De Bilt

My favorite Lunch, toasted open face baguette with fresh garden tomatoes, burrata, basil leaves and drizzled with the Award Winning . What's your favorite Lunch?

What a beautiful morning

We were driving down Las Pilitas Rd in Santa Margarita the other day and happened on this old steel bridge ♥️
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It was commissioned in 1917. Over 100 years old. You cannot drive on it any longer, but you can walk on it. Below is a beautiful placid pond (or small lake). Perfect for wildlife.
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Pictures don't do it justice. If you're in the area, check it out for yourself.🤠
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It will get worse before it gets better. That is what they say right? Well, Venice & Vine looks like it is ready for Papa Smurf right now 😩
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The house will look like a proper Circus Tent pretty soon. For a while. Then, when the rigid foam is installed on the outside, with foil backing, the house will probably look like a spaceship!
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The blue and white membranes are peel and stick stuff made by Carlisle. Benefits are complete air, water and v***r control. No drafts. Also nail and screw holes are self-sealing to a large extent. Which is not the case for traditional Tyvek or Typar housewraps.
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Dominique and I have been installing the blue stuff on the walls. It is going pretty well as we fine tune our system. It is a bit of work, but I am confident it will be worth it in the end. As we sit in our cozy warm (or cool) house down the road. Energy prices are not likely to go down in the future, so adding good air sealing and insulation makes sense. It also just makes the house feel "comfortable". This is often overlooked. 🤠
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Who's hat is that? 🤔
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Well, it's my hat actually. I was way up on a ladder checking if our desired location for the internet dish would work. Around these parts they use line-of-sight microwave to transmit internet signals. Not quite cable-modem fast, but fast enough. Way better than satellite. So I was holding up my phone in selfie mode to take a pic of the broadcast site, which is way out in the distance on the mountain range just to the left of the row of cypress trees.
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The dish was installed today, just above the gable peak on the garage. Not really that visible from various places around the house, just how we wanted it. Tomorrow I'll hook up the WiFi router which arrived today, and we should have blazing internet speeds! 🤠
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I look like a mountain climber! 😄😄
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I was an active mountain climber in my younger days. But here I am preparing to climb on the roof on a cold morning. Since I am familiar with it, I bought climbing equipment for safety. And it is working very well. Not OSHA certified, but it's me working on my own house.
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The second pic shows Dominique hamming it up while helping the rest of the crew by bring up new rolls of roofing membrane. She's never afraid to get in there. ♥️♥️♥️
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The last pic shows me on the roof, seeing if I could lay down this membrane by myself after the rest of the guys went home. It actually went pretty well. If I had to I could probably wrap all the roofs myself, but it would take a long time. So it's good to have the help of the crew. 🤠
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Foggy morning barn-raising ☁️☁️☁️
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We received an inch of rain the other night, which has left the project a bit soggy.
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Since the roofing membrane has been delayed in arriving from Texas, we ended up with quite a bit of water inside the house. The plywood floors are painted to protect them, so the water ended up creating mini lakes. Dominique vacuumed it all up while I carried the water away from the house to dump it. Maybe 200 gallons? We lost track. 😩
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Well, everything is drying up nicely. But more rain is anticipated next week and the roof membrane has still not arrived. May have to tape the seams on the sheeting. 🤠
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The multi-gable layout takes shape ♥️🏡
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This is a four-gable design. Each module is meant to look like a separate structure, though they are connected by conditioned space (to satisfy code).
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The shiny new concrete pad for the barn is visible in the upper right. The barn will not be a gable shape, rather a monitor style (some call it a horse barn)🐴😄
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The slabs are poured! 💥🏠🔥
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Here we see the 4-car garage (2 cars in tandem, 1000 sq ft) and the barn (2000 sq ft). Not a large barn, by the local standards, but hey, we've got a barn! That is so cool 🤠
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The exterior of the barn will be entirely clad in Corten steel (rusty metal to some). We can't wait. 😄
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Sheeting the roof on the Master Suite....
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Main framing is complete. The framing crew is now working on the myriad details on the inside. Basically turning somewhat flimsy walls into a solid structure. The last step is the skins, both for the roof and the walls. Much of this work is complete, but it is a big job and takes a while. 🤠
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Future Kitchen at V&V...
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This is where the kitchen will reside, as seen from the family room on the other side of the main living area. There will be a giant farm table in between. The social gathering spot.
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All the roof trusses are on now. The garage roof is sheeted with OSB. The Master Suite starts tomorrow. Most of the wall shear OSB is on.
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The barn footings have been poured. I am installing the drain lines for the plumbing.
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Time to order roof and wall membranes! 🤠
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