April 2007
Laying out location of the building
The surveyors have been out and re-marked the
corners of the property. Dan (builder) says that they will be returning for
additional info this week. Seems that the local building permit/inspection
office is now requiring quite a bit more in the way of official surveys than
when the original Phase I part of this project was built. Part 1 was built
before both Ivan and Katrina. I have heard from many people that since the
property damage was so severe here on the coast, that there are plenty of new
codes. 
Our structural engineer did not have his
drawings or calculations done last week. Dan has spoken to him and he said that
it would be the 'end of the month'...to which Dan replied that was not
acceptable. I have emailed the engineer myself, stressing the importance of us
getting started. I know another person waiting on work from him as well, so I am
not sure how quickly he will get my stuff done. The engineer asked for a 2 grand
'deposit' originally and I gave it to him. I wish now that I had not and then
maybe I could find another engineer who could knock out the info that we need
quickly.
The fellow that Dan wants to use as our block
man is to go up to Grenada, MS to have a look and inventory my blocks. It is
about a 7 hour drive up, but my friend, Jerry Nasello wants 8 column
blocks to make gate posts on either side of his drive, so the trip up to inspect
the blocks might be combined with bringing some column blocks back for Jerry.
This will be great, as the expenses for the block layer to go up to Granada
would be covered by his bring Jerry's blocks back.
An Epson Oversized Printer for Plans
I went to a local print shop to get a pdf file
of my plans printed out on paper large enuf to read the small numbers...they couldn't
do it and sent me down the street to a plans printing place. No one does old
style Diazio (blueprint) printing anymore it seems.
For one set of about a dozen pages on the
full size paper, they wanted $45 bucks. The next size down was $35 so that is
what I went for. Then Epson sent me an email about clearance and rebate on their
oversized large format Epson 1280 printers for $199. Free shipping. I could see
how that expense could easily be re-captured. I ordered the printer and it was
here in a couple days. It will print 13 1/2 in x 26 inches or you can mount a
roll of paper for longer banners. I will still have to print on two sheets and
tape them to get the largest typical blueprint sized house plans, but big deal.
Dan Z., my builder thinks it was a good idea to get the printer. he knows that
in order to make this project happen, I am all about saving money. Also, many
scrapbookers print 12 in x 12 in background papers, so now Heather and I are
making our sets in that size too and this printer will help us evaluate the
files we create. I checked before I ordered it and cheap generic
cartridges are available for this model.
Printer Delivery
Today, April 13th, I ordered 46 two bulb
electric wall sconces and 4 solid brass exterior light fixtures from a
guy that I found on eBay. He owns a eBay drop-off shop (they sell on your behalf
for a commission) in Florida and must have bought a ton of these discontinued
Thomas Kincaid lighting fixtures. Thomas Kincaid is that guy who paints
overly-sentimental cottage illustrations but this lighting manufacturer got him
to stick his name on a line of lights. I was just looking for a bargain on lots
of plain 2 arm wall sconces and I don't care if they are called Michael Jackson
fixtures. I plan to use them with out the glass shades, so I Photoshopped the
glass away to show how they should look. 
I am BIG on sconces. So much better than dim
overhead lights and scattered table lamps with cords to trip over. Especially on
stair cases, where standing on a ladder is scary to change bulbs. I just
love sconces. You see them in photos of all the grand old houses, in
entranceways, halls, staircases, ballrooms....I do not know why builders ever
got away from using them. Even if I go to those coil twisty energy saver
bulbs, mine will look cool.
The big brass exterior lights will go on the
garage and the front doors. 
I paid $19 bucks each for the sconces and $79
for the exterior lights...plus freight. I went ahead and ordered a couple extra
sconces, as I bet end up needing them. I did a good bit of web searching
before I mailed the guy a check today to be sure I couldn't find a better deal.
Lighting fixtures are one of the most marked-up things imaginable, so even when
I did find some cheaper on an auction site, there were usually only two, or four
at most. I was just lucky the first time around (Phase I) to run into some
Pottery Barn rejects for $2.99 each. But there were only about 8 or so.
