Roof and wall studs nearing completion simultaneously

   Winter continues to hang in there a bit longer with some snow storms and freezing weather through the next week.  Even still, we're still moving forward both on the roof and interior walls.  We met up with Matt on Friday this time and discussed some of the finer details about the interior walls.  I'll post more details on that stuff when they have the walls installed, which could happen in the next week.

   Even with the weather being generally crummy, the crew is still finding time to push forward on the roof decking with 90% completed.  The only parts that remain are the interface to the turret and the greatroom.  More walls went up inside the house, notably the second floor rotunda curved wall and the laundry room wall adjustment.  The only walls left are the pantry, first floor rotunda walls, rotunda powder room, guestroom wall, upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms and fireplace structure.  It might seem like a long list, but there's nothing too tricky about their implementation and they're all pretty short wall lengths.

   Not a ton has changed from this angle since the last visit.  The roof that meets up with the turret is coming into shape, but most of the work is being done in the back of the house.  While we were there, we talked to the excavator about getting the garage poured.  He wanted to go over the final details about the slab height, and told us that the slab would be prepped in the coming week with the final pour happening when the weather cooperates.  While it might be covered, the concrete still needs to have a non-freezing ambient temperature for a few days to cure properly, without added cost.  Having a finished garage will be a nice step forward.

   The landscaping crew is itching to come back in to finish off the walls, but it's a balancing act between the house crew, future pool excavation, window installation, geothermal wells, and now the garage finishing.  More fill dirt will be needed to finish off the retaining walls, so we would like to use the spoils from the pool instead of paying to take it away later, and paying for more fill in the front.  That depends on getting the permit for the pool filed and approved, so we can dig the hold and maybe get the ICF shell installed and sealed.  Pool completion will have to wait until next year due to limited funds.

    The roof plane interface to the turret is coming into shape and the purpose of the odd truss structure is becoming clear.  They're waiting for some warmer weather to put the curved fascia on the turret because it takes a warmer day to curve a 1" thick wood without making relief cuts.  There's a plywood decking above the trusses in the turret and I asked if they were structural, and luckily their not.  We have some intention to install a fiber optic star field in the ceiling of the turret and having the plywood up there would make it more difficult.  Matt said I can cut it out if I want to, which I'll need to since the fiber optics need to be installed from above.  Maybe I can get them to remove the plywood before the ceiling is closed up to save me the time later.

    The second floor curved outer rotunda wall has been installed.  This wall divides the two bedrooms from the stairway and isn't structural, so it doesn't need the same stud thickness as the one below it.  When completed, this wall will be seamless from stairs to ceiling.  We're still trying to decide if we need paneling or something so it's not so boring.  I'm not sure if there's a requirement to have a railing on both sides of the stairs since they're a little wider than standard at 48".  There was a little implementation error with the end of the rotunda walkway, which terminates a few inches shorter than in the blueprints.  As a consequence, we'll need to move the turret bedroom door a bit to the left, which will cut in a bit to the bathroom linen closet.  Not a horrible error, but just one of those things that happens.  

    Here's the final placement of the laundry/master closet wall.  We did get it pushed in a bit to make the laundry room window symmetrical in the laundry room, so we lost a foot in the master closet.  We also moved the master closet door so it's centered on the master bathroom door.  Funny thing is, we were talking to Matt about the master closet cement pad that's floating above the garage, and he suggested that we throw up an insulated stud wall across that pad and install a small door in the master closet, so we can use that space as semi-conditioned storage space.  So even though we're losing some master closet space, we're gaining a whole storage area.  He also said that garage ceilings are usually only on 2x4.  Since ours is 2x6, something that Ken likes to do, we could technically lay plywood up there and use it for storage.  He's not certified to tell us how much weight can be held up there, but we can definitely use it for light storage.  2x6 is not the thickest for the 22' span so it's not like we could have a bonus room up there.

