Exterior phase 2, rough electrical almost completed.

   Winter is coming back now with temperatures dropping back down into the 30s F with snow in the forecast.  Most of the work is being done on the inside of the house, but we got a surprise this visit and found that the stone masons have started working on the exterior stone!  All the exterior cedar siding has been installed along with all the corbels and dentil brackets.  For the exterior, all that's left is the rest of the stone and final paint!

   The cedar in the front triangle peak was completed this week.  I'll be constructing a gable pediment for this gable and the garage gable.  I still need to come up with a final design and construction technique, but I'll be making out of white Azek so we won't have to paint it.  We could probably hire the carpenter to make it if I feel it's out of my skill level, but given enough time, I think I could pull it off.  It might be nice to have my hand in construction something for the house.

   The gable end over the front door was also completed this week and the arches for the porch beams will be worked on this week.  This went back and forth a bit, trying to decide if we wanted this gable covered in cedar shingle, or stick with the original plan and do it this way.  I think I like this way more.  It will be painted white to match the rest of the trim and it adds definition to the front door.  It's amazing how much the exterior has changed in the past couple weeks.

   The master balcony cedar siding was completed and the dentil bracket was installed on the side of the great room.  I didn't go up onto the balcony, but this is the only area where the siding goes wall the way down to the walking surface.  Next time I'm there, I'll have to check out how they did the little triangle where the roof meets the balcony.  I'm happy with the look of the dentil brackets and I'm glad we went with a larger size.  I'm also happy to report that, with the full water proofing of the chimney, there's no more water intrusion on the second floor.

   The cedar siding was completed on the end of the garage as well, wrapping up all the siding installation.  The bump out on the garage will be covered in the granite cobble from top to bottom and it ties in with the cobble below the stone ledge as well as the concrete retaining wall on the front of the garage.  It's a good thing we got that landscaping done before the exterior material installation so we could have coordination with the landscaping.  The retaining wall ties right into the garage foundation so there should be a seamless transition.  Too bad it's on the side that people will rarely see.

   It's a little difficult to make out from this picture, but here's the metal lathe that was installed on the ICF by the stone masons from Old Country Stone.  They're both the supplier and installer of the granite cobble that's going up on the house so we save a bit of money there.  Since the cobble can't be adhered directly to the ICF, the lathe is mechanically secured to the nailers in the foam so the mortar has something to mechanically stick to.

 Concrete is then parged onto the metal lathe to create a thin layer of material the mortar can adhere to.  This concrete is squeezed into the metal lathe so it mechanically attaches to the wall.  The stones can be mortared to the concrete, which forms a mechanical and chemical adhesion.  Any water intrusion into this layer can cause degradation of the mortar and concrete, causing the adhesion and wall to fail, so it's important to have proper flashing on the wall above this to divert water to the exterior.

 There was great coordination with Great Oaks Landscaping to remove the landscaping stones on the front corner of the house.  First, the stones weren't exactly level as they met the house wall so they needed to be reset.  Second, the stone masons needed access to the corner of the house so they could properly install the stone.  The landscaping stones were tight up against the ICF, so a proper corner couldn't be installed.  The landscaping stone will probably need to be cut a bit to match up with the exterior stone when it's reinstalled.  Third, Mike wanted to see if he could get under the porch and install a waterproofing membrane against the ICF.  Waaaay back I voiced concern to Matt Lincoln about the level of damp/water proofing on the below grade ICF, before they back filled it.  He ensured me that the two layers of polypropylene sheets is perfectly adequate for water proofing.  I'm glad Mike thinks it's inadequate but it's a pain in the ass to do correctly now.  I'm hoping the poly sheet at least kept the wall clean enough for the geotex material to properly adhere to. but you can see how torn up the corner is.

     This is something we really didn't expect.  Thanks to the mild weather we had last week, the stone masons nearly completed one entire side of the basement wall.  They still need to come back and squeeze mortar in between the joints, but this is basically what it's going to look like.  Since Old Country Stone is the supplier of the stone, we also have the advantage of being able to get a more custom stone color mix since they just get loads of split stone from the local quarry and they sort them before sending them to our house.  We wanted to stay away from the pinks and reds granite is normally associated with and I think they did a good job of screening those colors out.  The over all color seems more blues, grays, and tans so the effect is achieved.  Porter and Heckman also installed two intake vents for the HVAC system, and it looks like they got it done before they stoned up the wall so, again, great coordination.

