Copper roof finished! Geothermal wells installed! Nearing the end of the pre-construction phase

   Every week there's something new and this one is a doozy.  The problem with having so much progress is that it's hard to keep up with the blog, the blog posts are way longer, and I don't get to see the work in transition so I'm missing out on exciting pictures.

   As mentioned in the last post, this week we had three crews running at the house at the same time.  The carpenters were working outside, installing window trim and prepping for siding.  They were also busting ass inside, making corrections to walls, prepping window openings, finalizing all the door openings, and finishing unfinished areas.  We had the copper roofers installing the copper roof on the turret and installing the weather vane mounting rod.  All that's left is to finish off the shingle near the turret and wrap the chimney with ice and water membrane.  Lastly, the geothermal well drillers came and went, drilling six wells 140 ft deep each, connecting them up, and trenching the line to the house.  Prepare yourself for a progress smorgasbord. 

    This greeted me as I pulled up to the house.  Since the front of the house was dominated by the geothermal well work, this lumber delivery couldn't make it into the garage.  With most of the previous lumber delivery almost exhausted, this load was required to keep the work moving.  I can't say I know where everything is going, but considering it's unprimed, I can guess that it's not going on the exterior.  It doesn't look like pine, and it's only .75" thick so it's most likely trim board.  Maybe used for all the window bays.

    Here's the state of the front of the house.  You can see the copper roof completed, trim under all the second story fascia and on the outside corners, some new framing on the garage headers to bring them to height, and window trim on almost all the windows.  The ground was disturbed by the geothermal trenching, bit is now flat and a little squishy.  I'm really glad we went with real copper for that turret roof.  I think it's a huge centerpiece to the house and it looks amazing driving up the driveway.

    Here's a closer look at the turret roof.  The carpenters replaced one of the curved fascia boards that was cracked.  All the windows are now installed in the turret and the overhang is completed.  Unfortunately it comes very close to the top of the windows, so some creative window trim design will be needed to make it look cohesive.  The weather vane rod is stainless steel and goes right into the attic space, where it's held captive by a mounting bracket.  I love the cone cap at the top.  We have a 3 foot copper dragon weather vane coming in mid-November that will sit up there so we'll have to hang onto the sky-trac until then.  We'll have to talk to the electrician to see if it needs to be grounded.  There are some trees close by that are taller than the house, but copper is much more conductive.

    I know it doesn't look like much, but underneath lurks the heating and cooling arteries of the house.  On the right of the frame, in front of the cement and boulder retaining walls sits 6 geothermal wells, drilled down through 140 feet of sand and gravel.  These are buried a couple feet under current grade, and will be buried under two more feet of fill sand when it's brought up to construction grade.  On top of that will be the paver section of the driveway.  Running to the house is trenched four feet down under the frost layer, two main pipes that breach the basement wall, bringing all the circulation liquid into the house.  The lines are covered with sheets of foam to help block against surface coldness.  A section of the porch was removed so they could access the basement wall and drill through.  I wish I could have gotten pictures of it all, but they moved too quickly.  The drilling took two days and the laying of the pipe and trenching was finished in one.  The only trace that's left is two hoses coming through the basement wall and a newly scraped driveway.

    Here's where they went into the house.  It was always planned that something would come through here so Matt didn't fully install the deck joists in this section.  We initially though that the water would come through here, but later changed it when it was decided the geothermal wells would be better placed under the driveway.  We might keep this open still since Mike wants to install some proper water barrier on the ICF wall when Great Oaks comes to repair the heaving in the retaining wall.

   Here are the lines that come into the house.  They're sitting right above the drain sump and across the mechanical room from the furnace itself.  I'm hoping they'll be able to route the lines really nicely since I hope to have a clean looking mechanical room.  Besides the furnace, it will also contain a water pre-heater from the geothermal system, a water heater, our main electrical panels, and our server stack for data and audio/video distribution.

   It looks like they drilled through the ICF and installed PVC sleeves, through which they ran the polyethylene piping.  I'm not sure what the other drill hole is for, but it's filled with concrete.  There are only two pipes, and I think they just run in a continuous loop going up and down each well in series.

   One of the lines is capped off and the other has a pressure gauge installed on it with a quick connect fitting.  The gauge is reading higher than 100 psi, which is higher than the 40-70 psi present during normal furnace operation.  I'm not sure how long they'll run this pressure test for, but it has been holding for at least one day.

