From one story to another...

The framers continue their work and we are getting a good feel for the 1st floor spaces.  My good friend Vince visited last weekend and helped hack out some more trail through the scrub and thicket, getting about 30 yards before my lopper broke and the machete dulled....oh, well, we went sailing instead.  My father is now visiting from Hemet, California and we all travelled down on Friday to see how it's coming along.  This is what we saw...

****

The 2nd floor is decked out, the 2nd floor front wall is up.  We will probably alter the driveway approach during finish grading.

****

A closer view of the front.

****

View from the 2nd deck towards the back.  Jenny climbed up the ladder for the shot since the stairs have not yet arrived.  Looks like it will be a pretty nice view into the forest, but unfortunately, no view of the lake or the farms beyond.

****

 

The 2nd deck looking towards the front, master bedrm on the right, guest bedrm on the left beyond the "stairs railing".  Master bedrm will get the morning light, master bath faces south so good light throughout the day.  Guest bedrm and bath will get the late afternoon light.

****

The living room viewed from the entry.

****

View from the living room towards the dining area, then the kitchen beyond.

****

View out the living room window towards the south.  This will be a three double-hung window set.  The dining room will have a matching two double-hung window set.

****

My dad and I standing in "the living room"

****

Next up, second floor takes shape...

We've been framed...!

Matt has the framing crew working hard to take advantage of the cooler weather (70s & 80s) and no rain sight until next week.  We met Matt (and his son Ed) on Tuesday to look at progress, discuss some decision points, and to introduce our friend Jeff Rutter who will be working the kitchen and baths for us.  The electric company said they will be starting next week to trench in the power line (fingers crossed).  So far, Matt and the crew have had to suffer with the noise and hassle of working off a generator (sorry guys).  I just hope the electric crew starts working before deer season opens (I actually checked when that is...)

***

This is the back wall.  Standing in the middle of the living room, view to the south.

***

This is the east wall, view from standing in the kitchen, across the dining area, to the living room.  The opening just to right of the sheathing is the side entrance for all our short friends...just kidding.  Its the opening for the wood stove fireplace, which will be on a raised hearth with a stone surround.

****

The door in this interior framing leads to the stairs going down to the basement.  View from standing in the living room in front of the fireplace.  Kitchen to the left.  The far doorway leads to the mudroom and powder room, then out to the screened porch.  Behind the stairwell is the 1st floor guest bedroom with attached guest bath beyond.

****

With chilly weather possibly on the way, we are trying to get some sailing in as well, this was two weekends ago.

It will be nice when we can stay in the lake house after a day on the water, instead of trekking the 1.5 hours home on I-95.  Up next... more framing on the 1st floor, then we go even higher!

Basement comes together

So on Friday, while Jenny drove north to Punxsutawney, PA to run a 50 kilometer trail race with a neighbor friend, and also see a groundhog, I drove south to see the lay of the land.

The framing team was hard at work finishing the 1st floor joists and then started on the decking/subfloor.

****

The basement slab had been poured Wednesday, with rain showers on Thursday (hence the puddles).  I like how the engineered wood columns are fixed by the slab floor (remember in a previous post they were set on their own support slabs, now under the floor slab).  You can see how the center stairs come down with two big bays on either side.

****

View from the west double-door:

****

View from between the double doors, looking towards the west extension, utility room to the left of the green column, storage on the right:

****

Another view of the utility and storage extension off the west side:

****

View from the back wall (hill-side) towards the west bay double-door,  this will be the winter boat bay until we get a garage or barn put in (Phase II!)

****

View from south-east looking at the walk-out, east and west bay doors.  We are planning to build our own carriage house doors for the two bays.  Eventually, we'll face the brick-patterned concrete walls with stone veneer for a barn foundation look.

****

Next up... we visit next week to see 1st floor framing, and discuss kitchen and bath layouts with Matt and Jeff Rutter.

Now on deck...

Early this week, the carpenters finished installing most of the 1st floor deck trusses.  The center stair well is visible, as is the wood stove/fireplace platform towards the back of the photo.  Yesterday, they won the race against the rain and poured the basement slab (still dirt in this photo) hoping to get that inspected today or tomorrow.  Matt reports rain today, which means mud tomorrow, so framing will probably continue next Monday.

We can start to see the rooms take shape.  On the far side of the stairs is the great room (15'x30'), on the right will be the kitchen and dining area, and you are standing in the 1st floor guest bedroom.  Next, let's go up...!

A good foundation...

Now we really get to actually build something.  Unfortunately, we were at work (it's always getting in the way) when they did the foundation but we saw it this weekend and it looks great!

Here are the foundation wall forms going up:

And here's the finished foundation, facing the front of the house:

From the rear, walk-out basement.  The dirt piles on both sides will eventually be smoothed to slope down the side of the house:

And a look on the inside:

You can see they have even started framing the first floor deck, the concrete slab basement floor will come later.

Next, framing it all up...

Let's move some dirt...

So, new construction financing secured and county permits in hand, we could now call in the excavators to clear the site of scrub and dig the pit that will support the foundation.   This is what the site looked like before we started, looking from the driveway, toward the front of the future house at the edge of the knoll (from North to South):

 I imagined a bulldozer, but the company showed up with a crawler excavator.  To their credit, in one day they cleared the site of scrub and stumps, then dug the entire foundation, forming ramps on either side to support the concrete truck in pouring the foundation, or pushing the otherwise excess dirt downhill for our eventual back patio, etc.  As you can see, it's central Virginian red clay, but they say stressed vines produce the best grapes, eh!

Below,  is the finished foundation base, the foundation crew has completed the footing forms and column supports, waiting for the county inspector, the concrete truck on standby to come in and fill the forms...I'd say we're underway!

Next up, the foundation...