Back porch roof finished. Incremental progress elsewhere.

   Snow.  Snow in the middle of May here in Michigan.  Temperatures dipped down into the low 40's and we got a taste of how the snow will accumulate on the roof.  It would have been much more enjoyable if we were looking out at the snow from inside of a warm and finished house, but it gave us material to dream about in the future.

   The back porch roof is completed with all the connections finished.  The roof above the master bedroom balcony is completed and tied into the main roof.  There were also some finishes around the rest of the house so progress is moving in parallel.  Still no movement on the roofers coming in to get the top "dried in" but Matt says that he's trying to get them on the site in the next week.  We're also trying to get the excavator to come in and trench out from the front of the house for water and sewer.  Ideally, we would get that done before the front porch is completed since the water is entering the house there, but if there's too much delay, we can finish the front porch roof and wait for the decking since we wouldn't install the final deck material until near the end of the build.  We're also looking to get the HVAC from Porter & Heckman in so they can mark locations for vents and supply/return trunks.

    Here's the view of the master bedroom balcony.  The plywood decking is temporary and the final material will be the same decking material as the front porch. The two posts on the left and right are permanent and the middle 2x6s are just temporary supports.  The pony wall on the right is needed since the rest of the porch roof angles up on the other side of it, but we're trying to work out a nice way of implementing it.  Since we're thinking about using a glass barrier on the balcony, we were thinking about cutting the pony wall at an angle that matches the roof slope, then having a triangle shaped glass complete the railing height.

    Here's the view from the balcony looking towards the back yard, where the pool will be.  Obviously, the view is blocked from here, but it's great looking out towards the water.  You can just make out how the connected the gazebo roof to the rest of the porch.  They made a nice ridge and cricket that will shed water, and reduce debris collection.  The nice thing is that I can just hop over the balcony wall and use a leaf blower on anything that does manage to get stuck up here.

   Here's a closer look at the gazebo cricket.  This came out exactly how I would have expected it to be.  Somewhere along this roof section, there will be a roof vent for the kitchen hood.  The blower will be housed in the porch roof itself so I'll have to very carefully decide where to put the vent.  Around the corner is some more master bedroom windows, so I think it's best on this side of the house when considering noise or vented smells.  It wouldn't do any good to vent out the odor of cooking fish, only to have it waft back in through the open window.

    They've installed all the bucks and dividers for the upper great room windows.  Now we can get an idea of what the final window layout will look like.  Although it would have been great to have one huge window, it's definitely fiscally impossible, if not physically.  All the upper windows will have a grid and windows on the left and right will have a half arch.  The cavities these make will help route wires for speakers and lights, but I'll pay close attention to how they're insulated.  It might be another great target for spray foam since it's a small area.

   Here's what the great room now looks like from the outside.  As per the usual construction, there's a two inch thick EPS foam sheeting installed on the exterior of the wall wherever ICF is not present.  This is the only part of the house that goes from basement to roof without a porch obstruction.  We might need to look into having a gutter on this part since we wouldn't want all that water streaming straight down, especially with the walk out sliding door.

   Here's what the house looks like from the back yard now.  You can see they boxed in the chimney so it's just about ready for exterior material, which will be the same granite cobble the rest of the house.  That granite cobble will be used around the base of the gazebo, but we're not sure how the edge of the cement will be finished.  The top will be stone tile.  Maybe the edge will also be the same stone tile.  We spent most of our time during today's visit, plotting out the footprints of outdoor tables, chairs, and the eventual fireplace and grilling station that will be housed in the gazebo and back porch.  Definitely one of the highlights of the house.

   Here's a close up of the chimney box.  Since we're just using gas fireplaces inside, this will just house two vented exhaust pipes, one for each fireplace.  I'm not sure how we'll finish the top yet, but I don't imagine anything super fancy.  If we had a real wood burning fireplace, this would probably have been made of firebrick masonry and might have been impossible considering what sits below it in the basement.  I don't think the entire weight of a brick chimney can sit on a metal beam.

    Here's how the master balcony looks from the ground.  The roof for this section worked out really well.  The elevations never really gave a great impression on how the roof lines would look, especially on this section.  I look forward to sitting up here on rainy days.  Hell, I'm looking forward to sitting anywhere in this house on rainy days.

    Here's the side of the gazebo that will have the fireplace and possibly a stone bench that leads to the grilling station on the porch.  This whole side will be heavily landscaped with the caramel mint retaining walls so the gazebo will feel well elevated above the stairs that lead up from the walk out below the great room.

    Here's how the gazebo finishing is turning out.  You can see they vented the roof in the porch, but I don't think they needed to since it's not part of the building envelope.  Generally, you want venting where there's warm air below so the cold exterior air can prevent too much snow melt on the roof, which prevents ice from forming on the roof itself.  Since neither the porch nor gazebo is closed to the elements, venting isn't needed, as shown on the gazebo.  It's not a bad idea that it's on the porch since it will be housing the inline blower.  It might increase the temperature of the porch roof space a bit.

   Progress continues in the garage as they're starting to clean and prep for the slab.  The end window height was increased nine inches to accommodate the slab height increase.  Initially, the garage slab would have been about three feet down from the rest of the house.  That means about five steps up, with larger implications on how far out into the garage those steps would have to be, which was considerable.  Our decision was to raise the height of the slab by one foot, which reduces the number of steps to three, reducing the footprint of the steps themselves.  Of course, raising the slab height means adding more fill dirt outside.  Since we are planning on installing a planting work bench under the window we had to raise the window to accommodate a counter height item.  We had the space, so we implemented it.  Much easier to do now rather than later, and not doing it would make for a low bench.  Since this is a south facing wall, and the entire garage is ICF, this will make for a great window for wintering plants and sunning starter seeds.

   Wood was installed in the beams that support the turret in preparation for creating the front porch roof.  Most of the front porch roof is straight, with the exception of the rounded area around the turret.  Implementation of this roof will be interesting since the plans call for an actual broad rounded area.  All these beams will be hidden in the roof structure, but the posts are part of the front porch design.

   So the month is almost done and the final roof isn't on yet.  I think that since the interior walls are all but completely studded in, we're kind of prepping two things at once so the roof can go on at the same time the mechanicals are going in rather than installing the roof, then windows, then mechanicals.  Once the roof is done, we'll call in the window installers and have the house finally buttoned up.  Sure feels like it will be needed if we get any more cold days and snow this year.