Garage ready to pour, still no roof.

    Another hot weekend and a little progress has been made, but not as much as I would have liked.  Work is moving forward on three fronts, front porch roof, greatroom fireplace, and garage slab.  I guess added together, it's an okay amount of progress.  Seeing how it was fathers day, I got some extra time to myself and took the "drone" up to get some areal movies.  If I figure out a good way to post them, I'll share them here.

   Subtle changes to the front of the house, but nothing drastic.  They finished the fascia and overhangs for the curved roof but still need to put up the roof decking.  There isn't any venting in the curved overhang, and that should be fine. You usually only need venting if the space below is conditioned.  I'm not sure why they put venting on the other parts of the porch.

   I found an inspection tag in the garage dated last Thursday, so it looks like the garage slab is good to pour.  Since we'll have good weather this week, I'm hoping they'll get this poured soon.  We've been talking about how we want to finish off the garage space.  In our current house that we bought new, we epoxied the garage floor with a DIY kit and it has held up well for the past 10 years.  This time around, we'll either get the floor professionally epoxied, or install linoleum or vinyl composite tiles, but I've read mixed reviews about the latter.  We would have loved to installed a floor drain in the garage, but I think it's against code, so we didn't push it.

   Here's where the curved roof porch meets the rest, near the door.  You can see the installed fascia and how it still needs to connect to the rest of the roof.  I still have to talk to Matt about how we're going to conceal those straight beams.  It has been a busy week.  

   Here's the same spot from above.  The laminated beams are installed in an odd way.  Since they're sitting on the same plane as the steel beams, they're just notched to mate up and hang on the beam.  I would usually expect to see some kind of steel tie or something, but his might be an acceptable application since the roof load isn't too high.

   Here's the other side of the curve.  They've connected the fascia and overhang on this side so it's a preview of what's to come.  I'm really hoping that they'll get the decking installed this week so we can get the roofers in since we're taking delivery of the cabinets next week.  Cobblestone Cabinets can warehouse the delivery for us for about a month, but that means we need to get a roof, windows, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and flooring in, in that month, before the cabinets can be installed.  That's a really tall order.  We might be able to push to get the kitchen done but I doubt it.  With windows installed, we could possibly stash them in the basement and they might be secure down there.  It's a pretty safe area, but it still doesn't make me comfortable.

   Last shot of what the finished overhang looks like from the "inside".  There won't be anything in this roof so it will remain hollow.  I'll have to ask Matt or Ken if we need to thermally insulate the ends of the concrete beams since they're sitting in the porch roof airspace, which is unconditioned.  There's a potential for the cold air to leech into the concrete beams and propagate into the turret, which is an already difficult area to climate control.

   Moving inside, here's what's going on with the greatroom fireplace column.  I guess we got the go-ahead to move the posts that support the second floor beam, because they're on the floor right now.  The beam is being supported temporarily by the 6x6 posts, and I guess they'll figure out how to put them into the fireplace column footprint.  That's good news for the aesthetics of the room since we don't need to take up more opening to conceal the posts, both on the first and second floor.

   Here's where they cut the bolts that anchored the post to the concrete.  I don't expect it will be filled or anything since it will be hidden by the finished floor.  The beam welds have already been ground down, but they'll need to reconstruct the fireplace column to accommodate the floor mounting plate for the post.  If this was just a spec house, I think a detail like this would have been overlooked.  In this respect, it's nice to have a custom construction so we can work things out as we go along.

   Minus the temporary post and add a two way fireplace, this is what the space will look like when it's completed.  Since the fireplace doesn't fill the entire space, we can pretty much put the posts anywhere inside the column.  I already gave Matt the specs of the fireplace we want, so we should be able to find the best place for installation.

   So that's if for this week.  I'll try to micro update with the aerial footage, or at least some nice captures from above.  We won't be able to make it to the site this weekend so the next update won't be for a while.  Hopefully we'll have a TON or progress to report on.

Roof level at 99 percent

   We had the most beautiful day to visit the site.  Mid 70s, no clouds, and no humidity.  What a change from the day before at low 90s and high humidity.  It looks like most of the front porch roof is completed and the curved area under the turret has rafters laid out ready to be sheeted.  Some of the fascia is on the curved porch.  There are some design concerns about the beams that support this section, but I think I have a aesthetically pleasing solution, and will meet with Matt some time this week to discuss it.

