The Bauer-Mayorga Studio in East Chatham

GETTING THERE

2009-03-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Mud and more mud. The leech field is not yet done, nor the driveway. We're waiting, waiting, waiting and having to approach by foot for fear of getting swallowed by the mud blobs.

Winter made a war zone outside. Nature has been tested and looks winter worn. Yet, buds are happening and woodpeckers can be heard doing their job.

Interior kitchen scene. Woodstove from Woodstock Soapstone Stove Co. Real nice.

Working studio beginning to happen.

Winter Blues

2009-02-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

Building a house in winter has its downers. We are set back by both exterior and interior problems.The damage from the last ice storm occupied the workers who were supposed to lay in the electricity & phone line, dig the leech field, hook up water and the septic, finish the driveway, clear out the trees taken out in the Fall, and bring in the remaining fill around the house. They were all clearing away tree damage in Kinderhook and abandoned us. The big blue septic tank (see pictures below) was put in place two days ago, but the dump truck delivering gravel could not make it up our icy drive. Phone and electricity will be run from off site until Spring. Everything looks half done and it is a drag! The driveway is too treacherous to reach by anything less than a 4 wheel drive with great snow tires. Walking down to the house is an obstacle course due to mounds of dirt and deep holes covered with dirt. No visitors, please!

The interior has its own particular problems. We closed up the house in November, right before the first snow. The interior wood, which is new and about 40% water, demands that we constantly run two fans and two dehumidifiers. Even with this, every morning we mop up a couple of condensed quarter- sized water droplets which fall from the beams. The wood floors are in, but we'll keep the paper and cardboard down until the droplets quit. I'm feeling lucky, though. A post and beam project in the area, so the drywall guy said, came to a hault in the. Condensation created a tropical rainforest in the whole house, complete with constant rain showers.

Still things have been done. The whole interior has been taped and painted, shelves are in place, the bathroom is finished, a woodstove installer was found (difficult to find!), and the countertop is coming soon and will finish off the kitchen. I'm beginning to sing and record there already, thanks to the wonder of pocket-sized digital recorders.

It will be a wonderful work space and pleasant place to be...once things start moving again. A snow storm is predicted for Tuesday. Yes, another one. I pray it's snow and not ice...

Septic pipe waiting, waiting, waiting for dirt. Meanwhile, watch your step. (Note: end windows are now four-sided instead of triangular. No glass cutter in the area would cut the glass to a point and guarantee it after seeing that the glass would be set against pine. This was our solution.)

First coat of "Lotus Gold" in the studio area.

Bathroom before and after. Still, only for show.

Ice Storm and Beam Coating

2008-12-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Storm clouds bloated with freezing rain arrived 12/11/08, Thursday night, and after an hour of incredible rain, coated the trees with an inch of ice. Electricity went out in our area and resumed Monday, 12/15/08. This was our weekend to finish sanding and coating the beams. Not Mother Nature's plans. Sanding was finished, but with electric out, it was not warm enough to continue with beam polying. It was nice to note that, even in bitter cold temperatures, the bermed walls of the studio provide for mild temperatures inside. Heating this place inexpensively will be a piece o'cake.

Pictures of the ice coating with beam coating before the storm below. Juan Carlos and Nicolas, our handsome sons, as beam painters. Ella as site forewoman.

Front Door

2008-12-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

Walls Going Up And At An Angle (Acoustics, Acoustics, Acoustics)

2008-12-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

Post#19 We're Moving Along: Sliding Glass Doors, Sub-flooring, Siding, and a Well

2008-11-18T18:45:00.000-08:00

View From The Peak

Inside: Sliding Glass Doors

Outside: Sliding Glass Doors

Sub-Flooring Now In

Introducing...Siding!

Nice Job On The Corners, Jerry!

Awaiting Staining In The Spring

Septic Tank, A Lego, Or Mushroom?

Pumping a Steady 6+ Gallons

Free Advertising

Post #18: Snow On The Roof

2008-10-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

Post #17: Second Day of Roof Work

2008-10-24T10:35:00.001-07:00

Roof Views/Day Two

Chit Chat

Looking at South from Inside

What We'll See From Inside When There Is One

View from SouthEast Corner

View From The South

Close-Up From The West

North West Corner

EntryWay

Post #16: Roof Beginnings

2008-10-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

The roof appears mid-morning.

It's energetic...

...like good thinking (must be those acute triangles).

