|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gimme Shelter!
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... |
| O object of my heart's desire - symbol of civilization - light of my wife and...oh, excuse me...I was just waxing eloquent about our new in-line, on-demand water heater, conveniently pictured here. Smaller than a phone book, rated for the entire house and all ours. This beastie should pay for itself within 5 years with the energy savings. |  |
| Technology has come a long way since copper tubing, the often-difficult installation that goes with it and burning yourself while welding back behind that corner angle. This high-temp tubing is obviously flexible, comes in 100 foot rolls for no seam-piping and was less than $30 per roll. We're currently running this for hot water lines throughout the house. |  |
| Here is a 90 degree brass joint for our hot water tubing. The ends of the joint are barbed and slip inside the tubing, where they are clamped in place with a copper ring. That's all there is to it! The installation time and trouble for this stuff is obviously less than for copper pipe, with approximately the same lifespan and even freeze resistance. Now if only it could pay for itself... |  |
| One of the front doors, which we can now start thinking about refinishing. The "speakeasy" iron door and grill set into this solid oak door gives it a lot of appeal. We have another matching door and a screen door which completes the set we bought from a local mansion undergoing a renovation. |  |
| We've engaged a septic system subcontractor, so it's time to start buying and installing toilets. We placed our plumbing rough-ins prior to the foundation being poured, but now must secure the toilets to the foundation, so we'll close now while I'm [WARNING: BAD PUN AHEAD] flush with victory. |  |
| 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. |
|
| Next installment: Getting Plastered Click HERE |
All music and data on
this site ©2001, 2003 and 2005 TexasMusicForge.com. Any unauthorized
usage of music and/or data from this site is strictly prohibited and
will get you tied up and dragged behind my horse.
E.M. Kliman, Proprietor.