Roof level at 99 percent

   We had the most beautiful day to visit the site.  Mid 70s, no clouds, and no humidity.  What a change from the day before at low 90s and high humidity.  It looks like most of the front porch roof is completed and the curved area under the turret has rafters laid out ready to be sheeted.  Some of the fascia is on the curved porch.  There are some design concerns about the beams that support this section, but I think I have a aesthetically pleasing solution, and will meet with Matt some time this week to discuss it.

   Look at that sky!  As you can see, all the support structure for the front porch is up and most of the roof decking is installed.  I actually climbed up on it from the laundry room window with some shingle samples so we could decide on the color.  We decided to go with the Gatehouse slate color.  It's a little darker than the other colors and has some reddish variation in it.  The roof decking that's installed looks great and I can't find any issue with it anywhere.

   Here's the promised shot of the barrel vault above the front door.  They did a great job matching the arc of the vault with the arc that the front door makes.  We decided to keep the porch face of the vault solid rather than cutting out the arch in the gable end.  This time, we took my father-in-law with us and he was just amazed at how awesome the porches were.  As we walked inside the house, he gushed at how great the view was and I agree.  Since it was a such a nice day, we took some time to just sit out on the gazebo and enjoy the view.  As usual, there was a slight breeze which kept any annoying insects away, if there are any.  For every time I've been there, I've never been bitten by a mosquito.  

   Here's a shot of the greatroom fireplace as viewed from the rotunda.  We've had some problems trying to figure out how to hide these posts.  As per normal engineering, there are footings in the basement that have posts bolted to them, which hold up a beam that spans the distance between the walls on the left and right.  On the first floor, in this picture, the posts just to the left and right of the fireplace column are sitting on the concrete slab above the basement beam and directly above the posts below.  This transfers the weight of the second floor straight down to the ground.  Well it's unfortunate that the posts are where they are because they can't cleanly be contained inside the fireplace column, so we've been racking our brain trying to figure out how to wall or box them in.  The original blueprints didn't have any posts, but implementation required them.

   One thought was to just extend the fireplace column width to enclose the posts.  This would have worked, but it also would have reduced the opening to walk through on the first floor, and the view on the second.  At our last meeting, Matt said he would contact our structural engineer to determine if we could move the posts inward by eight inches to hide them in the fireplace column.  They would be still sitting above the beam, but not in line with the posts in the basement.  I guess it's possible to move them because there are some new 6x6 wooden posts set up, presumably as temporary support so they can cut and reweld the posts into the fireplace column.  Score one for us!

   I ventured out on the side porch roof to take this shot.  The roof slop is friendly enough to comfortably walk on, which would be nice for cleaning gutters if we needed them.  We took some time to stand in the turret and enjoy the cool breeze and warm sun.  I know I keep saying that I expect the roof to be completed every week, and for most of this build it seems like the norm.  I'm really hoping that once we get the other subcontracters in, the pace will pick up.

   Here's what the front porch looks like from the turret.  The gable came together well and I don't foresee any issue with debris collecting or shedding water.  With the installation of the front porch roof, the turret loses LOS with the garage doors, which isn't a problem, just an observation.

   Here's what the curved roof structure looks like from the turret.  You can see the straight laminated beam that supports the weight of the curved roof, but this beam is causing some asthetic issues.  The beams that support the porch deck run straight from post to post, and that's fine since it's hidden under the deck.  However, with these beams running straight from post to post to support the porch roof, when viewed from under the porch, you'll get odd cresent shaped supports from the curve to the beam.  Either that or the beams themselves will be boxed in and form odd angles in the porch ceiling.  It's not possible to bring the entire ceiling down because the tops of the windows would impinge on the ceiling.  I'll have to discuss it with Matt, but I think the only way to conceal these straight beams is to box them in, inside a large curve that follows the curve of the roof.  Ideally, we would have had curved beams below and above, but this didn't happen and it's way too late to change it.  While the boxing in of the beams will increase the area where the ceiling drops down, I think it's the best solution, and hopefully a viable one.

   Here's where the curved roof meets the straight on the side of the house.  You can see that they've added a laminated plywood curve that extends from post to post that will form the drop down fascia of the beam box.  You an also see that they've started to install the curved rough sawn cedar fascia on the roof rafter ends.  The space between the rafter end and the beam fascia should be about the same height as the porch ceiling and may contain overhang vents.  They probably don't make curved overhang vent, so it will either be short sections of straight vent or small round vents.  My proposal will add another laminated curve on the inside of the beam.  The only odd part will be at this point, and we'll need to find a good way to terminate the box.  Maybe a few more roof supports will need to be added in where the straight and curved interface.  I'm really hoping this will be completed by this weekend and we can get the roofers in the following week.

   Here's an unexpected addition.  It's the ceiling in the turret bedroom walk in closet and it's the attic space access.  It's a central location for the hatch and it will never really need to be accessed.  There will probably be another one in the garage.  It's kind of neat to see it in place since it's thinking forward to attic insulation and drywall finishing.  This one is a pretty generous 34"x24".  It shouldn't interfere with the lighting in this closet.

      Here's the last shot this week, of the back of the house.  Nothing new back here but it was too nice a day to not grab a picture.  We lingered on the gazebo for a good half hour just talking and dreaming about what it will be like to finally move in and live in our dream house.  With all the work and time it's taking up, it's hard to remember that this is indeed our dream house and not everyone gets an opportunity like this.  We have to remain thankful that for the chance to create exactly what we want and build a house that will hopefully be around for hundreds of years.  Hopefully there won't be someone a few hundred years from now, cursing the creators of this thing and decrying any odd design choices.  It seems like a house deserving of a name, but we'll have to figure that out later.

   So that's it for this week.  A little progress on all fronts again, but nothing to check off the list.  We'll keep lining up our ducks and hopefully we'll get to give them a chance to swim soon.