Raise High the Roof Beam

Yesterday we met the electrician (we call him Ed) to decide the lighting for the upper floor. Ed's a bundle of energy and definitely knows what he's doing. Before going there, we plotted out all the lighting throughout the house, and showed up with a detailed plan. What we hadn't thought of is that the design of the ceiling/roof system precludes the recessed lighting we had planned throughout the office and master suite. Despite that major change we're definitely happy with the resulting plan, particularly as the fixtures can still be unobtrusive. We also figured out some things to change in the upstairs bathrooms, so the toilet and shower in the master bath have switched places yet again (it's not like anything has been framed, so it doesn't matter).

While we were there, the team was putting the windows in and working on the roof. Getting the roof on was key, since the house needs to get buttoned up before the snow (or rain), and the upper lighting needed to be done to make progress on the roof. As soon as we finished with him, Ed drilled through the wood ceiling and ran the wires across the roof-in-progress and down into the exterior walls. I think the building team then laid down the insulation and some other layer(s) - maybe the ice and water shield? Today we were back and there were wires hanging from the upper ceiling; the roof had been trimmed to an even edge and a tarp nailed down to hold us until spring; and work was moving along for a roof over the garage.

Seeing the house with windows in really helps to define the space. The big folding door hasn't arrived yet (there's some question whether Empyrean has ordered it yet), and the sliding doors to access the decks aren't installed yet, but otherwise, you really get a sense of the finished feel.

We also had our first owner-driven change. The way the light comes in from the upstairs walkway is beautiful, and we want that light to spill into the office. Under the plans, the all that light would be bounced off a wall and down into the living room. So, our plan is to eliminate that wall and turn that hallway into the same kind of cable-rail walkway as the path along the windows. The light will spill into the office and downstairs, but in a different way. This means ordering the cable rail system for ~16 feet, and ordering a mahogany "wrap" to put around the posts that will now be exposed rather than inside a wall. We'll also need to see whether Empyrean tries to talk us out of this change and whether they come up with a compelling reason to have the wall.

The picture is Steve (builder - standing in the office) and me (standing in the walkway) seeing how things will work if we take the wall out. It also gives a good view out the walkway to the property and woods beyond. Ed is there, but obscured.

Here are some photos from the last few days, including the guys - they have such good manners that they're eating their lunch in the kitchen. The garage has a bunch of windows, too - it will be bright even when there's a roof on it.

Second Floor Coming Up

This is the period that I'm pretty sure I will enjoy the most. Everything changes so fast - the house is basically growing in broad brush-strokes. Each day the difference is visible, and even during a visit, things change.

Today being a company holiday, I had my first opportunity to be there while they're building. These guys work hard: not even the cookies we brought distracted them from the work. We watched as they set a beam in place. The deer watched, too. Four or five white-tail deer stood just off the property line and checked everything out, not put off by the boom-box Christmas carols or the growling compressor. The deer are so relaxed that they're probably partying in the house at night when nobody's around.

In the photo above, the media room (ground level) and office and guest room (upper level) are in the foreground. The living room is in the middle - with the upper beams highlighting how open it will be with the double-height room. The kitchen juts out, and the dining room, mud room, and utility/garage lie beyond that. For the most part, what's open (no walls) on the ground level will be windows or full-glass doors.

When it's finished, a lot of the wood will be exposed, including many of the posts and most of the beams. The wood is gorgeous - and much brighter than the posts and beams in the prior house. Here's how posts and beams come together, in a photo from earlier this week. Looking at this gives a lot of confidence that the house is really solid. Today we also saw how supports are put in the ceiling/floor area between ground and upper levels to support the posts on the second floor. Without that, the weight of the posts and beams could lead to sagging - and worse.

When we first reviewed the contract with our builder, there was one item that I wanted more explanation for: the "Lull Charge." Being aware of construction delays, I couldn't stop myself from asking if this had something to do with downtime. After he had quite a good laugh, our builder did eventually explain it. Of course, he now tells everyone in the trade about the lull charge question, and they all get a kick out of it, too.

Here's a lull in the action today - the lull is lifting a beam up and into place. To me, this piece of equipment is worth every penny, since it gets things where they need to be, and fast.





When they lift up a beam, they also use a guide nailed into one end of the beam to keep it from swaying around and causing damage.

So, the house is taking shape! In a week, we'll need to make decisions about where any wall or ceiling mounted lights will need to go. This will be the first of a dizzying array of decisions that we'll have to make. The difficulty in this one is that we'll have to imagine how we'll use the rooms, where the seating areas will be, and how we want them lit.

In honor of Christmas and 2 floors, maybe we should have a topping off party and put a Christmas tree on top.

We're having a house!

A week ago, the first shipment arrived at the site. Concurrently, the slabs were being poured into the foundation. I missed the whole thing, as I headed out of town on business. At this point in the project, if you blink you really can miss a lot.

I've had some people ask me what a "kit" house is, with some people envisioning a double-wide delivered to the site and connected to utilities. Having now seen the piece-parts, it's much more like I envision a model airplane kit (not that I have any experience with them). There are stacks of materials delivered, our names on each piece, and numbers on many (all?) of the pieces to indicate where they go.

So, I showed up at the site on Saturday, and by then the sills were on the foundation, the floor trusses in for the first floor, and a lot of the framing set for that floor. We had a good time wandering around and figuring out the feel of the rooms on the first floor. Lesson learned: always carry a set of the plans. We forgot how the mudroom and the dining room interact; as a consequence we were all worried that the mudroom wasn't wide enough for a washer and dryer, as well as the cabinets we plan to put in. We had a good time taking pictures of each other in the sauna-to-be, cooking at the stove-to-be, and simply enjoying being there. Dare I admit that I was carried across the threshold?

It's so cool to see how fast this is going up. Today (Tuesday) more components were delivered to the site, including windows! The beams are up on top of the first floor, and it seems that the floor trusses are also going up for that level. I can't wait to walk through it this weekend - it will be great to see a next level of work completed. I don't dare think about the time that people will take off between Christmas and New Years, but hopefully we won't lose everybody for the entire period. I guess there's a lot of good news in no snow - people aren't off skiing, snowmobiling, etc., and there's good weather here to keep progress afoot.

Here's a shot with a bunch of the windows - it's not easy to to see the details through the wrap that's around them, but the wood is going to be beautiful, and while we're keeping in mind the best use and placement of windows (so there aren't many on the north side of the house), there will be some big, bright spaces that these windows will create.

From a solid foundation

We are well on our way to having a foundation. The basic digging was done a few weeks after the house was scraped away. Various delays, none of them serious, mean that the foundation really started in earnest this past week. The footings had already been poured, and then up went the foundation walls for the main part of the house, followed by the walls to support the garage/utility. The slabs aren't down yet - we'll need a bit more drying-out from the rains, but hopefully this will happen before any snow accumulates!

Here's what the foundation looked like earlier this week, before the garage part was formed.

It was neat to look at the foundation and see the slots in the concrete where the beams will drop in. The slots are visible on the wall facing the camera angle.

We have a high water table - not more than 2' below top of grade. As a result, we have a 4' crawl space rather than a full basement. Of the crawl space, we'll have maybe 1' 6" below grade and the remainder above. There's going to be a whole lot of landscaping needed to provide natural transitions from the house to the ground.

The "kit" is due to be delivered from Empyrean on or about December 11 - I can't wait to see how this actually goes up!