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.
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