Bibendum
Bibendum was the name of a large house I worked on in the hills above the Napa Valley. This was the largest and most challenging project I've worked on. I was there for the last three years of the five year build. The budget of project was 80 million dollars.
I was working as a subcontractor and my job was not well defined. Primarily I was the lead finish carpenter, but also acted as Site Superintendent as needed. During a meeting with the owner, architect, and key contractors, the architect asked what my role on the site was, the project manager's answer was "Josh asks good questions"
Below is the view from from outside the kitchen and living room, I earned several gray hairs from this. My tolerance was 1/16" in 50' for installing the doors and windows. The teak ceiling paneling installation took me months. The architect wanted all the boards on the overhangs to be appear continuous inside and out where the windows intersected them. My background as a cabinetmaker was invaluable training for this
The largest project I worked on was installing all the door and windows in the house. This took me a little over a year to do. The doors and window were built of solid 8/4 teak and were so large and heavy that they were installed without the glass. I installed them before any of the interior finishes and the top and bottom elevations determined the finished floor and ceiling height. The owner did not want to see any holes in the wood, so they were all installed with hidden stainless steel custom made brackets
Installing the brackets for a large window/door combination
This Hallway was challenging, with several of the window panels functioning as sliding doors
Exterior view of the guest house, this took about a year to build after the main house.
The Walnut bridge below was a difficult installation. The walnut came in live edge slabs, that we milled and joined. I made notches for the hidden brackets with a chainsaw. For the installation we built a large i-beam to accommodate a rolling hoist.
The walnut was not completly dry and I finished the ends to help keep the checking down
Notching for the hidden attachments was nervewracking, much of it was done with a chainsaw
Lifting into place
This teak deck was pretty straightforward once all the sleepers were leveled
One of the first projects I worked on was shooting elevations for a 700' tunnel that served as water reservoir, wine cellar, and emergency exit to the other side of the hill that the house was built on. I went on to install doors and assist with other finishes
Radient heat with plumbing and electrical under the cave floors
I installed stainless door frames before the shotcrete was sprayed
Finished Cave corridor