    Here's another minor miscalculation that they'll correct.  This is a shot of the shower area in the master bathroom.  The master closet is to the right and the toilet room is on the left.  If it didn't jump out at you, the window in the shower isn't centered in the space. I might not have caught it until it was too late, but Matt caught it, and they'll shift the opening a few inches to the left.  The right side will be bucked out with wood, similar to what they're doing to the garage door from the mudroom.

    Here's a shot through the master closet door across the master bath, and through the to the master bedroom.  These two doors are now centered on to each other where as before, the left jams were lined up.  I think this will be a better implementation and give us more flexibility in the laundry room.  The only concern is that there isn't a straight line pathway between these doors since the tub will be slightly blocking it.  Not a huge concern.

    I didn't take a ton of pictures this time since the crew was working way up there in the trusses so this is my last picture this time.  You can see that almost all the decking is up on the main part of the house.  Not a job I envy.  At its peak, it's probably at least a 50 foot drop to the ground.  You can see how the curved wall will look when completed  We're not doing anything crazy on the rotunda ceiling; at least not a dome or tray ceiling.  We might have a ceiling treatment of some kind through.

   So roof decking will be done soon if the weather cooperates.  We're still waiting on a quote for the shingles, but windows will go in after the roof is done.  As I said before, landscaping is waiting to get in and we'll get HVAC when the walls interior walls are done.  Things are really starting to pick up.

Return of winter, more walls and roof.

   Winter is back for one more go at us with temperatures in the high 30's and low 40's for the week.  We may have gotten a light dusting of snow, but progress still moves forward!  Seems like the flood gates have opened (with cash just pouring out) and work is progressing at a great pace from week to week.  Most of the roof now has decking with only the junctions and greatroom remaining.  The turret continues to take shape and more interior walls have been added.  We're hitting our fifth bank draw now pulling money for all the roof and rough lumber, plus kicking some in out of pocket to cover costs not anticipated in the initial budget.

    Here's the front of the house now.  The turret has a real roof structure and almost all of the front of the house has roof decking.  The laundry room roof planes are connected to the main house plane but the extended plane near the turret still needs to be constructed.  I imagine it will happen similar to the one over the garage, once they figure out how to connect the main roof to the turret roof.

   Here's the laundry room (above) and dining room (below) window openings.  The insulated gable end was finally installed along with the roof decking, so this area is pretty much complete.  The laundry room window will be interesting since the window itself is an arch top with two casements below, and the window trim will actually extend up over the header beam at the top of the arch.  I think it will give the illusion that the room has a cathedral ceiling when it's really just flat .  The windows will be divided by the porch roof which will be nice to break up this wall a bit so it doesn't look so monolithic.  Too often we see houses that are just a huge wall of brick or siding without any break in the visual features.  We were very careful to avoid that look.

      Here's a shot of the mudroom when viewed from the kitchen.  All the mudroom walls are up and they now adhere to expected measurements.  As with the rest of the house, the studs are steel and the doors are framed in wood because you have to have something to screw the pre-hung doors into.  You can see the door to the garage and how it's not bucked out on the right side of the opening.  Without modifying that door opening, these walls wouldn't have lined up.  Because of the garage being on a 45 degree angle to the house, this room has some angles, but it's necessary to "absorb" the angle of the garage, if that makes sense.  Seen in this picture is the mudroom closet to the left of the garage entry door, the mudroom bathroom to the right (full bath), and the "locker bench" alcove just forward of the bathroom.  While we made every effort to reduce useless space, there's one odd triangular storage room that comes off the garage, visible towards the right of the picture.  This room is only accessable through the garage and will be used to store... whatever.  The room all the way on the right of the frame is the dining room.

