House Building | mayacama mama

January 21, 2016
by Jessica Adriance Cowan Leave a comment

A Walk Through the House

Construction on our main house continues even with the abundance of rain we’ve been getting. I took these photos of the house last week. Our contractors have begun framing the fourth floor loft space above our bedroom and bathroom, but I don’t have any photos of that yet. So let’s take a walk through the house. We enter now through Zane’s bedroom. The plastic tarp covering the opening will be a sliding glass door.

Next to Zane’s bedroom is Zoey’s bedroom, also with a sliding glass door.

Walking out of the bedrooms, to the right is their bathroom with an attached laundry room. There will be a door off the laundry room which will also serve as our mudroom. Currently the roof slants down, but the lower part of the roof will be cut to extend out to give more headspace in the laundry room. Stephen would be able to explain that much better than I can, but just imagine there being a wing off the laundry room.

Past the bathroom is the kitchen. It opens up to the living room.

The living room will have sliding glass doors that open up to the patio below (which is above the concrete bunker) and looks out to the valley. Apparently I forgot to take a photo of that view of the living room. Below is a view from the living room looking towards the kitchen and upstairs.

Across from the kitchen next to the stairs is our dining area. There will be a sliding glass door where the plastic tarp is currently. It was nice having that wing of the roof cut out because it brought in so much light to the house.

Up the stairs we go to the master bedroom. At the time I took this photo last week, the loft above our bedroom wasn’t framed yet.

And lastly, a view of the loft looking out down to the living room below. The space directly across from the stairs, which will be our bathroom, is now framed as well as our two closets and office space loft above the bathroom and bedroom.

And that’s our house so far. I’m eager to share with you more updates about what books I’m currently reading, a funny Zoey story, and more but it will have to wait for the next blog post. So until then–winter blessings to you and a rainbow.

November 17, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan Leave a comment

The Jacaranda Lodge in Progress

My last herbal class was this past weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed my nine month apprenticeship at Motherland Botanical Sanctuary, but I am glad it is over and I feel free again.

I took these photos today of our main house. The A-frame is up. It will be a two-story, and we were informed today by our contractors that it is so tall that we could even have a loft above the second story.

No, we did not let Zoey and Zane climb the scaffolding.

The concrete for the retaining wall on the other side of the bunker will be poured tomorrow.

October 20, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 1 Comment

A Mainhouse Update

It’s been awhile since I posted photographs of what’s happening up at the main house building site. Just below where the A-frame will sit, we had a concrete bunker put in.

There will be all glass in the front of the bunker looking out to the valley below with a patio above. We’ve talked about the bunker being a space where we could show movies or I could do yoga. Perhaps a pool table, who knows?

The two Steves who are working on our house attempted to have the A-frame beams lifted last week with the telehandler, or as we call it “the Green Machine,” but the tele handler wasn’t able to position the beams far enough over on the foundation. So the Steves are building all the beams, and then we’ll have a crane come to lift them. The beams are about 30 feet long and weigh about 600 pounds to give you an idea of their size.

October 14, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 1 Comment

Our Newly Painted Shed and Little Builders

The painters finished today. I’m really loving the happy colors says the girl who had rainbow wallpaper in her bedroom as a child.

For this next photo, see if you can spot the little girl. Can you see her?

We hung out in the shed for a bit late this afternoon. The kids tried out their hammering skills. I told Stephen he should set up a little work table for them to do their hammering, sawing, nailing, and painting. Might as well put them to work.

As you can see, Zoey was able to hit the nail correctly with the hammer. Zane loved hammering but couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to do with the hammer.

When he wasn’t hammering, he was sitting on the chainsaw. I wasn’t sure if he was pretending it was a pony or if he thought that is how you work a chainsaw.

And yes, notice his haircut. I attempted to cut his bangs, and they are now crooked. Grandma will need to fix it when we see her next month. Stephen says Zane has a 60s style mod haircut. Hmm, maybe we’ll keep it.

An interior look at the shed/storage space/workroom.

An interior view of Stephen’s new workshop with the huge dust collector.

October 9, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 2 Comments

A Marimekko Inspired Shed

If you want to see something colorful, take a look at our shed. It gets quite a reaction these days from the construction guys working for us. Here’s a photograph of the old shed.

The red shed prior to the renovation.

And here’s a look at it now.

I’ll take hopefully better photos once the painters are done and I figure out how to use my camera properly. Here’s the Marimekko curtain that inspired the color choices for our shed.

May 31, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan Leave a comment

The Shed Update

The new shed which will house Stephen's workshop, room for ranch vehicles, and guest cottage.

The new shed which will house Stephen’s workshop, room for ranch vehicles, and guest quarters.

I meant to publish this blog post before we left on our trip a little more than a week ago, but sadly that did not happen. The above photo is what our shed looks like now. Below is a photo of what it looked like before.

The red shed prior to the renovation.

Interior view of Stephen’s workshop.

There is now interior plywood on most of the walls and part of the ceiling of the workshop.

Looking into the guest quarters.

The siding is now up all around the shed.

A view of the bathroom and kitchenette.

