The walls are getting taller as the days are passing. The schedule is to get the pumper truck out this coming Friday for the second floor walls. Besides the front porch landing and the garage slab, that will end our legacy of monumental cement pours. Window shapes are beginning to appear but the master closet and bedroom turret still have to started. I'm not sure what the delay is on those parts. For general ICF construction, I think they need to drill into the concrete to spike with rebar since they're not part of the existing exterior wall.
Here's a shot of the front of the house from the garage. The large window on the left is the second floor laundry room and has one of the best views of the driveway approach. The height of the window from the floor is suspect and I'll have to inquire about it. In general, all the windows start 2' from the floor with a few exceptions, the laundry room, master bedroom, and master bathroom. This laundry room window should be at least 36" above the floor so it doesn't get in the way of the counter or laundry machines. The middle window will be a round one in the bedroom bathroom.
I'm standing in the turret looking towards the back of the house. You can see the large opening for the upper greatroom windows. There will be four archtop windows, matching the lower four rectangular windows. The only way to get up here is a ladder. I'm not sure if they're going to build a temporary staircase, or build the final staircase without final treads.
Again, standing in the turret looking towards the master bedroom. Wooden supports are used right now. Steel supports were used in the first floor when the walls were higher, so they still might be employed here. You can see 6' of block installed with 3 more courses to come for a total of 9'.
Looking forward at the master closet. The two windows on the left of the frame will flank our bed and will be bridged with an eyebrow window. As I mentioned before, these windows should be higher off the ground because they need to sit above our nightstands. They're currently at 24" and I believe they should be around 35". I've already asked Matt to double check the heights. In the end, all the tops of the windows will be at the same height.
Another shot of the greatroom window openings. There are also two side windows so I think we'll get a nice amount of light in here. The fireplace column will be right in the middle of this shot. There will be a second gas fireplace on the second floor landing, where I'm standing right now. The left and right of the fireplace will be open to the greatroom below, so we'll still get some of the great view from up here.
Here's the opening for our master balcony. It will offer a secluded view since it's framed on one side by the house, and on the other side by the gazebo roof. Since it shares the footprint of the deck below, it will be 8' deep by 10' wide. A generous size of a balcony.
I took a walk out on the greatroom catwalk just because I know I won't ever be able to when the house is finished. It's pretty high from up here, so I get nervous walking so close to the edge.
So tree removal for the entire landscaping plans is taking place early this week. All the retaining walls supporting the driveway will be starting next week so in a couple weeks, we should have some nice walls up on the outside, as well as on the house. The plans have been sent to the truss manufacturer so they can begin design. Final construction won't begin until the walls are completed because there's always some variance between the actual implementation and blueprint. Maybe the weather will hold off enough so we don't get too much snow in the house.
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