June 19, 2009: Bricks, roof, and drywall

Due to travel, Friday was the first chance I had to visit the house in about a week. During that time, the bricks were finished (except for the front steps which have to wait on the ground to settle as they’re not on the foundation), the shingles were finished, the last of the dry wall was hung with two courses of mudding and taping (one more course to go, then sanding), and the last air handler was installed in the basement.

View of the house from near the Northwest corner. The front porch with its two arches was completed. The arch is kind of a repeated design element as we replicated that launch angle of the arch in the arch that divides the kitchen from the great room. The cinder blocks you see are used because they’re cheaper and will either be below grade or covered with steps.

View from the driveway. The last part of the shingles that needed to be installed were the portions where the brick walls extend above a roofline. If you look closely, you can see the brick step flashing which is one of the various things added to either keep or vent water out from behind the brick.

View of the west gable where you can see the gable vent and where the shingles meet the brick.

Close up view of the brick flashing above the front entrance.

The airhandler in the basement (zone 2).

Some of the duct work in the basement.

Preethi walking up the stairs in the basement. We like the open stairs landing we have in our current townhouse and carried over that element to the new house.

Looking up the stairs into a bedroom.

One of the bedrooms on the second level.

Preethi walking into the master bedroom.

View of a bedroom on the second floor.

View of the great room.
View of the East attic gable vent through the opening to the attic.

Yet more dirt delivered for backfilling in around the foundation (think cinder blocks).

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June 12, 2009: Bricks, Drywall, and a Gable Vent

Friday evening, we visited the lot with James and Kate. The bricks had finished off on the main east gable and the main north gable and had started on the entryway. Much more drywall had been hung as well. At this point, the remaining only remaining drywall to be hung appears to be in the master bedroom and in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

View of the house from the tree on the northeast corner of the lot. The white boxish looking thing is a gable vent that was added. There will be a matching one on the other side of the house.

Preethi and Kate step out onto the front porch. Bricks columns were added which will support arches.

Looking up the stairs where a bit of drywall was hung.

Preethi and Kate inspect the kitchen, which had the last part of the drywall hung.

Drywall in the laundry.

Kate inspects a closet in an upstairs bedroom.

Preethi steps into master bathroom.

Preethi stands in front of the throne room in the master bathroom.

View of the walls in the stairwell on the second level.

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June 11, 2009: More Bricks and Drywall

On Thursday, ALOT of drywall was hung and the bricks started to look close to being done.

View of the front of the house. They think they'll be done with the bricks on Saturday if there's no rain.

View of the house from the Northeast corner of the lot. The unbricked side gable will have a vent installed tomorrow morning and then bricks will continue on up.

View of the garage (east) side of the house - all done with the bricks.


Closer view of the northeast corner. Here, you can see where the jack arches over the windows are slid out a little bit (5/8") from the wall

With the scaffolding down, you can see the full soldier course over the top of the garage.

All of the drywall is now hung in the main level bedroom.

And in the main level bath.

And in the great room - including the fireplace.

Still looking at the greatroom, but now back towards the dining room. I really love this view simply because I've never lived in a house with a 55' long sight line (corner of great room 20x30 to corner of dining room 14x14). Hopefully when the decorative column is added, the effect won't be lost.

The fireplace.

View of the stairwell on the second level.

Viewing the second level near the stairwell and looking towards the master bedroom. The large hole is the whole house fan.

Preethi stands on the front slab. Tomorrow brick arches should start going up on the slab to frame the entrance.

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June 10, 2009: Bricks and Drywall (and a lot more)

On Wednesday, the bricks progressed until it started raining, the basement step rough-in was completed, the front entry slab was poured, the whole house fan was installed, more dirt was delivered, and... whew. That's a lot!

View of the house from the northeast corner of the lot. Bricks have gone up on the garage side and a bit on the front.

View of the bricks on the garage side.

Close up of the soldier course and iron angle above the garage. Pretty, but weaker structurally than the staggered pattern.

We had some insulation added around the master bed room to cut down on sound wafting up from the great room.

The master bed room all insulated in.

More drywall in the great room with the dormer filled in.When you hang drywall from the top down (as you're supposed to) and you have a 24 foot ceiling, it takes a little bit to work your way down.

The kitchen drywall was mostly completed (except for the mudding).

Looking out from the kitchen towards the great room.

Looking from the kitchen towards the dining room.

The pantry.

The dining room.

The main level (guest) bedroom.

The main level bath.

Some more dirt was delivered for finishing the filling around the house after the brick work is done.

Our whole house fan. The concept is to expel all of the air in the house out through the roof and replace it with air from outside in about 3 minutes.

View of the basement stairs from the main level.

View of the steps from the basement.

The front slab was poured, but is covered to protect it from the elements.

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