   All the windows are being prepped for finishing carpentry work and drywall.  Here's one of the double casement windows in the front of the house.  Because of the width of this opening, this window is made up of two individual casement windows with wood in between.  The window bucks have been furred for the final material and some framing has been installed in the middle stile.  We're not really too keen on how far forward the center stile has been boxed out because, when finished, it will make the window look like two window bays rather than one window.  We talked to Mike about this and we'll have to come up with a solution.  There will still need to be some window sill taken up with the center stile, but we can probably make it thinner.  We have to be able to fit insulation and final wood trim there, so maybe some 1.5" thick foam sheet and the final casement wood of half an inch would give us the look we desire.  Mike has been awesome with accommodating changes and implementing them quickly.  He's a real problem solver.

   All the windows have been delivered from Pro Brothers, so we can finally get everything sealed up.  The full arch window on the left of the great room and the eyebrow in the laundry room arrived damaged and have been replaced, delivered, and installed.  The rough carpenters have boxed in the arches and spaced them to the interior dimensions.  Those spaces should probably be insulated with either fiberglass batting or spray foam (preferred) but now you can get an idea what the interior walls will look like.  You can see some furring strips installed on the bucks where the final interior casement will be installed.

   Here's The view of the windows from the second floor.  The great room will really look different when the catwalks are removed, but I think they'll probably remain through most of the rough mechanicals.  It's very convenient to work from them for the window trim and probably much of the drywall installation.  I'm really happy with how the windows turned out.  We thought about using rectangular windows on the upper side, but felt the arch on the back would end too abruptly without arches on the side.  The grid above and clear below mimics the rest of the windows and really adds character to an otherwise open wall.  We're expecting a coffered ceiling in this room but haven't nailed down a design yet.

   The dividing wall was started in the master bedroom but we'll have to make a design change.  Since the master bedroom is so long, we decided to have a free-standing wall about the width of the bed to break up the space into the sleeping area and a sitting area.  We'll be able to hang a TV on this wall on the bed side, and maybe some art on the sitting side.  The only problem is that, since the floors are concrete, a free-standing wall isn't easily possible.  If this were a wood construction, the sub-floor could be cut away and the wall joists could be tied into the floor joists, allowing the wall to stand freely without anchoring it to the ceiling trusses.  Since we can only attach to the surface of the concrete floor, we needed to tie into the ceiling, otherwise the wall would be unstable.  Since we don't like the look of the tie in, we've decided to add two short returns to each side so it makes more of an alcove facing the bed.  Just a short 1 foot return will allow the wall to be free standing without supports to the ceiling, and we could use that alcove space for shelves or a built in if we want.  There's about six feet from the foot of the bed to the wall so I'm not too worried about walking space.  Another example of design vs implementation and solutions that need to be invented as the process moves forward.

   Here's the free standing wall that will divide the shower from the rest of the bathroom.  The master shower will have two zero threshold entrances and a curved free standing wet wall.  The convex shower side of the dividing wall will have two shower heads and a hand shower with all the associated controls.  We don't have a need for body showers amd since it's open, we won't have a steam shower.  On the concave side will be the tub filler and controls, with the tub sitting perpendicular to the wall.  This wall will be able to stand without ceiling attachments because it's curved.  The wood pieces are just being used as spacers and will be removed when the wall is erected.  I think special attention will need to be paid to this wall since curved walls usually require more studs, but there's so much plumbing involved there will need to be spaces.

   The fireplace in the the up stairs has been roughed in, but we haven't decided on a specific fireplace up here so this might need to change.  While we have the great room gas fireplace picked out, this one has fewer limitations so it's completely open as to which one we want.  Picking one is on my to-do list.

   Here's a close up of the blocking in the windows of the full arch in the great room.  There's lots of space for insulation between the supports.  The finishing materials will sit on the supports and butt up against the windows, overlapping the window sash.  We'll have to figure out a good way to dust up here.

   The laundry room window has been installed.  This is made up of three individual components, the eyebrow across the top, and two square casements on the bottom.  The dividing stile was necessary to prevent needing rectangular windows for the casements.  Rectangular windows would have messed up the grid spacing.  You can get a better idea of the separation stile, and how obtrusive it is when it's this thick.  While not as thick as the ones on the first floor, it's also not connected to the top of the window opening, so it looks kind of odd.  If we can reduce the depth a bit, I think it won't look like a column in the middle of the window and will blend a bit better.

