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It’s getting near the end folks!

All the major work is completed except for the drywall and stucco. Since I last posted we have completed the next phase of plumbing and electrical, installed all the windows and doors, put the roof on (membrane), ran all the speaker wires (16 ga bi-wire, the good stuff!) put up the lath, insulated all the walls and ceiling and prepped all the wood for varnish.

The roof was a little interesting. According to my father, flat roofs are notorious for leaking and he recommended I have them bring the membrane all the way up and over the parapets, essentially making the roof a giant bathtub with a couple of drains (or canales using the proper nomenclature). Once the stucco is on no one will be able to tell the difference. This makes me sleep a little better knowing I won’t be getting a phone call a year from now asking me to fix some leaks. And the best part is it increased the price by less than a hundred dollars!

The insulation I used is really good stuff, it is blown in fiberglass and is R-25 in the walls and R-35 in the ceiling. It is slightly pricier than batt insulation but very worth the extra cost. I wish we could have gone with SIPs like we originally planned but we were on a pretty tight budget and that was one of the things that got cut during the first bidding process.

For those who are wondering, this building is going to be a fun retreat for the client. Movie theater is a better description than guesthouse but guesthouse sounds much more practical so that is what we have been calling it. The wide space between the two big front windows is to accommodate a very large plasma screen television and the bi-wire speaker wires I mentioned earlier are for the seven Bose surround-sound speakers that are inset flush into the walls. The window seat will house the subwoofer and all the controls will be accessible from the couch so one can dim the lights and turn on all the electronics without having to get up… nice, huh.

Stay tuned…

Oh, and upon request here is the plan of the space. murthy-guest-house.pdf

It’s been a little while since I have posted so here is an overview of what has happened since we last spoke.

We poured the slab once the plumber and electrician were done with their work. The Murthys wanted to do exposed concrete so I did some research into good concrete finishes. At first I wanted to use some sort of concrete stain but the more research I did the less appealing it was to me, uneven color, somewhat fragile, expensive just to name a few of the problems. I decided to try a little experiment. I used colored concrete, which is a pigment that is mixed into the concrete so it is the same color throughout, this way if it were chipped or scratched it wouldn’t be a different color. After the concrete was poured I used a darker color hardener that is essentially dry cement powder with pigment. I sprinkled that on top and lightly burnished it to give it a modeled look. Then we did a salt finish on the porch to give it a little texture. The final result is a mottled stained look that won’t fade or chip and it was significantly cheaper than normal stained concrete.

Once the slab was cured the framers came out and erected the structure in three days. They were incredibly efficient workers and made quick work of the casita. It is really exciting to see the structure up!

The plumbers and electricians are coming back this week to continue their work and then comes the insulation, roofing, drywall and so on.

Click here for more pictures!!!

We broke ground a few weeks ago and everything has been running smoothly. It took much longer to break ground than I initially estimated because I had to really nail down costs. Since this is such a small building, estimating costs is difficult and I had to practically bid out every part of the building to get a clear picture of what it was going to cost. Once I got the initial bids I had to tweak many aspects of the building and re-bid them to get the casita into budget. Once I finally had that out of the way it was go time.

I gave the concrete subs a single point (which was the corner of the porch) and the instructions to keep the building parallel to the existing house and they did the rest. Once they had dug the footings and laid the rebar I had to schedule an inspection with the Corrales building department. The building inspector, Charlie gave me a green tag and we were able to pour the footings first thing the next day. That same day we formed the stem walls and poured them as well. I put a couple of 4-inch cardboard tubes in the bottom of the stem wall forms so the electrician and the plumber wouldn’t have to dig under the footings to run their pipes and wires. Unfortunately the plumbers decided to take a different rout to the house than we previously discussed so they had to dig under the footings after all.

The plumbers finished up the rough-in yesterday and backfilled their trenches and I put back the rigid insulation and welded wire mesh inside the stem walls and got everything ready for the electrician who is coming in the next day or two to lay the electric resistance wire radiant floor heating cable. Once that is done we are ready to pour the slab. Since we were using the radiant floor system we wanted to insulate the concrete from the ground so the clients don’t have to heat up the earth as well as their casita. This combined with the fact that the clients wanted exposed concrete has been a little tricky. From what I have gathered from a few concrete experts, when you put an impervious layer under the slab it causes differential drying and that in turn cracks the slab. What we have decided to do to combat this cracking is to use 5ksi concrete rather than the typical 3ksi, and make the slab 5 inches thick rather than the typical 4 inches. Since I don’t know much about this issue I am crossing my fingers and hoping that everything works out okay.

The final preparations are being made to break ground on the Murthy’s guesthouse. I finished drafting the plans a few weeks ago and have been sending them out for bids. I received the building permit on July 15th and the estimates are trickling in so I should have everything I need to break ground in about a week or so. I will keep you all updated as I go. Here is a photomontage of what the guesthouse will roughly look like on the site. For those who don’t know this is going to be my first adventure into building! I have decided to use K.C. Panel polyurethane SIPs for the walls (R-27) and the roof (R-41), which will make this guesthouse a super-insulated structure. The good insulation and tight structure combined with Pella Triple pane windows and good solar orientation will make this structure extremely energy efficient. I am going to do many other small things to make this building as energy efficient and sustainable as possible and will highlight them in future posts. I’m sure I’ll have a few learning experiences along the way to write about as well.

Stay tuned…

Well, I have finally gotten my site up and going. I hope you all find it fun and interesting. Give me a little time to work out the kinks and I’ll start posting my photos, projects and thoughts. Any input you have is very appreciated so by all means use that little comment link at the bottom and share your thoughts!