Unseasonably warm weather this weekend and predicted for the upcoming week means a muddy work site but happier installers. I got to visit the site on a warm ~60F day with the sun shining and a slight spring breeze blowing. It really make me appreciate the nature around the house and all the exterior progress that was accomplished last week. We passed all three inspections so the rough mechanical stage is completed for the build. Old Country Stone is still installing full steam ahead on the exterior stone and predict they can finish in a couple weeks. With the progress they're making, I don't doubt it.
Nothing like a triple green sticker week to get the blood pumping. Inspectors for rough electrical, plumbing, and gas came though and approved the rough installations. One caveat was for the the rough electrical since we didn't have fixtures in the great room ceiling. Those will need to be installed after the coffer ceiling beams are in place since they'll be installed in the beams. The wires are up there so we're all set for installation when the work is done. Mike says that the rough carpentry inspector will be coming through this week and once that's approved, we'll move on to drywalling the second floor ceiling so we can get insulation blown up in the attic space. An insulation inspector will take a look at that when it's completed and we'll get drywall up in the meantime. A couple of weeks and we could be looking at interior walls!
OCS is burning through stone and concrete, applying the exterior stone. They've completed about 65% of the house, with front first floor, part of the rear basement walkout, garage, and chimney remaining. They have two pallets of concrete dry mix sitting in the garage with a pallet of corners near by. Back-of-the-napkin calculation puts each of these pallets at 3300 lbs, so two of them are a bit above the weight of my car. As if the house wasn't heavy to begin with, we're adding a ton of weight to it to finish.
The back porch is completely tented off but with the warm weather this week, I don't think they'll need it. Since this is the southern exposure of the house, the tent acts like a greenhouse, making the inside nice and toasty. They use long 2x4s braced against the ground to support the tarp and provide ample workspace around the gazebo. They'll be installing both the granite cobble siding, blue stone surface on the deck, as well as the fireplace and built in seating. I'm guessing they'll be finished this week, but I might be optimistic.
You can see the section of basement that still needs to be completed. Mike cut open the under deck storage on the back wall last Thursday and sheared off the ICF brick ledges from that wall so now OCS can prep and install on that section. Bob Porter, The project manager from Great Oaks Landscaping, came out last week to coordinate the installation requirements of the cobble stone exterior and landscaping grades around the rear walk out. Future plans will see the install of retaining walls on this side of the house to tame the slope, first rising 2 feet to the storage door, then the remaining 8 feet to the back yard grade. This level of coordination and future planning is super helpful and I'm glad we have Mike on our side to do it all.
Here's what the inside of the gazebo looks like now that OCS is in full swing back here. An old pallet cage is smartly being used as a dumpster, a 25 gallon tank of water is used for mixing mortar and concrete, and all the needed supplies are close by. The fireplace is being created and they're up to the fireblock level. The blue stone floor will probably be the last thing they install.
Here's the result of their hard work. The stone on the exterior of the house is complete, including mortar joints, stone ledge, and flashing. Minus the paint and bluestone, this is the final look of the house. You can see they left about a two inch gap at the bottom of the cobblestone for the bluestone finish. I think the bluestone itself is 1.5" and a mortar bed will bring it up close to 2". Even though they're working with dirty materials, they're careful to clean up every time. Mark of a true professional.
Some caulking will probably finish off the joint between the stone ledge and flashing after the paint is applied. A nice finishing touch has the stone ledge mitered off at the corner and a clean transition to the trim. The ledge doesn't sit too proud of the flashing but it's enough to provide a nice detail to the transition. The rough hewn look of the ledge adds lots of character to the natural setting of the house. You might see a finished edge on a more traditional french provincial design, but I think the roughness is perfect for our house.
In addition to finishing off the house, OCS also finished the entire gazebo up to the fireplace. The edge of the concrete deck will be faced with a piece of blue stone, which will offer a nice transition between the cobble stone and stacked stone of the built in benches. The overhang will be about the thickness of the blue stone since the ICF wall was furred out with the thin cinder block.
