The temporary power pole that held the webcam has been taken down. Most of the changes are inside at this point, anyway.
The lot at 150 Manzanita is in the heart of one of the historical home districts. It is about a 10 minute walk to downtown (but more like 15 minutes back, since it is 100 feet higher elevation than the Plaza.
Click to see a map of the area
The lot was purchased in 2000. It is approximately 13,000 square feet, with a gentle slope. An alley runs along the downhill side. It was covered with scrubby small trees, mostly ailanthus aka Tree of Heaven. Ailanthus is considered an invasive species, as it propagates lots of little ailanthi. Here are some pictures taken in 2000.
I've included several of the architect's drawings that were submitted to the city. They are rather large PDF files that take a while to download, but give considerable detail. There have been minor changes since these drawings were made.
Site Plan
Main Level
Lower Level
Videos
Framing is such fun to watch as there is much more visible progress than just about any other part of construction. I've put together three short time-lapse videos. If you have a slow connection to the web, you would be advised to pause the player and let the download get ahead of you before you play them.
The first is lower level framing. It runs about 4 minutes.
Here is a second video of the main level being framed. Some frames are a little dark because the contrast to the plywood subfloor caused the camera to underexpose the edges. It runs a little over 2 minutes.
Now there is Trusses, the video. It runs around 30 seconds.
See and hear Manzanita Falls, the water feature.
Daily Progress
7/17/07
I've had complaints that there are no up-to-date pictures on the web. We've been busy moving in and emptying boxes. I wandered around with the camera today and took a bunch of pictures. You will see a certain amount of clutter. These are not pictures for Architectural Digest
The front yard landscaping is in and looks quite good. We're still deciding what to put under the front porch. There is a sample of lattice nailed up for discussion.
The front door has been there for a while, and really looks sharp. It's made of walnut and provides a nice home for the door knocker that we got in Florence on our honeymoon. Inside the front door is an antique stained glass fixture. There is a lot of artwork stacked around in various places. We haven't decided what is going where yet.
We've put a lot of books and things into the library. Elaine says we have too much stuff in there already. We've made a few passes through the books culling out ones we don't need to keep. This will be a continuous process.
The mirror is up in the bathroom with the "rain forest" marble.
The cabinet next to the stairs is installed but doesn't have its granite top yet. In the stairwell is our stained glass window.
The kitchen is coming along just fine. We've had one small dinner party and it worked well.
The dining room is just missing a few doors.
The bedroom needs a shade for one of the windows. The closet that Dick built looks pretty good and works great. There is still room for a few more pairs of shoes.
Elaine tried her bathtub the other night and it worked well. We assembled the patio table and chairs that we bought on a closeout last year. The retracting shade is now installed and working. It makes the patio much more usable during the hot days of summer.