   The little broom closet in the second floor laundry room was added and I like how it came out.  To the left of it will be a crafting table that will have to be designed at a later date.  The closet will be big enough for an upstairs vacuum cleaner and maybe some other cleaning supplies so we don't have to lug all that stuff up and down the stairs.  This was added as a revision when we discovered the room was bigger than we had laundry use for.  All the laundry related things will be on the other wall, with plenty of room to spare.

   The great room fireplace was roughed in, but will have to be adjusted since we have the intention to elevate the fireplace about a foot off the floor.  We're not going to have a hearth, and since it's a gas fireplace, we don't need any fireproof materials in front of it.  This will make it a bit more modern, departing from the traditional look.  Elevating it will also allow a bit more eye line into the great room from the front door.  There also most likely won't be a mantle on the great room side.  We're undecided about this side and the second floor fire place, but we have a little time to decide.  All that's needed for preparation is a backer board installed before the stone masons come in to set the stone.

   Here's the great room side of the fire place.  There's more than enough room to elevate the box a foot, and a plywood box will be built on the floor to support the fireplace.  We will be mounting a TV above the fire place since it's the central focal point of the room and it will make furniture arrangement easier.  This will be the primary TV watching area even though we'll have a few TV's in other rooms and a theater in the basement in the future.  There needs to be enough space above the fire place for a sound bar, TV, and heat buffer space.  I should communicate with Jonathon of the Sound Vision about how this rough is going since he'll need to run lines and prep for the TV mount.  He'll probably need to communicate with Mike to install a mounting location so the stone won't be installed there.

   All the door openings have been increased in height to accommodate the 8 foot doors we'll have installed.  The rough openings weren't sized properly for an 8 foot door, so some work was needed on all the headers.  The openings were 8 feet tall, and you can't install an 8 foot door in an 8 foot opening since you need door casing.  We've pretty much nailed down the door design as arch topped, flat, 2-panel from Concept Millwork.  It's a mix of MDF for the panels and LVL for the stiles and rails, which allows for good paint-ability of the panels and durability on the edges of the doors, where you'll normally see abuse.  The doors are heavy so we'll use ball bearing hinges.

   Here's a close up of the rough carpentry finishing work in the window bays.  This is in the master bedroom and you can see the furring strips installed and ready to accept the final window casing wood, which will be painted white to match the windows.  Probably a semi-gloss.  There's wood installed on the sill, but I don't think that's the final finish since there's still so much gap between the sill and window.

   Here's the master bathroom wall where the vanity will be installed.  We had this furred out with 2x6 so we could run plumbing in the wall.  The vanity will be floating so there's no space for plumbing in the cabinets through the floor so they have to go into a wall.  There's no way all that plumbing would fit in the ICF layer of the elevator shaft so the wall was needed.  It also adds the benefit of being able to get a deeper medicine cabinet in there and extra space for sound insulation against the laundry room.

   Here's as close as I could get to the turret roof since all the scaffolding was removed.  You can get a good look at the overhangs and how they meet up with the windows.  Since all the trim will be painted white, I don't think we'll miss having trim on top of the windows.  The roof installers did a great job crimping the drip edge all the way around and the copper looks brilliant.  We'll bring them back for gutters when we figure out where they're needed.  If the cost lines up, we'll install round copper gutters where necessary.

   Here's a close up of the copper standing seam.  It's crimped, but I don't think the seams are soldered.  A single stainless metal screw secures the end of the seam to prevent opening, but the copper holds the rest of itself tight.  The copper is super shiny now, and we're not planning on lacquering it to preserve the shine, but will allow it to naturally oxidize.  Two generations from now, if the house is still in the family, they can enjoy a nice green patina.

   With the copper roof completed, all the overhangs can be closed up.  We'll need to install some small round vents in the turret overhang for roof venting, but it's pretty unobtrusive.  I guess they found a pretty good wasp nest up there so having everything sealed up will prevent all of that.  Eventually, I'll need to get up there to install fiber optic lines into the turret ceiling.  We're planning on making a starry field in there, but I'll have to drill through a lot of layers to pull that off.  Luckily, the attic access is close by in the turret bedroom's closet.

   Here's how the trim currently sits with the round window in front.  You can see the top trim is cut around the circle so all the other trim will meet up with that top trim.  I think all the straight trim has been installed on the second floor.  That's outside corners and top trim.  The trim on the first floor still needs to be installed, but they might be waiting until the porch ceiling is installed.