   Since the electrical boxes were installed before proper coordination was a thing for this build, they were spaced too far from the wall for a stone layer to fill.  Mike says they were spaced for a brick wall installation, which was never in the plans, but this was done before he came on the job.  Mike tried to see if they could change the angle of the thick conduit that leads up to the boxes, but it just wasn't possible, so the solution was to add boxes for the meters to attach to, and stone up to the boxes.  I think it's a good resolution to a stupid issue.  The glass block window for the mechanical room is without any trim adornment, which will help take attention away from the purely utilitarian purpose of the window.  There will probably have to be some flashing installed to keep water from infiltrating between the ICF and stone.

   Here's a closer look at the installed stone.  There's still a little dust on them so the color isn't as saturated as they will be when the install is complete, but they're all pretty subdued.  Since they're real stone and not concrete, they won't have to be sealed and we'll never have to worry about the surface finish cracking off.  We had the option on mortar width, and decided to go with something middle of the road.  Tighter would have taken more stones, less mortar, and a longer installation time, which were all factors in our decision.  I also think this width is closer to what you would see in a real, full thickness cobble stone wall.

   Here's a shot a little farther away so you can see the full affect with the cedar siding.  The red beams will have a white Azek fascia and the posts will be part stone, part wood.  From this angle, it doesn't look like you'll see the stone on the porch, but it definitely be visible at the higher elevation of the driveway.  They still need to stone in areas around the wall sconces and electrical boxes.  There also needs to be a hose bib installed on this level next to the sliding door, but I think that can be done after the stone is installed.  Just need to use a diamond hole say to drill through either the stone or mortar.  The stone stops at the level of the final grade and there's doesn't appear to be a need for angle iron at the base.

   Here's the start of the stone around the corner partially on the great room basement wall.  It's an interesting look into how they install the stone.  It looks like they move loads from the front of the house to the work space and find the best fit for the pieces, where ever they could be.  Definitely doesn't appear to be a linear process.  They're stoning between the post and the house, which caused some concern in my mind at first since we'll be boxing and stoning in the base of the column, but the more I though about it, This is probably the best way to do it.  If we were to create the box now, it would meet up to the house and we would have to ensure water-proofness at the top of the box so water couldn't infiltrate between the ICF and stone on the wall.  Done this way, the box will need to be scored to the wall stone, but the column will make an interior corner, which requires nothing special, and the integrity of the wall will be maintained.  It looks like they're keeping a gap at the bottom of the window for some kind of ledge.  I'm guessing it's the same stone ledge that will be above, with the appropriate flashing on top.

   Here's what the outside corner stone pieces look like.  They small granite boulders that have the insides cut out of them.  It looks like they have the edges surfaced flat too, to mesh up with the stone next to it on the wall.  I didn't see too many of these lying around, but I didn't look through both bins of stone that are currently on site.  Cultured stone uses something similar, but since they're made of concrete, they're molded rather than cut.

   Moving inside, the rough electrical is almost done.  I think they'll take a day or two this week and then they'll be finished.  All the recessed lights are installed and wired throughout the first floor and there are a few surface mounted light boxes that need installation.  Wall receptacles are in place and wired and all the runs are going down to the basement.  The difference between the first and second floor is that all the lighting circuits make their way to the basement, but circuits on the lighting controllers will go to the basement hub and the standard lights will go to the electrical panel.  6" cans are the standard for general lighting areas.  This is the office so we'll probably have desk lamps for task lighting.

   The exception to the 6" recessed cans is in the dining room, where we'll have 4" recessed cans installed in addition to the hanging light over the dining room table.  I know there's a big push these days to forgo the formal dining room in favor of a combined kitchen dining room open floor plan.  I think this is more a trend in smaller houses and we definitely wanted the "front house/back house" definition.  We'll still have seating around the kitchen island and a banquette near the sliding door for every day eating but we felt like this size house should have some kind of more formal space for entertaining, especially since we have some family near by.

