Bricks are back!!

This house has a lot of Adobe brick, inside and out. Adobe is not used as much today as it was when this home was built in the seventies, but I love it. It feels like it has been here for ever. It's imperfect and strong yet warm and comfortable.  It also reminds me of Arizona and the homes there that I love so much.  However, it's not easy to find real handmade Adobe anymore so we were careful to recycle the bricks we had.
The kitchen and living area were divided by a huge Adobe wall that we carefully removed brick by brick.
Now the bricks are back and I love it!!! Some were used to cover a support for the large beam in the ceiling and some to finish the addition outside so that it flowed like the rest of the exterior.

Insulation and Drywall

If we have accomplished only one thing with this remodel, it's that we have done everything possible to make the house more energy efficient.  From the windows and doors to the radiant barrier wood, to the enormous amount of insulation we have installed.
I thought it was kind of cool that the insulation just happens to be pink :)
Ya, I know, it's totally a girl thing!!

Windows :)

Who knew that a window could excite a girl so much?  Mario and I have lived in two homes during our twenty years of marriage. The first home and this house both had the most horrible old single paned windows.  These windows are beautiful and energy efficient. I'm really hoping that will help with the $6,000,000 a month PG&E bill.  LOL 

New Angel on things.

Things are moving really fast here right now. I can barely keep up with the pictures and getting them posted.  While things change around here everyday right now, I wanted to post a few pictures of the beautiful angles and beams that the new addition will have.  This was a very simple ranch house which was basically a big rectangle from the outside, but no longer. Our wonderful architect Lou Hall did a great job of making the addition feel like it was always part of the house yet adding a lot of new interesting architectural elements to the character of the house.  

We love it!! 

Clean up day!!

We spent the day saturday cleaning up the mess left behind by the saws, nail guns, and workers. Our contractor and his crew have been awesome to work with so I'm not complaining about the soda cans, water bottles and mounds of saw dust and nails left behind everyday. Really I'm not!! haha

As long as they are making progress, I will gladly sweep up behind them.

Besides, they feed Luigi lunch everyday. :)

Things are taking shape

This pictures were taken today 3/24/10. We expecting the framing to be done in just a couple days.

The walls go up!!!!!!!

You have no idea how thrilled we were to see that first wall go up.  The framing is going fast and expected to take a couple weeks.  There is no rain in the forecast we are making great progress. :)