Small progress, big plans

   I think we're starting to run out of the cooler spring weather because this week it's supposed to get up in the 80s.  With nicer weather will hopefully come faster progress as we start to ramp up into the interior work.  Building progress this week is all about finishing rough touches on the existing roofs, and prepping for the front porch.  I fully expect to see a nearly completed front porch come next weekend.

   Changes this week were more subtle but justone more step towards completion.  It looks like all the fascia and overhang vents are installed around the entire house and back porch.  There are still some small sections around the turret and the turret itself that need completion.  It looks like all the prep work for the front porch is done and they'll probably start to work on that this week.

   The roofers visited the site to take measurements for the "dry in", and presumably, to provide a quote for the shingles.  Dry in means that they'll put up all the roofing underlayment, a waterproof membrane that sits between the shingles and the roof decking.  In the short term, this will prevent any water from entering the house through the roof vents.  Shingles will need to be completed before we can get the windows in, which needs to be completed before we can start drywall.

   Porter and Heckman will also be out by Friday this week to mark pass-throughs for the forced air.  This will give me the weekend to check things out and make sure they're not installing vents where furniture will be.  The master and guest bedroom windows that flank the bed will have night stands under them, right in the prime location for an air vent.  In the master, it won't be a problem since the air is coming from the ceiling, but on the first floor guest room, the air is coming through the floor.  I'm not sure if an alternative placement is possible.  I'm also especially interested in how they'l route the supply and return trunks in the basement.  Ideally  any cross joist path will run along side a beam so we can just box the whole thing in together.  With so many rooms to supply, it will be a trick to maintain the ten foot ceiling height everywhere.  The ICF floor foam can be cored out to run ducts parallel to the joists.  Hopefully they'll be deep enough to contain them.

   After meeting with Matt a couple weeks back, we finalized what was supposed to go on with the gazebo ceiling.  Here's the result of that meeting.  We needed to keep the 2x6 supports near the top and Matt needed to reinforce the beams around the perimeter to prevent sheer distortion, but I think it looks tons better.  It gives the gazebo a loftier feel because the previous ceiling height felt way too low for an outdoor space of that size.

   The flat ceiling area in the center of the gazebo will work well since it will provide a good place to install a ceiling fan, some lights, and maybe the outdoor speakers.  There will probably need to be more structure up there to support the ceiling material, but you can get a good feel of the height.  I'll have to measure the distance next time I'm out there.  The 2x4 box structure around the perimeter is just used to bring down the look of the beam.  The reinforcement that was added sits just above this.

   There are some new piles of lumber in the front of the house that I almost overlooked. Plywood, 6x6 posts, 2x4 and laminated beams?  Must be the roof for the front porch!  Originally, Matt wanted to wait on installing the front porch to give the excavator room to trench in the water that will be running into the front basement wall.  I guess he decided there will be enough room and all they have to do is remove some of the floor joists to give room for the machinery.

   Here's a close up of the laminated beams.  Nothing special I guess.  We still haven't decided how to clad the posts, but we've got a solid idea on the railings.  In the rotunda, we threw around the idea of having curved glass rails topped with a square walnut railing.  Curved glass is a custom job and pretty expensive, but allows for the least visually intrusive element.  We decided that round stainless balusters would be almost as good and found some that have a nice crystal element in them.  We might use something similar (san crystal) on the exterior porch railing.  Probably a darker metal color rather than stainless, but keeping a dark top and bottom rail. 

  All the wood is in the turret beams, ready for the porch roof. Porch ceiling shouldn't come too much farther down than the beams since they're already around nine feet.  I'll really enjoy seeing how they pull off this radius roof.  Every time I visit the site, I take some time to stand or sit in the areas I think will be the most relaxing in the future.  As the house build progresses, I find myself hanging out at every window and on every porch.  Standing up here is great because it's at a ten foot elevated position above the forest.  There are so many little things to look at in the woods.  I can't wait until we get to live here and I can just relax and watch the chipmunks running around.

   Here's the back of the garage looking towards the house, now that the gazebo is up.  I think this will be the longest uninterrupted length of wall on the whole building so we'll need some good landscaping to break it up a bit.  I think the plans call for a small planting bed in front of this wall.

   Here's the back of the house now that the gazebo ceiling has been fixed.  You can see all the overhang wood has been installed on all the roof structures.  It shouldn't be too much longer until we have a proper roof and we can keep rolling to get the windows installed.  Those windows have been in storage for over a year, just waiting for the house to reach a level of completeness.  I'll be happy when they're installed we can look inward to installing walls and finishing work.