   Moving down into the basement, here are the two wall penetrations for the HVAC system.  These two are used for the Energy recovery ventilation unit.  All houses have some kind of air make up.  When you turn on the kitchen hood or bathroom vent, anything that moves air from the inside of the house to the outside, outside air needs to come in to offset the pressure imbalance.  Without it, any appliance that uses combustion of gas (furnace, water heater,clothes dryer) could have problems operating properly, back drafting harmful combustion byproducts.  Most houses have a passive air make up system, simply an open duct in the basement that penetrates an exterior wall.  Exterior ambient air will be passively pulled in through this pipe into the conditioned air space.  It's not idea since you're losing conditioned air and gaining unconditioned air.  For higher energy efficiency, and ERV or HRV is desired.  It takes in exterior ambient air and exhausts internal conditioned air.  The difference is that the conditioned air goes through a radiator on its way out, transferring energy to the incoming air so it's not a total energy loss.

   Because of the volume of air our kitchen exhaust hood moves, we'll need a special mechanical damper installed that will open when the hood is turned on.  I'm hoping we can tie this into the ERV some how.

   Porter and Heckman also completed the supply side furnace hook up with the installation of the Aprilaire electronic air cleaner.  It uses electro-static fins and static charged air filters to capture 99% of pollen and mold, 98% of airborne bacteria sized particles, 98% of pet dander and dust, and 80% of airborne virus-sized particles.  Depending on the air quality, replacement for the filter is suggested annually, but inspection and necessary replacement at 6 months.  The electrostatic elements should be wiped clean on the same schedule.

   Here's the completed geothermal heat exchanger.  Black vibration isolating membranes were installed so any vibration from the blower motor won't transfer to the rest of the duct.  The original filter box is still there, but I didn't check to see if the filter remained.  I don't think we need redundant air filters.  The geothermal lines and water preheater still need to be installed, but that will probably come later.  This might be tested once the lines are connected, but it won't be used until much later in the build.  Don't want construction dust to get into the ducts.  Here's hoping for a long and trouble free life.

   Here's the top of the heat exchanger installation and the supply and returns for the back of the house.  The open duct is a yet-to-be connected supply for the basement bathroom I think.  The two supply trunks will put a damper on our bathroom plans, but I think we can overcome it with careful planing.  You can see the front of the house supplies on the other side.  Interesting that the vibration isolation is only on the return side since the supply side is all rigid.  Maybe the insulated section above the exchanger cabinet dampens vibration as well.  Notice how we don't have a humidifier plumbed into the return ducts.  Porter and Heckman said that a too-humid environment is more of a concern for a tight house and through normal living, we probably won't need a humidifier.  More so since we don't have a gas combustion furnace, Gas furnaces don't directly dry the interior air, but the combustion requires more make up external air. During the winter, this external air is dryer, so more dryer air enters the house, so humidifiers are recommended.

   Here's a shot of the basement looking towards the mechanical room and stairwell.  The stairs are currently being created and we're looking at installation in a week and a half.  They'll start with the basement and move up to the first floor.  We need to get that in so Mike and his carpentry crew can get the inside rotunda wall that supports the stairs, constructed.  You can see the mess of wires hanging down from the ceiling has increased as all the first floor and second floor electrical runs have made their way down.

   Here's a blurry picture of the mostly installed gas pipe making its way to the kitchen.  It has to go over the beam, but that's not much in the way for concern.  This pipe will also supply the barbecue outside and it might loop back to supply the two fireplaces.  If we use a gas heater for the pool in the future, they'll probably pull a line from the barbecue out too the pool equipment bunker.  It works out well since the space under the back porch is all open and much of it is below grade.

   Moving back to the first floor, here's an interesting electrical installation.  It's just the low voltage lines for the lighting control, but it's in shielded BX flex conduit because it passes through the air return plenum.  It's code that the wires need to be shielded, even if they're low voltage.  This was done in a few places in the house, and has no detriment to the air return system.

   Some of the duct work is connected to the HVAC floor penetrations on the first floor.  We passed HVAC rough inspection since just the floor penetrations are needed.  I think we passed rough plumbing inspections too so we just need to finish electrical and pass that inspection before we can start on the drywall.  The electrical installers are working on the garage this week so I think we can get inspected Tuesday or Thursday.

