Prepping for second floor

October is quickly passing by and preparation has begun for the second floor LiteDeck installation.  First floor wall supports have been removed and wooden platforms have been erected in the greatroom in preparation of building the walls for the open ceiling room.  Beams have been ordered and should be installed soon.  Things are moving forward, but is it fast enough before winter hits?

 Here's the greatroom and sitting area wit some of the kitchen on the right and some of the guest room on the left.  The wooden platform has been constructed since the great room is two storys high.  I'm guessing they'll be used to support the walls as well when it's time to pour.

 All the wall supports are gone, but some of the 2x4 feet remain.  I'm sure they'll be cleared up soon since they're no longer needed.

 Shot of the kitchen without supports.  Funny how you can still see the color difference in the concrete were the Litedeck creates beams.  It just rained the night before so I don't know if that's a factor in the different coloration.

 Here's the corner between the greatroom and the kitchen.  This is where a beam will span the opening of the greatroom, supporting some of the second story fireplace.  The beam pocket sits at 9' so I'm a little confused on how this will go together.  The ceilings are supposed to be at 9' on the first and second floor.  In the basement, the beams are at 9' and the Litedeck sits on the beams so the underside of the Litedeck (basement ceiling) is at 10'.  Here, if the Litedeck sits on the beams, it will also place the ceiling at 10'.  I texted Matt, but haven't gotten a response yet.  All the visible beam pockets are like this.

 Here's the beam pocket in the mud room, looking at the garage wall.  The rebar spikes on the garage wall will tie into the garage roof trusses.

 Long shot of the house front to back.  The curved stair opening is under the plywood.

 Side wall of the house, containing the study, guest bathroom and guest bedroom.  The little window sits above the toilet and will be oval.

 Finally a clear shot of the front of the house.  Fall is a great time of the year in Michigan.

 Front corner of the house.  The black tarp is just a tent protecting the electrical boxes from rain.

 Most of the supports have been cleared out of the basement under the greatroom (future workout room) since they won't be needed to support the weight above.  The rest of them will remain until the second floor is poured.  This will allow the weight to transfer from the second floor all the way to the basement.

 Here's the workout room from the rear walk out.  I can't wait to use it.

Shot of the greatroom so far.  Add another layer on there with matching windows and it will really look impressive.  Oh, a finished exterior will make it look nice too.

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.

First floor walls ready to pour

Looks like the first floor walls are prepped and ready to pour and awaiting inspection approval.  The original target date for the pour was Friday 25th of September, but since the city only sends inspectors out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the walls weren't completed by then or the inspectors didn't make it out for approval.  

All the bucks are in.  Windows top out at 8' of the 9' ceiling and doors match.  The front door will be standard height with a rectangular transom and two sidelites.  I'm receiving quotes for a Provia door.

Here's the greatroom view from the rotunda, minus the fireplace.  The opening on the left will house a door that leads to the wrap around porch and will have a transom above.  The opening on the right houses the sliding door that leads to the back porch.  The greatroom will be two storys.  Since each floor is 9' and the thickness of the LiteDeck floor is about 1', we're looking at 19'-20' for the ceiling height in the greatroom.

This is what the windows in the study look like.  The little window is going to be an oval above the toilet for the guest room.  A shower will share the wall against the study.  These windows are great for the view out to the front yard and driveway.

Here's a shot of one of the greatroom windows.  As always, the bucks are open on the bottom to allow the concrete under the windows.

Another shot of the exterior door in the greatroom.  The side windows will be double casements so we can get some airflow in there.

A shot from the greatroom forward to the front of the house.  9' ceilings feel great.

The finished elevator shaft.  I think the door is larger than needed, but the general tactic is to have a larger opening than needed, and build down to the actual opening.  Insulation can be added as needed.

Here's a shot of the kitchen window and mudroom exterior door.  There will be a wall separating these two.  As always, standing here makes the space look small, but once interior walls go up and cabinets are installed, I'm sure the space will feel larger, if that makes sense.

Finished shot of the butlers pantry, mudroom, dining room, and garage storage room.

Here's the view out the mudroom door and how it hooks up to the back deck.  You can see the forms installed for the concrete pour.  It will be pretty nice to walk on the gazebo and get a feel of how much space we'll have.

Standing at the front door looking towards the rotunda and dining room.  I'm going to miss the open feel when the interior walls go up.

Long shot from the front door to the guestroom side of the house.  Most of this view will be obscured by interior walls.  From the front door, you'll be able to see through the rotunda up to the two way fireplace. 

Rotunda view of the front door.  Ceiling will block the upward view and interior walls will block the sides.

Standing in front of the house.  Fill dirt still needs to be added to increase the grade to final height.

Here's how they reinforce the areas above all the openings.  They added rebar that will tie in to the walls above so the single layer of ICF is hanging from above as well.

One thing that I didn't see in any of the walls was beam pockets.  There's still a little bit of mystery on how the second floor will be supported with respects to beams, but I'm sure the builders will do everything they can to conceal them in interior walls.  

Hopefully this week, we'll get the first floor walls poured.  We've gotten some preliminary information back from Great Oaks about the wetland setback requirements.  It looks like we'll have to modify the plans a bit.  The biggest change will be at the driveway near the small door.  We're required to pull back the retaining walls a bit since there's a 25' setback from the wetland boarder.  That will introduce an asphalt curb on the side of the driveway and a guard railing on the retaining wall.  I'll get an additional post in once the plans have settled down a bit.

