With the hectic holiday season almost done, our minds can turn back to the business of working on the house. Even though it's the time between Christmas and the New Years, progress still continues on the house in ways that make visiting exciting. We're surprised to see progress during this time considering last year this time, we had just gotten the second floor walls poured and work came to a halt because of the concrete curing and deep snow. Now we're full steam ahead.
While the business with extending the mortgage works it's way through the underwriting process, the bank has already authorized Mike to request draws, which is good because the current trades are knocking down tasks and spending money to get there. One of the biggest differences with Mike is that he's not afraid to extend his own reputation and money out there, knowing that the draws will complete and he'll get paid back. It's refreshing and much less stressful not having to advance draws out of pocket, only to get the repayment swallowed up by constant budget overruns.
We got a chance to visit a couple of stone suppliers to get eyes on some black onyx for the powder room vanity. The plan is to either have an open metal cabinet design with a back lit onyx counter top, or a floating onyx apron front counter, both using a basin sink. We really like the three dimensional look of the black cloud onyx and found a good distributor/fabricator so we only have to buy what we use.
The snows of the previous weeks have melted away with an unexpected thaw and we visited the site on a sunny, but 37 F day. We happened to get there just as Mike was pulling up, and one of his carpenters was already on site mocking up the design for the bracket mounts that will flank the garages. Although we didn't get to visit the site on the holiday weekend, we still found some progress in key areas.
Even with the melted snow, the gravel Mike got down in the driveway is holding fast and the way up is solid all the way to the house. Tarp was placed on both the front and rear door of the single bay garage door to help shield the materials from wind and snow. They'll probably tarp up the double bay too to provide a sheltered work space once the weather gets cold again. A small platform was erected to the left of the garage doors, off the deck, to provide easy access to the garage bracket area. I didn't get a picture of the mock up, but it allows the bracket to sit proud of the cedar siding, while also providing a mounting location for the sconces that will flank each door.
These twins are currently sitting in the garage, ready to be hauled up to the second floor. They're the
Kohler Bellwether apron front cast iron tubs that will be installed in the two kids bedrooms on the second floor. Specs say they're 327 lbs each but the only stairs to the second floor are temporary in design so I'm not sure if they can handle the three to four guys plus tub weight. Nevertheless, they'll be making their way up to the second floor some time next week so they can be set and inspected once all the plumbing roughs have been completed.
The insides of the tub are a little dirty right now, but it's probably normal. Like most cast iron tubs, they're ceramic coated for a durable finish. These tubs are a little troublesome for installation and trim fitting since the overflow drain side of the tub has a good amount of slope to it. You need to match up a tub filler spout that's at least 7 inches long, which limits the selection a little. I think there's also a little rough plumbing magic that needs to happen to get everything to fit. Despite the weight of the tubs, it's good we're on concrete floors and the orientation of the tubs are perpendicular to the concrete beams so there's no issue of floor support. They have little cast iron feet, so I'm not sure if a concrete bed is still poured under the tub, as is done with acrylic and fiberglass tubs.
Some carpentry work continued in places where the plumbing had to run under the first floor ceiling. Here's the foyer where the turret bedroom bathroom drain plumbing needed to run across the concrete beams and down the right side wall. We couldn't run the pipes parallel to the beams because this room opens into the rotunda with no wall to drop inside of to the basement. The front door will be an eight foot arch top door with two partial arch top sidelights so the arch you see in the door rough is the door frame itself. The trim carpenters will have a fun time trying to fit the door molding in where the pipe soffit is, but I'm sure they'll figure out a way. We might look into arching the soffit above the door to follow the shape of the door, but I'm not sure if we'll keep that arch near the side walls. It's just one of those things that we'll figure out before drywall goes on.
Roxsul insulation is being installed in all the drain stack and pipe soffit locations to dampen the sounds of rushing water in these spaces. Since these spaces are on the inside of the house envelope, we're not so concerned about temperature insulation, but the Roxsul adds a level of sound insulation. It's especially important in the pipe chases, because without it, the enclosed empty spaces would act as a resonating chamber for water running through these pipes.
