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!

It rained yesterday.  Actually, it poured.

Fortunately, at this time of the year the ground is a sponge, soaking up the rain and not allowing the water to run off.  However, the ground will get soaked quickly so we have to continue to move fast to get weather tight and backfill our open trenches.

Dry Fitting the Cement Fiber Board Under the Gables

We tried fitting one of the cement fiber boards that were cut and primed on Friday in place today.  It fit nicely and looked great.  To complete installing these components, we need to order and receive stainless steel nails so the boards can be fastened.  We’ve go the adhesive and need mechanical fasteners. 

Front Door Design

We’re working on the front door design and, specifically, selecting the hardware to use.  There are a few alternatives and we need to work with the manufacturers and local dealers to see who wants to work with us.  We committed to Nathan that we would order the hardware for the front door so that needs to happen.

Understanding How to Buy a Nissan LEAF

Given it was a Sunday and we couldn’t do much, Bryan dropped by Stevens Creek Nissan to understand how we get our Nissan LEAF.  Nissan received deposits on 20,000 LEAFs, which they committed to deliver by April 30, 2010.  Of those, 1,200 LEAFs were sold in the Great State of California.  We have one of those 1,200 reservations.

According to Aaron Depriest of Stevens Creek Nissan, his dealership will receive 10 to 12 LEAFs in December and then 12 to 15 per month through April 30 for those customers that were among the first 20,000 registrants.  Then, in August 2010, Stevens Creek Nissan will start taking delivery of LEAFs under the general availability program.

The MSRP of a fully loaded LEAF is $33,720.  The DC rapid charge feature is a $700 option and the dealer delivery charges are $820, making the pre-tax price at Stevens Creek Nissan $35,240.  Aaron ran the numbers for us, showing the DMV fees to be $526.75 and the local sales tax to be $3,264.79, for a total drive off cost of $39,031.54.

The Great State of California provides a rebate of $5,000.00 (apply through the internet) and there is a Federal tax credit of $7,500.00, after one files their 2011 Federal tax return. 

Oh, we need to have a charging station and those are available at a cost of ~$2,200 or so.  Of that amount, there is a Federal tax credit of $1,500 through 12/31/10.  After that, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District provides an installation credit of $1,000 for the first 3,000 single family home charging stations.  The BAAQM intends to install over 5,000 EV charging stations in the Bay Area.

Of course, a major incentive for us is the white car-pool lane stickers, which allow a single driver to enjoy the carpool lanes.

Aaron advised us that Nissan is contacting each individual that paid the reservation fee regarding how to purchase and take delivery of their LEAF.  They are contacting the individuals in chronological order, based on when they paid their deposit.

Since we paid our deposit on 07/31/10, we will be expecting the e-mail with the purchase details in early April 2011.

South side of the East Gable roof, showing where the fiber cement board will fit between the two windows (over the Grace Vicorp Butyl).

We dry fit the fiber cement board in place between the two windows - it looks great!

View of the upper flat roof, with the Deck Armor showing on the gable roofs. It is conforting to know that we

View looking North along the West side of the East Gable roof. There is some water ponding on the white membrane, which is acceptable.

As we continue to move to becoming weather tight, we also need to get some temporary lighting into place.  If we want the work inside the house to be of high quality, we need to provide lighting so the workers can see what they are doing AND so we can see what they are doing.

In addition, we now have complete safety railings in place around the stair well on the East side of the house and around the window well at the front of the house.

We engaged Penhall Company to do our concrete coring and cutting.  They will work on an hourly basis to core drill our concrete on the walls and floor as we wish, and to cut our concrete as we require.  Bryan coordinated this with Chris Baker and they will arrive at the project site on Monday at 10:00 am.

To become weather tight, we need to have the huge sliding glass door at the back of the Living Room completed.  This sliding glass door has three glass sections:  9 feet wide, 8 feet wide and 7 feet wide.  Combined, the three sections are 24 feet wide and the doors slide on a track into a pocket behind the feature concrete wall in the Dining Room.

Bryan picked up the track and sill pan from Murray Windows & Doors on Friday afternoon and took them to the job site.  The straight edge of the track will identify how straight the concrete is, how to cut the concrete and help ensure the bottom of the concrete is flat.  We can chip any irregularities in the concrete so the track will be perfectly flat.

We’re getting there …

Picking up the sill pan and bottom track for our sliding glass doors. The track is 24 ft long; Bryan drove slowly and carefully (not on the freeway) back to our project site.

The PG&E crew connected the underground cables to our 400 amp electrical panel. When the temporary power is removed, these cables will be tied in at the underground concrete vault at the front of our property.

View of the East side of the house, showing the newly constructed temporary safety railing in place around the stair well. We need to complete the penetrations near the front of the house before we can complete the backfilling by the vertical culvert in the foreground.

Close up of the safety railing. We're very safe with the three horizontal railings around the stair well and for the bridge.

Temporary railings around the window well at the front of the house. Craig Butcher and Ram Reyna will be much more comfortable now.

Temporary lighting in the Guest Suite. We installed fluorescent fixtures with two 40 watt bulbs in each fixture at various locations in the lower level.

The East Mechanical room, showing the concrete wall where we will have the Emergency Electrical Panel located. Note the temporary lighting in the ceiling.

Yes, the forecast was accurate.  It rained today.

We need to accelerate the drive to getting weather tight at our job site.

The list includes:

• Review mock up for fascia and then install fascia over gable ends
• Receive and then install the shakes over the gable roofs
• Complete drip caps and sill pans, have them painted and then install the remaining windows and sliding doors
• Schedule and then Install the large sliding door at the back of the house
• Have the front door fabricated, test fitted, painted and then installed

We’ll get there …

Our two sliding glass doors are now installed in the stairwell. These look great!

The two Everest windows are installed in the window well at the front of the house. Way cool ...

Looking at the side yard by Winchester, which is now backfilled, compacted and cleaned up. We will be putting some temporary railings in place this week here and around the window well at the front of the house.

Just after cleaning up the garage, the two-person delivery team from Murray Windows & Doors came by and delivered 25 windows, bringing our total to 26 windows.  There are 72 windows in our total order so we have received over one-third of the windows (the glass is half full).  Alternatively, one could say that we haven’t taken delivery of almost two-thirds of the windows (the glass is half empty).

After unloading the windows and staging them neatly in the garage, Bryan worked with the team from Earth Bound Homes completing the ‘cool roof’ over the gables.  He drove to Union City and picked up a Vent-A-Hood roof jack for our range hood in the kitchen.

Our range hood will have an 8-inch duct so we need to have a VP541-HP roof jack, which is designed for gable roofs with more than a 4:12 roof pitch.

After picking up the roof jack, Bryan returned to the job site and worked with Carlos on placing the roof jack into position.

Clean, tidy and fully swept garage, waiting for 25 boxes of windows from Murray Windows & Doors.

Backing up the truck - here come the windows!

Each window box was carried in and stacked against the wall by hand.

The boxes of windows are stacked neatly in the clean garage. These are all of the clerestory windows that go in the gable ends (large boxes) and the clerestory windows that go around the atrium.

Valley on the North side of the East gable. Also, there is an intermediate 1x1 furring strip that must be completed.

View of the completed North side of the South gable. The FSC plywood deck is completed and ready for roofing felt and shakes.

South side of the North gable. Note where the radiant barrier needs to be covered with plywood.

VP541-HP roof jack from Vent-A-Hood on the East side of the East gable.

Our friend and neighbor, John McLaren, came to the job site today to review our progress. John lives on Daves Avenue and is very supportive of our project. It is great to be able to park in our driveway again!