Anne and Alan's Bernalillo house, a Del Webb house at Alegria, Bernalillo, New Mexico.





Us marking our lot as sold.


Entrance to Alegria


What you see at entrance - community center


Right in front of community center


Back of community center, looking  over Alegria, at the Sandia mountains.


View from our lot. The Rio Grande river is just beyond the trees. Around the trees is the Bosque - the river forest. It is a nature preserve.


The lot with the corners of the house staked out.


Plumbing going in the ground, our view and a proud new owner and soon to be resident.


More plumbing.


Our prebuilt walls and roof. Still no slab. Another proud new owner and soon to be resident.


Three days later, we have a slab! These folks are starting to put up walls.


Backfilling around the slab.


Two days later, we have framing. Notice that this will be a flat roof (well, not quite flat - it sheds water, but looks flat.)


Walls are sheeted.


Inside view, looking from the front door. Kitchen is on right, great room on left, dining room in back, "office" that I am going to wall in right foreground.


Looking from the  dining room/ nook. Plumbing will be the kitchen island, with sink.


HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning).


Plumbing. I still can't believe that they got the plumbing in the right spot before pouring the slab.


Bathroom. Bathtub is on the left, shower pan is on the right.


Wires in the ceiling. All ceilings will be 9' high, except the great room which will be 11'


Starting to work on the stucco walls.  Obviously, this is a flat roof design.  I have found this called a Santa Fe Adobe or Pueblo design.


Insulation.  This is blown fiberglass, which is suppose to be superior to fiberglass bat.  Walls are 4" thick.  Oven shelf is to the right on this picture.


I plan to add two walls to the house, creating a front office.  I need power in the new wall.  My builder placed this conduit (blue pipe) in the wall, empty, for me to pull wire through.  Also, notice that the wood is green where it contacts the cement.  It has been treated for pests.


Anne's bedroom, closet, and bathroom.  More insulation and treated wood.


Wallboard.  These folks were really good sports, letting me take their picture.


More wallboard.  Wall of Anne's bedroom.  I had a very limited selection of pictures that came out - due to all of the white walls, my camera had trouble focusing!


More wallboard.  This is the den.


They made it look easy.  Trust me - it isn't.   This is the dining room.


Undercoat for the stucco.  Notice the color is like cement.


Walls!  My bathroom, walk in closet and toilet. 


Great room.


The dining nook.


 Undercoat is finished.  Next for the final stucco.  This is synthetic stucco, whatever that means.


Homer, master craftsman. Homer did all of our finish carpentry.  


Eddie, our builder (left) and Homer, installing cabinets (right).


Final stucco color.  Sky color is perfect also.


Furnace.  Although this is not a green built house (the option was not available), they still are doing a good job with regards to energy efficiency.  This furnace is a high efficiency model.


Final cabinets and counter tops.  The hole to the left of the cabinets is for the oven, the upper hole is a "nicho". Anne and I are still trying to decide whether this ends up a closed cabinet (for storage) or open with some pottery.


Anne's bathroom cabinet.  The counter tops are Corian.  They messed up and cut out the sinks, and had to reorder the top with integrated sinks.


Jasper the cat on high alert, as I was taking pictures of the house.  Jasper and I were traveling from Belen to Colorado.


Tile floors.  I really like this design.


Back splash.  The cabinet hardware is going to be replaced.


View from the front door.  Sandia's in the distance, Bosque (trees) and community walking paths.


View from the  back of the house, looking forward along the side of the house.  We will probably put pavers here so you can sit and enjoy the view.


Final kitchen.


A finished great room.  I intend to wall in the front of this room, creating an office.  It will have glass doors on this side, letting light in.


Framing has begun. I framed the walls and did the electrical.


We had sheetrockers come in and hang the walls (sheetrock is heavy), do the mudding and texturing (which takes experience that I don't have).


A finished office. Notice how dark the entry is.


Aspen for the new greatroom ceiling.


The aspen installed on the ceiling.


We added a solar tube in the entry and middle bathroom. I did the install. During the daytime the entry is bright, at night we have two can lights in the ceiling for lighting.


We had electrical wiring installed for puck lights under the cabinets, and I then installed these puck lights.


The space  under the oven was empty. I built and added a cabinet under this oven. Two rollout shelves will be installed inside.