It's as thoughtful as Colin Powell's recent endorsement. Watch this man actually demonstrate the act of thinking on mainstream media. Will all of our votes be motivated by this kind of rigor? Can we choose a candidate with the same understanding we use when building a house? What would a house look like if we built it with the method we use to choose a presdident? Just thinking..

Colin Powell THINKS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_NMZv6Vfh8

Post #15: Pre-Cut Kit Arrives; The Walls of Walhalla Rise

2008-10-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Jerry hauled the pre-cut kit over from Mario's. I visited Jerry and Matt and was greeted by a rise of Thermasteel Panels,

...some pallets filled with tar paper and numbered boards...

...and some more wood thingys.

What each thingy was for became far more apparent once I remembered to give Jerry and Matt the Noble Home Assembly Book. They still were able to start without it and didn't have any "redos." I told them the Assembly Book delay was Lincoln's fault. They didn't believe me. I told them it was because I was anxious about the presidential election; having an election fraught with "vote switching," "caging," computerized voting booth hacking, and, and, and...By that point, they were mid-way through the manual.

It was freezing cold and damp, but the walls still continued to rise.

I left them with the manual and Thermasteel Panels and went back home to search for a link to a free movie download for "Stealing America Vote By Vote." This is a "must see" movie. The greatest winner in our upcoming election will be the American Voter. Our votes must count. They must...this time.

http://www.stealingamericathemovie.org/

#14 Time For Tap Dancing

2008-10-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

The cement floor was poured and unveiled Thursday-Saturday. Meanwhile, Noah sent news that the pre-cut kit arrived on Friday at our local lumberyard. Jerry arranged for the kit to be delivered to Mario's, in Valatie, since our driveway and county road made unloading a beast of a job. Here are some cement pics. Building begins...tomorrow!

Me And My Shadow on a green cement floor.

Cement floor and retaining walls setting

Another view...

Supporting walls

Floor and wall unveiled

A Cement Tiramisu

A View From The North East

Drain Pipes in the Shade

The Big Picture On A Pristine October Day

Ella Chooses Her Corner

Meanwhile, Noble Home Plans Sit On The Piano

Post #13: Trench for Electricity

2008-10-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

With NYSEG approval in place we'll run the electric from a pole above the "old" studio. Matt and Jerry finished up this 2 foot trench. They kept hitting shale at exactly 2 feet. Pshew, at least we have SOME topsoil.

Trench at the end of the afternoon.

Post #12: Walls of Fall...The Cement Man Cometh

2008-10-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

Leftover Cement Turtle

Cement Corset

Forms Filled

The Walls Unveiled. The cement is green and requires 30 days of curing.

Tar on the West Wall

Floor layout with Corgi

God Beams and Visitors At The Wall

Bathroom and Mechanical Room

Bathroom Plumbing

Teresa, Lincoln, Jerry, Matt, and Nicolas already hanging out.

Post #11: Building Walls While Mushrooms Watch

2008-10-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

The truck arrives with forms for the bermed walls.

Another cool dog on location.

Forms as seen from the North.

View from the SouthEast

View from the NorthEast

Inside and up

Empty and waiting

A look at the Thermasteel panels for walls and roof

DO NOT CRUSH

Four of the Six Stacks

...all of this while the mushrooms of East Chatham look on.

Post #10: Panels, Fill, and Forms

2008-10-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Changes Every Day:

Gravel arrives to cover drains and build up east wall

...and THIS Mission is actually accomplished.

Then one afternoon the Thermasteel panels for the roof and
walls arrived. Jerry brought them up the drive by forklift. We stayed out of his way and examined the arrival at dusk. Here's stack one of five:

The Cement truck with forms for the bermed walls arrive. "Now we're cooking with gas," as my Grampy used to say. Pictures with people and walls soon to come. These walls are going up while Wall Street is tumbling down.

Post #9: The Drains...Very Important

2008-09-24T12:15:00.001-07:00

A few homeowners in the area have learned about the need for drains
the hard way...after the house was built.
Sometimes history doesn't have to repeat itself.

Holey Drains

...and the exterior insulation is going up on the inside by design

A slice of drain, foundation, and insulation

View from the southeast

Insulation, drains, foundation, as seen from the
SouthWest corner. Where's the dog?

Post #8: The Noble Home Assembly Book Arrives!

2008-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Assembly Book Arrives!

Step Number One!

The Walls! Nice!

The Roof! My favorite part of the Noble Home!

Post #7: The Second Pouring

2008-09-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

We're starting to say "the studio is
over there" rather than "it's somewhere around here..."

