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Time to catch you up on what's been happening since Beth painted the fence! There have been amazingly busy days and what seemed like days on end where contractors were scarce. But we'll start today's entry with the driveway and stairs.
The concrete contractor split the concrete work into two sections. The driveway, stairs and walking path to the front door were spec'd for an acid-washed sand finish. This required a different mix of concrete than the standard brush finish - more sand in the mix (I think and who knew?) The plan was for two pours in two days, but Astoria being Astoria there was rain. A lot of it. So the first pour was on Thursday with the second pour for the sidewalk and driveway apron scheduled on Monday.
After a rainy weekend the sun was shining Monday morning and the concrete crew was busy early pouring the sidewalk (no rebar, 6 inches thick at the driveway and 4 inches the rest of the run) from our neighbor's driveway to the west to about twenty feet in front of the neighbors house to the east to replace broken sidewalk sections.
The driveway apron would now wait until Tuesday morning when they also replaced two sidewalk sections across the street that were damaged during water main work, repaired damaged curbs and filled in curb cuts for rain drains for our home and the next house to the east. I can't remember if I mentioned that we rerouted our neighbors rain drain so it drained to the curb instead of the slope behind our house when the excavators were last here. Oh, and they poured a trash bin pad for our neighbor to the west while they were at it. Why not? It was a busy day.
The City is very particular about slopes on sidewalks, again who knew? Before the second pour, the inspector came out and measured the grade and pitch of the sidewalk forms. In the photo above you see what looks like a white rectangle in the middle-left of the concrete, that is our water meter housing. Every other water meter on the block (and most of the city) is in the parking strip, but the City required us to relocate ours into the sidewalk. It does seem like the City has a special set of rules for our project, but there's no fighting it.
While all that was going on Brian was putting the finishing touches on the fences and the electricians were on site to hook up the indirect lighting. Brian also installed our ipe wood deck in the courtyard - it's just the right size and looks beautiful. This is the same material we used on the two large decks off the back of the house. There will be a Pacific Northwest garden around the courtyard deck and walking path with perennials and a couple Japanese Maple trees.
In front of the retaining wall and trash bin enclosure there will be a California sun slope garden. It was about the time the above photo was taken that we did, finally, receive our "conditional" occupancy permit. It's the same as a regular occupancy permit except it had an attached list of right-of-way and water-main project items to complete within 45 days or the city would go after our performance bond. Easy-peasy, right? I didn't care, the bank needed the occupancy permit so we could refinance the construction loan to a mortgage. And they were getting very, very antsy.
Remember this handsome young devil? This is SPuR - Sparkle Princess Rainbow. He came to visit while Adam was doing the final grading work, capping the sewer clean-outs and spreading soil around the front yard. SPuR is all legs and klutziness, typical teenager. Either SPuR remembers me (we've had several visits) or he is indiscriminate with the scritches. Probably the later, but we have fun and it makes me happy!
After several months with a temporary mailbox nailed to "our" utility pole we finally decided to install our proper mailbox. Why wait? Well, our civil engineer was taking his sweet time with the site line survey for the certification for the City (part of the "conditional approval") and we were afraid the mailbox would interfere with the sight lines. Wait, what? This is a bit of a story, but because our lot slopes down so severely at about 35 feet in we had to build close to the front of the lot. That required a sight line triangle variance at the sidewalk for safety, which requires certification by the engineer. My head hurts, but we finally said "this is stupid" and installed the mailbox.
You'll also notice the iron stair rail, replacing the temporary rail the city required for occupancy. I get it, it's a safety thing, but we've done absolutely everything they've required. They gave us 10 days to have the permanent rail installed, so it was a big deal. Our steel contractor was jammed, but made room in their schedule to measure, build and install the rail.
Meanwhile, we've been working diligently to get things organized and put away. Our crowning achievement, after waiting two weeks to let the driveway cure, the MINI is now at home in the garage!
And our parting shot for today...our home at night with the indirect fence lighting. When our architect pitched the idea of Japanese lantern lighting in the fence, I knew it was exactly what I wanted!
Up next? Coming soon (really), the east side slope and water main punch list!