Believe it or not, the MSR price for the ones I ordered today was like $100 for
the sconces and get this...$411 for the exterior ones. I am totally ready to go
into the lighting fixture business if anyone wants to partner up with me to do
it. Anyway...all together the total w/ freight was about $1400 for
all these fixtures. Dan thought it was a great deal. I had to get 'em while the
gettin' was good.
I suppose I will have to squeeze them into my
mini-storage when they come. Luckily, Dave helped me all one recent afternoon to
throw out a bunch of old stuff and re-organize the mini-storage. Good
timing.
I got a shock last night. It was the first time
that I did the math and figured out the sq footage of this Phase II. Up until
now, I have been thinking in terms of number of rooms...not many. But the sq
footage is way more than I expected and with the tall ceilings, it should have a
very grand feeling inside. Anyway, short ceilings in a DAC-ART house look
oppressive (like ancient jail cell) whereas, high ceilings are the opposite. ...
fabulous. This lot is so wonderful and not many places like this are left, it
deserves a really nice structure. I am not worried about the HVAC aspects
of the sq footage as DAC-ART stays cool well into the day and I will mostly live
on the top floor and can have the floors zoned, so when no guests are here, I
wont care what temp the middle floor is. I do wonder if property tax is
figured on what you spent or the sq footage...I might need to have a chat with
the assessor just so I'd know what I was in store for. Waterfront property is
taxed way higher than inland.
And...Speaking of lights....
I was in Wal-Mart this week when I spotted some
clearanced-out lights that had been on the isle with the hip-chick decor. They
do this gradual color change thing with LED lights. These 12 in flat square
lights had been $28 something but they were marked 10 bucks. I bought all of
them. Here is my plan. I think they would be oh so cool to do all 12 together on
the wall of the powder room. I will have some regular lighting in there too of
course, but I showed them to Dan today and we talked about making a recess
between the studs in the powder room for an electric outlet and having it on a
wall switch so when guest went into the half bath off the living room/kitchen ,
they could get this cool artsy lighting effect. Imagine all 12 of them on one
wall, , three across and four units tall. Maybe I can get a blue glass
sink...black toilet...that would be fitting...These lights would be
cycling thru their myriad of gradual color changes in unison. They are very
similar to the Ice Block color change radio that Google sent me for Christmas
two years ago. Everyone who got one of those thought they were way cool. Now
here it is 2 years later and Wal-Mart has the same (basically) LED toys for
cheap.
In the photos below, notice how only one square
in each shot is color changed. I took multiple shots a few seconds apart,
I tried to capture the gradual effect. This is one light only and it lets off a
ton of LED light, I think 12 of them in a small half bath would be sensational
and they should last 40 to 60 years...hurricanes aside ! Unlike the photos
below, all 12 of the lights would cycle thru the same colors if they are all on
one switch. I predict that everyone will want to go to the bathroom in my house
!!! Well the fun people anyway !
April 18, 2007
The surveyors came back this morning and put in
some stakes marking the rough outline of the new house construction location so
we can have the necessary trees removed. It is a shame to lose these trees as we
lost so many down here in the storms due to the heavy dose of salt they
received.
May 2, 2007
Still waiting on the engineer's (Anil Badve)
drawings....got a call from my builder, Dan, this morning, he says Anil promises
to have them ready this week for sure. Everything is slow, slow, slow. BUT...my
life is so crammed with stuff to do that I hardly notice. I went to Memphis this
past weekend to help my parents and always come home to stacked up email, mail,
phone messages, more email, etc...
Got an email from Abbie Colbert in Calif who is
preparing to begin a DAC-ART house project on the coast there. She and her
husband visited me here a year or two ago. She told me about video on YouTube of
the large DAC ART house going up in Naples, FL. The builder has made numerous
sequential videos, so I will now make a section on this site to add links to
them in order.
Move
on to the foundation plans and 'sorta' final plans that were submitted for
building permit.
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05/05/2008
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