   Here's how the interior of the round window is roughed in, ready for the round tunnel finishing materials.  It will be super interesting how they get from a hexagonal shape to round, and even more interesting to see how they'll bend the wood into a round shape.  For anyone out there still in the planning stages of a build, curves are a budget killer.  Materials aren't naturally curved and we're seeing budget hogs in the stairs, molding, windows, and walls.  Just like the more exterior corners you have on a house increases the cost, the more curves you have increases the finishing costs.

   Here's what the corner trim looks like on the second floor.  The piece of wood on the inside corner is only used as a back stop for the cedar shake siding.  Having the trim this way makes the siding installation easier since you're only having to install on the flats and not having to worry about the corners.  I think the next step on the exterior is to get the trim sprayed and protected before the siding goes on.  

   Here's how the trim around the laundry room turned out.  From the elevation, there's supposed to be more header trim above the window, but I'm not sure if we'll be implementing that.  There's more than enough space and it's all cosmetic, but I think it would need to be done before the siding goes on.  I think it looks nice how it is now, but a larger header will add more character.

   Here's how they'll construct the round trim for the circular front window.  It's made from four pieces and a section of it will be removed where it meets the top trim of the house.  Even through there are odd pieces of wood, you'll never see it after it's painted.  The other arches and I suspect the oval windows will be trimmed out the same way. 

   Here's what the front yard looks like.  I have to come up with a better name because technically it's not the yard since it's all driveway.  The landscapers call it the motor coach, but that sounds pretentious so for now I'll call it the front yard or front area.  Besides the softness, you  would never tell the amount of work that took place here last week.  The well heads and lines are buried and the ground is level.  At a good time, Mike will bring in more fill sand to bring the level to construction grade and in the spring, Great Oaks will bring it final grade and install the driveway.

   Here's the turret with all the windows installed.  I don't have a wide enough lens on my small camera to capture all seven windows, but I have a few panoramas that don't translate well to blog format.  If I can figure out how to embed a photo sphere, I'll have to throw those up in a separate post.  It's pretty neat to be able to look all around.

   The rough carpenters also finalized the gazebo ceiling trusses for final material installation.  We'll be using the same bead board in here as we have in the rest of the patio and even though we couldn't take the ceiling up all the way to the peak, there's still about 14 feet of height in this area.  There will be lights, a ceiling fan, and speakers up there when the thing is completed and having a ceiling gives us plenty of mounting space.

   As promised, I've included some detailed pictures of the sliding doors that were installed last update.  This is the one in the kitchen but the other two in the basement are the same.  They're Softlite Kingsroyal sliding doors and have similar construction and insulation properties as the windows.  We opted for the simple white handles but there are other finishes and looks available.  There's a single locking lever in the handle, as well as hardware to install the toe bolt that prevents the door from sliding open.  You can drill several locking points in the track to accept the bolt so you can crack open the door for ventilation while still enabling the bolt for security.

   Here's a shot of the locking mechanism itself.  It utilizes two bolts and a plunger above that prevents the locking lever from swinging if proper contact with the jam is not realized.  This prevents "false locking" states where you think you close the door all the way and swing the locking lever only to have the locking lugs not engage, leaving the door unlocked.  The lock is operable from the exterior with a key and each of the three doors is keyed differently.

   Here's where the locks engage into.  While it's true that the jamb is just vinyl, the locking plate is steel and screws directly into the wood bucks in the opening so it's fairly secure. I tugged on it pretty hard to test the deflection of the frame and was pleased by the results.  If someone wants to break in, they'll just break the glass rather than trying to jimmy the jamb.  The little hook to the left is the latch point for the lockable screen door.  It's not robust, but hey, it's a screen door.

   Here's what the "locking" latch for the screen door looks.  I put locking in quotes, because it doesn't lock with a key, but it only has a latch from the inside, so if it's latched shut, you can't unlatch it from the outside.  It's about as strong a defense as you can expect on a screen door since the door itself is easily defeatable.  Regardless, it's nice to have this feature for keeping in crafty pets or wandering babies.  I think our toddlers would be able to figure this out.  The screen frame is aluminum and rigid enough to not feel wobbly on the tracks so I'm happy with the quality.  The uses standard splines and is easily replaceable in cases of damage.  The screen itself is a fine fiberglass mesh that should keep out all but the tiniest of bugs.  We'll probably keep the glass door open and screen door closed for the best days of summer since we seem to always have a nice breeze.

