I never expected to have to work around rain delays when we started this project. Partly because this project began two years ago – smack dab in the middle of one of the worst droughts in our state’s history – but also because, droughts aside, summer in Texas is not known for its rain showers.

I like to think this project got the attention of the weather gods and since they have silly, mischievous senses of humor the lakes around North Texas filled up a bit while they inflicted rain upon our little project. You’re welcome. For the record, we will not be able to help out during the next drought. This is it for us.

The last storms that affected us directly happened when we were painting the outside of the house. Mark took a week off from work and two full days of painting were lost to rain. He figured out a way to salvage the time by building the framework for the fireplace himself (relatively easy work since he’s the one who designed it). Take that, weather gods!

We still have much to do with the fireplace, but the pictures at the end of this post will give you a good idea of how this thing will look.

In the beginning – father-in-law cipherin’ measurements very early on Day One of Project: Fireplace.

Then the fun stuff starts!

Disclaimer: No fathers-in-law were hurt during this construction.

Mark works out the depth of the columns (real world applications are sometimes different from CAD drawings).

Building the structure vertically.

Inspecting the work at the end of Day One.

Day Two – it gets wrapped in OSB (Oriented Strand Board – not Oriental Strand Board) for strength…

…and Mark sorts out brick placement and the width of mortar joints.

By this point, the rain let up and we were able to return to our paint buckets.

Several weeks later, sheetrock went up and the concrete guys built a frame for the hearth (they were also on-site to build frames for steps outside the sliding doors and the front porch – but we’ll talk about those things in a future post).

A couple of weeks after that, they poured the concrete.

Around this time, the brick masons started their work on the outside of the house. They, too, felt the wrath of the weather gods, so they, too, moved indoors to work on the fireplace during rain (it’s important to reiterate that this is JULY IN TEXAS).

Instead of a pre-made firebox, the brick masons custom-built one to Mark’s specifications. We lovingly referred to the fireplace as the ‘pizza oven’ during this phase.

Once they finished the firebox, Mark started his work on the placement of the cement board to hold the tiles that will eventually be the focus of the fireplace.

Right around this time the plumbers ran a line for gas.

Side conversation: No, we don’t plan to use wood logs in this thing. It’s meant for decorative purposes 98% of the time. The other 2% – Thanksgiving and Christmas – should not be spent cleaning soot and ashes. Yes, we love wood fires and plan to have a proper fire pit outside, where homemade marshmallows stuffed on the ends of twigs can melt into sticky, stringy globs and water from the cement pond can thoroughly douse any burning embers.

Back to the plumbers – Mark was not happy with the location they chose for the cut-off valve. Please note it is now both lower and centered squarely on the corners of the bricks. I could dedicate a whole post to OCD tendencies.

In case you’re wondering: Yes, that’s dirt on those bricks. They sat on-site for eleven months. I think they’re pretty clean considering.

Here’s a peek inside. I call this its Mullet Phase – you know, business in the front/party in the back. If you’re curious, the brick masons used the busted up pieces for fortification purposes.

Work on the cement board fittings continued as Mark and his dad added braces followed by the board.

The masons then covered the “party” brick with “business” brick, effectively killing any links to the mullet/pizza oven.

Here’s how it looks today. There’s still a lot of work to do – namely, we must make the ceramic tiles to fill the center. I’m looking forward to that part because we’ll work with our dear friend Keith Thomson from the Firehouse Gallery. We own some of his work already, but I like the idea that he will be a permanent part of this home.

In closing, I give Mark my most heartfelt thanks for his infinite patience as I vacillated between we-must-have-a-mantle(!) and do-we-really-need-a-mantle(?!) exactly twenty times a day for the past fourteen months. The man is a saint.

* Blatant use of a Carpenters song seemed appropriate for this carpentry-heavy post.

As might be expected, this project has infiltrated my dreams. The surprising part is how long it took to figure out the dreams were about the house. This week’s subconscious nocturnal adventures included special guest stars The Hardy Boys. Those of us who grew up with a steady diet of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden know the boys as periphery players – something to read only if the Drew/Belden shelves at the library were empty. Why the starring role now? That’s a good question for a detective! The first clue is this stuff:

Our meetings with the architect originally focused on very modern designs. The first images in this website feature a house down the street from us: Studio Mud. This house attracted us to the neighborhood and it’s precisely what we expected to build. Then we spent more time at the land and we realized a Dwell-style home wasn’t the best fit. The house down the street works so well because it’s cantilevered from a hill, it’s surrounded by tree tops and it’s mostly hidden from the street. Our little plot of earth is flat, half of it is devoid of trees and the house is in full view of everyone who drives by.

After careful thought we changed direction – not a full 180 degree turn, but a fairly wide veer that honors the history of the neighborhood. It’s an eclectic street, with at least one home from each of the last six decades, but its soul is mid-century and that’s where we decided to focus the design. In a future post, I’ll take time to discuss how the architect took two very different styles – today’s super modern and 1950’s modern – and blended them into something we think works well, but for the sake of brevity we need to focus on the siding. As soon as we switched gears to the mid-century vibe we knew siding would be involved; specifically a style called board-and-batten. Around this time I had many dreams about playing very intense games of badminton. Oddly wired brain, clue number two.

I’ve learned that words are very important on a building project. For example, if you refer to bendy doors people will look at you as if you have a mild form of mental retardation. Say bi-fold doors and the proverbial doors of communication open wide and people start treating you like a functioning adult.

In case you’re interested, we are not using any form of folding door – bendy or otherwise. Those things are ridiculously expensive and the only purpose they serve in Texas is to allow mosquitoes the size of small cars inside.

Over the last week, the house has really taken shape. Roofs are up, some windows are in, and they delivered the hardie board used to make our board-and-badminton batton siding. It turns out it’s not the hearty board I’ve been erroneously referring to all these months. Not familiar with the stuff? Here’s some information: Pros and Cons of Hardie Board

Closed:The Case of How Hardie Board Siding Morphed into Hardy Boy Dreams

Check back next week when we attempt to solve The Mystery of the Missing Plumber. (Actually, we found him…in a hospital, but that’s a story for another time.)

Here’s your chance to learn how to solve mysteries like the pros! This handy detective handbook is only ten bucks! Find it here.