The main part of the new area is covered with 6″ x 12″ travertine pavers.  The crushed stone is 1″ decomposed granite.  The areas of crushed stone will eventually hold planters (to hide the pool equipment) and trees and shrubs at the far end of the pool to gain some privacy and shade back again

However, recently my Architect and I got back to work and we’re moving toward the point of calling in structural and mechanical people for the next round of design work.

Meanwhile, I’ve been prepping the back yard for some work.

Here’s the yard last August:

Lush and Green in Summer

And after recent work by my tree guys, here’s what it looks like in January:

Stripped. A Blank Canvas

The useless ornamental orange trees are gone as are all the trashy shrubs and other detritus.  Opens up the whole yard and makes space to plant a number of shade trees.  I will also put back a dwarf orange tree and a dwarf grapefruit tree that actually bear edible fruit…

Almost finished pool

Well, this week marked the last stage of the pool project (at least for the pool guys anyway)

All 27,000 +/- gallons of water are in, initial startup has been accomplished and now it’s “brush and backflush” for the next few days while the new surface cures and the remainder of the excess lime and cement that weren’t removed by the acid wash are removed by the filtration system.

Of course, now I have to put the hardscape back around the deck.  Luckily, we have that all american four day weekend called “Thanksgiving” coming up – perfect time to get that accomplished.

I’m playing around with some different image capture utilities in order to make a time lapse movie of the process. I have a Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 hanging up outside the house to capture the action.  We’ll see how it goes.  The apps that make time lapse easy don’t utilize the full resolution of the camera, so the process may end up being a bit more manual than I had been hoping.

What’s funny to me so far is how everything that was under the water is actually in a different place than I thought it was when the pool was full – amazing the power of parallax error.  I’m also very impressed with the little tiny sump pump that the contractors dropped off yesterday.  I’ve only had it running so far for about six hours and the water level is down well more than half way.  When I first saw the pump, I figured it would take all weekend for that thing to drain the water, but it looks like it’ll be empty by tonight.  Finding a handy old RV drain over in the side yard helped too – now I don’t have to flood the yard with highly chlorinated pool water and put my trees in even more distress than they’ve be experiencing because of the leak.

Master Suite Framing, Partial

As part of my house redesign renovation project, I’ve been taking a run at learning Google Sketchup.  It’s an interesting app and for most things it’s very easy to use.  I’ve been spending some time watching Google’s excellent online training videos for the app, and I’m getting it.  I’m nowhere near the level of my Architect, but then I’ve been fiddling with the app for about two weeks on and off now as opposed to him, who’s been using it pretty much since it was introduced.

It’s a cool app, but the basic fly in the ointment for me so far is that I’m and old AutoCAD guy.  Using Sketchup is not like using AutoCAD, and like a person trying to learn a new language who keeps trying to mentally do translations to their native tongue all the time, I’m constantly finding myself having to fight the urge to think “hmm, how does this relate to the similar AutoCAD command…?”   Sure, I’ve got the basics down for inputting exact dimensions for elements, moving things specific distances, copying things ‘n’ number of times and so on.  What’s been frustrating me so  far, however, is things that occur that I consider unexpected, unanticipated or just plain wrong.  I’m constantly having to erase new surfaces that get created when I happen to complete a series of lines on separate elements that are all on the same plain and, to the app, form a closed border.  In AutoCAD, you have to specifically work to create a surface – Sketchup just assumes that every time you complete a series of lines that look like a closed border, there should be a surface joining those lines.  There are times when that feature is really nice, but I haven’t yet figured out how to force the app to ignore certain “closed” borders and not others.  So, for now, when an unexpected surface pops up for no apparent reason, I just erase it.

By the same token, one of the more frustrating things, to me anyway, is the behavior in Sketchup of the app automatically joining everything together so that it all interacts.  Create four walls for a building that are joined together and now when you go to move one or rotate it, etc., it drags pieces of the other walls with it.  Take two solids and put them together, then move one and it takes a piece of the other one with it, leaving a hole in the other one that has to be patched.

I’m not yet in the habit of creating components and groups.  From what I know so far, that may help some of these issues.  The drawing that’s attached to this post is a first draft of the framing for my new master suite on the back of the house.  In the second draft that I’ve now started, I’ve started creating components (studs and ceiling joists, for instance) and things are, indeed, behaving better.

I can’t just go ahead and beat the AutoCAD out of my head, because I still use it every day.  If I want to get good at Sketchup, I’m going to have to treat it like I did Photoshop – just toss aside any concepts from other applications and immerse myself in the new one.  No more translating between them … I need to become a digitally bilingual drafter.

The house is a 1950 model that was built by the family from whom I bought it in April 2009. One owner? GREAT! Same owner for 60 years … perhaps not so much. While the home is very well maintained and clearly shows that the couple that built the place loved it for all the years they were here, it is most assuredly a 1950 compact floor plan. It’s very “mazey” and feels, frankly, like a dark little rabbit warren.

One other side effect of the same family living here for 60 years – handyman specials. All over the house, the work of a home handyman is evident. Romex wire run outside the building in the open air to lighting fixtures which are connected by nothing but wire nuts (no box or anything). Outdoor storage cabinets tossed together out of a few sheets of plywood. A patio enclosed by what appears to be windows and doors that were finds from the dump or some other salvage – nothing wrong with that, of course, but not when the stuff is falling apart.

So, since the place needs some significant TLC, I’ve taken the step of hiring a local Architect to work with me through the design phase and to produce a complete set of construction drawings.

I currently plan to do most of the work myself, calling in pros when necessary (major plumbing, electrical, concrete, roof framing, etc.) … we’ll see how that goes.