   Look at that sky!  As you can see, all the support structure for the front porch is up and most of the roof decking is installed.  I actually climbed up on it from the laundry room window with some shingle samples so we could decide on the color.  We decided to go with the Gatehouse slate color.  It's a little darker than the other colors and has some reddish variation in it.  The roof decking that's installed looks great and I can't find any issue with it anywhere.

   Here's the promised shot of the barrel vault above the front door.  They did a great job matching the arc of the vault with the arc that the front door makes.  We decided to keep the porch face of the vault solid rather than cutting out the arch in the gable end.  This time, we took my father-in-law with us and he was just amazed at how awesome the porches were.  As we walked inside the house, he gushed at how great the view was and I agree.  Since it was a such a nice day, we took some time to just sit out on the gazebo and enjoy the view.  As usual, there was a slight breeze which kept any annoying insects away, if there are any.  For every time I've been there, I've never been bitten by a mosquito.  

   Here's a shot of the greatroom fireplace as viewed from the rotunda.  We've had some problems trying to figure out how to hide these posts.  As per normal engineering, there are footings in the basement that have posts bolted to them, which hold up a beam that spans the distance between the walls on the left and right.  On the first floor, in this picture, the posts just to the left and right of the fireplace column are sitting on the concrete slab above the basement beam and directly above the posts below.  This transfers the weight of the second floor straight down to the ground.  Well it's unfortunate that the posts are where they are because they can't cleanly be contained inside the fireplace column, so we've been racking our brain trying to figure out how to wall or box them in.  The original blueprints didn't have any posts, but implementation required them.

   One thought was to just extend the fireplace column width to enclose the posts.  This would have worked, but it also would have reduced the opening to walk through on the first floor, and the view on the second.  At our last meeting, Matt said he would contact our structural engineer to determine if we could move the posts inward by eight inches to hide them in the fireplace column.  They would be still sitting above the beam, but not in line with the posts in the basement.  I guess it's possible to move them because there are some new 6x6 wooden posts set up, presumably as temporary support so they can cut and reweld the posts into the fireplace column.  Score one for us!

   I ventured out on the side porch roof to take this shot.  The roof slop is friendly enough to comfortably walk on, which would be nice for cleaning gutters if we needed them.  We took some time to stand in the turret and enjoy the cool breeze and warm sun.  I know I keep saying that I expect the roof to be completed every week, and for most of this build it seems like the norm.  I'm really hoping that once we get the other subcontracters in, the pace will pick up.

   Here's what the front porch looks like from the turret.  The gable came together well and I don't foresee any issue with debris collecting or shedding water.  With the installation of the front porch roof, the turret loses LOS with the garage doors, which isn't a problem, just an observation.

   Here's what the curved roof structure looks like from the turret.  You can see the straight laminated beam that supports the weight of the curved roof, but this beam is causing some asthetic issues.  The beams that support the porch deck run straight from post to post, and that's fine since it's hidden under the deck.  However, with these beams running straight from post to post to support the porch roof, when viewed from under the porch, you'll get odd cresent shaped supports from the curve to the beam.  Either that or the beams themselves will be boxed in and form odd angles in the porch ceiling.  It's not possible to bring the entire ceiling down because the tops of the windows would impinge on the ceiling.  I'll have to discuss it with Matt, but I think the only way to conceal these straight beams is to box them in, inside a large curve that follows the curve of the roof.  Ideally, we would have had curved beams below and above, but this didn't happen and it's way too late to change it.  While the boxing in of the beams will increase the area where the ceiling drops down, I think it's the best solution, and hopefully a viable one.

   Here's where the curved roof meets the straight on the side of the house.  You can see that they've added a laminated plywood curve that extends from post to post that will form the drop down fascia of the beam box.  You an also see that they've started to install the curved rough sawn cedar fascia on the roof rafter ends.  The space between the rafter end and the beam fascia should be about the same height as the porch ceiling and may contain overhang vents.  They probably don't make curved overhang vent, so it will either be short sections of straight vent or small round vents.  My proposal will add another laminated curve on the inside of the beam.  The only odd part will be at this point, and we'll need to find a good way to terminate the box.  Maybe a few more roof supports will need to be added in where the straight and curved interface.  I'm really hoping this will be completed by this weekend and we can get the roofers in the following week.

