In the Home Stretch…

casey | Sep 13, 2009 | Comments 2

What is it, you ask? This is the preparation to pour the foundation slab (we don’t have basements in Texas) for this:

This is the house that we built. Yes, we. Big D and yours truly. Just like buying your kid a package of Lincoln Logs, this house arrived much the same way. Bunch of big pieces, little pieces, and a plan to put them all together.

Big D served as his own General Contractor and me? Designer at large… We had never built a house before, but we did it. It is close to completion. In the photo above, the house is basically finished as a house, but has little to no landscaping and nothing by way of decoation inside… well, we’ve been busy…

First, I realize its rainy and drizzly and not very ‘pretty’ in this picture. Oh well, I’m just thankful for the rain. Notice anything new in this picture? Yep, like we’ve fast forwarded about 85 years to allow the trees to grow? Nope, we’re not nearly that patient. With a zillion trees all over the ranch, we just had them moved in! They provide some much needed shade, and create a beautiful frame for the house. Live oaks, red oaks, burr oaks, some pear and magnolia have gone in so far… we will put in another pair of peach trees along the back fence to finish up soon…

Oh, so you want to see inside too? Silly me, of course you do…

Well, this is probably the most dramatic set of photos, and the area that I had the most fun designing. Doesn’t look like much here, does it? Believe it or not, this is the kitchen. Don’t believe me? Here’s a photo taken from the exact same spot, a few days later…

See? I told you it was the kitchen. The cabinets that I designed are installed here, made out of my favorite hardwood, but rarely used in this part of the country, alder. The kitchen was truly a labor of love…

I couldn’t find the photo in the files taken from exactly the same spot, but this should help. In this photo, the floors are in, appliances are in, granite countertops are in… well, basically everthing is in except the island hood and the details…

You might remember me mentioning last fall that we traveled down to King Ranch, where I put together the entire contents for the house. Guess what has started to arrive now????

You got it…!

ALL OF THE FUN STUFF!

It feels like Christmas, I tell you. I keep opening box after box, uncovering the jewels I ordered almost a year ago to furnish this house. Of course, the shipments don’t come in any particular order, so I have opened a great deal of accents and very little actual furniture, so for the time being, there are lamps sitting on countertops and artwork sitting around, but in short order, it will all come together…

Even though I don’t personally like log homes, this project has become very close to my heart. In an effort to make the house a home for the client, I have tried to put myself in the project and ask myself, “What would you do if this were your own?…” and as a result, there has been a great deal of love and thought poured into this project. We used petrified wood from the ranch around the chimneys, logs from ranch trees for mantles, and several other small details that add a sense of character to this beautiful home. Below I am going to upload a series of random photos from every stage of the build…

I love the curious cattle in this pic, don’t you? One night they escaped from the fence and we found them INSIDE the house, even climbing the stairs!

The chimneys, both inside and out, were such an artistic endeavor! Each rock was carefully placed to give a great cascading flow of color, texture, and shape… and like I previously mentioned, our own petrified wood accented the design…

The rock wall on the back of the stairwell inside was a brilliant ‘fix’ for an exposed beam that really didn’t look so good. We decided to cover both sides of this wall with stone, giving the illusion of being an old, foundation wall or something. The result is fantastic and no one knows that it is covering a mistake in the plan! The other side of this rock wall is the dining room, where you saw that longhorn cattle painting sitting on the floor (above). Beautiful!