Home Building

House of many colors

In 2000, we moved from the city to the country of California in the Sierra foothills near Bass Lake.  For…

11 years ago

Gardening around new construction in the Sierra foothills

Starting from scratch - Then and now Laying out garden beds in clay and decomposed granite is the way you…

12 years ago

Babes in the woods- preparing place to build our house

I'm only mentioning my impressions of the house pad prep, because to tell it all would be very boring.  Although,....we…

13 years ago

Choosing home builder in the Sierra Foothills

We had a dream to move out of Southern California to paradise on seven acres in the Sierra foothills. Here is…

13 years ago

How we made our escape from the city and changed our lives

Our adventure We had a dream to move out of Southern California away from the congestion and stress and switch…

13 years ago

Your new life and its keywords

House place, mountain, barn wood, waterfalls, these words describe the place we found in the mountains near Yosemite and Bass…

13 years ago

Then and Now-The stamped patio

In a series of Then and Now photos, it's satisfying to look back nostalgically to see how far we have…

13 years ago

The rock outside the back door

When we first saw our property and took the first photos there was somewhat of a circle drive that became…

13 years ago

Building command post

Alexander Selkirk was a Scot whose adventures on an uninhabited island were reputed to be the basis for Daniel Defoe’s…

14 years ago

Scale Map of the Sierra Foothill Garden

This is a November 2001 entry from my recently found diary. The diary chronicles how we bought the property and our first…

14 years ago

February framing and planting without hose

Last year we had built a retaining wall and I couldn't resist planting a few things like rosemary and lavender.…

20 years ago

Country means outbuilding first, house later

After buying property in October 2000, we started the building and  site preparation process, by having the house pad graded and…

22 years ago

Easter week 2002

April 7-14, 2002  On the afternoon we arrived, the whole group came to our place for a barbecue. Larry had…

23 years ago

Autumn 2001- Settling into camp

This is a transcript of the diary I kept during the first years of our transition to the mountains. We…

23 years ago

May 2001- Grading for Mother’s Day

On this trip our objective is to have the lot graded and have a couple loads of gravel, or mine…

23 years ago

April 2001-We turn our property into campsite

We arrive with several objectives. I want to build a table of redwood somewhere, rake out the goat shed, attached…

24 years ago