   Here's an unexpected addition.  It's the ceiling in the turret bedroom walk in closet and it's the attic space access.  It's a central location for the hatch and it will never really need to be accessed.  There will probably be another one in the garage.  It's kind of neat to see it in place since it's thinking forward to attic insulation and drywall finishing.  This one is a pretty generous 34"x24".  It shouldn't interfere with the lighting in this closet.

      Here's the last shot this week, of the back of the house.  Nothing new back here but it was too nice a day to not grab a picture.  We lingered on the gazebo for a good half hour just talking and dreaming about what it will be like to finally move in and live in our dream house.  With all the work and time it's taking up, it's hard to remember that this is indeed our dream house and not everyone gets an opportunity like this.  We have to remain thankful that for the chance to create exactly what we want and build a house that will hopefully be around for hundreds of years.  Hopefully there won't be someone a few hundred years from now, cursing the creators of this thing and decrying any odd design choices.  It seems like a house deserving of a name, but we'll have to figure that out later.

   So that's it for this week.  A little progress on all fronts again, but nothing to check off the list.  We'll keep lining up our ducks and hopefully we'll get to give them a chance to swim soon.

Our house has a face (well maybe a skull?)

   Temperatures are cooling a bit this week, but we visited the site for a late afternoon meeting with Porter and Heckman, and Matt to verify the HVAC supply and returns, and discuss the routing o fthe main supply and return trunks in the basement.  Besides that, work is progressing well on the front porch and I expect them to be completed by the end of the week.  There are still some tricky parts to complete around the turret and it needs to be tied into the garage roof, but Matt and his crew are already installing the overhang and fascia on some of the completed sections.

   The front porch roof is quickly coming together, so we can finally see what the house will look like when completed.  You can see how the barrel vault in the porch ceiling above the door will look.  I like how it follows the arc of the door itself.  We'll have the barrel vault blocked from the front by the triangular facade, which will also allow us to have a hanging light that will be shielded from the elements a bit.

   So here's the house, now that it has the front porch roof mostly in place.  We're still trying to nail down a roofing contractor but we're finding it difficult.  More on that later.  The grade of the garage approach has be increased to prep for the garage slab pour so that should be happening pretty soon.  

   A little more detail on the turret area.  You can see the initial curved support for the roof trusses.  The wood that's sticking through is the wood that was mechanically attached to the turret support beams.  These indicate the final roof fascia location, so there's a nice overhang to the porch decking.  The roof decking supports will be radiused around the turret.  I think the beams will be hidden by deck fascia, and it will be interesting to see how that will be done around the curve.

   Here's the front porch looking towards the garage.  The large window is two crank casements that look into the dining room.  I'm standing just in the barrel vault area where some of the concrete for the garage slab will go, to finish off the section under the front porch.  After that bit is poured, the final 6x6 posts can be anchored to hold up the front porch here.  Even though this area is in front of the dining room window, it will still be a neat place.  We'll have to think ahead a bit to see if we want to install some attachment points for a porch swing or something.

   Here's the front porch under the turret, looking back towards the back of the house.  The large window here is one of the two in the study.  There's a good amount of roof decking that still needs to be installed here but that's a quick job.  Not much else has changed on this side since my last update.

   Same area, but looking forward towards the front of the house.  It was pretty rainy today so even though the roof decking is up, there are planned expansion gaps in the plywood so water can still infiltrate the house.  We would have liked to have been dried in with roofing felt by now, but no one will install it without installing the roof soon thereafter.  There's a bit of a delay on the roof because of our current choice in material.  

   Another good sign of the times, an almost full dumpster.  There was still a good amount of dirt and scraps inside the house, but you can see that a lot has been cleaned up and thrown out.  There were some nice pieces of the laminated beam stacked on the other side of the dumpster, and I'm not sure if they were throwing them away, or waiting to use them somewhere else.  Those things are pretty flat and dead straight, so they're nice to use in other places.  Maybe I'll have to snag some if they're just going to throw them away.  It's amazing how much waste can go into creating a house.

   Some progress has also been made inside the house, with the erection of the dining room wall to the foyer.  The original plans called for an open area with two pillars.  Very common look in houses this size, but we really didn't like the look, so we're mirroring the study entry.  Both openings might be arched as well to mimic the door shape.  

   There's a little alcove that's created on each side of the opening to the rotunda and we're trying to decide what to do with them.  You can kind of see it to the left of the yellow bucket, where the curved wall of the rotunda meets the straight wall of the dining room.  We could make little nooks there, each holding an orchid lit from above.  Or we could flatten and enclose the space with walls and hang something on each side. Still trying to decide.

