utilities= giant mess

if you recall a few months ago we were having some serious issues with our utility services.  the city of durango decided ever so awesomely to neglect putting a water main down our street, even though our building lots have been part of the city since around 1907.  they also built the sewer system at a time when there was very little public utility oversight which could explain the resulting sewer main that is about 5 feet higher than the street grade.  and if we know anything we know that sh*t goes downhill!

digging the trench

as a result we have been forced into non-standard utility hook-ups and in the building world any time you are doing something that is not standard it usually means more money, more problems.....ain't it the truth.  so inorder to actually have water and sewer we had to do it ourselves.  björn rented the excavator for two weeks and we have been playing in the dirt and ripping up the entire yard for about 5 days now.  it has been a dirty, sweaty, stressful few days but we keep reminding ourselves that we are saving about $18,000.00!!!!! Can you believe it?!  In my next life i'm becoming a plumber.....

here is a little diagram which explains our problem with the utilities....

you can see the trench leading from the
house for the sewer line

the blue line leading to the large blue circle represents the sewer line.  this line comes out of the house below ground and slowly descends downhill to a depth of 9 feet below grade at the blue dot.  the sewer line then connects to a lift station which is located underground.  this station literally grinds the sewage and pumps it up and across the street to the sewer line (which is built 5 feet too high above the grade of the road)

the bobcat mini excavator is not so mini

björn and i laying the sewer pipe

me carrying pipe

we ran two sewer lines, the one coming out of our house and one that runs parallel to the street and continues north for a future house.  normally a house in a town simply has to hook into a sewer line from their house to the curb, not over 100 feet as we did.

the green line coming out of the house near the stair bump-out headed perpendicular to the street and then running parallel to the street is the water line.  we ran a second line which i did not depict to the lot to the right of this house for future development.  again, the typical home owner hooks into water at the curb in front of their house because the city or developer has stubbed out service lines to each building lot.  not in our case, we got to run water lines over 150 feet through our easements and we are still waiting to hear from the city regarding where we will hook into the water main.  

water lines

we added blue "warning tape" over the water lines to warn future
 diggers that they are about to have problems!

the red line which exits the house from the rear of the bump-out represents the electrical line.  we chose to bury our electricity, our neighborhood has overhead power lines but we decided that we can't stand that.  so the closest power pole is represented by the red circle.  

electrical conduit being run to the junction box

all of these utilities are occurring in the same trench but at different levels.  each utility has specific requirements regarding how deep and also how close to other utilities it can be.  the sewer is the deepest from approximately 30 inches to a total depth of 9 feet over the span of 80 feet.  this is to ensure that everything flows in the right direction. 

electrical conduit leading back to the house

the water line is above this at a constant depth of about 40"  with about 12" of sand between the sewer and the water.  this is to ensure that the water lines don't freeze.  and because of the distance that we are traveling to attach to a water main we chose to run 1" service lines rather than the typical 3/4" service lines.

the boys working hard to cover the water lines

and finally we filled in the trench with more sand and laid 2.5" conduit which houses the electrical wire.  this is anywhere from 18" to 24" below the ground level.  our electrician, david, will then run the very expensive wire through this conduit at a later date, and connect everything to power.  

we are hoping to have the trench filled in by the end of the week and get the yard looking back to normal.  we can't wait until we can dig holes for trees and plants instead of plastic tubing and sand!

excavating...again

today we had a mini excavator delivered to the house so that björn can begin to dig the utility trenches and we can do all the grading and landscaping that needs to be done.  while the guys are inside working on the drywall mud we are outside finally trying to tame the yard!  

believe it or not there are still some roots and stumps around so that is what björn worked on today.  including pulling out a HUGE stump next to the box car where our garage will be built soon! you can see the first round of excavation here.

things are changing

its been a while since i posted but while i was away visiting family on the east coast the guys were hard at work putting up drywall.  here are some pictures and as you will see spring is in full bloom and everything is looking lush and green which is wonderful.

the foyer

the kitchen

kitchen

kitchen

great room

great room

foyer / hall / stair

bath 1

bedroom 2

bedroom 2

the back yard

more of the back yard

a view from the master bedroom 

drywall

progress report: siding

so here is a quick shot of what the front of the house looks like right now.  the hardie board siding looks good right?!  but compared to that barn wood siding....well it falls short big time.  its kind of a puke-y yellow color so björn and i are eager to get it painted as soon as we can. 

originally we really wanted to paint the south house a lighter blue-grey color.  this was our plan all along, my grandfather did an amazing rendering of the house based on a color i had picked back in september.  however, after seeing how beautiful our barn wood turned out we were feeling like the south portion of the house needed to be able to hold its own without competing with the barn wood and that light blue-grey was just not going to cut it.  it seemed kind of weak.  

while björn and i were in new zealand two years ago we noticed many of new houses had black or very dark colored siding and we both really loved it.  i don't think it ever crossed our minds to paint our own house in such a bold dark color.  now before everyone gets a little scared i have rounded up some photos which are good examples of how black or almost black siding can look very elegant.  if you will notice all of these homes have beautiful bright white trim which is key to the house not looking darth vader like.

black board and batten siding Battle Associates Architects via Houzz

dark dark green siding and beautiful white trim- Birdseye Design via Houzz

i love this swedish house with charcoal grey siding
- Ike Kligerman Barkley via Houzz

Ron Brenner Architects

Union Studio Architects

Are you convinced yet?  Björn and I are really loving the richness of the dark colors and the white trim just makes it look so happy!  We have narrowed down our choice to a Behr paint color called Evening Hush.  I am going to do a little research tomorrow to see who has the best exterior paint and also who has the best price. If all works out we will be painting the house at the end of this week.  The weather here is pretty good for painting, warm but a little cloudy.  I hope that we can share photos of the finished Hardie Board soon!

Evening Hush - Behr
(it looks better in real life- it looks a little flat on the computer)

progress report: fiber cement siding

a few days ago i wrote about the second type of siding that we are using on our house.  our artisan hardie board has been rearing to go and i have been so eager to see it go up and see the contrast with the barn wood.  the trim around all of the windows, and the edges of the house go up first so that the lapped siding can butt against it.  our trim details are very simple, i wanted to frame the house with the wide 5.5" trim all the way around, and we added a second 3.5" piece at the top of the walls on the gable ends and sides.  this creates a really awesome shadow line.

the pictures really tell the story so here they are!

this photo shows the sill that we created using the hardie trim

the edges of the house are trimmed with 5.5" planks and the bottom
trim is made up of a 5.5" piece with a 1.5" sill trim. 

the boys started putting up the siding and i am really loving those shadow lines!

the great room window wall has a lot of trim
which will emphasize all of that beautiful glass!

a cool view of the bottom trim

a close up of the siding

as you can see the standing seam roof is finished- more on that soon!

the hardie board is going up much faster than the barn wood so i should have more photos soon! now i just have to decide the exact color to paint this stuff!