April 25, 2009: Second Level Walls Begin

The framers worked on Saturday and we went out midday Sunday to look at the work. Several of the walls were up on the second level and after days of telling everyone that I would be too "scared of heights" to climb up a ladder at the site, Preethi ended up being the one to not go up the ladder. Since a) Preethi didn't get a chance to see the second level, b) we had better light than normal (e.g., for the basement), and c) we didn't feel like we were in the workers' way (since they had gone home for Sunday), there's a few more pictures in this set than normal. To make sense of it all, I grouped the pictures into exterior shots, second level shots, basement pictures, and details.

Exterior Shots

View of the house from the road - you can see where work has begun on the second level where there will be three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

View of the east side of the house. The boxer is a neighbor's and followed us around a little bit. We didn't bring Fritz and Silver with us because it was quite hot (upper 80s / lower 90s). The part on the South Side is the Master bath and on the north side is a bedroom.

Different view from the East where you can see framing beginning on a different bedroom.

Looking at the backside of the house. The bathroom is framed in on the second level, but the master bedroom is not yet.

Second level pictures
The second level floor was all done so I was able to walk around and take a few pictures.

Picture of Preethi standing in the foyer as seen through stairwell hole.

Looking southwest from the second level across the stairwell. You might of noticed that there's no floor over top of the great room. That's by design. There are no rooms above the great room; instead it'll be a large vaulted space.

Looking from the master bedroom across the stairwell towards the north bedroom. We're quite happy about the view.

Looking from the master bedroom into the master bath.

You can see some of the prepatory chalk work (in blue) laying out where bathroom elements will go.

Looking from the bedroom at northeast corner towards the great room.

Looking from the bedroom at northeast corner towards the master bedroom (walls not up yet).

Looking from the bedroom at northeast corner towards the master bathroom.

North side bedrooms from near the stairwell.

Looking out a window in the master bathroom up the driveway.

Looking from the master bathroom north into a neighboring bedroom.

Basement shots

Mostly these are pictures to show the openness of the plan even in the basement. Even when we're underground, we're trying to open up the space.

Basement shot from the north east corner. That nearby framing support will be changed for an open span to allow for easier flow between the stairwell and the basement bathroom.

Looking across the basement towards the South from underneath the dining room. The windows are white because that's Tyvek over the windows (temporary).

Preethi standing in the middle of the den, shot from the southwest corner.

Construction details

I also took some shots highlighting some construction details.

Example of a support built into the foundation wall.

Detail of the joint of the two engineered wood pieces forming the support where the foyer meets the great room.

Detail of some of the patchwork done on the rebar holes in the foundation wall interior. I highlight this primarily because our current house didn't bother to do this. So we had to do it when we finished the basement.

Other

The window in the dining room got cleaned up a bit and now it's Preethi's favorite room in the house.

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April 23, 2009: More Work on Main Level

A bit more got done on the main level on this day, basically raised the exterior walls around the great room, kitchen, dining room, and main-floor bedroom and some of the interior walls. Again this was as night was falling (to try and stay out of their way) so some of the picture quality is not so great.

View from the road.

Preethi, at the front of the house. The Tyveked areas is the dining room and main floor bathroom. To the left is the main floor bedroom.

Looking at the rear (South side) of the great room (top) and den (bottom). Note that we lined up the French doors, though window sizes vary across levels.

Here's a view of the South side of the garage.

Preethi walks through the garage towards the entrance to the main floor hallway. It's not a real big hallway, basically just there to provide access to the main floor bathroom without going through the main floor bedroom.

Preethi stands in the kitchen. There are several largish spans in the house and here you can see the large opening between the kitchen and the great room.

A span from the entrance foyer to the East wall of the great room. There will eventually be a column supporting it about 2/3 of the way down.

This is looking North from the great room. We think there will be a pretty good view of the ridge from here, though we might have to knock down that scrubby tree (the second tree from the right edge of the window).

If you look closely you can see some of the red chalkings that will be used to guide the framing tomorrow.

View from the tree on the Northeast corner of the lot.

Preethi peers through the Tyvek in the dining room.

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April 22, 2009: Main Level Begins

We went back in the evening (previous post was from lunch pictures) after the workers were done for the day after completin some of the main level framing. The sun was setting and there are some ridges not too far to the West, so night falls quickly as you'll notice.

Looking at the house from the road. You can see that as the walls go up, so does the Tyvek.

View from the brushpile. We in general tried to line up the positions of windows and doors. Here the French doors on the west side of the great room on the the main level aligns with the window on the west side of the basement. Eventually, that will open out onto a deck. But not in this construction project. (Gotta prioritize spending expenses / times.)

Me in front of the basement. Nothing new was done in the basement, but this is when this picture was shot.

Night! Preethi inspects the wall on the South side of the great room that will be stood up tomorrow. If you look closely, you can see where that wall will have yet another French door.

The French door from the great room that will eventually lead to the deck. We're not adding the deck now, but it's on our 5-yr plan.

Window on the North side of the great room.

The main level staircase opening, In the back is the area for the kitchen.

Detail of the subfloor constuction in the kitchen where the fridge will sit. This was another hole in the morning.

View of the house from the tree at the Northeast corner.

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