SLABBED

Lots going on since our posting last week. We went to bed on Monday night and we woke on Tuesday morning to discover that the concrete fairies had come!! The slab was poured on Tuesday as scheduled and looks great. On Thursday, the first batch of lumber was delivered. You can see on some of the pictures, they have already begun cutting and placing the boards that the framed walls will be attached to. We've been told that they'll begin framing as early as tomorrow and that the house will be completely finished by Tuesday, April 1st...and yes, there are no bigger fools than us!!

This is what they did we the rebar that was standing up. They bent it over (yeah, kinda' like that!!), and wove a tapestry of steel support for the concrete that will follow.

This is what our life is all about at the moment...concrete and lumber!!

There's some great curved surfaces that will be in this house. Note the curved front entrance and how it nicely compliments the spiral staircase in the center if the pic.





Detail shot of the wall that will house our staircase and machine gun turret. Our little castle!!






Another shot of our momentous load of lumber. One of those little details we'll always remember!!


Here's Gina arguing with one of the framer. I think she's telling him that the slave quarters being built are too large and luxurious.





This is where they will be bolting part of the steel framing that one day will support the second floor deck. The girder should be arriving any day now and should be a great photo opp.


The next batch of pictures should be as exciting as they come. Thrill to the pics of the first walls!! Stand in awe as the steel girder is bolted into place!! Coming Soon!!

DAVE STEVENS: JULY 19, 1955 - MARCH 11, 2008

Can anyone out there help me? I misplaced by blog etiquette book and I’m not quite certain what the correct course of action is supposed to be. Since a blog is such a personal/selfish endevor and not designed for use by anyone other thant the authors, do we need to apologize for generating no new entries for quite some time now? Since you are all basically just uninvited spectators to what ever Gina and I wish to write about, my guess is we have no moral nor legal obligations to what is basically an audience of voyeurs. Though you are family and friends, we have no responsibilities towards you and owe you absolutely nothing when it come to our writings. We can show you what we want, when we want to...or choose to show you nothing at all!!

With that now out of my system, we apologize for the irregularities of late with any new posting and I ask that you send any comments and/or hate mail regarding the above to Gina. She’d love to hear from you.

If we are required to provide you with excuses, aside from the classic “the dog ate my homework”, you may as well get use to what Gina’s and mine will be...we’ve just been so busy, that updating the site with new pics and rants, just doesn’t happen. On top of our jobs and the construction on the house which already fills 25 each day, I just returned from Vegas yesterday where I did a presentation in front of some of the top comics retailers throughout the country telling them what our future plans were. The weekend prior, I took a drive 300 miles north to Turlock, CA to attend a service for Dave Stevens who died on Tuesday. I first met Dave who was the creator of THE ROCKETEER, back in 1981. He was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in the late 90’s and did his best to maintain normalcy in his life...though he was fully aware of the inevitable outcome. He was an incredible artist, my unofficial art director and a very good friend. He will be missed.

In an attempt to play catch-up and quickly bring you up top speed, the following are two batches of pics that will get us all up to date.

SHOTS FROM MAR. 9th
Here's all the footing forms and rebar from taken from the very corner of the soon-to-be garage.



A sacred room...the downstairs bath!!







Though they're driving the builder's nut, our curved entrance will be the coolest around.




MAR. 13th...THE DAY THE CONCRETE CAME: PART I
We woke up one morning, to find a concrete truck in the street. It was kinda' like Christmas!!


Concrete work across the country came to a standstill when all the workers came to San Clemente to help with our pour!!





When more concrete is needed, you make your own. This guy ate the right stuff and was a regular McGuyver. He put alot of himself into the work!!




Here you see much of the concrete poured and some of the rebar that if I understand correctly, will be be used to structurally connect the footings to the slab.



Close-up of the precise placement of the concrete. If we lived closer to an active volcano we could have saved thousands of dollars!!





Detail shot of the garage. The floor of the garage will be a step or two lower than that of the house, hence the reason for the different footings.



The final shot is from the front left corner of the house looking back. All of the room sizes look extremely small. We've been told it's all an optical illusions and once wall are up, everything will be fine...but then we were also told demolition of the house would begin before Christmas. It's no wonder why most people don't even attempt to build a house!!

Upon completion of the concrete pour for the footings, they are preparing the ground for the slab itself. That should happen early next week and new pictures are promised...and you know what that's worth!!

Take care and HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!!

MASTER PLANS

Due to the many requests we had, below are the "top-secret" floor plans for the new house. We unveiled the elevation drawing of the house to you a while back but for some reason, these had yet to be seen.
Note that we will soon have a driveway that jumbo jets can also land on. Though we have no backyard or room for that olympic-size pool, it not everyone who can land planes on their property!!
Here's the second floor to the house. This is where all the action will be. Note the wall-less living area that incorporates the kitchen, dining room and living room into into one big-ass area. Also on this floor is the Master Bedroom suite. This is all we need!!

What we do not have digital files for is the roof deck. The exterior stairs you see on the second floor deck, lead to a third floor, completely open deck. We'll post a picture of the view once they build the sucker!!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have some new pics to post next week that I can use to describe the intricacies of footing construction. Bet you can hardly wait!!

GOOFY FOOTINGS

Lots of progress has been made on the construction while we were out of town. The surveyor markings all evolved and were fleshed-out into wood forms for the footings. Once the forms were all laid out, they began trenching for both the footing pours and the rough plumbing. We've been told that they will be pouring the concrete for the footings next week. This is all happening pretty quickly (or at least quicker than getting the damned funding!!). After the footings dry, they prepare the area for the pouring of the slab itself. The slab dries, they start framing and within weeks, the house will be complete and ready for us to move-in!! Just kidding!!

These boards mark the front left corner of the house. "Shit, for some reason I thought the ceiling was gonna' be a little taller than this!!"






The garage is to the left and the back corner of the house is to the right. One only hopes they remove all this silly string before we move-in!!



These are either alien crop-circles or the foundation for our spiral staircase. I kinda' hope it's the aliens!!


This radius will one day be the front entrance. The trench in front is the start of the moat. Anyone know where we can get some hungry 'gators?




Here's the obligatory "artsy-fartsy" shot. I kept telling Gina that more than just my vocabulary was being enhance during the time spent working with Kevin Smith!!



This is shot from the front right corner of the house-to-be and will someday be my own personal Fortress of Solitude where I can watch movies at high volume (when Gina's sleeping) and even hang some of the art I've acquired over the years. Note that curved entrance area again. Yes, this will be a house one of these days!!