Second floor poured just in time.

  The second floor was poured on Thursday this week, and it was just in time before some early winter weather.  I didn't get the change to see it before the crew laid three inch Styrofoam sheets on the concrete to keep the warmth in and slow down the curing process.  Nonetheless, I did walk around up there to take a look and see the final views of the house from the second floor.  We'll have numerous windows in every direction, as well as a master balcony walkout.  Despite the snow, the views were awesome.  

     Here's a shot standing in the master bedroom looking towards the master closet.  This odd corner will be hidden behind walls.  You can see how much heat the concrete curing process gives off.  Snow was collecting on the foam, but not on the small areas of concrete still exposed.

     Here's a shot standing in the master bedroom looking across the house.  The greatroom is to the right, the elevator shaft is on the left in the mid ground and the rotunda opening is behind it.  There will be a balcony walk out in the master bedroom right next to the greatroom wall.  There's house on another street through those trees, but you can barely see them during the winter, and can't see it at all during the summer.

     Here a shot standing in the master bedroom looking towards the front of the house.  This is where the master closet will be on the left, master bathroom on the left mid field, laundry room towards the center, and the turret room bathroom in the middle of the house above the front door.  You can see a bit of the turret on the right of the frame.

     Here's a shot of the greatroom from the second floor.  The fireplace will be right in the middle of this view, but there will be two "balcony" openings from the second floor landing that will look down onto the great room.  There will be a second bank of windows above the ones on the first floor.  The powered floor float is sitting on the temporary support walkway.  I didn't go out on it this time.

     Here's the turret.  From below, it looked unfinished because the shape didn't look round.  From above, you can see how they made the round shape.  They blocked out the round shape in the Lite Deck but didn't cut it away.  Now that it's poured, they can cut away the excess Lite Deck.  It will be interesting to see how they make the round walls of the turret.  The plan shows ICF, but I'm not aware of curved ICF pieces. 

Here's a shot of the driveway and front yard from the turret.  Those three pines are going to remain in the final landscape design with grass being installed on the right field.  The driveway will be where the trailer and my car is.  Sure is beautiful in the winter time, but we'll have to figure out a good solution for the snow removal of the 250' driveway.  Anyone know of a UTV with a front hydraulic attachment point for a snow thrower?

Here's a shot from the turret of the front of the house.  You can see the garage in the back ground.  Most of the view of the front door will be blocked by the front porch so you won't be able to see the front door from the turret.  The turret actually floats above the front porch, which flares out around the turret.

     Here's the back yard from the master bedroom.  We'll have two windows flanking the bed, above the night stands, and an eyebrow windows above them.  The gazebo room will block the view on the left of the frame, but we should be able to see some of the pool and most of the back yard.  You can see the outline of a mulch bed around the oak in the middle of the yard.  It was installed at the advice of the Great Oaks arborist.  It will help mitigate any compaction caused by heavy equipment running over the ground here.

    So there will probably be a couple weeks of second floor concrete curing before the start the second floor walls.  That puts us in the first or second week of December for second floor wall construction, which should take a week or two to completion.  After that, trusses will be measured and ordered, but I expect some delay due to holiday shutdowns.  Realistically, I think we're looking at a mid January button up, so we'll probably take delivery of the windows after the holidays.  A few weeks off schedule, but pretty close.  We're getting some warmer weather in the next week, so all the snow should be gone.  It probably won't hold out for the month of December, but walls can be poured in the snow.