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The Project: A 2,163 square foot house utilizing dry stack concrete block construction with a central courtyard and based on the Spanish colonial-era missions in San Antonio. The Challenge: Can a forty-something married couple design and build an attractive, efficient and mostly paid-for house while remaining sane, solvent and married? With no actual prior construction experience? Hmmmmm - let's check in on our Contestants and see how they're doing... |
| Our progress being somewhat interrupted by cold weather, Christmas holidays and other real-world intrusions, we've managed to finish painting the first coating of sealer on the exterior of the house. Here, we're looking at the barrel vault. Visible at the apex is one of the screen blocks for the thermal chimney which will control our summer heat. |  |
| Inside, I've been chipping cement dribbles off the floor and cleaning up as we get ready to stain the flooring. As I run a pressure washer to clean this corner of the master bath, sunlight dapples the floor through the leaded glass windows. This pattern changes with the seasons and the time of day as the earth's position relative to the sun changes. |  |
| The decidedly non-glamorous task of cleaning two and a half years worth of construction debris from around the house becomes important as we need to clear room for the septic system. This new, aerobic type of system pipes treated effluent out to a series of sprinkler heads in a nearby pasture area. Clear, useable water is the only outflow from this type of system, which we'll be discussing further as the system goes in. |  |
| A look down the northeast side of the house. You can barely make out the indents I've left in the wall where we'll be putting the beams for our porte cachere. We'll need to run the water and septic lines before I can begin building it, but it will allow us to have a roof over our heads while we unload groceries directly into the pantry through the doorway. |  |
| A full day's work accomplished, I get up into the pickup bed to take this shot at dusk. The place sure looks different with a little paint on it and we somehow get the feeling that the house is starting to round into shape. The reflection of the house in the water looks particularly striking. I think we're going to like living here... |  |
| Want to see a rough floor plan?Want to be notified when we post new pictures? Just e-mail us! Want to see the rest of the story? Click on Gimme Shelter Home Page. |
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| Next installment: A Chip On My Shoulder Click HERE |
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