A little bit more

More subfloor is slowing starting to go up.  Probably about half of the first floor is down, from the back of the house up to the first main beam.

A decent amount of snow is already in the basement and it seems like we're going to be sealing it in should the whole floor get placed.

 Here's a shot from the back towards the front.  It's just been a fancy hole in the ground for so long.  Now it's starting to really feel like some kind of house.  It's pretty nice to have something overhead even if it's just foam

 You can see the concrete pylons that hold the posts for the main support.  The final grade of the floor will be about 3" above this footing.  That will give us just about 10' of basement height.  I'm really looking forward to the height.  We'll be able to have a nice workout room; no need to worry about banging the ceiling with overhead presses.  Another reason is that we'll have a theater room with a two step riser.  Even with the riser height, the last row will be 8' to the ceiling, assuming 12" risers.

 Another shot looking out the back, where the workout room/walk out #2 will be.  The footing on the left of the frame is for the staircase coming down.  It will carry on the curved rotunda stair and support the weight of the stairs above.

 Here's a shot of the kitchen corner.  The kitchen sits on the left of the picture and the back porch and great room are on the right.

The Litedeck sits on the beams.  I'm still not sure what the purpose of the angle iron is since it doesn't line up with the beam troughs.  Maybe they act as tie downs for the concrete when it's poured.  You can see the back porch and gazebo n the right of the frame.

Slow progress?

Winter has settled in here in Michigan and progress has slowed.  The framer and his crew have started to assemble the LiteDeck ICF subfloor and it looks like it's going to be an interesting system.

 2x6 wood joists are installed in the slots and secured from above with wood screws and plastic flanges.  Temporary supports are installed to create more stability for walking on and pouring the concrete.

 Long spans can be created since the poured concrete beams will support the floor.  After the concrete has cured, in our application, every other 2x6 will be removed and used on the second floor.  The remaining will be used as drywall nailers for the basement ceiling.

 Angle iron has been welded to the tops of the beams.  I think these will attach to the rebar that runs in the beam channels and mechanically tire the floor to the beams.

 Wood flanges hold the 2x6 in place against the steel beam.  These will be removed so the 2x6 can be removed.

This temporary support is attached to the ICF wall.

As you can see, snow is in the basement and it's predicted to be a cold winter and mild spring and summer.  Hopefully this bodes well for building.

Winter is here

Snow has finally fallen on the build site but there's still a little progress to be had.  All the steel beams for the main floor of the house have been laid and pinned.

 You can see the three beams in this picture.  Two are extending from the exterior basement walls to the central elevator shaft and one simply spans the width of the great room.

 Here, you can see the alignment of the beams as the meet at the elevator shaft.  the far beam will support the weight of the rotunda.  Matt the framer says that after the posts are in place, the beam will be cut to accommodate the staircase that comes down to the basement.

 Here's the beam that spans the great room.  It's actually at the transition of the great room and sitting area/nexus between the rotunda and kitchen.  This will support the weight of the fireplace above.  Although it's only going to be a gas fireplace, it will be a central column that extends up the height of two stories.  The area under the great room, in the basement, will be a workout room with a walkout.  Although this area won't be finished for move in, we've planned to have these posts hidden by walls.  To the left and right of the two posts will be half walls with (plexi) glass going to the ceiling.  In-between the posts will be french doors of some kind.  Haven't figured that out yet.

 Here's how the post is pinned to the footing.  A drilled steel plate is welded to the post and rebar is used to pin it to the footing.  I think there will be a stronger mechanical fastener there in the future, but this footing will be under the slab, so it will never be seen.

 Here's one of two posts for the rotunda beam.  The stairs will descend through the posts and the beam will be cut between the two posts.

 The top of the post is just welded to the beam.  I wouldn't suspect that this is sufficient, but I'll trust my framer for this one.  The current house we're living in has a plate with "fingers" that grab the edges of the beam.

 Since the span was so great (and the beam will be cut anyways) two beams were welded together.  It's a temporary weld since this part will be cut out for the stairwell.  No support plates are needed in this case.

Here's how the beam is pinned in the pocket.  It's enough to mechanically hold it in place, and I imagine that concrete will be used to fill the pocket afterwards.

I think there will be a slowdown in construction now that freezing temperatures are the norm.  Walls can be poured since they're mostly protected by the ICF, but the first floor will have to wait until thaw.  It would be cost prohibitive to have a 2500 sq ft heating blanket laid while the floor cures to strength.

Steel

The beams for the first floor are on site now.  Beam pockets have already been formed or cut in the basement walls and the structure calls for three beams to support the ICF floor. These beams need to be in place before the ICF subfloor can be setup.

