All the ICF block is up for the second floor pour. We'll get a pumper truck out tomorrow (Monday) and that will be the end of concrete... except for the garage slab. The plans have been sent to the truss manufacturer and they're just waiting for the final measurements of the walls after the pour. Although the house is built as close to spec as possible, there's still room for some variance. When you're talking spans and sill plates, exact measurements are always best to have.
Great Oaks has started to implement our phase 1 landscaping plans. This involves all the retaining walls necessary for the support of the driveway. This means that there are two caramel mint rock walls extending from the corner of the house, a combination concrete and caramel mint wall to the right of the driveway, and a few boulder walls up the course of the drive. The first step in this process is removing trees to make way for the hardscape.
In total, about 22 trees were removed, not including some small saplings. I was allowed to "keep" 6 trees from the culling to be stacked on site. All the trees were cut at the base, leaving a stump. My keepers were bucked to 12'. I found a local sawyer, Michael's Woods, who makes cabinetry and furniture who agreed to process the trees into lumber of my choosing. He has a Wood-mizer portable saw mill and offered to let me help process the wood at a reduced hourly rate. You can bet I'll take up his offer on that! I managed to keep 5 oaks, red and white, and the largest maple harvested. I'm not sure how I'll process the oaks (slab or quarter sawn) but I'm intending to use the maple as part of our kitchen island in the form of an end-grain butcher block.
Notice no snow yet? I'm sure that will change just in time to get our roof on. Here's my pile of logs, ready to be processed at the saw mill. Nothing huge; the largest being a 16" oak. The maple is 14", so I think it will be nice for my purposes. I also have the option of letting Michael keep some of the wood to sell, to offset the price of processing.
With the finalizing of the walls and the implementation of the landscaping, comes clean up. There have been trash piles around the build site, fairly well contained, but unsightly nonetheless. Now that we won't be needing any more ICF, we can throw away all the cutoffs. This has to be the biggest dumpster I've ever seen. You could drive a small car into it. The end opens up like a barn door and you can simply walk into it to throw away the trash.
Here's the final wall of the master bedroom and bathroom. The window bucks are in for our eyebrow windows. The left side windows will frame our bed. The right window will be in the shower. These two windows are separated by a wall, and the water closet. Because of the span above the window, ICF couldn't be used, from a structural perspective. Instead, a standard wood header beam will be installed and insulated.
Here's a shot from the front of the house to the back. The window bucks for the upper windows in the greatroom are not installed in ICF as they are below. I'll have to ask what the intent is, but I suspect it's because, again, the header across this span can not be made with ICF alone. I'm guessing a wooden header will be installed here as well since a steel header won't be necessary since it's not really load bearing. Yes, the roof will be supported by this, but it can be accomplished with a laminated beam or something similar.
I'm also not sure how the top of the elevator shaft will be terminated. It's currently the same height as the walls, but I would imagine that there should be some extra space above for mechanicals or something. Also, it would need to be well insulated since it's extending into the unconditioned attic space and extends down through the core of the house. If not properly implemented, it could act as a draft core.
There used to be three oaks blocking this view. These are actually the oaks that I kept since they were the largest in diameter. Now the view is unblocked, save for some larches in the wetlands area. Even though we won't have a catwalk around the greatroom, we'll still get a great view from the second floor landing.
The turret is another area that isn't finished to be poured. I think this will also be conventionally framed, and I'll have to find out what the construction details are. Minimum, I would expect 2x6 spray foamed for air tightness. 2x10 would closer match the thickness of the ICF walls so I would go for that too. The turret will have a 10' ceiling so the roofline is separated from the rest of the roof by a foot. It will have seven windows, two feet off the floor and seven feet in height, with a 1 foot header. Since they're the only windows in the room, I think they'll give off enough light.
Now you can see how much more open the woods are now that the trees have been removed. There will be two caramel mint rock retaining walls terracing down from the upper elevation to the lower. A stone stair will cut though the walls, allowing us to go from the higher elevation to the lower. The walls will start at the corner of the house and curve forward, following the natural curve of the ground.