   Here's what it looks like to walk in the garage entry door.  The closet is to the right and the bathroom is to the left.  Also on the left (exterior) wall is a door that leads to the back porch and back yard.  We figure that this will be one of the main entries from the back yard, the other being the sliding door near the kitchen, visible at the center of this picture.  Because of the utility of this door, we're finding that the full bathroom here will be especially useful and imagine using the shower to wash off dogs or kids coming from the pool.  The shower will be designed accordingly with appropriate durable and easy to clean materials.  I've contemplated using a utility basin sink in this bathroom rather than a normal undermount since it would be nice to have a deep sink that I don't have to worry about dirtying up.  This can be finalized a bit later.  You can get a better idea of the locker/bench alcove looks like, to the left of the door to the kitchen.  We’re not entirely sure what we want to use for the kitchen door, if we have a door at all.  We were thinking maybe a dutch door that swings to the right.  That way we can keep any dogs we might have in here when we need to segregate them, but not completely close them off.  We’ve also contemplated pocket doors, but couldn’t fit it in since sockets would be needed in the kitchen walls both to the left (fridge/freezer) and right (ovens) of the door.

      So they cut out the un-needed curved I-beam from the rotunda structure, in anticipation of the stairs.  Through careful engineering, no support structures will be visible in the rotunda so the stairs will only be enclosed by railing.  We’re having a hell of a time trying to decide what we want to use for balusters and railing.  We floated the idea of glass panels to Margaret, but it seems like using something like that would be counter to the general design of the house (too industrial?).  We’re not really keen on any highly figurative railing and would like to opt for a clean and “invisible” look.  Still working this one out.

   You can also get a glimpse of all the roof decking on they’ve installed on the side of the house.  So the curved wall will extend from the first floor to the second, all the way up to the ceiling.  Just on the other side of the curved wall is another bedroom/bathroom/closet, similar to the one downstairs.  At first, we were wondering if the closet will be big enough, but then realized how ridiculous that was since neither of us grew up with our own walk in closet.  I like this picture, because you can get a feel of how open the rotunda will look with the greatroom.

   New walls upstairs!  Here I am, standing in the master bedroom viewing the master bathroom and master closet beyond.  The doors to the master bath will be double doors, but we’re not sure if we want them to be full double doors, or a reduced width double door so the doors can be open and flat without interfering with the master vanity, just to the left of the door.  We figure a reduced width double door would still be wider than a standard door width, but more compact than a full 64” opening.  Still deciding on the door itself.  At first, we liked the idea of frosted glass, but then realized that any light pouring through in the morning from one person getting ready, would fall on a person still sleeping.  Margaret floated the idea of a sliding barn door and we can see the utility of it, but still getting used to the look.  A sliding barn door would solve the problem of door swing space, but I’m not sure if it would be as effective blocking sound.

   Here’s the inside of the master bathroom.  The water closet (toilet room) is on the left, shower on the right under the window.  The window will be an arched “eyebrow” windows and it’s about five-and-a-half feet off the ground.  There will be a curved pony wall in the middle of the space so that you can enter the shower from either end.  The pony wall will house the shower heads and will be spaced about six feet from the exterior wall.  A long bench will run along the exterior wall so the actual shower floor space will be just over four feet.  As mentioned before, this will be a zero threshold shower.  With the pony wall extending only seven feet up there’s some concern that the shower will feel cold because it’s not enclosed.  I guess time will tell with this.

   Current design is different than the blueprint with a single long floating vanity framed with towers.  I’ve made a few 3d mock ups.  The directional grain walnut cabinet material is accurate, but the tiles aren’t.

   The tub will be housed on the other side of the shower wall, which will be nice because then the shower wall can house all the pipes.  We’ve narrowed down the tub to a few choices, and are prioritizing length and depth over other features, like air or lighting.  We have a jetted tub now and find that we rarely use it.  We’ve seen a new wave of “bubbler” tubs, where small bubbles come from the floor of the tub but decided against it since we really don’t have a place to house a pump, and probably wouldn’t use it much anyways.