   All the sockets and cabinet lighting whips are installed and wired in the kitchen.  I don't think we'll be short on electrical receptacles anywhere on the wall.  A few more will come through the floor for the island power, but that comes just before cabinets are installed, after drywall.

   Here's a closer look at all the wiring jazz next to the sliding door in the kitchen.    From left to right, regardless of height, is light switches, both high and low voltage, TV drop, power for the TV and receptacle below it.  We haven't decided if we want a TV in the kitchen, but if we do, it will be an under cabinet deal.  We couldn't find a better place since most of the walls are occupied by wall cabinets and the only other blank space is above the banquette.  The whip on the right of the picture is for under cabinet lighting.  There needs to be a low voltage transformer in the cabinet since we'll be using LED lights.

   Here's the drain location for the master tub.  I think everything has been resolved with the fitment and installation of our tub since they have the confidence to install this pipe.  There does seem to be a good amount of hand space around the pipe just in case, which is one of the concerns about the tub we picked.

   Also on the exterior stone front they had to figure out what to do around the back porch.  The problem is that when the previous crew poured the slab on top, again, they mistakenly poured it for a brick depth.  If we just installed the stone that we always specified, there would still be too much overhang on the concrete.  The solution Mike and the stone guys came up with is to install an angle iron ledge and fur out the wall with cinder block, to which the stone can be adhered.  This will have to happen all the way around the deck, including the gazebo.  We couldn't cut down the overhang because then the posts would be too close to the edge.  Not enough foresight on this part.

   Here are all the cinder blocks that will buff out the back porch wall.  They'll just tie into the ICF with straps and the granite cobble can easily adhere to this.  We'll need to revisit the design of the fireplace in the gazebo when they get to this point.  I think this week we'll see an excavator come in to remove the dirt near the storage door under the back deck.  It will be interesting to see what's lurking in there since it was closed off a couple of years ago.

   So that's about it for this week. Tons of progress yet again.  I don't think the stone masons will be able to move forward with the install this week since temperatures will be below freezing again and we're expected to get snow.  We should see the completion and inspection of rough electrical, which should put us in line with drywall installation and meeting Mikes goal.  We've lined up a meeting with Margaret in a few weeks to revisit all the tile selections and review lighting selections.  We'll also need to finalize finished plumbing selections and start to think about door hardware.  An inspector for the bank came out during the week and Mike walked him through everything that's going in and the amount required to complete so hopefully we'll be good on that.  If we can get past that hurdle, then it should be fairly stress free for the rest of the build.

Beginning the first floor rough electrical

   The weather is still holding out with temperatures remaining in the 50s F so progress continues on both the interior and exterior.  The cedar siding is almost complete and decorative details are being installed.  The stone masons will be coming in this week to prep the lower levels for cobble, but if the weather doesn't hold out, we won't be able to mix mortar until the spring.  On the inside, Mike says we're on track to finish the rough mechanicals this week so inspections can make way for drywall.

   The fog didn't stop us from enjoying the visit and seeing all the awesome progress to the exterior of the house.  Mike got some roofers up to finally finish the asphalt shingle close to the copper roof on the turret so the roof is officially 100% complete.  The only reason to go back up onto the roof is to install the weather vane, gutters, or the stone around the chimney.
   We got the a shipment of polyurethane dentil brackets in during the week so Tanja ran them up to the house and the carpenter got to work quickly installing many of them around the house.  They're a beefy 16" h x 9-7/8" W x 8" projection and they're appropriately scaled for the large overhang.  They come primed so the painters will hit them with the same white as the rest of the trim.  Since they come down a bit into the gray cedar shingles, they'll offer a little bit of a visual break from the straight siding.

   The smaller corbels were installed on the turret as well.  Actually, a few things were completed here.  The spaces between the windows were initially going to be cedar shingle, but after looking around a bit online, we decided to just have wood installed between, which will be painted white with the rest of the trim. The round bottom is created with bent Azek, giving a nice stepped collar look so when the trim boards are painted white, the entire turret will be white, in contrast to the gray of the cedar shingle.  We had to go with a smaller corbel on the turret since the overhang isn't as generous as the rest of the roof.  It was a little difficult finding a corbel that was restrained by the smaller projection, but still had some height.  Although they're not as tall, I think they offer enough Victorian style to make their point.