   Finally, here's the garage, prepped for concrete.  At last, we'll be done with concrete!  As with the basement slab, there's a layer of waterproof plastic and thin gauge wire mesh that's imbedded in the slab.  I didn't look close enough to see if there's also a layer of foam under this slab, as there is in the basement.  If it's not poured this week, I'll take a look.  We would have liked floor drains to facilitate cleaning, but I think there are environmental issues with that.  The entire floor was raised about a foot before this prep was completed so we could reduce the number of stairs into the house.  As it is now, there's three feet to the house slab.  Figure about three inches for slab, we're looking at 4 steps or 3 treads at an 8.25" rise for each step.  The total run will be 31.5" into the garage, which is also something we wanted to reduce since it takes up valuable floor space.   Four steps is a good amount, but it's better than the six we would have needed if we didn't raise the floor.

Roof
   Soooo roof woes.  Our original plan was to go with a slate composite like Inspire Classic Slate roofing, but we're encountering two issues: Cost and timing.
   Timing: We need to get the roof on before HVAC will come in to work, they're the first of the mechanicals.  We need to have a roof on before windows can go in.  We're also trying to squeeze in the completion of the landscaping after the roof is done.  The Inspire roof installs like real slate, minus most of the weight.  Set the desired overlap then put one or two nails in it.  That's more work than a traditional asphalt shingle, and much more weight.  Because of this, we're hearing from two different contractors that they don't have the manpower to complete our 90 square (9000 sq foot) roof.
   Cost: Inspire comes at a crazy premium.  We're seeing quote for around $60,000 for our 90 sq roof, not including labor, flashing, and drip edge.  That's materials alone.  It roughly translates to $650 per square for materials.  Compare this to $120-$190 per square for a high quality asphalt roof.  The quoted labor cost for installation of the Inspire is from $300-$1000, which is a ridiculous amount. All together we're looking at the worst case scenario of $100k for the roof alone.  Since we only have $18,000 in the budget for a roof, a ton would have to come out of pocket.
   Because of these two reasons, we're looking into alternatives.  There are some companies that make asphalt shingles that do a pretty good job of mimicking slate.  It's not great, but it will do.  This is one of those "not-the-bones-of-the-house" items that we can skimp on now and replace in the future if we really wanted to.  Here's the short list of slate-like asphalt shingles:

   Owens Corning: Berkshire (~161/sq)
   GAF Grand Slate II (~194/sq)
   Certainteed Grand Manor (~190/sq)

   We might have been able to handle two times the up charge for the Inspire but if these quotes are true, then I think we've been priced out of the product.

HVAC
  We also did a walk-through of the planned routing for the supplies and returns run in the basement.  Since we're planning on finishing the basement, we really wanted a say in where the large HVAC trunks will be run along the ceiling.  These ducts would be boxed in with drywall so making them as unobtrusive in their placement is paramount to a nice basement design.  Luckily, the guys with Porter and Heckman are great and we planned out the routing to have a clean look.  I'll discuss this more when it's installed and I can provide pictures, but basically, we'll have to run three main trunks, one for the rear of the house, one for the front of the house, and one that goes to the attic space for the second floor.  The front/rear house split was because we wanted to try to avoid as much passing-under-the-beams in the basement as possible, for the vent supply branches.  If we only used one trunk for the first floor, we would have to pass under two beams, which makes for some ugly boxing.  This is one of the perks of building yourself, you get complete control in the final product.  I would highly recommend Porter and Heckman for HVAC if you're in the market.

   The twins birthday is this Saturday, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get out to the property or not.  I'm hoping I can swing out there on one day and see the progress on the front porch and peek at the garage slab one more time.

Late update: Front porch and HVAC

   Sorry for the late update but thw long Memorial day weekend had me all over the place.  The weather has been hot in the mid to upper 80s and I got a chance to swing by the site on a sunny Saturday afternoon.  I was greeted by the beginning of a front porch roof.  I knew that Porter and Heckman have been out so I was looking forward to reviewing the HVAC supply and return placements.

   All the main laminated beams are up with most of the porch roof trusses up on the side of the house.  Most of the installed posts are permanent, with the exception of the posts that flank the front door.  I think the concrete slab needs to be poured before these posts are mounted.  One item that I reminded the crew about was the barrel vaulting that should be above the front door.

