Some more photos -- click on photos to enlarge

living room 

Center cabinet unfolds into compact office 

bookcase and pocket door to downstairs 1/2 bath

shower enclosure upstairs

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CAD drawing showing the shower enclosure in  plan view

Shower interior

 

WINDOWS ETC...

 Installed windows today.  Here are a few photos.  More coming soon.

I'm making Bread -- not money -- just Bread.

I made my first loaf of bread today and wow, it turned out!  Kind of a funny shape but man does it taste good.  Check out that crust! Now that's architecture! It's super simple to make and takes almost no time.  

HYDRONIC HEATING SYSTEM

Here are some photos of the heating system in the main house, put together by myself and Kaleb in 2004 and most recently in 2011 when we added some new components to it in order to run heat out to the new house.  This boiler takes care of all the heating and hot water needs for both houses, including the basement apartment.  This comes to:  3 kitchens, 5 bathrooms, two clothes washers.  The water heater, the blue thing on the right contains only 55 gallons of water, but, because it is connected directly to the boiler, it can produce 190 gallons of piping hot water per hour.

Four pumps, for four heating zones.  Sounds simple, huh?

The pump (red thing) second from left is the one that sends out hot water to the rear building.  

Here you can see the mixing valve just below the pump on the far left which is the pump sending water to the rear building.  Because it is in-floor heat, we used the mixing valve to mix down the 180 degree boiler water down to a more comfortable 110 degrees which should produce a maximum floor surface temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

Some shut-off valves on the return side of the primary boiler loop.

We had to core through the concrete and run insulated pipes underground to the new building.  Here you can also see the hot and cold potable water lines running next to the heating pipes.  

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Mixing valve again.

An obsession for order.

Oh.  Here is a potable hot water recirculation pump (black thing in center of photo), which circulates hot water at predetermined times, so that one has almost instant hot water at the taps in the back house.  This will save a ton in water bills as one won't have to run the tap for minutes at a time just to get hot water.  Built by yann buchanan and Kaleb in 2004 and 2011

Here is the in-floor hydronic manifold in the new house  -- partially finished, hence the messy wires.  It distributes all of the hot water throughout the floor.  The knobs on the top of the black manifold are balancing valves which help to evenly distribute the flow of water and heat.

WEEK: GA-ZILLION & 3 TO GA-ZILLION & 12

Yeah, it's taking forever.  But here are some pics.  Why's it taking so long?  Cuz it's just Kaleb and me. What we do:  pretty much everything.  Here's the shortlist:  Carpentry.  Cabinetry.  Concrete work.  Steelwork, including welding.  Heating (you should see the boiler room).  Plumbing including all the soldering, PEX and sanitary waste lines, both ABS and cast iron. Gas lines both hard pipe and flex.  We actually got certified by the manufacturer to use their CSST flex pipe  (corrugated stainless steel pipe).  Electrical, including 110vac and 220vac as well as the new service panel and service wire from the main disconnect.  Tiling.  Yes tiling too.  Between the two of us, we've done over a dozen bathrooms.  Painting and cabinet spray finishing.  Drywall and taping.  I don't want to even know how many acres I've covered over the years.    Oh yeah,  all the design work,  permitting and planning.  

Lower part of bookcase on south wall.  Upper casework still needs to get built.  

Notice the black uprights and toe kick.  This is 16 gauge steel hot rolled steel.

View looking up the stairs with the fir panels in place.

Another view looking up the stairs, showing the dramatic effect of the wrap around panels.  Note:  the panels really are the back-side of the cabinet which forms the core around which the steel stair wraps.  In effect, the cabinet is 20 feet tall.  Creates a dramatic effect as you can see and gives me lots of storage.  Oh, the red and blue tubes are the hot and cold plumbing lines temporarily in place.  

Looking downstairs from the bathroom.  Pretty cool steel stairs, huh?  I'm pretty proud of those, having welded them all myself.

Another view from the bathroom.

Upstairs landing.  To the right, hidden, is the big 12 foot tall window that lets in winter light.  There will be a small fir bench there as well.

Upstairs beam and ceiling.

Nautilus shaped shower enclosure under construction.  Here you can also see the floor heating set up.  In each of the grooves we will be placing a PEX (cross-linked polyethelene) tube which will circulate hot water throughout the flooring of the house.  (Actually, I just recently finished the heating system but have no pics to show you at the moment  --- but it works great.  Sigh of relief and yes, some pride).  

Kaleb working on the shower.  Notice the happy face.

To make the shower valve work, we had to do some

fancy soldering.  I also had to fabricate a steel mounting

plate for it, which I had to drill and tap.

Here is the backside of the shower valve, mounted in place.

sRound window in the bathroom.

 Roof view, looking west.

View of the curved vault above the stair, also showing the roof hatch.

View showing the 1/4" aluminum 'fins'.  They have the slightest taper and will be the 'trim' that separates the stucco from the glass.  Hard to explain.  You'll see. 

View of the house from my neighbor's yard.

Another view where you can kinda see the big, tall window, or as Kaleb and I call it, "The Light Scoop".  Great winter light and passive solar collector.  

Alley view.  Here you can see a number of elements that I think are kinda cool:  the flared, round windows, the curved roof-line all clad in metal and the projecting roof 'coping' or trim which lines the perimeter of the roof.  yann buchanan