Behind Zoey and Lester will be the kitchen sink and refrigerator. The oven will be in an island where they are standing.

A view of the bedroom under the loft.

More sleeping quarters in the loft above.

Another view of the loft.

We’re hoping the shed will be completed by the end of June. I’ll share some highlights of our trip back east in my next post.

March 4, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 2 Comments

Retaining Walls, Main House Pad, and Shed

As we continue to improve upon the living situation in our guest house, where we are living now, construction continues daily.

Our driveway leading up to the main house pad.

Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of what the hillside looked like previously, but basically you can imagine that it looked like the hillside to the right of the driveway with all those trees. I remember when Stephen suggested the site for the main house and I couldn’t visualize it because the hillside was so steep and covered in trees. It’s really amazing what an excavator can do!

View of retaining wall from main house pad and valley below.

View of the lake and main gate from building site.

From main house pad looking towards hillside (aka back of house view).

Another backside view.

Looking down the driveway at garage below.

Initially we were going to build our main house in relatively the same location as the manufactured home, that was on the property when we bought the land, which was right next to the garage. We realized after a time that that spot does not get much sunlight year round so we moved the building site higher up on the hill that was cleared. We kept the garage standing which presently we use for storage space.

In addition to the recent completion of the retaining wall behind the guest house and the retaining wall for the main house, Stephen’s workshop and shed is getting remodeled. Below to the left was where Stephen did all his woodworking. His saws and man tools now take up residence in the barn for the time being. We plan to add a concrete floor to the shed and make it into a guest room with a bathroom so that we can have visitors come stay with us before the main house is built. And of course Stephen’s workshop will get spruced up a bit (no more leaky roof).

Stephen’s workshop and shed without a roof or walls.

Bare bones of the shed.

January 21, 2015
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 1 Comment

The Kids’ Bedroom

We’ve been living here at the ranch for about two months now. I suddenly realized I haven’t shared any photos of the interior except for the kitchen, so today the easiest room to clean up for a photo was the kids’ bedroom-surprise, surprise. The kitchen seems to be where all the toys are these days, including the ever popular, large cardboard box that Zoey and Zane like to crawl in and out of. As of now, Zoey’s mattress is on the floor until bunk beds are made and Zane is out of his crib, which may not happen until after the main house is built and we’ve moved yet again. Zoey has a nice view of the barn through her window. We will be putting up drapes over the windows hopefully before summer arrives.

We were very excited to hang the Marimekko curtain over the closet. It already has become a popular hiding place for Zoey.

In cat news, you may remember that we bought two black cats, Lester (the friendlier one) and Solo (hence the name), from the Humane Society a few weeks before Christmas to be our barn cats. We kept them shut in a room in the barn so they would know that was their new home where the food was. Upon returning from our Christmas trip, we opened the door so they could leave the barn and wander the ranch as they wished. Although Stephen would see them under his backhoe in the barn, we never would see them around the ranch until tonight. It was about 5:30pm and we were looking out our bedroom window and saw both of them crossing the road to the apple orchard. I think this may have been their first adventure outside the barn.

November 25, 2014
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 3 Comments

A New Home

We’re finally here at our ranch. We moved in on Sunday. My parents came up to help watch the kids and pack up boxes. They were a tremendous help. If only moving were a one way deal–but unfortunately now we have the task of unpacking a ton of boxes and trying to find a home for all of our stuff. Here’s a photo of our kitchen that isn’t completely finished–Stephen still plans to add some shelves, another counter top to the right of the stove, and a bench seat where our kitchen table is.

We still need to figure out what fabric and hardware we want for our drapes in the bedrooms, and we need to mop the floors once the boxes are unpacked. I was super excited to start composting. I’m eager to prep our soil for our garden, but even that too must wait for now as we try to get our house in order. The projects feel endless at the moment. But we have time. That’s what I tell myself as I try to get out of the house daily to go for a walk to our lake. I’m grateful the kitchen is more or less organized so that I’ve been able to cook and we’ll be able to celebrate our first Thanksgiving here. More photos of the house to come as we get our boxes cleared away.

October 26, 2014
by Jessica Adriance Cowan 3 Comments

Almost Done

Years ago when we had cable TV, I used to watch those shows on HGTV where they would remodel someone’s kitchen, bathroom, or living room. They always seemed to be putting on the finishing touches right up to the time that they revealed the remodeled room to the homeowners. Our move out of this rental home date is November 15th. It’s around the corner, and I think Stephen and I are feeling the unspoken anxiety about whether or not the house will be finished in time. If you think of a name we could call our guest house besides the boring name “guest house” that might be fitting, let us know in the comments below.

Master bedroom

Hallway looking towards kitchen

Bathroom

The bathtub wall still needs to be tiled. We had to fire the first guy we hired after he took six cigarette breaks the first day and left in the early afternoon with very little work done.

Bathroom vanity Stephen built

Stephen put our bathroom sink in today, but it was after the kids and I left so I didn’t get a photo of it. The toilet should be going in within the week. Currently it is sitting in Zoey and Zane’s room, the one room I didn’t take a photo of.