    Here's what the section under the turret looks like.  I'm not sure what the purpose of the curved lip on the deck serves, but it's nice that they placed temporary plywood everywhere.  You can see how they tie in the ceiling joists to the beam.  I'll have to ask how the final ceiling bead board will be attached here since the beam sits a bit lower than the joists.  This happens inside the house too since the beam sits lower than the LiteDeck.  I guess in both cases, the ceiling material can be cut out from the back side to fit the beams so the surface is flush.

   Here's a shot of the front porch, looking at the corner of the house under the turret.  These two windows belong to the study.  I think we gain a couple of feet on the curved part of the porch so it will make a nice place to sit, while still retaining the walking space of the porch.  I imagine this is where I'll be sitting on a rocking chair with a shotgun on my knees, waiting for the kids to come home after a date.  Just kidding.

   Looking forward on the front porch towards the turret corner.  The decking of the front porch is going to be Azek, so the plywood is only temporary.  You can see that they've installed the porch roof supports on this side of the house.  They still need to put up the roof decking, fascia, and overhangs.  I'm guessing a couple more weeks left of work on the front porch.  These posts are 6x6 and are permanent.  They sit right above the steel posts that support the steel I-beams that support the porch deck so the roof load is transferred all the way down to the concrete footings below.

   I'm not going to bore you with all the vent placements, but here you can see an example of how P&H marked in the supply vent locations for the first floor.  Having concrete floors complicates things a bit.  As with any other floor, you can't cut away floor joists to install vents, so they have to be placed in the spaces between.  With the Lite Deck system, there are wider concrete beams that you can't cut away since they're integral to the strength of the floor.  There are spaces 16" wide between these poured beams that you can route HVAC venting through.  Also, from below, you can cut away the foam under the concrete slab inbetween the beams so for the most part, the supply and return runs can sit completely flush with the concrete beams.  Likewise, as with wood joists, supply and vents that run perpendicular to the beams can only sit below the beam themselves so in the basement, they'll have to be boxed in.  

   This makes the supply and return to the second floor a bit more complex.  Usually, second floors are supplied from below as with the first, and they're all creatively boxed in, in the ceiling of the first floor.  While we could have gone this route, it would make odd soffits and intrusions in the first floor rooms.  To counter this, P&H suggested that we run one main supply and return trunk up to the attic space and supply the second floor from above.  While we gain architectural zen, we expose our HVAC to some inefficiencies by running it outside the envelope of the house, in the attic space.  With enough insulation, this energy losses can be reduced, but it's never a great situation to run supplies in the attic space.  Air leaks are complete energy losses and opposite temperature differentials threaten to rob the system.  I'll have to do some research to see if we can spray foam the attic ducts to air seal it and insulate it completely.

   There seems to be some supply vents missing, and some need to be moved to allow cabinets and furniture.  I'll have to set up a walk through with P&H.

   Here's what the porch roof looks like from the upper window of the great room.  When the temporary catwalk is gone, I'll never get this view again unless I'm up in a ladder.  Those laminated beams span an incredible distance but since the roof isn't very large, they don't have to hold up much weight, even in the winter.

   Here's the master bedroom windows that will surround our bed.  You can see the duct tape P&H attached to the ceiling joists to mark the supplies.  They have the opening dimensions marked on the tape; these happen to be 6"x10".  In some retrofit ceiling applications, small diameter vents are used in conjunction with high volume output so the air is "jetted" into the room.  I imagine with vents these large, the air flow will be equivalent to those on the floor.

   Here's the study looking towards the door.  Nothing new on the construction front, but here's an example of how P&H mark the HVAC returns.  You can see the duct tape at the top of the wall just left of the door.  Again, these are marked with vent dimensions.  As with any other forced air implementation, the wall will serve as a duct for the return.  The stud sole plate will be cut through and the duct work will connect below in the basement, which runs to the return duct to the heat/cooling exchange.  

   So progress slowly moves forward.  I'm not sure how much will be accomplished this short work week, but the weather should be nice for some progress.  I just got word today that the initial roofers didn't feel like they had the time nor manpower to complete our project so Matt is contacting two other roofers to get quotes.  The clock is really ticking on this since the cabinets will be coming in at the end of the month.  While we have some leeway on storing them if we're not ready for installation, I would really like to be able to take delivery.  It will be a tight squeeze, as always.