Here's the corner before the fireplace. The grade of the back yard will actually be brought up a couple of feet, more so on this section since the plans call for a raised vegetable garden in this space. The built in seating will flank the fireplace with the left side flowing right into the barbecue area. The bench seating will be 18" high with the railing on top to act as a back rest. We didn't want to continue the seating to all sides of the gazebo to make room for the table and chairs, and offer a less obstructed view. Post column covers will be built in the same style as the front porch, and come down to whatever surface is under it.
Here's what the unfinished transition between the fireplace and gazebo looks like. The fireplace will be covered with the same stacked stone as the benches and barbecue, but the cobble will continue to meet it. The blue stone edge will still be present between the stacked stone and cobble to give the look continuity. I'm pretty excited to have a formal place to make a fire and see hanging out here a lot, in all seasons.
Here's what the fireplace currently looks like. The first layer of firebrick is mortared in, offering a look at the shape of the fire box. You can see the fireplace opening inspiration photo I sent to OCS but the rest of the design will be pretty straight forward. I was thinking about requesting an ash chute in the floor of the firebox, but opted against it since it would add complexity to the build and limited usefulness. The hearth will be at the same level as the benches so the height will remain consistent around the gazebo.
More finishing touches around the house from OCS. Large stone ledges were installed on both basement walkouts completing the installation. Mike requested a single piece of limestone for the thresholds and confirmed with Great Oaks that they'll have no problems transitioning into the future paver patios in these areas. I'm glad they used a single piece of stone rather than shorter sections because it makes it look much cleaner. It's just a fascia piece rather than a supporting threshold you'd see in an older house because the concrete ICF and basement slab actually support the sliding door. It still offers a nice lip to step on when you're walking in and out.
The under deck storage door was finally cut open so that OCS could install the exterior stone on this wall section. The previous building crew promised that it would be opened, but ended up back filling the area for some reason. A slightly wide door opening was created to fit a standard door, visible through the opening. It looks like a bit more ICF was removed in anticipation of a wider door, but this is what was cut. A double door might have been nice, but I'm not sure the remaining ICF would have been thick enough for a strong support header, especially since header rebar wasn't installed. Considering the tight turn restrictions in the space, I'm not anticipating putting anything really long under there and it's nice to just have an external place to store things.
The inside is lower than I remember. I thought they filled the space with pea gravel, but it turns out there's only a little bit where the "water proofing membrane" drapes down on the ICF wall. The temporary supports are still in place since they had no way to remove them after the floor was poured. The inside is dry and clean with about a foot drop from the opening to the ground. I'll have to bring up the floor, and I'm not sure if I'm just going to fill with stone and gravel, or put in patio stones for a harder surface. I could even build a wood floor in there if I wanted to since it will be as weather proof as a shed.
The gazebo itself looks the same and it looks like they leveled out the dirt up there a bit before closing it up. I can access it over the wall and it offers about three feet of storage in height, so maybe I'll use that space too. I'll need to build some kind of ladder in there. Seems like a fun project.
Here's a shot of the nearly finished great room now that the tent is removed. Just a little bit on the left to complete and the corner where the storage door is. Amazing change from a couple of months ago when it was all still exposed ICF. Just building the house will be a three year project when completed and we're estimating that full implementation of the landscaping will take at least another five years so I have to keep this blog updated for at least that long, although the updates will be less frequent. Eight years isn't much time to spend when you know this will be your last house.
A few minor adjustments made it in before the rough electrical inspection was completed. This light in the butlers pantry was centered to the room rather than centered to the walking space, so we had it moved to its correct location.
The mudroom closet is larger than we expected it to be since we didn't close up the odd geometry behind walls. Because of this, we requested a light in the space since it's more of a walk in rather than a reach in.
I still didn't see the large gauge lines run to the garage for the car charger, but I'm sure that will go in sooner or later. The EV electrical panel isn't hooked up to a meter yet so maybe they have to wait for that or else it will be inspected.
So that's about it for this week. Next week should see more completion of the exterior stone and maybe some installation of ceiling drywall. We'll need to get a good interior clean up before the rest of the drywall goes up so there's not so much dust in the wall cavities. It's a nit-picky detail, but it's nice knowing that everything is cleaned up. Mike said there will be a good clean up before we start on drywall.
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