Here's where they deposited four of the beams. I think these are going to be used for the first floor supports.  There's one span that holds up the rotunda and stairs, so that will probably need to be welded together.  Still a pretty mild winter so far.

Numbers written on the beams.  The framer says that once they're in place, they'll be coated to prevent further oxidation.

Some of the plates that will be welded to the posts and beams.  Bolts are driven down into the concrete footers so the posts don't shift.  The tops of the posts will be welded to the beams.

 Two more beams and two diameters of posts.  Steel beams will also be used to support the wrap around porch.  The thicker diameter posts are used inside the house, the thinner diameter posts are used to support the porch on the side of the house.

Here you can see the concrete footings for the side porch posts.  Once completed, the side porch will be about 10ft off the ground, overlooking the forest and the "front" yard.  It will be an awesome place to sit and enjoy a nice spring rain.

Beam in place.  This beam goes from the elevator shaft to the back of the house, sitting somewhere between the kitchen and mudroom.

This is how the beam sits in the pocket.  Rebar will be drilled down to peg the beam in place.  I'm pretty sure concrete will be poured to trap the beam.

Beam span under the kitchen.

Ground level shot of the beam.  You can see the pocket for the next beam on the left of the elevator shaft.  The third beam will span across the visible footings in the middle of the picture.

Just a little grading and fill dirt.

Still under a little bit of a slow down on the construction front.  Winter is a little mild this year so far in terms of snow fall, but temperatures are a little inhibiting for pouring flat concrete.  The walls are more or less okay to pour since the concrete curing process is exothermic.  You just need to protect the top of the walls from freezing, since you don't want the water in the concrete to crystallize.  It causes the concrete to powder and you end up with a weakened concrete matrix.

We paid out of pocket a bit and got some fill dirt laid out so that building will be a little easier.  Our fill budget was broken since we moved the house location a bit forward and went with a 10ft deep basement.  This means that the house was out of the ground more and less was excavated.

 Back porch and gazebo, with the walkout on the left.  We'll probably have to re-excavate this area since we're thinking about cutting and installing some doors to the area underneath the back porch.  This area will be tricky to landscape since there's a walkout just off the frame to the right and the backyard grade is at the height seen at the left.

 A few from the rear walk out up to the back yard.  You can see the gazebo and where the concrete pad for the outdoor fireplace will be.  We'll probably need to terrace this and have steps or something.

A view from the tip of the peninsula at water level.  You can't see the house yet, but I imagine when the first and second floors are added, you'll have no problem seeing it.  We're estimating that the house will be really, really tall since we're having 9ft ceilings on each floor plus the thickness of the ICF floor.  Combine that with a high roof line, and this house will look tall.

View from the peninsula just before the grade change down to the lake.  This is basically a shot of the back yard.  Future plans include a pool where the logs are on the right of the frame.  Amazing there isn't much snow yet.

LiteDeck

So after a discussion with my builder about the *currently* limited availability of the steel trusses we were going to use for the floors, we've decided to use an ICF floor system called LiteDeck.

Specifically, we'll be using the WRS or wood rib system.  LiteDeck produces two systems, one with an integrated metal "C" rib insert, and one in which you provide the 2x6 to be used as bracing for setting up the floor.

 Some of the stacks of the LiteDeck.

 Here you can see how they will mesh together.  The narrow slots are for the 2x6 that will be used to provide bracing before the concrete is poured.  The 2x6s can be removed after the concrete is set, or kept in place.  We'll be keeping them in place to act as nailers for the ceiling underneath.

The 6" deep channel will hold 2 thick pieces of rebar that run the length of the install.  These are held off the bottom of the channel by small plastic spacers.  A rebar grid is laid on top of the decking after it's all installed and concrete is poured into all the channels and up to the thickness of the floor.  When cured, the channels act as concrete beams, supporting the weigh of the floor.  My father in law couldn't comprehend where the strength of the floor is derived from so I told him to look at a parking garage and show me where the steel I-beams are.

 More LiteDeck stacked on the side of the house.

Garage footings

Trenches for the garage footings have been dug.

 The garage will house three cars with two doors.  This is the 2-door section of the garage and is deeper than the single car area.

 Here's the single car area.  You can see the front goes in so it's not as deep.  There will also be a garage door on the back of the house since there isn't much room on the sides of the house in case we need to get something large back there.

 Another shot of how the garage narrows.  I'm not sure how the garage will be constructed considering the final grade will need to come up a foot.  I believe the top of the ICF block shown in this picture is at final grade.

Here's the whole trench.  You can see the back wall trench too and the rebar that will be set in the foundation.