   Here’s a shot of the master closet and master bathroom, while standing in the laundry room.  There’s a wall that’s yet to be installed that will separate the laundry room from the master closet, which is good, because I got a chance to remind Matt that we want to push the laundry room wall into the master closet by a few feet.  This will accomplish two things.  Currently, the laundry room window isn’t centered in the room and that’s pretty annoying.  Second, it will give enough space for us to put the washer/dryer on the shared closet wall rather than having it on the shared bathroom wall.  This will put some noise buffer between the laundry machines and the master bedroom.  Even with the concrete floors, I was having nightmares about the machine vibrations reverberating on all the hard surfaces of the master bathroom.  Also, this might give a little better flow to the room and segment the washing area from a potential craft area. It would have been nice to keep the laundry machines on the shared bathroom wall to consolidate the pipes, but it’s not much distance to move.  We’re going to make every effort to soundproof this room as much as possible.  The good thing is that it doesn’t share any walls directly with bedroom space.  Also, the concrete floors should go a long way to dampening vibrations.  While we might not go as far as double walls, we might use green stuff sound isolating goo, insulation in the walls, and sound dampening drywall.  Our current house has the laundry room separated to the master bedroom by the master bath, and drainage sounds and spin cycles can still be heard at night.  Of course, the floor joists are shared so vibrations can propagate to the bedroom, which will be alleviated by the concrete floor.

   Here’s what the turret looks like from the inside now.  You can see the plywood decking they installed above the ceiling joists. Not sure why they did that I think the joists are 2x6 so I’m hoping that allows enough space for lighting.  It will make for a great surface for spray foam at least.  We’ve entertained the idea of installing fiber optics into the ceiling here to simulate a starry night.  If I have access to this space from the main attic space, then I could definitely make this happen.  The plywood would complicate the process, so maybe I’ll get a chance to run the fiber optics before they install the drywall on the ceiling.

   Here’s a better look at the turret ceiling.  You can see that the truss structure allows for the turret circle to be completed on the ceiling.  I’ll definitely have to get up there and install fiber optics before the drywall comes in.  I’ll also have to be present for the drywall install, because each fiber optic needs to be drilled through the drywall.  I’m sure this will be a huge pain in the butt, but the results would be awesome.

   Here’s what the rotunda looks like from the end of the walk way. The stairs will come up from below on the left with the landing across from where I took this picture.  The fireplace structure from below will be in the middle of the opening to the greatroom with this landing having its own fireplace.  The great room will be open to the left and right of this fireplace.  Since the both the fireplace in the greatroom and on the landing are gas, there’s not much exhaust piping that’s required but will still be housed in a chimney box.  It doesn’t have to be a true masonry chimney, but will use the cobble stone exterior where it exits the roof.  As for the rest of the rotunda, there will need to be railing in the middle, which will be connected to the one coming up the stairs.  The first bedroom door will be on the left, the master on the right, then going clockwise around the rotunda will be elevator, laundry room, then finally the turret room.  The rotunda walkway terminates at this spot.  We’re imagining a nice long hanging chandelier in this space, and a tall Christmas tree during Christmas.

   Here’s the exterior shot of the turret roof structure.  I think they did a fantastic job of making 2x4 come to a sharp peak.  You can see how they alternate the length of every other truss to achieve the point.  The overhang is generous enough and the roof pitch is perfect.  It’s really starting to look like a modern Victorian.

   This last picture is a shot of the side of the house, now that the turret is nearing completion.  When completed, this side will also be bisected by the wrap around porch, which will sit ten feet off the grade.  On the basement level, you can see the side walkout and mechanical room window.  Left to right on the first floor is two guest bedroom windows that flank the bed, the guest bathroom window, and lastly, a study window.  On the second floor is, again, two windows that flank a bed, the adjoining bathroom window, and the turret.  Both bathroom windows on this side of the house are static oval windows, adding to the Victorian look.

   Now that we’re into April, the expectation is that we’ll finish the roof by the second or third week of the month.  With the walls being co-currently built, we can then call in HVAC to mark and run ducts.  After that it’s other rough mechanical; electrical, plumbing, and lighting and data systems.  I’m not sure how long that will take, but I’m hoping on a month or so.  After that, we’re looking at drywall and finishing!  Could the end be in sight?  Maybe just over the horizon.

