The End of the Conceptual Stage

Things have been a little slow since our last post but could be speeding up soon. The architect has had to carve out time here and there for our project and recently put together a cross-section and the elevation seen here. There will be a few changes to what you see here but generally, this is the flavor of what we will build. The biggest changes to the drawing are the stair in the middle of the drawing will actually be a ramp to the right and the guest house to the left will not be as wide as shown, leaving more outdoor area under cover.








Our most involved discussions with the builder have been about the ceiling/roof structure. We're not enthralled with foam roofs, which are popular in Arizona. They combine insulation and roofing, which is the attraction. We're considering insulation between ceiling and roof, in the traditional manner, using a membrane (like a pool liner) for a roof. We're also discussing how to drain the roof. Traditionally, scuppers drain a flat roof in an adobe building but it is awkward to try and collect the water draining that way and the water is uncontrolled and can cause damage to the building. One alternative to scuppers would be roof drains connected to piping that drains down through the building. The third alternative is to lower the parapet wall on one side and pitch the roof in one plane to a gutter on that one side. Since we also need some shade on the south side, we're leaning toward pitching the roof to the south and collecting our water in gutters on that side. It will be a non-traditional solution for a building that will look traditional from the front but we think that's OK.



As we move forward, the architect will have a reduced role and the engineer and draftsman (and owners - us) will have greater roles. Our role will be to sketch for the draftsman architectural changes we want to incorporate and to work with the engineer on the utility systems. We are about to leave the conceptual stage and enter the detailed design stage where all the specifics get defined. Not colors and patterns yet but dimensions and materials. And the biggest thing is that we start to get some more detailed and segmented cost estimates so we can decide what to do first, how much we'll have to (get to?) do ourselves, and begin to plan our strategy for assembling the funds.



We are almost finished with our work on the house we're living in in Rimrock - had the house painted recently and redid the bathroom a few weeks ago. All that's left is a little landscaping and a few odds and ends here and there. One of our options is to sell this house and use the proceeds to start building the new house. We're positioning ourselves to do that. In Phoenix, we have plumbed, wired, and framed the new master bath in our historic house and plan to be moved back into the master bedroom by mid-summer. That will mean we can vacate the second bedroom and bath and re-do them in the fall. The city's grant program that we expect will help us rehab the windows (they pay 50% if we follow their standards) was unfunded in FY10 but we expect to be successful when they accept new applications in October. We expect to be largely finished with the work on that house by spring of 2011, positioning ourselves to sell there, too. We want to be ready to sell by then not only to feed the new house project but also in case any jobs open up in parks within a few hours of Rimrock. Brad would still like to finish his career out in the field.

All the best and thanks for keeping current with us.