Our New Home

We are in a Del Webb, 55+ gated community called Mirehaven.  Or as the residents like to say... Mere Heaven (snark)

Mirehaven is located of the very western edge of Albuquerque, and butts up against the Petroglyphs National Monument.  

We are about 1 mile North of I40 Unser Avenue Exit

When we moved in, the backyard looked like this:

From the back patio.  

The total height of the back wall is about 15'.

The Covenants required us to landscape within 180 days of closing, so in the January - February timeframe we got that done.

And now the backyard looks like this.

The landscaping is 100% xeriscape.  The patches of 'grass' are astroturf.

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This is a plan of the house.  You may notice that is is flipped.  That is because of our orientation on a hill the design was flipped from the standard design to put the driveway on the uphill side.

Del Webb (Pulte) offers about 10 different house designs.  Ours is called The Pursuit.  It is all one level, and the main living area is totally open.  We elected to get tile flooring throughout the house.

The Pursuit had about 5 different roof elevations.  Because of other models in the nearby neighborhood we were restricted to the one we got.  Same with the exterior paint colors... 

All changes to the exterior... anything visible to the community, have to be approved by the Mirehaven Architectural Review Committee.

Davidson Suite Bathroom Nears Completion

Entering the bathroom from the sleeping area.

Looking from the bathroom into the sleeping area.

The shower.

View from the shower.

The sleeping area.

(I can't show what is behind me because its all my tools, etc.)

Progress over the last four months

The Christmas tree is in the addition this year.

The bathroom in the mother-in-law apartment.  Walk-in shower to the right.

The vanity.  All that is missing is the mirror.

The shower.

To provide access from the house to the mother-in-law apartment, we had to demolish the downstairs guest bathroom.  We replaced it with a narrow bathroom next to the hallway to the addition.  It has a pocket door. 

The kitchen is ready to go.  Fully operational.

Spent the last two days...

...working on trying to get the downstairs guest bathroom functional again. Yesterday,it meant pulling out the last vestiges of the old bathroom in order to be able to put up the new wall with the pocket door in it. Today was spent framing out the pocket door wall, and moving the heating/AC vent from the middle of the hallway into the new bathroom. Lots of uncouth language was required to get the new ductwork hooked up.

Here is a picture of the new (about to be) pocket door wall.

And here is the relocated vent.

Only 5 Days Since My Last Post

And what an active 5 days.

On the 18th (Monday) I called in for my sheathing and tie-down inspection, and also thought I would try for the framing inspection.

The sheathing and tie-down inspection were passed on the 19th (Tuesday), and I was given permission to cover up the sheathing and tie-downs. I failed the framing because the inspector wants to wait until all the subcontractor work is complete just in case someone decides to take a shortcut and slice through an important framing member. So final framing will wait until the four-way inspection... framing, rough plumbing, rough electrical, and mechanical.

I called my stucco contractor on Tuesday afternoon to tell him I was ready for stucco. On the morning of the 20th (Wednesday) the stucco guys showed up. They were two of the hardest working people I have ever seen. They told me they would be ready for the weather barrier and stucco lathe inspection by noon on the 21st (Thursday) . So I called Sandy City and scheduled the inspection for Thursday afternoon.

The inspector showed up at about 10:30 Thursday morning.... "he was in the area". He checked out the work being done, and told me that I was working with people who really knew what they were doing, and he passed both inspections.

The stucco guys left about noon on Thursday, and were not here on Friday. This morning they showed up in force... six of them in total, and before three in the afternoon had completed the first layer of stucco.

It is a pleasure to watch people work who know what they are doing, and do it in an efficient and coordinated manner...

So here is how the house looked on the 18th... just before I passed the sheathing

Here are some pictures from the 21st (Thursday)

And then some from today (23rd -- Saturday)

Since the doors and windows are all in and latches and deadbolts are now installed, I was able to move ahead with opening up the entry way from the house to the addition.

This meant the demolition of what remained in the downstairs bathroom (except for the toilet.)

Here is a picture from the house looking into the addition taken on Friday...

And one taken from the addition looking back into the house.

Today I made an attempt to add some privacy back to the bathroom.