Roof, walls, and turret

   I got a chance to visit the site on a sunny Easter day and was greeted with more steady progress and some surprises. The entire garage roof is now sheeted in and the structure for the fascia is in place so we can see where the front porch roofline will meet up.  More decking was installed on the second floor in the front of the house, but the connector trusses have yet to be created.  The interior kitchen wall stud was erected so we could get the cabinet designer out to measure the space for final ordering.  The surprise is that they also erected the stud walls on the first floor between the study and guest room.  

   Here’s the state of the house from the front.  You can see that the garage is sheeted up to the house, the roof on the front of the house is almost completely sheeted, and the windows on the turret have been corrected.  It’s a huge difference for the turret, as the windows are lower to the floor, down from about two and a half feet to two feet, and the top is corrected so the entire height of the opening is seven feet.  

   The windows of the turret take up seven of the ten feet in height, giving two feet under the window as per code, and one foot above.  You can see the exterior is covered in plywood, which was slotted from behind to allow it to curve.  The height of the turret is visibly above the height of the ICF wall next to it.  The truss interface between the turret and house plane will be interesting to see.  We’re hunting for a nice finial (thingy that goes at the peak of the turret) so if you have any good ideas, leave a comment!   

   The garage roof is now connected to the master closet since the entire garage roof decking is completed.  The truss structure that was above the double garage door is now obscured, and you wouldn’t know that special engineering was required to create that plane.  The little space around the master closet is enclosed and it’s a pretty awesome space.  More pictures on that later.  The very peak of the roof decking doesn't meet since there will probably be a ridge vent up there.

   Here’s the awesome space that’s created from the Lite Deck that supports the master closet, and the space under the garage trusses.  I don’t think any other structure will be put in here, but I could see the possibility of more supporting 2x4 being installed.  Maybe the roof pitch and proximity to the structural master closet wall is enough to support the static weight of the roof and any snow that might accumulate on it.  The space is pretty large and the roof is high enough to stand under for most of the space.  There’s a little bit on the other side of the master closet corner.  As I mentioned before, I’m not sure about the safety of creating access from the master closet but we’ll at least be able to have access from a hatch in the garage ceiling.  Good place to hide presents.

   Here’s what the kitchen looks like with the side wall installed.  I verified the wall length measurements just in case so it looks like we’re ready to order cabinets.  The right corner of the kitchen from the door towards the back will be for the double wall oven and some cabinets.  From the door forward, we’ll have the fridge and freezer columns.  There’s just over five feet on that wall so we might be able to squeeze a 36” fridge and 24” freezer, or a 30” fridge and 30” freezer in there.  We also have to account for the space that door molding and side panels will take up on that wall.  The opening between the wall and elevator is the doorway for the butlers pantry.   With the fridge/freezer being on the left of the door to the mudroom  and the double oven being housed in a cabinet to the right of the door, we weren’t sure where a light switch could go.  Turns out, with structured wiring lighting control, you can get away with a ¾”-1” depth box, so it can be mounted in the oven cabinet.

   Here’s what the turret looks like now.  Huge difference between the first iteration.  Small piece of advice to everyone out there building a house: Always double check the work!  The windows are ordered so while correction wouldn’t have been too bad since it’s all just wood construction, it’s still money lost from wasted materials and time.  The windows themselves will be a 2’x5’ casement topped by a 2’x2’ static window.  My only worry is how cold this area will be during the winter.  Hopefully, between the high efficiency, low air infiltration windows we bought and proper insulation/air sealing of the studs, it won’t be too cold.

   Here's the panorama of the turret view with the new window openings.  The windows are so tall, I couldn't capture the entire height.

