Building Diary

Plans Revised

Changes yet again.  A year on the drawing board, and now the plans dictate that the old garage will stay intact, and instead a new garage/guesthouse will be built on the back of the lot, with a driveway opening to the street behind us.

Kind of makes two separate projects, and two separate structures - the main house to renovate and the new house to design from scratch.

Starting from the top, the main house is in need of a roof.  Not only is it old, ugly, wooden shingles, it also is designed poorly and leaks. 

So the bid gathering begins.  And the research.  Wish list for the tiles are ceramic from MCA Tile.  Samples arrived today and they are incredible looking.

But can't even think about installing them until we find someone to deal with all our leaks and design problems.  So now it's all about roofers. (more...)

Previously in the Diary

  • 11.18.2006: Solar cooking addiction

    Made oatmeal in the solar over today, and currently, a potato cooks for later.  Found this genius modification, a wall-mounted solar oven.

    This design does not use collectors because they would have to be adjusted over the course of the day to make sure the bottom was not in (more...)

  • 11.17.2006: A first solar oven

    Ate very sweet corn on the cob that I cooked in a solar oven today.  Took about an hour and half to cook the corn and about three days to make the solar oven.  Longer really, counting all the boxes I had to search for.  Finally went to Safeway at 5:30 (more...)

  • 11.06.2006: A Solar Start

    Energy efficiency is a top priority for our renovations and additions project, so solar panels are on the agenda.  In researching solar power and its use in homes, I stumbled across another way to harness the sun's energy: solar cooking.

    I hadn't heard of this before, and that is too (more...)

  • 10.31.2006: The Skeletal Structure

    For now, this site is a digital version of a well organized, but empty school binder, complete with all the hopes and aspirations of a new school year.

    With absolutely no reason in particular, I decided to launch it to the world on November 1st.

    Well, maybe there was (more...)

  • 10.31.2006: The Rastra Man

    Sometimes, just a taste of something, opens up whole new worlds.  Intensified, that was the case with us. The original plan was to build an RV garage.  Our contractor introduced us to Rastra and used it to build our new garage.  Initially, the interest was for the insulation it (more...)
The Baseball Project: Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey

In Brief

Once upon a time there was a happening 70's pad in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. We hope to change all that. We'll be our own contractors, using green construction practices, to add on to our house, make it as energy efficient as possible, and bring it into the present decade.

November 2006: The planning stage. Presently under piles of research, hoping to emerge with a good plan.

In Pictures

The house now The sketch for changes The sketch for changes
The Real Estate Pros on TLC