Roughing it, weekend #2

On Saturday the second floor began to take shape. With a crew of 11, we installed the second floor deck and the gable end pictured below. The garage also began to take shape with the back wall going up. Roger built the steps into the basement, too.
Here is the front of the house on Saturday. Joe spent the entire day building the arched eyebrow window. It's the piece that Sean and I loved in the inspiration house that our architect used, and it was super exciting to see it come to life after months of anticipation.
This is the view from the creek. The window in the middle will be Peter's room, and we couldn't wait to get upstairs to see the great second floor view all of the roughers talked about. But it would have to wait until Sunday because there were no stairs yet.
The garage wall is on the far right with some Hardi Plank siding already up.
An interior shot from Saturday to show the 10 foot ceilings on the first floor. This is the dining room and living room with a view of the creek to the immediate left of the ladder on the floor.
Sunday was another hot, muggy day for the crew of nine. The roughers raised the second upstairs gable and all second floor exterior walls along with building the partitions dividing the second floor rooms. The second floor contains the master suite, two rooms with a Jack-and-Jill bathroom, laundry room, and open play room under the arched window.

Sean and Mickey stand in the front door at the end of the long day.
Roger finished the stairs to the second floor on Sunday, so Peter and I were able to go up and check out the rooms.
This is the open play room at the top of the stairs. The window is so cool that we didn't want to put it behind a door in a bedroom, so it will be a nice place for hanging out on the second floor.
Peter's room has the best view on the second floor. The canopy of trees is lush and full.
Now that the partitions are up, the second floor is a maze of 2 by 4s. Marks on the floor tell a more complete story; the layout of the rooms, closets, and halls is complete, plus it's much more efficient than the original plan. It's great to be so close to the project that we can make these small improvements as we go.
With the front garage wall up, the appearance of the house from the street really begins to take shape. The garage is enormous, with 14 foot tall ceilings. The funny thing is that the garage height is an accident of necessity; with the creek behind the house, we had to guarantee our basement would remain nice and dry by raising the main house over 4 feet off the ground. But there's no easy way to raise a garage off the ground, so it grew and grew instead.
Another view of the house. This one's from the driveway entrance.
The side of the house with cedar shingles and Hardi Plank siding that will all be painted later. Some of the scaffolding for the back porch is pictured on the right.
Sean standing on the framing for the front porch. Next weekend the front porch will really take shape, along with the roof line.

Rough weekend

The roughers began work Friday, and they sweated away the weekend in 90+ degree weather to finish the walkout basement and first floor. Sean, Mickey, and Sean's Uncle John were all on hand, and they helped make up a crew of 9-10 guys each day.

Here is Mike hard at work Saturday. He calls himself the Old Man, but he deftly moves across beams in a way most others can't.
A shot of the first floor going in.

The Eldon family hanging out on the newly completed floor at the end of the work day Saturday. John, Mickey's brother, is on the far right.
Grandpa Mike has the magic touch with Peter.
Checking out the first floor.
Here is what the house looked like at the end of the weekend. We'll walk you around the exterior first. The blank space to the left is where the garage will go.
Here is the front of the house; the front door is in the center, the kitchen is on the left, and the office is on the right. We're really happy to see how big the windows will be. The views are beautiful, and we're delighted to take advantage of them.

Here we walk around the right side of the house. The office is in the front and the library and screen porch are in the back.
This is the back corner of the house. The screen porch will be above the walkout where Sean and Peter are standing.
It was super hot and muggy when we visited the lot to snap pictures, so we stood by the creek to get some relief in the shade. It also affords a great view of the back of the house.
A final view of the back and side of the house. The well is sticking up behind where the garage will be.
Of course we had to putz around the first floor and get a feel for how big the spaces will be. Sean and Peter stand in the front foyer with the stairwells, library, and office behind them. Behind me is the front hall closet, half bath, and kitchen pantry.
Sean and Peter look at the creek through the opening for the dining room window; to their right is where the French doors will go in the living room.
Here the are standing in the center of the kitchen. We asked the architect for a big kitchen, and he certainly delivered! It's also easy to see the "L" shaped great room that the kitchen, dining area, and living room will make up. The wall behind Sean's back is the mudroom with a closet, full bath, and doors outside and into the garage.
Peter tried to coerce Sean into letting him help next weekend. Unfortunately Sean doesn't need anyone to inspect the materials with his mouth, so Peter will be out of work.
Checking out the basement. The steel beams and stair well going to the first floor are visible.

On the way to framing

We've been taking care of final items in preparation for the rough carpenters. Before we could start framing the house, we had to have the basement walls back-filled with sand.

The green foam-board on the exterior walls was a joy to put up. Just imagine dipping your hands into a bucket of gooey, warm tar; that's essentially what we did to adhere the foam-board to the walls. Big props to Mickey and to our friend and colleague Brad Huttenga for helping us put up the foam.

In this photo, Mickey and Peter examine the freshly back-filled basement walls. You can see the foam peaking above the back-fill just to the right of where they're standing.
Here's Keller Well Drilling leaving after a full day of work. The first day on the job they broke the drill; while we were disappointed to have another delay, we were happy to hear it wouldn't cost us any extra coin!
And here's the top of the well. It's a 94-footer, which means something to people who understand wells. We just know that there's plenty of water.
Just after Keller took off for the day, Man's Lumber showed up with the first shipment of framing material. The rig that the Man's driver is unloading with is sweet; the wheels turn 90 degrees so they can tuck the big stacks of lumber into tight spaces.
Mickey directing my traffic. Peter gives advice.
Mickey just told the lumber salesman to "eat it". Then Peter ate it.
Three generations of Eldon men; it looks like Mickey and Sean found something even more fascinating than the lumber delivery to watch. That's saying a lot if you know how much Mickey loves his lumber. He is the Wizard of Wood, after all.

Basement footings and walls

Sean and I were able to escape to Good Hart for our only getaway of the summer, and while we were away Mickey oversaw a ton of progress that was made for the house. The footings were poured Monday, the basement forms were set Tuesday, and the walls were poured Wednesday. They're now curing for a week, and we hope to get the roughers in by mid-July.

After the long drive back this morning, we zipped out to the lot to check out everything we have been hearing about. Saturday afternoon saw temps in the upper 90s, but Peter was a trooper and enjoyed hanging out and strolling around the basement with us. It is really exciting to see the dimensions of the house, and it's much easier to visualize the whole structure now.

Here are the photos Sean snapped while we were there today.

This is the far wall of the basement, and the footings that were put down Monday are visible, too. The line in the dirt shows the outline of the rest of the wall that will be built, and the jog to the right is where the doors to the walkout will go.
Here is the longest length of basement along the front of the house. The notches along the top are where the steel beams will go during roughing.
This is the interior of the basement wall. The half wall on the far side will be finished off with framing and windows along the rest of the wall to the opposite corner seen in the first photo.
Below is the front left corner of the house around the other side of the wall in the shot above; the photo was taken from where the attached garage will be.
Peter and I check out the basement from the front of the house.