The house I grew up in is now for sale. Before my parents moved out, I bought a Phantom 4 drone and captured around 3 hours of aerial video. I edited it down to a 2+ minute video highlighting the house, amenities, and landscape. I was planning to use Adobe After Effects but was able to do everything I needed in iMovie.

As 2015 winds down, I wanted to look back on this project and see what went well, what didn’t, and what is still left to do. What Didn’t Go Well Project Schedule. Window Selection. Door Selection and Sizing. Air Conditioning Unit. Interior Painting. Exterior Stone. What Went Well Structure Height and Location. Retaining Walls. Ledgestone. Concrete Overlay. Final Air Conditioner. Data Lines. Lighting. DropShades. What’s Left to Do Window Shades.

In Texas, one of the most important aspects of construction is planning for heating and cooling of the space. Also important, especially in a small office, is how much noise is made while heating and cooling the office. Given the size of our offices - 10’ x 12’ each - almost any air conditioner would provide quick and effective cooling during summer and efficient heating during cool winter days. What is most important for us is choosing a unit that makes the least amount of noise.

Applying the concrete overlay was the last major piece of work to be done on the office project. Unlike stamping and staining, overlay has a different texture and allows precise matching of existing patterns. The challenge we faced is matching the appearance of the new office patio with the existing pool deck. The pool deck had an existing concrete overlay that was applied by the previous owners a year before we moved in.

After the retaining walls were finished and all of the stone was put up on the office walls and breezeway, there was still a lot of stone left, approximately 3 tons in total. Some of the Oklahoma Hackett blend was left - approximately 2 full pallets - and one giant refuse pile in the front yard which had all of the unusable stone from the project. One of the outdoor amenities we don’t have with this house is a fire pit.

The breezeway between the two offices also got the stone treatment. The stone in the breezeway is veneer stone which comes from the same hand-picked blend of Oklahoma and Hackett stone. To make veneer stone, the full-size 4-5” stones are cut to only 1” in thickness. breezeway-stone-1 This turned out to be one of the more expensive choices we made in this project as the veneer stone results in a lot of waste and a lot of manual labor.

The stone on the retaining wall and the offices is now complete. Turned out beautifully. finished-wall-1 finished-wall-2 The stone is a blend of chopped Oklahoma and Hackett. The retaining wall uses the blend as-is. The stone for the office walls was hand-picked to omit any darker stones. The retaining wall has some incidental stones which are very dark while the office walls has mostly tan, brown, and orange tones. finished-wall-3

I lived in Illinois for 41 years. Moving from Illinois to Texas was one of the hardest things I’ve done. But it was the right decision. I’ve now been living in Texas for almost 5 months. We caught the end of the hot summer and are now in the mild winter. I thought I’d write a bit to share our impressions of life in Dallas.