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 24, 2009: Onwards and Upwards

We visited the site twice on the 24th. Once around lunchtime with Wilber and once in the evening with James and Kate and Joe and Jen. Again, the midday pictures came out a lot better than the pictures taken at sunset. A lot of the structural framing was completed on the main level and the floor started to go down on the second level.

View of the house from the tree on the north east corner of the lot around lunch time.

Looking into the garage in the evening. You can see both the support for the span over the entrance and the I-beam steel support closer to the centerof the garage. It's not a huge garage, but it's not small either so a little extra support goes a long ways.

Looking at the main-floor bedroom around lunch time. The joists for the second level are going in.

Looking from the great room back into the "dining" room (it'll probably never be a formal dining room and will instead be more of a flowing extension of the great room). You can also see distinctly see the engineered wood used to span and support the largish spaces on the main level.

Preethi in the foyer by the entrance where some of the top level support work has started.

Wilbert in the great room.

Looking at the entry-way at night.

Here you can see where some of the flooring for the second level is beginning with the bump-out for the master bedroom.

A view of the garage from the south side. If you look closely, you can see the I-beam that is helping to support the garage expanse and also see that the garage is a taller-than normal room. This was mostly the result of the need to drop the garage a foot and a half or so to match the roll-off of the lot and the need to have a common level for the second floor. This in turn means means that we're going to have a slightly taller than normal garage door (8' as opposed to 7').

A closer view of the steel beam support in the garage at night (hence the blur).

Joe, standing in the great room looking out the south side. There's actually pictures of everyone who came that night, but only's Joe's photo turned out okay-looking.

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