   The siding installers finished the cedar siding on the front and back of the garage, but have a little left on the side.  It's a good thing the carpenter stayed one step ahead of them and got the mounting backers for the brackets that flank the garage doors up before they got in there.  The polyurethane brackets were also installed on the mounts so we can finally get a good look at the final design of the garage.  The mounting backers will also be where the garage sconces will be mounted to.  We haven't nailed down which lighting fixtures will be going up, but we're looking at a carriage house style lamp and have a few in mind.

   Here's a different angle on the garage brackets.  The polyurethane part of the bracket is actually 48" tall, but due to the scale of the garage, it looks small so we  really needed the mounting backer to buff out the projection and height.  The original idea was to have the backer go all the way down to the stone ledge, but it didn't look quite right so we stopped it just over a foot above the ledge, delineated by the white flashing here.  It still gives us a generous space for the garage sconces, and the electrical installers can just drill right through to the interior wall to run wires, which should happen this week.

   Here's a close up of the construction of the bracket backer.  It would have been much easier for the carpenter, who built these on site, to just square off the bottom, but he decided to add a nice detail by beveling the bottom into three sections, and chamfer the edges.  This is what differentiates the rough carpenters from the finish carpenters.

   Both the rough electricians and the Sound Design have moved down to the first floor.  This will be a little slower since the ceiling isn't as open as the trusses on the second floor so all the wires above will need to be routed through cuts in the ICF.  The technique shown here on the wall is the same used on the second floor but this one is for the rear channel speakers in the great room.  The loud speakers that will be installed here are shallow depth, but offer enough output to fill the space.  The initial speaker plan called for in ceiling loudspeakers for the rear channel, but Jonathon is recommending a thin in wall that will fit the thickness of the removed ICF plus drywall.

   Here's what the high voltage rough electrical routing looks like.  Double width metal boxes are installed because the shallow depth of the removed ICF will be needed to fit the wires and a single gang electrical socket.  There are at least two sockets on each wall length and there will be two in the floor for table lamps.  We'll need to rearrange the sockets on the back wall so they're more symmetrical with the windows.

   Here's the data drop that's sitting inside the fireplace column for the great room TV.  It's a standard drop with coaxial, bundled speaker, on CAT6 and two CAT5e lines.  This will be our primary TV watching area.  We tried to come up with a solution for any gaming system we wanted connected to this TV since they usually have to be close to the TV they're being played on.  A cabinet on the side of the fireplace column was thrown around, but not it seems impossible to implement.  I'll have to ask Jonathon what our options are for local connections to the TV.  Not sure if we can get a patch panel installed on a wall we're expecting to have a piece of game system housing furniture on that can hook up to the distribution system or what.

   Here's some of the line voltage routing on the other side of the great room.  We're thinking about installing wall sconces in the great room for ambiance lighting and the walls section between the door and window would be once place where it would be installed.  Since we'll have sockets in the floor for lamps, the wall sockets would only be for temporary plug in things, like a vacuum cleaner or Christmas tree.  Code dictates that there must be a socket every six feet on a wall section longer than a certain amount so people will be less inclined to use overloaded power bars.  Since we don't have any special load requirements in this room, code will be fine.

   Electrical roughs continue into the kitchen.  As with all the electrical socket boxes on exterior walls, a double shallow depth box is required, which will house a single gang plate and socket.  They're all placed above counter height with the exception of the sockets that will be used to power appliances.  The left most box is the electrical drop for a possible under cabinet TV since we couldn't find a better place to put it in the kitchen.  We're not sure we'll even use it since we're not in the habit of watching TV when we eat, but it's prudent to install the drop when the walls are still open.  We're also getting a 240V installed in the cook top area even though we'll be using a gas cook top because there might come a day when we'll want to switch to electric induction.  We considered using under-cabinet sockets, but were told by both Mike and the electricians that look nice, but are more of a hassle to use.  Power will be brought through the floor under the kitchen island in the middle of the room for the microwave drawer and island sockets.

