I was in the library yesterday and found your book. What a godsend!! I have been reading it and decided to check out the website. Jodenia M., Blacksburg, SC

even more pix

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 4/6/2008 7:04:02 PM

heres where we are as of the end of march 2008

Photos

Our Granite at the yard, we have to have 4 slabs as we are doing our back splashes as well	fencing comes down	preparing for driveways
first installments of kitchen cabs, they will having solid walnut draws and doors and we opted for those slow self closing draws	marble tile not travertine (shock horror) around one of the the down stairs bedroom baths	start of the circular driveway

Guy in San Luis Obispo, CA 60 forum posts and 1 interview answer Send Private Message 4/14/2008

This is an amazing house.  I feel your pain regarding the HOA stuff.  The HOA we deal with likes to say  "If you don't like our rules, perhaps you shouldn't be here."  Elitisim defined.  This obviously isn't your first build.  Can you share some of the following information;  1.General cost of construction / s.f.  2.How the rendering of the house posted back at the beginning was done  3.How to find out about salvaging stuff from Vegas Really enjoying your posts.  Thanks for sharing.  Are you able to take advantage of labor and material price drops from the slowdown in construction?  Can you renegotiate prices now?

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more pix

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 4/6/2008 9:02:03 AM

As I said here are more pictures, I have found that taking the bull by the horns and pressing harder with different trades as to what you expect from them a little more than I would normally, works quite well, in other words tell them to do what they said they going to do in the amount of time they estimated and ride them until they do... every day.

Photos

getting ready for iron	pool equipment	Made the baluster at the bottom of the stairs taller
More travertine, finished back deck	$50 bargain, so we bought 2	stamped concrete coping on spa

Updates

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 4/5/2008 10:40:05 PM

Yep I am a loser when it comes to updating the web site, but we have been making progress, I have attached a coupe of pix, but there so many that I will post them over the next few day's

Photos

start of the travertine floors	Hand rail for the stairs	Floor medallion
kitchen floor travertine	Travertine on outdoor decks	stairs
driveway 1	driveway 2

Whitney in Saint Augustine, FL 28 forum posts and 24 journal entries and 74 interview answers Send Private Message 4/6/2008

Fabulous!!!

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Our Floor plan

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 1/24/2008 5:53:23 PM

Here iare our 1st floor and 2nd floor plans

Photos

1st floor

Files

Scaffold is off.

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 1/18/2008 5:17:24 PM

The stucco and roof guys have now taken down the scaffold that has surrounded the house for so long, it's a great feeling actually seeing the house. We are waiting on bids for the hardscapes and landscaping; also the tile guys start next week. The company I was expecting to use have not returned calls (get used to it) so they lost this job.

The handrails have been glued with the appropriate curves, the most difficult being the compound curve going down the stairs. I have just removed all the masking from the windows, doors, canned lights (stuffed with fiberglass to stop the paint) switches and plugs, also scraped the floors and mopped every one - my first indication of how it's going to be cleaning 6,000 square feet... maybe in future I'll just buy these instead irobot.com!

Photos

Chimney detail	handrail bending	no scaffold
finished eaves painting	8ft front door	shared balcony for 2 bedroom
window details	eave detail	balcony rail

Whitney in Saint Augustine, FL 28 forum posts and 24 journal entries and 74 interview answers Send Private Message 1/18/2008

Your home is my dream home.  It is absolutely beautiful.  The belly rail, and chimneys are fantastic.  Great job.  We are excited for you!   Whitney

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130 Gallons of paint

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 1/11/2008 10:35:18 PM

Just finished the paint, mostly inside (130 Gallons) as the stucco had the color built in. I had had bids which varied from $13,000 for interior paint and materials and up... I borrowed a friend's airless paint sprayer (thanks, Frank) and as he said, "you will want to buy one yourself after using one," so 20 gallons in I purchased a GRACO MAGNUM XR9 from Home Depot plus a couple of extra nozzles and, hey, presto - two and a half weeks later I have finished the paint.

I had help at first with about half the primer (25 gallons) but did the rest alone. Total cost including sprayer $2,985, now this is not for the fainthearted and I second-guessed myself a couple of times during that time but I it's done and I am quite proud... Oh, and it looks great apart from one or two places that I will fix. I have a guy bending the wood for the staircase, for about a quarter of the cost of the lowest bid, how? I went around a couple of custom homes and came across a well-known local stair company working and just stood and watched on and off for a few days, and noticed that one guy was doing all the work, so I asked him if he did work on the side and he said yes, and that was that.