   Here's what the sill plate looks like on the door wall.  The sill is aluminum capped for durability so the stainless steel rollers aren't just rolling on the vinyl frame.  As with the windows, all the stiles and rails are foam filled insulated and there's a "triple fin" weather stripping to keep drafts and dust out.  The rail the door rides on is fairly narrow, which will prevent binding should too much dust get in the track.  The track is deep, so it looks like it might be a little difficult to clean, but a dirty track should impinge upon the operation of the door or screen.

   As mentioned earlier in this post, the main garage door opening was framed down to accommodate the nine foot door height.  The door height is a little bit more than standard, but a nice luxury to have, especially since we're having the corner of the door openings curve to match the radius of the windows in the garage door itself.  This will give it a stronger carriage door appearance while still giving enough clearance on the edges for taller vehicles.  We're hoping to to get the garage door rails as high on the ceiling as possible so that, when open, we can have the highest clearance from the door to floor.  We're not really keen on having those overhead storage racks above the garage door so preserving that lofty feel when the door is open is the highest priority.  We'll also be using Liftmaster 8500 garage door openers, which connect to the jack saft to lift the door rather than having a track and opener suspended from the ceiling so the only thing up there will be the door tracks.  The Liftmaster 8500 mounts on the exterior wall and has lots of nice add-ons like remote monitoring and solenoid actuated locking bolts.

   The smaller garage door opening has also been furred down to proper height.  This will also have a curved carriage door appearance, and this bay will most likely house the smaller sports car or off season vehicle. I'll install the car charger on the wall between the two vehicle bays so a charging cable can reach either the left most spot in the large bay or the spot in the smaller bay.

   The steel support beam for the master closet was also boxed in, ready for drywall.  There's nothing we can do to hide this beam, and there's really no reason to hide it since it's in the garage so it will just be boxed in with drywall.  Nothing spectacular or unique about it, but it's nice that they're prepping everything for finishing.

   I know I'm jumping around a bit here, but the master balcony rough in was finished as well.  Before, the decking was a mish-mash of temporary plywood pieces, not even covering all the holes and generally bouncy since it was a thinner material.  Now, a 3/4" plywood was installed on the floor and under it, long shims were installed on top of the floor joists to give the whole deck the desired slope to shed water away from the door opening.  The surface feels way more solid and of course it looks much better.

   The slanted barrier wall was finished off and sheathed in plywood, ready to accept the final finishing materials.  the wall will probably be sheathed in cedar shingles but I'm not sure what the top will be capped with.  To remind you, we'll get a triangular piece of glass cut to make up the missing part and make a railing.

   Here's what the balcony looks like from the bottom.  If you look close, you can see the long wedges used to create the slope in the deck above.  Of course all this will be hidden when the porch ceiling is in place, but it's nice to know that proper attention to detail was given.  I can't remember if we decided what material we'll have on the balcony deck, but I think any material can be installed in the current state.  The black insulated pipe you see is the ventilation from the powder room.

   Here's the back of the house now that all the windows are installed.  All the upper windows have the trim installed and you can see the trim going down the outside corners of the great room.  They stop at the bottom of the lower windows because that's where the brick ledge will be.  Above the brick ledge will be shingle and below the ledge will be cobblestone.

   Here's the trim on the master bedroom windows that go over the bed.  Again, the trim on the arch terminates into the top trim on the wall, but I don't think it looks too bad.  All the windows are a bit taller than I would have expected so they all incorporate into the top trim, but at least it's consistent around the house.  The trim might be simple, but I think it lends a clean look to the house.  A traditional Victorian would have a lot of embellishments and profiles on the window trims, but since this is a modern Victorian, we can get away with a simpler look.

   It's always great to see the crew cleaning up after every week, or at least making an attempt to keep things clean.  You know it's a professional job when they have enough pride in their work and mindfulness about their own safety to keep the job site clean so they're not stumbling over materials and debris.  There were a few other piles of sawdust around the house and there's always a dumpster on site.

   Here's the trash pile so far.  Mostly lumber cutoffs with some waste from the geothermal wells.  Even just having a dumpster constantly on site is a great difference, but Mike says that's just the way it should be done.

   So my finger are sore from all the typing this week and I think this is probably one of my longest posts.  We'll be going back to Hardwood Bevel and Door to sort out our door order and get two more doors, the garage exit and master balcony french doors.  We're also trying to meet with our neighbors to see if we can arrange to trench across their driveway to access the sewer tap, which would save us a ton of money and time.  There was so much activity at the site so far this month that my wireless trail cam ran out of the allotted data transfer allowance.  I know they're working there this week but I have no idea what's in store for my next weekend visit.  I think the copper roofers will finish up with the asphalt shingle and the roof will be 100% completed.  More rough carpentry work will be completed and I think we're getting door templates for the great room exterior and mudroom door.  Things are picking up!