First floor walls!

So begins the short construction of the first floor walls.

Construction began last week on Monday (9/14) and should conclude with the pour this Friday (9/25).  We made a quick visit out to the site last week to confirm some window measurements, and visited the site on Saturday to look at progress.  It's pretty exciting to see the walls go up.  I still can't get a good feel of how big the house is.  In my mind, I know it's numerically large, but when I'm standing in the space and envisioning interior walls, it doesn't seem big enough.  Probably still just a trick of scale.  Tanja and I agreed that we'll miss the open sky view when the roof finally goes up.

Here's a wide shot of the front of the house.  The work trailer is blocking the garage but you can see the temporary steps that lead up to the front porch.  The openings from left to right are, study window, front door, dining room window.  Trick of perspective, but the window openings are identical.

Here's the west wall, showing from left to right, the study, guest bathroom, and guest room.  The little window is an opening for an oval window.  The plywood on the floor covers the stairwell to the basement.  There's about six of the nine feet of wall up.

 A shot standing in the guest room.  Left to right is the greatroom, kitchen in the back left, elevator shaft in the mid ground and dining room on the right.  Hidden behind the elevator shaft is the mudroom, garage entry bathroom, and butlers pantry.

 Here's the great room.  Four windows on the back wall are non-opening and there are two to the left and right that will be double casements.  More windows will sit above these on the second floor level and a two-way fireplace will create a dividing wall where the pile of supports are.

 Once again, here's how the walls are constructed.  Rebar spikes protrude up through the basement walls and first floor slab.  These are tied in to the horizontal rebar in the walls of the first floor.  Wood bucks will cover the ends where windows and doors will go.  This is an exterior door to the greatroom connecting to the front wrap around porch.

 Here's the door from above.  This will be a standard height door but have a transom window above.

 Another shot of the greatroom windows.  Although we love the trees, the three visible here will be removed to open the view to the lake.

 Standing in the kitchen, you can see left to right, a glimpse of the mudroom exterior door, the garage entry door, a door for a garage accessed storage room, and the window opening for the dining room.  On the right is the back of the elevator shaft that walls in the butlers pantry.

 Standing in the back corner of the greatroom looking forward.  This view will be blocked by interior walls.

 Again, standing in the study, looking across the house to the dining room.  It will be interesting to see the rotunda go in.  I think the engineer is still working out how to construct the second floor rotunda beams.  I'm hoping we can get away with having an open staircase but it looks like we might need a support post at the start of the stairs.  

 Looking out the greatroom window to the back yard.  Great view of the back porch and gazebo.  Below will be heavy landscaping retaining walls and the access doors to the space under the back porch.

 Standing in the mudroom, looking out into the garage.  The garage walls are the final height of the first floor walls, so there's not much more to go.  The top of the windows will be at 8 feet and the bottoms are at 2 feet.

 View out the kitchen window into the back yard.  There will be a sink here, but you can see the entire backyard from this window, including the gazebo and pool.

 View out the dining room window to the driveway.  It seems like very side of the house is easily viewable from any of the windows.  Good thing considering we have a killer view.

 Wide shot from the study corner.  One day soon (I hope) there will be interior walls blocking this view.

 Exterior shot of the front corner of the house.  The wrap around porch is going to provide a commanding view from 10' up.  I'm hoping the whole house will feel like a tree house.  Again, extensive retaining walls will come off this corner and terrace the hill.

 Back corner of the house outside the great room.  We've thought about putting a spiral staircase here, but decided against it.  Fewer access points are better.

 Exercise room walkout with the great room above.  When this is done, it will be three stories high.  Kind of looks like a minecraft castle right now.

Back of the house from the pool.  The gazebo will obscure some of this view.

I'm most excited about having so many sheltered outdoor areas to sit in when it's raining.  Having the walls go up really starts to get me excited again for the build.  Matt says that the second floor litedeck will be installed almost immediately since most of it is supported by temporary bracing anyways.  At this pace, maybe we really can get buttoned up before winter sets in.  

I've made calls to the Geothermal installer about getting the wells dug before winter.  I'm hoping we'll be able to get sewer and water too since it needs to be installed before the driveway.  Windows have been ready since March and Pro Brothers have been eternally patient, holding them for us in their warehouse.  I highly recommend them for windows and doors.

We also got a chance to look at some appliances since we're starting the design process for the kitchen cabinets.  Tanja fell in love with the french door double oven by Viking.  We've decided on a 48" range with 4 burners, a charbroiler and griddle, but not on the manufacturer.  We have space for a 30" fridge column and 24" freezer column, but again, we're still deciding on the manufacturer.  I didn't see any appreciable difference between Viking and Subzero.  I still need to research Thermador reliability.

We also met with Jonathan and Tama of The Sound Vision, who will be designing and installing our lighting control, A/V distribution, data distribution, and security.  Great people and I recommend them.  This husband and wife team consists of a mechanical engineer and architect respectively so their background is solid.  As an engineer myself, I can really appreciate the presentation and level of thoughtfulness and detail they provide.

Next update should show a completed first floor (exterior wall)!