Over the Fire

Your correspondent took the night off to participate in a quintessentially Iranian custom called Chaharshanbei Suri (literally, "Red Wednesday"). This is a traditional prelude to the Iranian new year or Norooz that begins on the first day of spring each year. The Chaharshanbeh Suri celebration involves gathering with family and friends, having a really nice dinner, and then lighting up a bunch of bonfires and jumping over them and reciting "I give you my yellow pallor, and you give me your red glow" (as I usually say to Jenn, it sounds more lyrical in Farsi.)

Here's a video of a recent celebration from Canada:



And here's some pictures from our celebration:




With all this symbolic cleansing and renewal going on, the house plods ahead towards its own spring blossoming.

In the master bedroom, the fireplace is now working and providing a beautiful soothing blue flame as well as prodigious heat -- just in time for the summer:



In case we need to keep the fire in check, the tub filler in the ceiling is fully operational:



and so is the small swimming pool under it pretending to be a bath tub.



and the view from the bathtub is not too bad either:



If we can't decide between fire and water, we can put them together and get steam to fill up the shower enclosure to help us relax:





If we want privacy, there's always the other piece of bathroom hardware that was recently brought on line: the world's most complex toilet:



and its equally complex wireless remote control:



Not wanting to fall behind, the second floor bathroom, (aka the Blue Bathroom)shows off its own water message jets in the tub.



If all this upstairs, downstairs business is getting too tiring, we can always catch a ride in the newly painted elevator cab:



To stay in touch during all the up-and-down, the house's data network went on line at full Gigabit speed.



As the house draws closer and closer to completion, all the paper covering the floors are removed, and for the first time we can actually see the Teak floors basking in the cold San Francisco sun:






The simple wooden handrails in the last couple of photos are temporary, to be replaced later with the permanent rails or nothing at all. We have not really decided yet.

Next week: hot water, alarm, and maybe a few numbers.

The Paradox: Silicon and Concrete

I am convinced that the construction time line of the house has become a twisted proof for Zeno's famous dichotomy paradox which basically boils down to: "you can never get there." Of course, according to mathematics we will get there eventually. The trouble is, none of people building this house are mathematicians.

There must have been some mathematicians involved in designing and implementing the solar power system that is finally on-line and producing power. To recap, when the sun is shining, the sunlight hits these panels on the roof of the house:



and kicks electrons loose from the sandwich of materials, mostly polycrystalline silicon that is used to make the cells in the panels, sending a surprisingly high amount of power to this device, called the inverter that converts the power coming from the solar array to power that is compatible with the standard electrical grid.



Well, all of this theory finally went into practice when the system was powered up and actually started producing power for the first time:



In fact, as you can see from this display, the system has so far generated 70KwH, or about $8.00 worth, of electricity and it is well on its way to pay for itself in the next century or so.



Another element at play at the house last week was my favorite construction material, concrete.

Here's what the sidewalk in front of the house has looked like since the beginning of construction:



In the last bit of concrete work the house will see, at least during this remodel, the sidewalk was completely dismantled:




And a new one with much gentler slope and a cleaner compound curve poured in its place:




In order to taunt Zeno, Jenn and I went to the house yesterday, assembled and put in laundry shelving and assembled and installed a small cabinet with a hang rod in the laundry room. Take that, Mr. "you can't get there from here!"





Next week, no more pain in the glass, hot water, more paint, and maybe the beginning of the beginning of the end.

Pink, Blue, and Green

Once again, your correspondent had to leave town for a while for reasons unrelated to the construction of the house and missed the weekly posting. This time, it was Orlando, Florida for a work-related gathering. One of the stops on the itinerary was the Kennedy space center where the space shuttle Endeavor was sitting on the launch pad and waiting to take off.




When asked very politely to borrow the vessel for a quick trip home to check on the progress of the house, NASA demurred and I had to come back the old-fashioned way.



Fortunately, I had enough miles to upgrade from open tubing to somewhat enclosed fuselage.

But eventually, I made it back to the house to find it festooned with multi-colored tags, signifying milestone inspections.



This colorful Pink tag signifies that the house's gas piping is up to code and we can hook up the house to the SF Gas supply. Shortly afterward getting the tag, PG&E finally showed up and set us up with a new gas meter and hooked up the house.




It's nice to have the gas hooked up, but leave it to PG&E to provide heat just as the winter is coming to an end and spring is right around the corner; great timing as always, guys. Of course, summer or winter, we have to eat and now when you turn on the burners on the range, you are rewarded with beautiful blue flames.



And as the saying goes: Now, we are cooking (or at least reheating) with gas.



Somewhat more subdued than the Pink tag was the Green tag that signified that our electric system was ready to be turned on. Not exactly a newsflash since the house has had electrical power since day 1 and everything appears to be working just fine, but nothing is real until it's tagged and we are now officially ready for electrons to flow through the house.



The glue on the Green tag was still setting when the folks from Borrego Solar showed up and put up the part of the system called the inverter that converts direct current from the solar panels to alternating current that can connect to the grid and help out during peak hours. The whole thing is a bit alarming and looks like a missile launch system, particularly with the two large cutoff switches on either side, but the folks at Borrego assure me the that it is all legit and that we are not violating any arms limitation treaties.



Naturally, since the house was seriously lacking in electrical sub panels, the solar guys threw on another one for good measure, next to the old electrical meter that is, at this point, simply defying gravity since it has no visible connection to anything that could possibly support it.



Each of these colored tags represent a series of inspections and now that we have the tags, we don't want any inspectors to sneak up on us and for that reason we got the entry system working. Now we can actually see who is at door before opening it to anyone.




Another addition to the house is the computer/TV/Radio combination called the ICEBox that is tucked under the cabinet when not in use:



And when the need arises to access the Internet for recipes, cooking tips, or the on-line ordering page of the nearest delivery service, the screen pops down and the data starts flowing.



Finally, we arrive at part III of a continuing saga that neatly encapsulates the madness that is remodeling. The three faithful readers of this blog may recall that the deck surrounding the bathtub in the second bathroom went from this (Blue glass round tiles):




To this (square marble deck):




And now, we have changed the deck once again to arrive at this (curved marble deck following the contour of the tub):




I am not 100% sure about a lot of things -- of this I am absolutely sure: there will NOT be a part IV to this particular saga.

Next week, more details, more cleanup and more inspections.