Copper roof started. Lots of progress elsewhere.

   A week into October and we're starting to see the begining of colder weather.  Temperatures are bouncing between nighttime lows of 40's F and daytime highs in the 70's, but progress is hitting a little surge.

   The copper roofers started on the turret roof on Friday, prepping the valleys where it meets the rest of the roof and covering the cone with an ice damn material.  They also started the drip edge flashing so I can show you pictures of how it's supposed to be done.  Hopefully the difference between the turret roof and curved porch roof won't be so blatant to be annoying.

   Lots of other progress from the carpenters around the outside and inside of the house.  All the windows are in, save for the replacement in the great room and laundry room, which we should see this week.  Exterior window and house trim is going up and missing interior walls are filling in.  At this rate, we'll be sealed in for winter.  What a difference from months previous. 

   Here's the state of the front of the house.  The turret windows have been installed on this side, but there are still two around the other side that have yet to be installed.  They'll probably go in this week, but the copper roofers have a scaffold set up in one of the window bays, so once they're finished, all the windows can be set.  Additional roofing membrane was finally installed on the turret roof.  The weather vane rod still needs to be installed, but the sky-lift was having some issues last week, so they couldn't get it done then.  It will go in before the copper roof work starts.  We'll be getting the actual weather vane in November, so the Dragon will be guarding the house well before we move in.

   Here's a little closer look at the turret from the ground.  You can see the additional membrane installed in the valley between the turret and flat roof.  This actually covers some of the copper flashing that protects the valley.  It's a generous overlay and well worth the effort.  The red metal hook is temporarily installed so the roofers can support their ladders on something solid.  The bolts secure under the shingles, so there's little chance they'll affect the waterproofness of the roof.

   Here's a close up of the valley, taken from the ground.  You can see where they started the copper drip edge and the same thing is done on the other side of the turret as well.  The copper valley is complete all the way to the top, so I think once they finish the drip edge, they'll install the standing seam roof.  It should take them a couple more days to finish, so the next update will have the final product installed.  The copper roofers will then finish off the asphalt shingle to meet up with the copper valley.

   Window trim is almost completely installed on all the windows around the house.  Here's the self adhesive flashing material they used over the nailing flange, under the trim.  The trim itself is a 1x4 pre-primed rough-sawn cedar, that will be painted white.  Originally we wanted Azek white trim everywhere for ease of maintenance, but since the HOA rules state that we couldn't have cement board shingles on the first floor, and we didn't want to mix the exterior materials between the first and second floor, we decided that we would use wood shingles everywhere on the house.  Once we knew we were going to have to deal with the painting maintenance of the house siding, it was a small leap and cost savings to change the trim to wood as well.  That way, the painters don't have to mask off the Azek to paint the shingle, which makes the painting labor easier and less expensive.

   Here's the exterior of the dining room window.  The top and bottom trim pieces are missing because they'll be treated differently.  There's just enough room at the top of the window to have the house trim, the piece that goes across the entire underside of the porch roof, act as the top trim piece for all the windows.  The bottom won't have a wood trim piece, but rather, a stone sill.  The stone will be the same material as the brick ledge, just dropped down for these windows.  There's a single piece of trim board installed between the two casement windows, which is a really nice touch, and makes the window look like one unit.  Attention to detail is important in this stage.

   Here's one of the side windows under the porch.  Again, the side window trims are installed with the top one being a single long trim pieces under the porch ceiling and the bottom will be the brick ledge.  The brick ledge will be a limestone material and acts as a flashing and border between the cedar shingle and granite cobble.

   Moving inside, almost all the great room windows have been installed.  The only one missing is one that arrived damaged, and will be replaced by Pro Brothers this week.  All the windows on the back wall are non-functioning.  We wanted the best view and casements would have closed in the frames.  The upper windows have internal mullions to carry on the look of the rest of the house windows.  The arches still need to be boxed in, but you can get a good feeling how they're going to look.

   The lower windows on the side of the great room are double casements.  The upper window is a non-functioning full arch, but I forgot to get a good picture of it.  I think having these two lower windows, one on each side of the room operable, will give us enough ventilation for the room, especially considering there's almost always a breeze.  Not only were these rear windows set, but they were also insulated with expanding foam.

