The lower roof is supported in part by a pair of 6-¾" x 19-½" glulam beams (glue-laminated lumber), architectural grade. They will both be clear-finished but otherwise left exposed. The framers whined at me today about how heavy they were...
The east beam, and the 5-¼" square PSL column supporting it. The beams articulate the space below. This beam visually separates the dining space (to the left) from the living space to the right).
Drone pilot / jack-of-all-trades Kent Leonard stopped by and did a flyover today. Here's a shot from that flight. Look for the motion picture coming to a blog near you! (in a few days)
Several months ago, applying for a construction loan, I did my best to educate the appraiser working for the mortgage company on the "green" features that we were planning for the new home. I pushed him to look at comparable properties in the vicinity so that the benefits of such progressive construction would be taken into account. I believe that my efforts helped to some degree.
Now, after having toured a few homes for sale in the area and comparing the brochures they put out, I'm wondering the same sort of thing again. How are environmental features figured into the marketing and valuation of a home? It appears that they're really not. The MLS template seems to be rigid, using only the "remarks" area to include anything of the sort. I think this needs to change. Like the gas mileage on a car, a home should AT LEAST have its HERS score listed (is it built only to code, or how much better is it?). It should AT LEAST have yes/no answers to questions like "Does the house have any green rating system certifications?" or "How many of the major appliances are ENERGY STAR rated?" or "What is the annual water usage?" I intend to look into this in the upcoming months. Stay tuned.
We're awaiting the massive glu-laminated beams that will traverse the main floor living space and support the trusses which will bear the low, "flat" roof. Until then, the framers are erecting temporary supports as they complete the floor trusses under the conditioned bedroom and bathroom spaces.
In the current issue of SPACES, a feature article points out how a homeowner added fake beams to their remodeled kitchen to give the illusion of the space being a "working chateau kitchen", or some magical thinking like that. In our house, the beams will be real, exposed, and doing honest work.
Bonus: Spot the two errors in the photo above! Hint #1: One is structural, pertaining to bearing area and crushing. Hint #2: The other is impossible to tell in the photo, but prohibits the locating of a salvaged cabinet. Advice based on this find: Instead of allowing an extra ½" for a cabinet, allow an extra 2" for contractor inattentiveness. One would think that I would have learned this by now.
Apparently not.
Today, we started looking seriously at appliances. Although I've done lots of research on them in general, have read many, many articles on them, and have assisted numerous clients with their selections, the options out there can still be overwhelming. Our priority is to balance quality with environmental concerns. We're looking mainly at Energy Star rated appliances wherever applicable, as well as low WF (water factor) numbers. It's proving difficult - at this early stage - to find a single manufacturer for everything, so the end result will most likely be a blend.
We started with All, Inc. in St. Paul. We already have an Electrolux gas cooktop (free, from a kitchen being demo'd), and really like a package we saw of Electrolux laundry appliances (both Energy Star rated, with the washer having a low water use factor, and together at a good price). Bosch and KitchenAid both have very quiet (39 dB) dishwashers but one has the nice 3rd tray and the other one - the Energy Star rated one - doesn't. And what about these feature-rich microwaves, with convection and steam and a range of other options? We like one of the KitchenAid refrigerators a lot but it's $1300 more than a very similar model that is Energy Star rated whereas the more expensive model isn't. Choices, choices...
As a meaningless aside, I have a dumb sort of affection for Electrolux, for 2 reasons. One is that it's based in Sweden (my wife is 100% Swedish by ancestry, and I've liked the 2 Swedish cars I've owned). The other is that my first vacuum cleaner was an ancient Electrolux model that I got from my grandmother (who, interestingly, was 100% Finnish and had a deep distrust of Swedes). I had it for over 20 years and it worked well in all that time. It was primitive but high quality. I sold it with my wife's old Hoover on craigslist a few years ago when we upgraded to a HEPA-filtered canister model from Panasonic.
Finally, we did a walk-through of the mostly-framed first floor of the house this afternoon, and agreed (with the assistance of a crude computer rendering I'd prepared - see below) that we need more windows in the living room, flanking the fireplace. Sometimes, even with maximum obsessive forethought, one needs to see a thing to realize what it's going to be like.