Porter and Heckman were on site at least one day last week.  Although I didn't see any obvious progress in the basement, the kitchen hood vent pipe was installed through the exterior wall.  It's a massive ten inch diameter pipe for the 1200 CFM remote in-line blower we'll be installing.  We currently have a non-venting hood and getting a venting hood will make a huge difference in keeping the grease down in the kitchen.  With this much air flow, an air make up system will be required since the house is so tight.

   Here's where the kitchen hood pipe vents out to the exterior.  The internal ceiling height is nine feet and the exterior porch ceiling height is eight feet, so that provided a foot of space to pull the ten inch pipe through.  Looks like they didn't have any trouble cutting through the concrete.  The in-line blower will sit up in the porch roof and vent out through the top.  It will be a pretty short run so we don't expect a lot of static line pressure, even with two 90 degree bends installed.  An access panel will need to be installed in the porch ceiling so the blower can be serviced.

   All the cedar shingle was installed on the rear of the house as well, with the brackets completed on the rear garage door as well.  Some shingle still needs to be installed on the side of the garage, but it's a small amount.  I really like how the shingle ended up looking on this side.  I was worried the uninterrupted wall of shingle would look too monolithic, but the variation in the shingle breaks up the wall enough.  Continuing the height of the stone ledge despite the elevation drop also helps with the look, otherwise the cedar field would have been taller.  The rear garage entry (smaller door) will have a wall sconce to light it in the case of the porch lights not being on.  The rear garage door will have the same sconces as the front garage doors.

   Mike informed me earlier in the week about a fault in one of our windows.  I'm not sure if they saw condensation in between the panes or were just eagle eyed enough to spot it, but he already informed Pro brothers and they're working on a solution.  If you look closely, there's a gap in the corner of the window spacer, which is okay since it's not the primary seal. What's bad is that you can see daylight in that gap, which means the corner vinyl welding wasn't through enough.  Any inert gases that were trapped between the panes have probably all leaked out so this window has failed.  I'm hoping they'll just be able to replace the pane since the frame is installed with siding and trim covering the window flange.

   Besides the kitchen hood vent pipe, Porter and Heckman boxed in the return chase in the dining room wall cavity.  The foyer art niche impinges into the space a bit so some creative metal sheet installing was needed to work around the box.  The Sound Vision has already installed low voltage lines to the Control4 switch locations on the first floor, but not all the speaker locations are in, so there's still some work to be completed.  It was fun walking through to get a functional feel about switch locations and during the processes, discovered that the front door switch might be on the wrong side.  We need to determine the final door swing direction to know which side of the door the switch should be installed on.  It's currently on the wrong side of the template door, but the template door might not mimic the the final door.

   A closer look at the mass of wires required for a standard two-gang box light switch installation.  Not all the lights in the house will be controlled with Control4.  All of the smaller bedroom and bathrooms will use standard lighting controls. While it's tempting to get Control4 in the kids rooms to wake them up in the morning, it would have doubled the cost of the lighting automation budget, taking it far beyond our financial reach.

   Here's the in ceiling speaker location for the master bedroom.  They're placed in line with the recessed lights in the room and above what will be the nightstands.  Both distributed audio and the master bedroom TV audio can be piped to these speakers since they're part of the A/V distribution system.  There will also be a speaker in the master bathroom, which will be kind of neat.  Stereo sound from the master TV will be a new experience.

   The roof penetration for the plumbing vent stack finally made its way in.  For all the plumbing in the house, there's only one roof penetration and it's above the master bedroom, on the back side of the house so it's not visible from the street.  Right now the pipe is white, but we'll either paint it, or request that it's painted to something more subtle.

   Here's the final bundle of wires for the upstairs lighting control box in the laundry room.  All the blue wires run to the lighting control switches and all the whites are returns from the lighting circuits.  I'll love seeing how this hooks together.  My guess is that there's one controller for each blue line, but these controllers should be able to communicate so I'm not sure how the line voltage wires will be connected.  Also, there needs to be a main line voltage that comes up from the basement panel to power all the lighting circuits, so I would think it would be larger than 12G wire, which I think is what the yellow line is.

   Porter and Heckman also fixed the height of the dryer vent box and ran the vent cap out of the roof.  Besides the plumbing vent pipe and kitchen hood vent, there shouldn't be many other roof penetrations.  The bathroom vents are all in the overhangs and the water heater would vent through the basement wall.