   Here's a shot of the same window, down on the sill plate.  They just used a standard low expanding polyurethane foam for the joints, which should be good enough.  Sure there are newer methods and technologies for air sealing windows but this is the standard now.  I'll take the thermal camera to the joint during the winter to see how well this method seals up.

   Here's one of the non-operable great room windows, all sealed up.  You can see they added a 2x6 to the window buck to adjust the opening to fit the window, then foamed against that.  That 2x6 will have to be extended into the rest of the window opening for the window finish but that's up to the finishing carpenters to do.  The difference in noise and temperature is amazing.  Because of all the water surrounding us, we can hear a bit of road noise from the main road that runs about a mile away from us.  With the windows in place, the noise is gone and the temperature of the house is much more stable.  Winters here are going to be beautiful.

   Here's how they foamed in the oval window in the guest bathroom down stairs.  The gaps between the wood stud supports were filled with foam and trimmed down a bit.  I still need to discuss with Mike how these window openings will be finished.  I would expect there to be some kind of an oval "tunnel", which will be more difficult to make, but the correct implementation.  We just need to be on the same page.

   Besides windows, the carpenters built up some of the walls that needed to be moved.  Here's the final location of the turret bedroom wall, which needed to be moved because of the HVAC trunks going to the attic.  The same was done downstairs in the study but that room only lost the alcove rather than having the entire wall moved.  I'll have to see if we can get this duct space insulated, not only for energy efficiency, but for sound as well.

   Here's the study wall that was created to close off the alcove space.  Although we're losing the alcove, we'll probably make up for it by making this whole wall shelving/filing storage space.  The plan right now is to have and L shaped desk, that sits more towards the middle of this room so that we're facing into the room when sitting at our computers.  My back will be to this wall so I'll have a nice view out the front of the house.  We're making sure to get enough electrical and data pulled through the floor here so we don't have cable runs from the wall to the desk.  I'll have to make sure to keep a clean desk in the future because my current desk is a mess.

   All three sliding doorwalls have been installed.  The one pictured here is in the kitchen area and two more are downstairs in the basement.  The opening needed to be furred down to fit the height of the sliding door and although it looks and feels a bit low, it's a standard height sliding door.  In my next update, I'll detail the features of the door itself but my initial impression is positive. The door comes with a foot actuated lock and the door itself is lockable.  The screen has a latch as well, but it's not lockable.

   Here's what the doorwall looks like from the outside, on the back porch.  The door and screen glides smoothly on the track and I don't expect any troubles from them.  All the gliding hardware is stainless steel with multiple rollers.  The door handle is powder coated steel with a single thumb latch for the locking mechanism.  The frame, rails, and stiles are all foam filled for insulation, and the sill is aluminum.  We had the option of internal blinds, but decided to forego that feature. 

   Here are the numbers for the doorwalls, which are closely in line with the rest of the windows.  The air infiltration is 0.12 CFM, which is just about as low as the windows, which is impressive.  There aren't as many seals, and the by-pass design of the door inherently allows more air to infiltrate.  The glass spacers are non-metallic like the windows which reduces condensation on the interior.      Regardless, I'm happy with the numbers and don't expect the door to be overly cold.

  Here are the installed windows on the side of the garage.  Even though this is a great view, we decided to get casement windows here so we can vent the garage.  Looking back, it's probably not necessary since we have garage doors on both the front and back of the garage, but it still might be nice to have these operable.  I'm really looking forward to building a gardening workbench in this space and having a colder place to overwinter plants, or put seeding trays for the garden.  This south-facing windows will allow for great sun during the winter.

   Here's the work that was done on the master balcony.  There used to be a straight pony wall here, but we had the idea to make this wall angled down to the pitch of the roof.  When we finish this, we'll have triangular glass piece fabricated to act as the railing here with normal rectangular glass railing on the face of the balcony.  Angling this wall really opens up the balcony and allows more light through.  There's big difference to the feel of the space.

Here's what the inside of the turret looks like now that the windows are in.  Two to the right aren't installed yet to give the copper roofers some space to work.  We decide to go with a full grid in these windows and feel that it really adds some charm to this room.  I'm not sure how we'll do window treatments, but it will be a trick since there isn't much room between the windows for curtains.  The sills should be deep enough for blinds if we go that route but I think that would detract from the aesthetics of the tall windows, even when the blinds are open.

