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)!