Progress report
It's crazy to think the last update was all the way back in February. Since then a lot has changed. It's still not much to look at from the street, between the dumpster, the fence and all the scaffolding. We're just waiting for the rain to pass so we can do our last coat of stucco. It's a white stucco with integral color, when finished it almost looks just like white concrete. With that and some metal screens that we have planned over the windows it should be looking lots better soon. You can see now that thanks to it being set below grade it doesn't look too imposing, despite being two stories. I parked my classic Range Rover there to help you with scale. :)
Inside things have transformed in a major way. The drywall stage is always my favorite part of a project because it's when you get to see the building come alive. There are all sorts of interesting details in our house that were hard to appreciate before drywall, like wing walls around all the windows for that added sense of depth, and windows that disappear above the ceiling line to keep things feeling light and open. The living room area has a double height ceiling with a 23' window that fades above the ceiling. It has a very monumental feeling that is hard to capture in a photo. Below is a shot from the bottom looking up and from the top floor looking down that will give you a sense of what it's like to be in the space.
There is a similar window that forms a small interior courtyard at the base of the stairs. It is the same height but it is divided by the floor line. The view and natural light that it provides when going up and down the stairs are equally impressive. At the top of the stairs you can get a sneak peek of my design OCD. The long rectangle in the ceiling is the linear diffuser (a fancy AC vent) and the two circles are can lights that are perfectly lined up. These sorts of details are everywhere in the project for like-minded design obsessed people to appreciate.
The views from our bedroom reveal similar design language with windows disappearing into the ceiling. I'm particularly excited about the en suite shower which has dual skylights (and moonlights at night) to help keep things feeling fresh and open.
Progress is similar with my office / pool house / car port out back, with the exception of the stucco. There they were able to get the final coat put on a good half of it. We are very excited with the way it turned out, and it makes us feel glad we splurged to upgrade to the nicer integral stucco over a typical painted one.