   Here's a single window from top to bottom.  They're actually comprised of two windows attached together with brackets and all together stand seven feet high.  We're not planning on installing any window benches here, but rather keep it open and put comfortable furniture in here when needed.  Each of these lower windows are casements and open to the left.  We're hoping this will make a nice little play room for the twins, so we don't have to have toys all over the house.  Wishful thinking?

Here's the second floor oval bathroom window from the outside.  You can see how they applied the window flashing in a overlapping manner to shed water downwards.  Also you can see some of the house trim that runs under the roof overhang, that will be incorporated into the window trim.  Here it cuts into the oval, as it does with the round window in the front.  The rest of the round trim will just meet into this house trim. 

   Here's how the window trim ties into the house trim on one of the regular second story windows.  I think it's an elegant solution to a tricky situation.  Ultimately, when the trim is painted, it will all match nicely against the gray cedar shingle paint.  All the trim is the same 1 inch thickness, just different widths depending on where it is.  

   Here's a shot of the side of the house looking forward towards the turret.  It gives you a good idea of how the house trim meets up with all the windows.  This will happen on both the first and second floor, as well as some corner trim on all outside and inside corners.  The trim needs to be installed first so it can be caulked and painted before the shingle goes on.  The shingle will butt right up against the trim.

   I climbed up on the scaffolding a bit to snap a picture of the copper valley that's being installed between the turret and the house.  This is how it should be done.  The copper is overlapped to shed water downwards, and the seams are soldered tight.  The valleys that the other roofer did overlapped properly, but are caulked, which might be okay in the short term, but in the long term will eventually fail due to the different expansion rates between dissimilar materials.

   Here's a close up of one of the solder joints.  This type of joint won't break with temperature fluctuations and will remain waterproof for at least 100 years.  It might look a little messy, but considering the joint itself is a couple inches wide, it's not too bad; you're just seeing the edge of the joint.  The copper sits under the ice and snow membrane a good six inches so I'm very confident in this valley. 

   Here's how the straight roof overhangs were boxed in and terminated at the turret.  These were left open by Matt and no that the turret roof is going up, they can be closed up and finalized.  It will all be painted white before the shingles go on, so even the old cedar boards won't be unprotected when the winter comes.  We'll have to make considerations for all the water that pours off the valley since it might hit this area.  We didn't think we would need gutters on most of the roof, but we might need something here.

   Here's a close up of the start of the copper drip edge around the turret and a fine example of how it should be done.  This is a single piece that is snipped on top and crimped below to form the curve.  The other roofer just used lots of 6" sections to form the curve, which is a much less elegant solution.  Also, make note of the nails...

   Hey look, stainless steel nails.  Remember that the other roofer used hot dipped galvanized (zinc) nails, which is a huge no-no on copper.  The best way to go is copper nails, with stainless steel nails coming in second.  The stainless steel is not too far away from copper as far as galvanic potential so they won't be eating each other up.  Do it once, do it right.

   Here's the exterior side of the great room.  The top windows are arched so they can match up with the arch of the rear windows.  Below is the operable casements.  This is one area where we will probably need some gutters so the water falling off the roof can be taken far enough from the house.

   This window opening will eventually be filled with glass block when the masons come through.  It's a window for the mechanical room in the basement, so we don't need anything fancy or clear, just something to provide good light.  Right now it's just boarded up to prevent access.

   Both of the sliding doors are installed in the basement, so with the plywood in the glass block opening, and all the other basement windows installed, the basement is now closed up.  I have one set of keys for all the sliders and kept the other with the doors.  The basement is the first floor to be completely closed up.

   Some of the metal studs are in the master bedroom, waiting for installation for the dividing wall.  It will be a little bit of a trick to pull off since it's a free standing wall.  Some of these studs might be used in the bathroom as well.  We might need to end up making more of a narrow box rather than a single thickness wall so it can remain rigid and self supporting.  

   These turkeys decided to check out our build progress.  Don't they know Thanksgiving is coming up?

   So that's it for this week.  The next week should see the completion of the copper roof, installation of the geothermal wells, and maybe the completion of the house and window trim.  We need to decide on steel doors for the garage entry doors and get final measurements on the exterior doors in the mud room and great room.  The carpenters are also framing out the garage door openings and all the interior door openings since they weren't quite at finished height.  We have a meeting with Mike this week to review the proposed budget and settle up on some of the work that has progressed outside the bank.  Things are definitely moving in the right direction now!