   Here’s the progress of the roof decking on the second floor.  Most of the front of the house is covered with roof plane interfaces needing attention.  The back half of the house will needs the truss interface between the main part and the greatroom, so that will need to be constructed before the decking can go on.  Also, the turret and turret trusses needs to be completed since it will probably intersect the main house plane. 

   This one was a pleasant surprise.  This is the doorway from the guest room into the guest room bathroom.  It’s only five feet wide, but it will be enough for a bathroom with a shower.  We’re planning on also having a no threshold shower in this bathroom since our guests won’t need a tub.  Just on the other side of this wall is the study.  The window in this room is a static oval window.  The plan right now is to have the toilet below the window and the vanity next to the door with the shower on the far wall.

   Here’s the guest room doorway to the walk in closet.  I know there’s really no reason to have a walk in closet for the guest room, but there wasn’t a great way to expand the bathroom into this space so we left it like this.  I think the wall will stay curved inside this space so it will have a neat look to it.  It’s only just over 4 feet wide and part of the depth is taken up by an alcove from the study.  

   Here’s the wall from the study side.  You can see the alcove that will house some kind of countertop built-in for charging devices or holding shared printers.  We currently both have our own desk spaces and computers so we’ll want to have something functional in here.  We’re having some difficulty figuring out how we’ll configure this space for our work spaces since the large windows are only two feet off the floor and it might look ugly having a desk in front of the window.  I think the best use of space would be having two corner desks with a low bench connecting the two that runs under the window.  The downside is that we'll be facing away from each other into the corners.  We have Margaret thinking up some good ideas.

   One last parting shot of the house from standing on top of the concrete retaining wall.  Eventually the front porch roof will intersect with the garage roof where the long fascia support is.  It's getting really exciting to see so much progress each week.

   This week, our kitchen designer, Eric Johnson from Cobblestone Cabinets will be visiting the build to take measurements for cabinet ordering.  We're hoping that we can get the order in before the expected price increase later this month.  Being one of the most expensive items in the house, it would be great to save a few thousand dollars on cabinets.

Start of the turret and more roof work

Looks like were on a roll with the construction!  The weather has been holding out for the most part, with temperatures in the 50s and 60s F.  Progress is being made on a few fronts, which is really great to see.  I got to visit the site on a cold but sunny Sunday and was greeted with a dry and firm driveway and a clean work site.

    Most of the trusses are gone from the front of the house and the crane truck is offsite too.  The skytrac still here, and I think they're using it to get the plywood up on the roof.  You can see that half of the garage has the sheeting up and they finished much of the truss structure over the large garage door.  Another obvious addition is the turret!  More details on that later.

    Here's a close up of the garage.  You can see the "hand built" trusses that connect up to the master closet wall.  There are a couple places on the house where two truss planes intersect and need this kind of treatment.  They still need to install the structure above the door itself, but it's much clearer what the intent is.

    You can see the back of the garage is mostly sheeted up too.  From this angle, you can see how the other trusses will extend over that odd structure above the garage door.  There's a generous overhang on all the trusses.  The garage is almost enclosed on the top and it's starting to look like a real garage.  Just need to add a slab floor.

    Here's what the inside of the garage looks like now.  We haven't discussed ridge venting, but it's pretty standard in Michigan.  There's a lot of space up there so I'm hoping for some nice access.  The 2x6 truss structure isn't really rated for a lot of weight from above since it's holding the span of the depth of the garage, but I'll still like climbing up there, especially to access the concrete pad that the master closet is sitting on.

    Here's what the master closet wall looks like right now.  It's nice that they left me a pass through for now because it's fun to walk out there.  I'm still contemplating the feasibility of adding a small fire-rated door to access the rest of the pad.  It might be a nice place to bolt down a safe or something.  Two concerns are that the space is unconditioned, and I would have to ensure that the door is air tight since it's above the garage space and I don't want fumes leaking in.

   Here's the master bedroom, bathroom, and closet wall that faces the back of the house.  They've started sheeting up this roof plane as well.  There will be an entirely different feel to this space when the roof is up, and even more so when the ceiling goes on.  Construction is slow enough that I get used to the feel of the spaces without ceilings.  