Main floor walls have been going up, allowing us to start physically walking through rooms! It's a thrill after months of virtual walk throughs. So far, the framers have gotten lucky with the weather. It's been raining mainly at night lately, and staying dry during the day. We hope this keeps up for a few weeks so that framing can be complete as quickly as possible.
View northwest, from the future dining room to the future main floor bedroom.
Today, framing started, allowing us to start physically walking through future spaces! Yesterday's rain slowed things down a bit, but with the forecast for the upcoming week, the main floor deck and upper walls should be well underway by mid-next week.
Photo taken Friday, 1:20 p.m., looking southwest from a future office to a future bedroom (the framed-in wall opening can be a double window opening into an area well). The stair up will rise between the column and stud wall.
The center columns are 5-¼' x 5-¼" PSL's (parallel strand lumber), an engineered wood product that uses smaller wood strands and is generally stronger than solid timber. There are 2 of them, supporting a continuous triple LVL beam (laminated veneer lumber; a plywood-like material) on the main floor and a pair of heavy glu-lam beams for the south roof. The stud wall shown on the right side is a standard 2x4 bearing wall which will support the laundry room and main floor bath floor loads, as well as the family and master bathrooms on the upper level.
The basement floor slab will be 7" higher than what you see in the photo. The gravel is the sub-slab base, in which the drain tile / radon venting tubing runs. On top of this, once leveled, will be several inches of XPS foam insulation boards, a continuous vapor barrier, and a reinforced 4" concrete floor slab with embedded radiant heating tubing.
Today, the majority of the main floor framing was delivered - all but the PSL columns and column bases. The major wet utilities were also completed between the street and the basement - the copper water line and the sewer line.
The collection includes engineered wood (LSL rim joists, LVL beams, and I joists with OSB webs), plywood sheets (subfloor), and solid lumber (treated 2x6 sill plates, 2x10 headers and dropped framing, and 2x4's for miscellaneous wall framing).
Backfill was placed yesterday as the top of the shoring was removed, and then it rained. The site is now a mucky mess, but with good weather next week framing will begin in earnest.
Bracing and drain tile got a good start today, anticipating backfill tomorrow, weather permitting. The framed patch on the far wall is for a potential future egress window in a potential future 4th or 5th bedroom, depending on how a potential future buyer wants to develop the house. Maybe. In the future... Who knows what will happen?
Beautiful weather today as the waterproofing was applied and rigid insulation boards were secured to the below grade walls. Next week will see drain tile, slip sheets and backfill, along with the start of first floor framing.
Waterproofing: Watchdog H3
The 8" thick, poured concrete walls were poured mid-afternoon in perfect weather today. The forms come 8'-4" and 9'-0" high, I was told, and our walls are 8'-6" so the workers set the tops down from the form's upper edges and troweled the final elevation smooth. This will help ensure a gasketed, air-tight seal between the concrete and the wood plate.
I secured this mould to the upper inner wall of the utility room. We'll see how it turns out.
The reusable aluminum concrete forms were set today, and most of the internal reinforcement has been placed. The pour is scheduled for Monday. The 3 pads on the right are for the screened porch piers.
Last night's rain didn't amount to enough to delay the footings, and this morning Lorenz Concrete and Cemstone formed, reinforced, pumped, spread, leveled and smoothed the house's footings.
(click on image to advance; 4 images in gallery)
In one of the center footings, I mixed the last of my father's ashes. I'd saved them since Memorial Day 2013 when we spread them in locations that he'd requested. He didn't request what I did this morning, but I'd saved the last ashes for this purpose, not knowing when the time would come. I feel that as much as he is a part of me, I wanted him to be part of this - the first house that I designed for my own family. I think he'd approve.
Although this little memorial will be obscured by insulation, a vapor barrier, and the concrete floor slab, I inscribed his initials and the current year in the corner where his ashes form part of the concrete, and marked it with an agate from his collection.
This is an initial rendering of the proposed master bath vanity. The cloudy walls to the right are the glazed shower, and I'm not sure why they look all steamy. Not shown is the under-vanity light which would function as a night light and help give the "floating" vanity its floating illusion.
Excavation has been completed for the garage and porch pier footings. Next week should see the forming, reinforcing and pouring of the footings, including the dual drain tile - radon vent interconnects. I have a special ceremony planned for the center column footing as the concrete is poured. Stay tuned.
