Not that we ever went offline. We've just been mucking along in the administrative side of our project. We submitted permit application to Travis County and LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) the week of Thanksgiving. It took 3+ months to get through those traps. Septic system needed to be tweaked - but otherwise nothing problematic. I have been reassured by others in the construction business that permitting is running around 3 months right now in Travis Co. Sprinkle in a few Holidays and this is what you get.
Additionally, we submitted our plans to the Architectural Control Committee and got the green light from them last Friday. We are officially cleared for take off.
In the meantime we have been obsessing over the endless decisions required in this project. Because we have a particular vision for this home we have agreed to be the contractors for the kitchen and bathroom cabinets/counters, and for the stairs. Pile on the other selections like lights, appliances, colors, exterior materials, and the locations for these items - and you get brain cramps. But now that we are starting to move forward I'll be updating this page with our thought process, options, and (in)decisions.
This biggest soft spot in our plan now is the stairway. We definitely want a floating staircase. This will keep the southeast room open, and allow us to extend one of the steps under the stairs to create a work space. Our solution is complicated by a pesky landing before hitting the last 2 steps. For those of you in a design phase consider a single shot stair run to simplify your design and install.
We were really leaning towards a steel structure with wood treads like these:
Or this one using LSL side beams (with a landing!):
What is nice about this large beam is you can attached the rail system directly to the top surface of the beam.
That's all for now.