    This is looking across the entire master suite.  It extends from the front of the house to the back and pretty much takes up the entire side of the house past the elevator shaft.  The laundry room will get to have that big window so I'm thinking if there's enough space, we should have some craft tables in there too or something.  It would be a waste to just use it for laundry once or twice a week.

   I'm leaning out the master window to get this shot of the back of the garage.  You can see the laminated beam and how much of a generous overhang there is for the roof.  I think our current house only has a foot and a half overhang.  I didn't measure this one, but it looks bigger than our current house.`

   Here's a closer look at the hand made trusses on the garage.  The bottoms are bird mouthed to the garage wall top plate.  All that's left is to continue the trusses directly above the garage and put on the decking.  It might have been neat to have some usable storage above the garage, but it would probably require much thicker horizontal pieces in the trusses.  I'm not a structural engineer, but I wouldn't trust any big weight on the 2x6's used to span the twenty foot plus distance they are now.

   Here's the turret as viewed from the bedroom it's attached to.  I'll have to confirm the height of the window bucks since it looks off in these pictures.  The turret itself is going to be at a ten foot ceiling height to raise the roof line above that of the rest of the house.  The turret roof will be constructed on site and is planned to be copper clad. 

   Driveway view from the turret.  The turret construction is from 2x6, which will be clad with plywood then two inch foam on the outside bringing the thickness close to the ten inches of the ICF.  Matt suggested that standard cellulose insulation is sufficient, but I might try to push for foam since this area will be colder due to the seven windows.  Then again, with seven windows, maybe it doesn't matter as much what the insulation is in the wall cavities.

There are seven windows that allow views from one side of the peninsula to the other.  Here's a semi-poorly stitched together panorama of the turret from the front of the house on the left to the back of the house on the right.  I can't wait for this part to be completed, because it's going to be an awesome space.

   A little more on the construction of the turret, they used a double thickness of 3/4" plywood for the sill plate and since you can't get curved 2x6 naturally.  It will be a trick to see how they curve the drywall on the inside.

   The window bucks are curved as well with a slight bevel on the vertical bucks.  The windows are not radiused, and fit square in the bucks so each window sill will be curved as well.  In general, we haven't decided upon window sill treatments yet.  Stone would be nice, but wood is less expensive and easier, especially in cases like this curved turret.

   Here's how the turret looks from the garage/master closet pad.  The wrap around deck will curve out under the turret to make a nice round sitting area.  The deck roof will curve accordingly as well.  I'm not yet sure how the deck "ceiling" will work around those beams.  They might have to be boxed in or something, depending on how the deck roof trusses are constructed.

   Here's the house from the back.  You can see where the greatroom and rest of the houses truss structures will intersect and how they'll need to be built on-site to join them together.  There's also the matter of the back deck roof and gazebo.  The gazebo roof is connected to the back deck roof, and the back deck roof will partially support the master balcony.  Also, the master balcony will have a roof that should extend off the main house roof, so this will probably have to be built on site too, as an extension and sitting on top of the main roof.

   Not only was a good amount of construction completed, but the basement was completely cleaned up.  There were some blow outs from the first floor pour, as seen at the ends of the beam.  While the blow outs still need to be chipped away, the concrete spillage that was stuck to the floor has been cleaned up.  All loose nails, dirt, and materials were removed from the basement.

   I don't think I've ever seen the basement this clean yet.  There were always some leaves or construction materials stashed here so it's nice to see that they're starting to move into later phases.  This area will need to be clean for HVAC, electrical, and plumbing roughs to come in and start working.

   So it looks like progress is moving along and it's just in time for some nicer weather.  As always we're hemorrhaging money since the cost of building materials have supposedly increased since we started this project a year ago.  Also, the unexpected complexity of the build is starting to add some costs too.  Once we start on the interior walls, the costs should stabilize a bit.  Here's hoping.