First floor walls poured.

It's a rainy, cold day in October and the first floor walls have been poured.  Matt the framer said that first floor setup could begin right away, but I'm not sure what "right away" means.  We're shopping for doors for our huge opening and got some revisions to the landscaping plans due to wetlands setbacks.  First draft of the kitchen cabinet designs will be looked at this week.  Things are moving along.

 Front shot of the house.  Like before, wood supports and bucks are used to hold the weight of the concrete.  I almost forgot they did this since they have long since been removed from the basement level.  For some reason, the horizontal board in the front door opening says "FRONT DOOR!!!"

 Detail of one of the greatroom window openings.  The thin plywood is removed from the face but the 2x8 remains as window bucks.  Even in the rain, we spent some time standing here looking at the lake.  It's going to be awesome when it's done.

 Front door opening.  The opening is a large 85 3/4" w x 100 3/8" h.  That gives us room for a standard height door with two 14" side lites, a transom window, and 7" on both sides to build up, or a double door with transom window and a few inches to build up, or an 8' door with side lites.  Might need to go custom on this if we want to fill the whole space.  8' door might look nice.

 The structural rebar above each opening that will tie in to the floor/walls above.  The ICF is built up to 9', so any beams will sit on top of this wall.  That means that the LiteDeck will sit on top of the beam, making the ceiling 10' actually.  I'm really not sure if that's correct, but that's the only way I can imagine it.  

 Standing in the great room.  On the corner at the left, you can see where a beam will be.  The greatroom was actually built up one more level so that beam will span the space where the fireplace will be to the other corner of the room.  They cleaned up the site nicely.

 Here's how the wall supports are anchored into the floor.  Blue tapcon screws hold the footing and the arms are adjustable like a turnbuckle screw.  They hold the brace against the wall.

 The back deck/gazebo wasn't poured.  I think they'll use a different mix for this area.  You can see they built out the edge for the form.  This is so the concrete deck will overhang the ICF, which will be in line with the stone we're installing on the exterior.

 Closer shot of the greatroom beam pocket.  Again, if the construction method is the same as the basement, the LiteDeck will sit on the beam.  Since the beam doesn't "drop down" into the room space (i.e. sit at 8'), the bottom of the LiteDeck will be at 10'.

 Beam pocket between the guest bathroom and the study.  I think this will be supported by a post at the stairs up, and cantilever over to support the second floor rotunda walk way.

Beam pockets on the exterior corner of the house off the study.  These will support the turret in the bedroom above.

I keep meaning to make a post about landscaping and everything else besides the house but life and work have been pretty busy.  Maybe I'll find time this week, especially since the landscaping plan is solidifying.  Suffice to say for now that Great Oaks has been ridiculously awesome.