The ceiling in the powder room was dropped down about six inches to allow for the bathroom vent to sit flush in the ceiling. This was another area where we couldn't run a chase parallel with the floor beams so it cuts across the beams, under the level of the ceiling, and into the adjoining pantry, where it can then go up into the ceiling chase and out of the house. Both the powder room and pantry have the ceilings dropped a bit, but since we're using nine foot ceilings, loosing half a foot in a small room isn't very perceivable.
One more piece of the puzzle falls into place. A door frame was added for the basement access door. There still might be some figuring out to do around the support post on the left. The posts are usually integrated into the wall, with studs surrounding it for drywall attachment. We'll have to see how this lines up with the stairs and the curved inner rotunda wall. These little additions means that all the big things have been completed.
Another place where we had to drop down the ceiling due to second floor plumbing was in the first floor guest room bathroom. Although the layout of this bathroom and the one above are nearly identical, a steel structural beam complicated the second floor drain routes since they needed to duck under the beam. This means that we had to install a soffit in this area, but rather than just make a box, we took it across the width of the room. This area drops right where the walk in shower is so there's really no issue since it will actually define the shower space a bit better. Again, having nine foot ceilings helps here since we needed to drop it about eight inches. If we had standard height ceilings, this shower could start to feel a bit claustrophobic. The plumbing and entrance for this shower will be on the left since the toilet sits on the exterior wall on the right. The plan is to have a floor to ceiling glass shower wall.
Two places that have inconsequential plumbing soffits is in the garage storage place. Much of the master bath plumbing and all of the laundry room plumbing runs through this area on it's way down to the basement. I say it's inconsequential because it's not in the primary living space but it's good that it will still be concealed behind drywall. Even though this space doesn't have any ducts supplying it, I'm not too concerned about freezing temperatures. For one, it's inside the main envelope of the house, so enough heat will permeate it's way into the space. Second, it's connected to the garage, which is also ICF, so there's an added layer of frost protection. Third, the soffit will be insulated with Roxsul so any heat that does make into the space will be kept there.
Here's another look at the plumbing soffit in the storage space. The electricians haven't started up on the interior of the house, but they'll have plenty of spaces to run wires through once they do. The main trunk of electrical routing to the second floor can be done through the HVAC chase to the attic, then drop down the walls. The first floor can be supplied through the floor from the basement, so we shouldn't have any issues with running wires.
The second inconsequential plumbing soffit is in the mudroom closet. These are the drains for the master shower above and it doesn't matter that this small space has less ceiling height. We should be okay with the routing for the master tub since we can run that pipe parallel with the concrete beams and drop down the mud room's bathroom wall to the basement. It's really fortunate that all these things are working themselves out as we go along since we weren't supplied a detailed plumbing and electrical layout in the blueprints.
Lots of goodies in the safety of the basement! Sorry for the quality of the picture as it was taken in very low light conditions. All the plumbing roughs for in-wall installations are on site and ready to be installed. We have boxes from hans grohe, dorn bracht, and kohler here. It will be exciting to see these installed in the wall because that means we're one step closer to getting the drywall up.
Here's the box for the Dorn Bracht wall mounted faucets we'll have in the master bathroom. Super excited about seeing these guys installed and running.
So that's about it for this week. Mike's carpenters are on site every day completing tasks here and there. The plumbers, electricians, and HVAC installers will be back in the new year to wrap things up. Jonathon of
the Sound Vision is officially on the payroll and will have his installers come in after the new year to coordinate with the rough electrical installers. The stone masons will be on site soon to prep the exterior walls for the granite cobble install. I think they have to install a wire lath on all the stone surfaces before installation. They requested the drip edge that sits under the stone ledge to be installed so they have a delineation between the stone and cedar shingle. Speaking of which, the cedar shingle installers will be on site in the next couple of weeks to get started on that, which means the bead board on the porches needs to be finished so they can complete the trim under the porches so the shingle can be installed. The roofers are coming to finally install the rest of the roofing shingle near the turret, and waterproof the chimney box a bit more so water can't make it's way in. The bank sent an inspector to check out the state of the build and was surprised to see people working on site. He told Mike that this is the first time he's inspected the site while workers were present. Considering the other times he inspected, I'm not surprised now that Mike is on the job. Things are rolling ahead full steam for the new year!
No comments:
Post a Comment