No pics this time, but things are moving forward.
Most of the big things are done on our home now and we're down to the little things that seem to eat up my evenings and weekends completely. Maybe a few more weeks and it will be done.
Pool table is being moved upstairs tomorrow morning, so that's something at least.
No climbing, but did get away locally over the weekend for some beach camping with my family and some neighborhood friends. Nice to get a bit of a break.
So psyched for climbing right now - anxious to get back to it.
Also should be starting the new mega gym project (Hangar 18 - Riverside) in the next few weeks. I have high hopes for this one and feel it could easily be the best gym in California (certainly in SoCal). Stay tuned...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Progress (with a break)
So, we've been plugging away trying to get all the little details done on our house.
Finished all of the rock work and started on the decorative columns on the new entry. Here's a pic:
Took a break today and did the staining on a big new bouldering addition to one of the local gyms, Beach City Rocks. Iggy and friends did most of the work. If you live local - go check it out.
Here's a couple of pics snapped after I finished the staining:
I think the total addition is somewhere around 2000 square feet of new climbing, giving the gym one of the largest bouldering areas in So Cal's group of gyms.
The gym website is http://www.beachcityrocks.com/
The final coat of stucco goes on the house tomorrow and then I'll build the other decorative column and start the exterior painting. The end is near...
Finished all of the rock work and started on the decorative columns on the new entry. Here's a pic:
Took a break today and did the staining on a big new bouldering addition to one of the local gyms, Beach City Rocks. Iggy and friends did most of the work. If you live local - go check it out.
Here's a couple of pics snapped after I finished the staining:
I think the total addition is somewhere around 2000 square feet of new climbing, giving the gym one of the largest bouldering areas in So Cal's group of gyms.
The gym website is http://www.beachcityrocks.com/
The final coat of stucco goes on the house tomorrow and then I'll build the other decorative column and start the exterior painting. The end is near...
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Mother Nature
Living in a rural area like we do, homeowners have challenges of a different sort. We've still got the concern over bad neighbors, etc. , but also have to worry about Mother Nature.
Today it was extremely high winds that peaked with gusts of 80+ MPH. Our property has a creek running across the rear portion of it (behind the house) and the creek is lined on either side by Alder trees. One of the larger ones snapped today and fell onto our addition. No major structural damage to the house, but minor damage to three different elevations of roof and a nice hole in the big deck behind our original house. Not to mention the death of Carla's metal patio table (R.I.P.) that is now sheared into a few large pieces.
So anyhow a couple of steps backwards in the progress of the addition, a few hours of chainsaw work on the fallen trees, and a big pile of trunk and branch pieces needing to find it's way to the green waste dump in the next canyon over from ours.
On a more positive note, progress on the addition is moving right along. Stucco brown coat is complete and in about 10 days we'll do the final coat. Drywall and texture is done and we're painting the interior walls (many different colors in typical Carla style). I've begun the decorative rock work on the face of the house. I hate the artificial rocks that many people use as a veneer on their homes and walls and was all set to scour the canyon's creeks collecting rocks (actually started that process) and then I found a distributor for a company that takes natural fieldstone and slices it in half so that the stones have nice flat backs. They also do double cut pieces to be used on corners. So basically you get the ease of installation that comes with fake rock and the natural look of real rock. So happy. Downside is that it costs about triple what the fake stuff does. Anyhow it's looking really good (I'll take some pictures and post here when it's complete) and we're quite happy with it. May even end up doing more rock work than we had first planned to.
Kayla (my oldest daughter) also received an acceptance letter to a private high school that we had applied to. Very excited about this as many of her friends from her middle school have been accepted as well. The school (Orange Lutheran) is a very nice christian school with a great academic program. Much better than the public school options we would have had to choose from if she had not been accepted. It's not cheap, but I can't imagine a better thing to spend money on than our children's education and environment.
Anyhow, that's it for now. Tired from cutting up a big tree and have a nice, long, hot shower in my immediate future...
Today it was extremely high winds that peaked with gusts of 80+ MPH. Our property has a creek running across the rear portion of it (behind the house) and the creek is lined on either side by Alder trees. One of the larger ones snapped today and fell onto our addition. No major structural damage to the house, but minor damage to three different elevations of roof and a nice hole in the big deck behind our original house. Not to mention the death of Carla's metal patio table (R.I.P.) that is now sheared into a few large pieces.
So anyhow a couple of steps backwards in the progress of the addition, a few hours of chainsaw work on the fallen trees, and a big pile of trunk and branch pieces needing to find it's way to the green waste dump in the next canyon over from ours.
On a more positive note, progress on the addition is moving right along. Stucco brown coat is complete and in about 10 days we'll do the final coat. Drywall and texture is done and we're painting the interior walls (many different colors in typical Carla style). I've begun the decorative rock work on the face of the house. I hate the artificial rocks that many people use as a veneer on their homes and walls and was all set to scour the canyon's creeks collecting rocks (actually started that process) and then I found a distributor for a company that takes natural fieldstone and slices it in half so that the stones have nice flat backs. They also do double cut pieces to be used on corners. So basically you get the ease of installation that comes with fake rock and the natural look of real rock. So happy. Downside is that it costs about triple what the fake stuff does. Anyhow it's looking really good (I'll take some pictures and post here when it's complete) and we're quite happy with it. May even end up doing more rock work than we had first planned to.
