No house yet...

Looks like it'll be another week before they start working on the house again. Windows still have not been ordered - maybe by the end of the week. I am working directly with the vendor now, so maybe they will actually get ordered this time. One good thing came out of the delays - we found out that our sill heights need to be 18" or we need tempered glass.

Today we got our deck samples from East Teak - starting at the top left and working clockwise is Cumaru, Tiger Wood, Garapa, and Ipe. David likes the 1.25" thickness of the Cumaru, so that's what we might go with. The other 3 are dense enough to be 1", and going to 1.25" makes the Ipe more expensive than the Cumaru. I like the Garapa, but David likes the darker wood. The Tiger wood is pretty, but I think we prefer a more uniform grain. So, it'll be either the 1.25" Cumaru or the 1" Ipe (pronounced E-pay). Whatever we go with will be about 2/3's the cost of a composite deck and will be prettier and less mainenance/repair than the standard pressure treated deck. We're also looking into Aluminum ballasters(?) to use for the verticals in the railing - they won't distract from the view as much as wood ones would, and they're cheaper (a lot) than cable railing is.

We might also look into ordering flooring from East Teak. They have 3/4" Ipe plank flooring in 8'+ lengths, and judging by the decking price, should be in our price range. And it would give us the look that we both love. If only we had a house to put it in...

I'll try to post stucco pictures later this week. David's worked really hard on it. I was waiting until he did the final coats, but that's not going to happen until after the next stage of construction. And maybe this weekend he will have the marble cut for the half-bath vanity.

Doors, Windows, and Lumber

The first delivery of our subfloor was the cheap OSB. We sent it back, and they brought the right stuff back a couple of days later.


All of the trusses for the Main floor have been delivered. We are still waiting for the next stage to start. We have a new person managing our project (Chris). We can't tell that anyone was specifically assigned before. The guy who we heard had been assigned (Mike) hardly ever showed up. Mostly we dealt with the subcontracts manager (Roy) and the owner (Pat). Mike was working on ordering our windows, but that got completely messed up. Chris is handling the order now and is much more responsive.

We talked to Pat yesterday, and they will either start our project or a house in Pascagoula tomorrow. If not tomorrow, it'll be Wednesday, or so Pat says. He tends to be optimistic, so probably next Monday.


Yesterday, we ordered our interior doors. They will be knotty alder, 8' tall. Here's a picture of a similar door (the center, solid door). The 7 doors cost $1400 w/tax, and are just the doors - no frames. A little more than we originally budgeted for, but they are pretty doors and will look nice in the house.

To OSB or not to OSB

Every so often, this subject shows up on the building forum that we frequent. OSB stands for Oriented Strand Board and is essentially layers of strands of wood. On each layer, the strands go in one direction, and the layers of the final board alternates in direction. This is similar to plywood, except that plywood is made up of layers of wood that are peeled from the log.

OSB has a bad reputation - it is often confused with wafer board, and the early OSB's had problems with the glues not holding up. Also, if OSB gets wet, it tends to curl at the edges. Current building codes do not differentiate between OSB and plywood.

The OSB vs. plywood is a hot debate, but the general consensus seems to be:

- they don't make plywood like they used to

- generic OSB is garbage

- in general, plywood is better than generic OSB

- Advantech OSB is the greating thing ever and is better than plywood. Advantech holds up to water better than anything on the market

- Solid wood or super-premium plywood is probably the best quality but is prohibitively expensive.

Our original lumber quote included 3/4" T&G (tongue & groove) Advantech subfloor, but when I went to place the order last week, they no longer had the Advantech and were substituting Norbord Stabledge OSB. Not knowing anything about Norbord, I left the subfloor off the order and spent the week trying to find out more about their product, finding someone who carries Advantech, pricing plywood.

All I could find on Norbord Stabledge is that, like Advantech, they have a 50 year warranty on their product. It is supposed to hold up fine to normal exposure seen during construction (i.e. it shouldn't warp if it gets rained on).

After numerous calls, I finally found some Advantech subfloor - for a mere $32/sheet versus the $20 for the Norbord. I never did price the plywood. We had to order the subfloor by Saturday so that it will be available later this week. And the winner is - Norbord. I think that Advantech's stellar reputation has resulted in the high cost, but I can't justify an extra $1K when the Norbord has the exact specifications and warranty.

Sorry for the boring update - but every step involves decisions that we obsess over! It feels good to get this decision behind us so that we can continue our 4-year research of induction cooktops! Hopefully there will be lots of progress this coming week, and hopefully our windows will be correct when they come in. (Can't remember if I posted this before, but they guy who ordered our windows quit the same day that he placed the order. Pat's short-handed, and is managing 13 projects, and so has not been able to confirm the order, despite my daily phone calls. Sigh.)

Proud New Owner...

After Katrina, if you asked someone how they fared, a common answer was "I'm now the proud new owner of a bare slab!" Well, now we're proud owners of two bare slabs!


As we are going up, we're starting to get a better view of the bayou. Here's a view from the back corner of the slab:


David's starting to stucco the chain wall. I'll probably wait until he's done before I add a post showing all stages. There are three layers of stucco, and it will take a couple of weeks since each layer needs about a week to set up before the next layer is applied.

Pat (our contractor) came out to the property with the framer today. They are going to try a new method of construction - they are going to set the main floor trusses before they pour concrete in the walls. This will complicate the bracing, but will allow two crews to work simultaneously, and the trusses should help to hold the walls square. They will be able to use the floor as scaffolding, and they'll be able to start laying block for the next pour within a couple of days of this pour. It'll be exciting, but hopefully not too exciting! Barring bad weather or complications with other jobs, they should start next Tuesday (5/15).

Front Door

This is the door I wanted (8' door, 2/3 glass, with sidelights). And I would have gone with a different glass pattern. I found this one on-line, from Texas for $3K (unstained). Our builder found one for $6K and put us in contact with two door suppliers who had them for $4K and $5K.

We ended up with the one below. It was the original one that we saw at Phillips (one of the local lumber yards). I guess they've had a hard time selling it because they've on display for $2K for a couple of months. It's actually almost the same door as the one from Texas except that it has 3/4 glass and isn't stained yet. One less decision to agonize over! (Jenny, is this the same door that you have?)

By the Light of the Moon

Not sure why they couldn't pour the slab tomorrow, but because the inspection wasn't until this morning, the pour didn't start until after 3 p.m. They almost ran out of concrete - they under-ordered, and the concrete supplier shut down at 5, right after the last concrete truck left for our job. Luckily they ordered a full load - they ended up with half-a-yard excess concrete. The only other problem was that one of the trucks got lost and took an hour-and-a-half to get here! They finished pouring the concrete at 6, but with the sun setting, the concrete is taking longer to set. So some of the crew is still out there, trowelling and smoothing. It's late, and I'm off to bed.