progress

The shell of the house is nearing completion. We needed to have several exterior wall panels remade, and they are being installed this week. The windows and doors should start going in Monday, and some bathroom fixture might start going in Tuesday.

In the meantime, here are some progress photos of the house. The view of the house from the park gives you a sense of how the color and scale of the building work with the vegetation and topography. This week's rain made the park especially lush (note the thick carpet of resurrection ferns on the limbs of the live oak to the right). We're eager to see the effect of planting the low roofs of the house with flowering plants and vines, though that part of the project will have to wait for at least a year.

We're also psyched about the transparency of the living/dining room. In this photo, you can see through that wing of the house, into the courtyard. And the courtyard is looking good, too...

The courtyard is pretty close to what we imagined it would be when we first designed the house. We like the scale a lot, and the spatial flow between the indoor and outdoor spaces is great, so far. We'll see what happens when we install windows, doors, cabinetry and children.

The other outdoor spaces are also turning out well. The front porch addresses the street corner and the park pretty well, and the side patio (off to the left in this photo) opens to the street and park a lot like we'd intended.

Inside, things are getting complex. It's too bad most of the wiring and conduit will be concealed inside the walls.