Kayla (my oldest daughter) also received an acceptance letter to a private high school that we had applied to. Very excited about this as many of her friends from her middle school have been accepted as well. The school (Orange Lutheran) is a very nice christian school with a great academic program. Much better than the public school options we would have had to choose from if she had not been accepted. It's not cheap, but I can't imagine a better thing to spend money on than our children's education and environment.
Anyhow, that's it for now. Tired from cutting up a big tree and have a nice, long, hot shower in my immediate future...
Friday, February 22, 2008
Rain, rain go away
So, big plans to get the first coat of stucco on the house are being thwarted by the on-again, off-again rain we're getting. Tomorrow seems to be an OK forecast so I've got a bunch of help coming and we're hoping the weather will allow us to get it all scratch coated in one day.
I haven't taken recent progress shots off my camera for awhile, but here's a shot from about 3 weeks back before we framed the roof. It should give you a basic idea of what we're doing to the house.
When things settle down a bit I'll take the time to learn how this whole blog software works and get more into linking things, but for now just wanted to drop an image in and make sure I understood the basics a bit.
Things are starting to come together for my next big gym project. It will be located in Riverside, California and will be the second gym for Hangar 18 (another SoCal gym owned by my friend Zach Shields). The gym is one I did the design on and I'm very psyched on it. It should provide the best roped climbing terrain in the region and a ton of good bouldering terrain. Once we get underway I'll likely post some shots here.
Also have some shaping assignments coming up for Climb It and Project Holds, as well as (hopefully) the release of some new shapes I did a while back for VooDoo Holds. Shaping is a huge creative outlet for me and it's another thing I haven't been able to do while we've been working on the house. As happy as I am on how our home is coming together, I definitely look forward to getting back to my normal way of life.
Hope things are dry wherever you are...
I haven't taken recent progress shots off my camera for awhile, but here's a shot from about 3 weeks back before we framed the roof. It should give you a basic idea of what we're doing to the house.
When things settle down a bit I'll take the time to learn how this whole blog software works and get more into linking things, but for now just wanted to drop an image in and make sure I understood the basics a bit.
Things are starting to come together for my next big gym project. It will be located in Riverside, California and will be the second gym for Hangar 18 (another SoCal gym owned by my friend Zach Shields). The gym is one I did the design on and I'm very psyched on it. It should provide the best roped climbing terrain in the region and a ton of good bouldering terrain. Once we get underway I'll likely post some shots here.
Also have some shaping assignments coming up for Climb It and Project Holds, as well as (hopefully) the release of some new shapes I did a while back for VooDoo Holds. Shaping is a huge creative outlet for me and it's another thing I haven't been able to do while we've been working on the house. As happy as I am on how our home is coming together, I definitely look forward to getting back to my normal way of life.
Hope things are dry wherever you are...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The light at the end of the tunnel?
So, I miss climbing.
It's been about 6 weeks since I touched stone (or plastic for that matter). We've been doing a big (1600 sqft) addition to the home we built a few years back and I've been doing a good part of the work myself. What I haven't been doing, I've been coordinating and overseeing. I figure we're a little more than halfway there. Most of the finishes have been selected. New entry door, cabinets, wood flooring, etc. have been ordered. Now we're just taping the drywall and working on smaller tasks here and there around the house.
While it's nice to have the huge portions behind me, I kind of miss the madness of the last month and a half. I feel like I'm forgetting something and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself with the little bit of a breather I've been given lately.
Carla's looking at paint samples and those are really the final decisions to be made. While I want to be a part of the final selections, she always does a good job with that kind of thing and the initial decisions are hers alone to make.
This addition is the final phase (of three) in transforming our home into what we first wanted to build 10 years ago. It will be nice to have it finally complete. Although then it will be time to do the rest of the property (landscaping, hardscape, etc.).
Anyhow it will be good to get back to climbing and the rest of my normal lifestyle activities. In fact, I've got a big new climbing gym to build in Riverside so I guess I'll just be swapping one project for another. Still looking forward to this being done though.
It's been about 6 weeks since I touched stone (or plastic for that matter). We've been doing a big (1600 sqft) addition to the home we built a few years back and I've been doing a good part of the work myself. What I haven't been doing, I've been coordinating and overseeing. I figure we're a little more than halfway there. Most of the finishes have been selected. New entry door, cabinets, wood flooring, etc. have been ordered. Now we're just taping the drywall and working on smaller tasks here and there around the house.
While it's nice to have the huge portions behind me, I kind of miss the madness of the last month and a half. I feel like I'm forgetting something and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself with the little bit of a breather I've been given lately.
Carla's looking at paint samples and those are really the final decisions to be made. While I want to be a part of the final selections, she always does a good job with that kind of thing and the initial decisions are hers alone to make.
This addition is the final phase (of three) in transforming our home into what we first wanted to build 10 years ago. It will be nice to have it finally complete. Although then it will be time to do the rest of the property (landscaping, hardscape, etc.).
Anyhow it will be good to get back to climbing and the rest of my normal lifestyle activities. In fact, I've got a big new climbing gym to build in Riverside so I guess I'll just be swapping one project for another. Still looking forward to this being done though.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Something New
Just set this up and I'm not sure how often I'll use it, but a good friend of mine said that if I don't document things as they happen I'll forget all the good experiences that come my way. I'm sure that at some point my memory will not be what it is today, so he may have a point.
Anyhow, this is something entirely new to me, so we'll see what happens...no promises though.
Anyhow, this is something entirely new to me, so we'll see what happens...no promises though.
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