California, Sue Lillo, was going to be in the area so we invited her to visit our site.  Bryan hosted her site visit and showed Sue the various features of the house.

Sue confirmed that the location would work and that she would ensure the product was available and delivered when we need it.

Sue Lilo, sales representative for Northern California, arrived at our job site and reviewed the features of our renovation project.

Sue standing on the stump, showing where the CUDO System will be located (below grade).

It is always great to see Jerry Ditto, author of Eichler Homes: Design for Living.

Jerry is a good friend it was great to host his visit.

Jerry Ditto watching as Jorge Ramirez verifies some measurements with the plans.

Jerry reflects on the progress as he signs our guest book.

Jerry noted that he will be updating his web site and will include a reference to the progress that we’ve made to date.