Photos

front windows exterior	garages	where the range is going
	Staircase	2nd floor
Balcony	back	Where pool is going

Yet again it's been a while

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 12/27/2007

Sorry for being so tardy with our postings, but as you soon realize, your blog becomes a very poor second, anyway all is going well, although I have been fight the HOA every single day; e.g. $450 fines for dumping??? I had to waste one half a day fighting that, trying to prove that it was not dumping, as the soil that was dumped on the land adjacent was dug from that land, and we had to put it there to build the dividing wall between the two pieces of land, and for the wall we were sharing the cost. Or $40 fine for my truck's front wheels touching the sidewalk... but they were not, but it seems that if my fender projects over the sidewalk whilst the wheels are on my land, that I am infringing.

Now bear in mind that the security company that issues the fines is paid for by the owners, so in effect I am paying for a company to police us as we build, yet they will not protect our property in a 24-hr guard gate community until we have our COO (Certificate of Occupancy) oh, and they also fined us $300 for leaving our fence open even though I have photographic evidence to prove that when we left the site that we locked up. Frustrating... just a little. Although they pulled back on most fines because the overseeing HOA has brains, it's the time wasted, and it also makes for a very miserable and frustrating build. That said, here are a couple of updated photos, oh... we are still smiling.

Photos

	above front door

Insulation and drywall

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 11/17/2007

The insulation is in (two days) drywall hung (6 working days) and they have started the taping and mud on the interior, just make sure that you have everything that you want behind the drywall because is would be a pain doing it later, we took pictures of every wall in every room before drywall so we know where to look later, I forgot the speaker wire in the theater room, yet I managed to put wire for 28 speakers for the rest of the house and, yep, I forgot the most important room, anyway that was before drywall so I had to remove the fiberglass insulation which is great fun if you enjoy itching... strangely enough I don't.

Photos

entrance ceiling	where the range will live	Garages
master bath with fire place	Vapor barrier in and leading to the wine cellar

stucco/central vac/low voltage

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 10/23/2007

2nd coat of Stucco called the brown coat has just been done, and on the whole they did a great job. There is about one day's worth of fixes to be done by one guy from the stucco company after we walked the house checking the work, but they are easy fixes. It was important to look closely for clear even lines, patches that may need squaring up, but once you know what to look for, it becomes obvious where to look (Keith pointed out what to look for and hey presto now I know).

I have just finished the central vac system and it works!!!!! Shock, horror; (brought the whole package from thinkvacuums.com, very helpful and knowledgeable people.) Today me and Keith were pulling the low-voltage wiring (cat5e/RG6... bundled wire as well as speaker wire and individual cat5e, the hardest and most time-consuming part is deciding where is the best place to put it! Anyway it definitely is not brain surgery and quite rewarding...

Photos

Files

Lath and 1st coat of stucco

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 10/21/2007

OK, so our house is finally one color, albeit drab gray, but it still marks a giant leap forward for us. Now those who know stucco understand that this is the first layer, and there are two more to go, the second is in three days and then the final third is roughly three weeks after that. We are opting to use OmegaFlex which is basically an Acrylic finished stucco normally used on commercial buildings. It costs more but comes with color in it and is highly crack resistant and guaranteed for many years to come.

We did fail the first lath inspection, but with minor fixes we passed later that day. The strange thing about the inspections is that you start to take them personally, like the guy is trying to make your life hard just because he can, but everything that we have had to fix so far (which I'm happy to say is not too many) I am glad that he noticed as it makes for a better home and also makes sure the subs do their stuff before they get paid.

Photos

Railings install and drywall delivered

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 10/6/2007 2:20:37 AM

So my buddy T-Bone just made me some of the greatest rails I have seen (that's him in the pictures)... we love them. I purchased the parts from kingmetals.com way, way cheaper than anywhere local and Bone did the rest. Also we had the drywall laid out in all the rooms in the house ready for hanging, hopefully in about a week. But I first have to finish the central vac and then run all of the low-voltage wiring.

Photos

Hi again

Posted to WilliamsinVegas by Drue in Henderson, NV on 9/27/2007

Yes, it’s been awhile, but as some will know and the rest will find out this is a all-consuming affair. And just when we thought we would put a post out, something cropped up and again your life becomes a frustrating jungle of emotions and of course cold hard cash. Anyway we move on as you can see by the pictures we have. Amongst all the turmoil is my site supervisor Keith Moore, who I have to say, without whom I think that I would have a lengthy criminal record thus far, has been the voice of reason, understanding, and knowledge and is the only reason that we have gotten so far with the project.

So fireplaces are in, as are tubs and we have also put Tyvek attic wrap and Tyvek drain wrap on the house which may I add was supplied for free courtesy of a KAMA and TYVEK deal. Now it did cost us the labor to put the stuff on, but the pairing of the two products just does nothing but take our future home to another level, and I have to say we love the pairing, even in 100 degrees plus the house is quiet and cool inside and we are not on stucco or drywall yet, anyway we will be a lot more up to date from now on... Well, we have the best intentions.

Photos