   Here's a close up of the dentil blocks installed on the west side of the house.  Since they're non-load bearing, decorative pediments, we can space them however we feel seems aesthetically appropriate and we're generally spacing them in coordination to the windows and wall trim.  I'm really loving the look.  Before they were installed, we were worried that the house didn't have enough Victorian appearance and could be mistaken for a craftsman or shingle style house.  We won't be installing any of the porch Queen Anne's Victorian pediments so having these installed is crucial to providing a modern Victorian look.  I hope it's not over done or out of place but there will probably be some purists that hate it.

   Here's a closer look at the changes to the turret trim.  The wood is installed over an inch of extruded foam board for insulation, which will further be insulated in the inside wall cavity.  The corbels are also polyurethane and primed so will be painted white with the rest of the trim.

   The carpenter setup this huge t-shaped worktable in the basement.  At first I was confused about who did it and what it was for since he has primarily been working in the great room on a sawhorse table.  Taking a closer look at it gave me some clues as to its purpose.  It's longer than the length of the great room and has some boards screwed onto the surface  that run down the middle and intersect at the end.  Looks like it's some kind of jig.

   Here's what the T of the table looks like.  I think the table serves two purposes.  If you look at the top of the table, you'll see a series of arcs routed into one of the fences screwed onto the table.  I think part of the jig is for the arches on the porch beam fascia.  Since so many need to be created, this jig is a great idea.  What about the crossing fences?  I think this is a jig for the ceiling coffer beams in the great room.  The width of the board looks close enough and this jig will allow the carpenter to clamp up the wood during glue up, with highly repeatable angles.  The length of the table means long pieces of wood will be needed, which is in line with the coffer beam theory.  The coffer beams will be installed after drywall is hung on the ceiling, so this is either advanced planning, or they're expecting to get that installed first.  Either way, it looks like progress to me.

   Here's the tangle of wires for the A/V/data distribution for the whole house, and the lighting controls for the first floor.  This doesn't even include the home runs for the first floor electrical, so this room will get very messy, very quickly.  I'm really hoping for a clean wire implementation instead of the mass bundle of wires I usually see running to the boxes.  I plan on keeping this mechanical room fairly clean and well lit since it's also the server rack space.

   Here's a commanding shot of the completed cedar siding on the back of the house.  There are a few places around the house that still need to be completed, but it can't really happen in the rain so with the warm wet weather we've been having, those places remain unfinished.  Not worried about completion since the product goes up so quickly.  I'm really loving the look of the cedar.  Due to the height of the basement at ten feet, the height of each floor at nine feet, plus the thickness of the floors the back of the great room is almost split 50/50 stone and wood.  I didn't plan it this way, but I like that it works out.

   Here's the angle of the back on the kitchen side.  You can see the master balcony still needs some cedar siding installed and all the dentil brackets need to go up here too.  The stone masons are getting started this week prepping the ICF surface with metal lathe so the dirt next to the great room will need some excavation where the storage doors will be.

   Here's the long shot of the back of the house now that most of the siding is up.  It really changes the look of the house and once we get the stone on, I think it will look amazing.  Not to knock the other houses in my neighborhood, but they're pretty bland.  Not as bad as some of the high volume developments with an interesting front and plain vinyl sides, but it's still a very bland early 2000 style architecture.  Making an interesting house that has functionality on all sides is one of the most exciting things about this build.

   Another big step forward is this little valve at the front of the property.  I missed it on the way in and almost missed it on the way out if not for Tanja's sharp eye.  The county finally came in and hooked our main water pipe up to the water main and installed the main water valve.  So we have water all the way up to the house in the basement.  We'll need to get the water meter hooked up and some temporary hose bibs attached before we'll have running water, but we're well on our way to supplying water to the trades that need it.  Great timing since drywall mudding uses a lot of water.

   That's it for this week. Next update should see the completion of the rough mechanicals but inspections usually only happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays, drywall won't go up this week.  If we get some good weather, all the siding should be installed.  The carpenter has a long list of tasks to complete around the house and I have confidence that he'll implement them quickly and skillfully.  January is almost done and we're right on track.  We're moving along on our side, trying to nail down all the finished lighting and plumbing decisions, but the final touches, cabinet hardware and paint colors looms in the near future.