Approaching the front door

As seen from the southeast

No, it's not a swimming pool for you, Ella.

View from the South West corner

The front door

Post #6: The First Pour

2008-09-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Cement and rods poking out as seen from the approach.

View from the North East.

Bermed wall as seen from the NorthEast

The big picture looking North

View from the South West corner

Post #5: The First Dig

2008-09-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Dog tired, we approach the hole.

CAT in the East

House Hole

Smell any oil down there?

The Southwest Corner

Columbia County Shale

Monsters at day's end: Tired Hands and Tired Feet

Post #4: The Site Clearing

2008-09-23T09:53:00.001-07:00

Looking North from the
soon-to-be bermed walls
Where am I?
After one day's work the site looked completely different
and the sun came streaming through the
woods along the existing driveway.

Looking south from the
soon-to-be leechfield

Dozers and Hoes in the living room

Pine piles near the driveway

Remains of a giant

Wood chips: Too bad you can't smell
this one

Post #3: Where Should We Put It?

2008-09-20T07:32:00.001-07:00

First proposed site as seen
from the studio.
Zeroing in on the location:
The existing house was built on the top of one of the many round and gentle (who said "gentle"?) hills of Columbia County. Here's some history about this patch of land: Lincoln bought 30+ acres in 1978 from John Colbert. Colbert's family purchased the land in 1865 from Samuel Allis. The deal between Lincoln and Colbert was discussed and drawn up on Colbert's front porch: so much down, 6% interest, pay off in three years, payments made directly to John. The two gentlemen drew up the agreement together, signed it, and shook hands. Interesting how things have changed, ain't it? It's something to think about in these worrisome times when the deals we make get sold and passed around until we don't know who we're dealing with. There's something refreshing in hearing the story about business that's handled face to face, conscience to conscience.

Anyway, the winding driveway leading from the main road to the house is a half mile up. It's too interesting a drive in the winter, so we decided to place the new studio at a critical turn halfway up the drive. Noah and Gerry helped us with placement by considering sun, aesthetics, energy efficiency, and sound proofing. The predominance of shale forced us to push the studio location up the hill about 120 feet from the proposed site. Richie, the guy putting in the septic, drive, and foundation (and the the person who has spent many hours at the site) advised us to move back 50 more feet for many good reasons. The septic/leech field tested best in our original location for the building. I like the new location since the structure will be less conspicuous from the drive and will get even more eastern and southern sun.
Lessons learned: get input from all sources (face to face advice!)when determining location: the architect, the builder, the people who will be putting in the septic, well, foundation, friends-family-neighbors, the electric company and/or solar company, and shake up your own thoughts with these varying perpsectives. So far the person who has spent the most time at the site is Richie who is putting in the foundation, the drive, the well and the septic. He has been working everyday, seems without a break, from 7AM-4PM. Two weeks ago he proposed that we move the site even further back to catch more sun, gain more distance from the leech field, and have access to a better driveway approach. He was right. However, some perspectives will be less than objective: for example, parents who think your site should be closer to their house or your neighbors who think you should consider a permanent site in Brazil.
View to the house from the leech field

The leech field

Pink surveyor's flags mark out the new site which
has been pushed uphill... further south.
Driveway and leech field are now below.

Post #2: The Plan

2008-09-19T22:11:00.001-07:00

The plans are for a 20' X 50' music studio where Sheri can make noise without constraint (or fear of constraint!). The south and west walls will be bermed into the hillside and should keep everything snug...and constrained! Glass doors on the eastern side will invite the sun in. This studio is being built downhill from an existing studio/dwelling where this family of four, two cats, one Corgi, and two concert grand Mason & Hamlins live. Woods will seperate the two structures which should make an interesting walk between the two in the winter, but thanks to the local zoning board, we won't have to worry about that. (See blog below).
Each structure will have its own well and septic system.

Post #1: In the Beginning...

2008-09-19T21:50:00.001-07:00

It's Fall in New England and the digging has begun. The plans have been thoroughly combed through by Noah Grunberg from Noble Home and Jerry Boucher Jr. and Jerry Boucher Sr. We began dreaming and talking in March. The groundbreaking began the week before Labor Day.

The first plans were not approved. The local zoning board stated that there was too much glass designed into the the east wall. The codes have not yet caught up with passive solar heating logic. However, the next set of plans was approved when the name of the project was changed to a "Three Season Studio For The Mayorgas." Same amount o' glass. That's okay. Now we really have to vacation in Brazil from December to April in order to satisfy local building codes.