|
Construction Photos Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11
Page 12
|
|

The 600 sq.ft. Studio/Guesthouse is along the East property line. The
porch faces West.
|

The new Phase II residence ids to be situated lengthwise along the West
property line. The garage will face the road (North) and the entrance
will face the existing structure (East).
|
| On waterfront homes, it is
necessary to refer to the different sides of a home by the north-south
coordinates rather than using terms like front, back, side, etc...The
side of the house that faces the water is always referred to as the
"front", thus making the side facing the street ...the
"back". This is the opposite of what inland people expect and
has caused great confusion over time. One large vacation home on Canal
Road in nearby Orange Beach was halfway built before the Cincinnati
architect visited and discovered that the house was on the lot
backwards. In order to reverse the situation, special concrete drillers
had to come to drill thru an 8 inch slab to re-do the plumbing in order
to relocate all the bathrooms. So for that reason, I avoid calling
anything the front or back of the house..
You can view the actual site-plan here. |
|

|

|
| This lot is aprox. one acre.
It is 100 ft across and about 400 ft long. This location has an added
advantage of a deep county owned easement, dense with live oaks. The old
privacy hedge between this lot and the property to the west was
destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. New plantings of native plants and tall
bamboo are in now and growing rapidly in this warm climate. |
|

The DAC-ART blocks are arriving and will be
stacked over much of the property. Our workers have been as careful as
possible to avoid any unnecessary killing of the thick St. Augustine
grass. Much of it will have to be replaced in the end, but to avoid dust
and mud, we are being as gentle as we can now.
|

A rented Lull type of lifting
machine was used to unload all 12 truckloads of blocks. Built in handles
make the lifting process pretty straightforward. |
|

The hollow blocks have an inner liner of
foam. The finished surface of the DAC-ART block forms the exterior and
the interior walls. No cladding is necessary. The hollow core will
contain rebar and back-fill concrete once they are stacked and
leveled.
|

In order to conserve ground space and avoid
killing grass and crowding our workplace, Mike has carefully stacked the
long blocks. He put pallets underneath to keep the edges of the blocks
free of mud and dead vegetation.
|
|

|
Our dry stack blocks come with both open
ends for aligning against one another and with solid ends to be sued as
columns and where openings like doors and windows go. |
|
I have requested that all
smoking workmen use the belt-clip ashtrays during the work day. The men
were very good natured about it during the first phase of construction,
and the result is a much cleaner job site. Feel free to call or
email me for details on how I made these inexpensive personal
ashtrays. |
 |