Here's a shot of the back of the house. You can see how the windows on the "second" floor will mimic the first, but they'll be arched instead of square. 10' for the basement, 9' for the first floor, 9' for the second floor plus some floor thickness: 30' in height. Ultimately, there will be a small bluestone patio off this door and retaining walls will contain the elevation changes to the left. There are also plans for a set of doors to access the area under the back deck.
This is the area where the under-deck access will be. We'll have a 2' high retaining wall that will hold a path leading to access doors. Even with the increased elevation, we'll still have about 8' of height under there. Since it's unconditioned, we'll probably just store furniture or or boating equipment there. Another retaining wall with stairs cut through them to access the back yard. This will be implemented in a few years. In the interim, we'll probably just grass this area to curtail erosion.
Back yard shot of the house. You can see some of the left over wood from the trees I kept from the culling. The only visual aspect missing is the gazebo, which will sit on the pad on the corner of the kitchen. The Great Oaks crew also removed much of the remnant brush from the first lot clearing. They kept the stumps in the ground, which will probably be removed when they bring excavators for the retaining wall work. It will be great to finally have the ground cleared. I just need to find the time to consolidate the firewood before snow hits the ground.
Here's what the greatroom will look like. I can't decide where where the best view in the house will be. These 12 windows offer an almost panoramic view of the lake. Speaking of which...
Here's a panorama from the catwalk on the second floor of the greatroom. There are a few lots in our neighborhood across the lake, but since they don't have riparian rights, they can't build down to the water and there are plenty of larches that will preserve our view. The shoreline on the left is part of a protected conservation that will never be built on. In other words, we should always have this awesome view. The plan is to build a catwalk out over the wetlands, and a permanent dock into the water.
Here's the view from the greatroom. You can see the stumps of the three oaks that were removed, opening the view. Originally, we were going to see if we could file with the DEQ for a shoreline improvement to reclaim the land to the shoreline. After talking with Great Oaks, we decided that it would be too costly and might not even be possible, depending on the wetland composition. If we dump dirt we couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't just soak up the water like a sponge.
A lot of trees were cleared from this area. You can make out the orange painted wood stakes that mark the retaining wall that will hold the motor coach circle. It's crazy looking back at the original land and seeing how much we've changed it. Balancing the installation of the retaining walls and the construction of the house is something I didn't think I would need to do, but since the landscaping is outside the scope of the house build, but the driveway is needed for the house completion, I've had to take responsibility to organize the crews.
This is the driveway near the street. To the right is a wetland conservation area that uses a culvert under the driveway to flow into the lake. We're going to install a boulder wall to the right of the drive to support the driveway. There's probably enough land stability for the path as it is, but if we want to implement the 12' width for the driveway, we'll need something to hold it up.
Closer to the street, you can see the silt fence that contains the boulder wall construction site. Just to the left of the pines on the left is our neighbors driveway. Although the trees are on our property, we had absolutely no desire to remove them. There was even an option to remove the large pine at the front of the driveway, to offer a better view of a pillar that will be installed on that side, but it's such a large, old tree, it would be a shame to remove it for our own vanity.
Front of the house. It's nice to know that all the trash will be gone for the retaining wall construction, but I'm sure there will be plenty of waste to take its place as we progress on the inside. Interior walls create a lot of cut-off waste and drywall never comes in perfect sizes.
Another great tree we kept sits at the end of our garage. One of the biggest tree on the lot, I hope that it stays alive and well for the rest of my life. We might need to remove the lowest branches on the left of the tree when the roof of the garage comes in, but I'm really glad we're keeping it. We're even building a deck to curve around the tree.
Vacation time is coming up and I'll get a few more posts to detail the landscaping plans and follow the completion of the second floor walls. As the schedule currently sits, we're looking at second floor walls poured Monday, footings for the concrete retaining wall next to the garage Tuesday or Wednesday, with the completion of the wall and other retaining walls after Christmas, maybe in the new year. Some time in there, trusses will be delivered and started. Roof decking takes some time since there's a lot of labor and crane work. We'll need to order our roofing material (more on this later) and take delivery of the windows. We've already paid the first draw for HVAC to take advantage of a free internet connectivity module so HVAC will be the first utility in. After that should be plumbing then electrical. Oh, somewhere in there, the interior wall will be constructed and cabinets can get their final dimensions. I can already see the dollar signs flying out the window.
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