My apologies….I’m terribly overdue to update everyone on what’s been going on. I keep telling people it’s been a bit like drinking from a firehose this summer, as there has been so much happening all at once on the project every week and the months have flown by; So, without further adieu, here is the latest news.

When I last wrote, we had just finished getting the exterior walls ready for the first round of stucco. Walls were framed and ready for insulation and drywall. Boy…has a lot happened since then!

As of this week we are a good ways into completing the lap pool/spa.  The first coat of exterior stucco and exterior deco tiles from Spain are up, and the final coat of stucco is scheduled to go up this week.  The interior walls are now completed, all the way through mud/texture and paint.  The faux beams have been installed in the ceiling…that was harrowing to watch.  All of the cabinets are installed and waiting to be stained and they are beautiful. Like the interior doors, they are made from knotty Alder.  Tile floors and bathroom walls have begun to be laid.  The high ceiling lighting and fan will be installed this week enabling us to remove the tall interior scaffolding so that the hardwood floors can be laid later this week. As of today the ADU is having its hardwood floor laid and last week its interior doors were hung and the kitchen counter has been partially installed.

The temple courtyard is being prepared for its finished look and we have on boarded a local artist, Brian Sarinova (his website), to the team to create our courtyard fountain (just wait till you see what we’ve designed with him!), some artistic metal components for the front gate, which is being built by another local artisan, and a newly designed metal grate/cover for the well (we will be illuminating the well so you can look through this grate and see the water and brickwork below). These are such exciting developments for us and all happened quite quickly.

As you will see in the pictures, its been a very productive summer and while I’ve meant to blog updates regularly, I have missed the boat on that, so please enjoy catching up on where we are at now.  The vision of our dream property that has been in my head for three years now is coming to life like a painting I’ve dreamt of and it’s all incredibly exciting. I look forward to sharing the final exciting stages towards completing our labor of love project over the next few months.

Cheers and many wishes that your summers have been fun and productive as well!

Where we last left off…

Roof being loaded with terra cotta tiles to weight bear the roof before the drywalling can begin

Such a cool mechanism they have for doing this

Roof loaded and ready for drywall inside to begin

Fireplace installed

Interior Doors being installed

The look of our interior doors…knotty alder wood

Insulation phase

just love that pink fiberglass…

and more of the same…

all insulation is in…ready for drywall

Big front door ready for install

Drywall phase has begun … and what a messy phase it is

Even the ceilings get drywalled…ugh…so high up there!

and then the taping/mudding began

Front door installed

Ready for plaster and paint

And what a beautiful job they did

bench seat arrives

kitchen cabinets arrive

my farmhouse kitchen sink

installed

and then then monster kitchen island arrived…in two pieces…oy!

master bath vanities

Brian, our foreman, installing the media center in the living room

side view installed

front view Installed

Christopher cutting tiles

powder room floor tiles installed (grout comes later)

one of the upstairs bathrooms with tile installed

my salon floor

love this tile

and tile wall of upstairs shower

The crew hoisting the faux beams up….omg…I was so scared to watch

they definitely earned a cold brew each after this!!

The results of their hard work are stunning

Our painters hard at work touching up after beam installs

and trimming out the door jams

and so beautifully too

arched windows almost done…window sills just need to be stained

And the pool work begins

so fun to watch this unfold

we will finally have the lap pool of our dreams

courtyard scrapped and ready for beautification

Brian Sarinova laying out the courtyard fountain

Concrete pour

and leveling

all finished and drying

layout for the palm tree borders

Once again, Mike has created something beautiful

The landscaping crew laying down the base rock

and gravel

almost ready for the final layer of DG

Laundry room counter installed

ADU kitchen cabinets installed and countertop almost finished

Doors hung in ADU

ADU hardwood flooring install has begun

Lino and Lecho installing our deco tiles along the exterior walls…

Lino is a little crazy

Ok…seriously crazy

But his work is amazing

These tiles were ordered from Spain through Etsy…we have some more to share in later blog entries to come

Exterior is ready for final coat of stucco

When it is done it will be white

In the midst of all that other work, the big doors are placed (and painted) on the Yogi Temple

So great to have these installed

Looking down into the historic well…Brian will be creating a metal grate to cover this and we will illuminate with lighting inside the well

Me digging for more old tiles …. one more time to be sure we got as many as we can find

Found way more than I thought I would

and entire bag full!

and a blister to show for all that digging

During all this I managed to enter in an artshow…pick a Picasso piece that inspires you and do your own version…mine is a cloth tapestry (of sorts) hung on driftwood found on Capitola beach this winter

These strange flowers just crop up any and everywhere….beautiful, but rather odd

We took a short break down in Carmel Valley… such a nice get away…hope your summer has been great too!