Preparing to frame Floor 1

The final decking is going in, and the guys were prepping for framing the 1st floor walls today. This is going to be the most exciting floor, and will really give us a sense of the final product. I expect we'll have a roof by mid Feb or so too.



The joists for the den and its little deck are installed. The deck off the den cantilevers out over the driveway below, as does part of the Living Room (Billiards Room), which is to the right in the pic.

2nd Floor Framing Nearing Completion

Most of the 2nd floor framing has been done, and 1st floor trusses and decking boards are almost all down as well. There were a few special trusses that didn't arrive, but I think they will be on site today.
Framing of the 1st floor should begin by next week if not sooner!


2nd Floor decking going in on top of the floor trusses. You can start to get a good sense of the size & height of this level. The deck is yet to be built off the far wall, which adds a substantial amount of area to this floor.




In the foreground you can see that the trusses are installed running perpendicular to the rest. This is to support part of the concrete pad for the upper floor garage. This area will receive thicker decking before concrete is poured over it.

2nd Floor Framing Progress Update

The framers continue to make excellent progress on these sunny but cold days. Most of the 2nd floor is framed up & I imagine they will start with floor trusses tomorrow, after finishing a few wall sections. The exterior sheathing is also coming along nicely.



Looking down into Drew's bedroom, with our master suite beyond.



The gray pickup truck is parked where our upper garages will be. Lower garage slab is in the foreground at the left.




Breaking apart the frozen lumber - what a bummer!



Looking through the yoga studio doorway. That wall might be pretty cool if we just left it bare concrete. The wall in the foreground next to the doorway will have a projection screen for our little home theater!

2nd Floor Framing Begins

The bottom floor apartment/office decking was completed last week, and the framing crew got right into the 2nd floor over the three day weekend. They should be finishing the 2nd floor inside and out over the next couple days.



Raising the wall - this is our east-facing bedroom wall. The big hole is for french doors out onto our private deck.



Working the wall section into place.



Locking it down...

Office level almost complete

Most of the floor trusses are in. They plan to have it sheathed by end of day today, and will begin framing the 2nd floor next week.



We decided to make the two windows in the living room 3x6's instead of the square 3x3's. More light is better. There's still a good wall for a flat screen, so making these windows bigger seemed like a good idea.



This shot gives a good sense of what the shape of the upper floors are like. I'm standing roughly where the stairs will come down, looking towards the corner, where our master bedroom is.

Framing Begins!

The first nails flew today, as the framers started building out the office/apartment space. The spaces will really start shaping up fast as these guys make progress.



Looking down on the bedroom of the apartment space. Curtis Kincaid called to see if we wanted to add a window (near that ladder). Adding a window there will look good visually, since there are windows on the floors above. This bedroom will benefit from the extra light too.



Lots more to go. Another day or so on this lower floor, and all the exterior walls will be done. They'll drop floor joists on top of this wall to form another floor.



Floor joists and sheathing waiting for 2nd floor construction to start.

A note on the slab construction

I didn't get pics before it all got covered up, but I wanted to describe how the slabs were done. Kincaid likes really tight, really efficient homes, so in order to improve the R-value (insulation ability) of the slab, he put down a plastic moisture barrier, with a layer of foam insulation on top of that. Then, concrete is poured over the top. This approach dramatically improves the R-value of just straight concrete slab.
Later in construction they will shoot foam insulation throughout, removing the need to use any rolls of that "pink stuff" in the walls. They are one of the few builders in this area doing spray foam insulation (perhaps the only?). The R-value of that setup is really high, so our electricity bill should be pretty manageable.

Back to work

Well, the holidays are over, and the weather has been very uncooperative for the last month. Its just as well I guess, because folks needed to take time with their families for the holidays.

Now that holidays have passed, attention has turned to making some headway on the house. Robert and Curtis decided to make a bold call & gamble on pouring the slabs yesterday. I don't know how he convinced the concrete crew to come work on a Saturday, but his gamble paid off. We got fantastic weather for the pour - it had plenty of time to kick before any rain fell.



About half of the 2nd floor is slab on grade. The rest of it cantilevers out over the lowest floor.

This was a very important step - with slabs poured, they already have the framers scheduled for Tuesday. The lumber shows up tomorrow. In 5 weeks, there will be a house here!