stairs + chairs

hello.


Most of the time this week was spent trying to figure out our front stairs. Walter + his team had to unearth most of the fill that was near our front entry in order to install a concrete block foundation for the main entry stairs up to the house. This area was particularly difficult to design, because I never did a real land survey in that area. Nor do I actually know how to do a real land survey. Anyway, the area was a lot steeper than I had anticipated, so we've been going back and forth between my sketches and figuring it all out on site. Billy and I are comfortable at this point making lemonade from lemons and pretty much letting the guys wing it from here. We'll see how it turns out.



Above is the full house view from the front as it is right now.



And a BIG thank you to Walter for making us some really cool chairs for our future fire pit! He made a bunch of them for another client, and was thoughtful enough to make a few extra for us. How great is that?

Rafters

Hello all. This week we gained roof rafters, and you can start to see the barn influence. The above shot is from the backyard.



Above is a shot from across the driveway. The workers have begun to apply the Tyvek housewrap to the sheathing.



Above is the view from the driveway as it turns toward the garage. Check out the sweetness that is our covered deck!

It turns out that we'll need a separate foundation for our entry steps. That big mound of dirt is backfill that had to be removed to make way for said foundation.



It appears mighty tall when you're approaching the garage. I think this is really going to be an impressive sight when it's done.



This is up on the roof deck. It's not the best picture, but you can see that the floor is waterproofed and sloped to allow for proper drainage.



And here's the lovely Nina, standing in the master closet wall.

sheathing

hey blog fans. short post this week. most of the plywood sheathing is up. this not only protects the house from weather, but is actually structural as well, taking much of the shear loads. well, whatever's left that isn't dealt with by our many metal shear wall panels that the engineer specified. next week walter will begin framing on the roof. i think that will be a bit shocking, as i've gotten quite used to our low-profile flat box.

above is a collaged view of the main space from the kitchen toward the fireplace wall. we're installing a vent-free gas fireplace, so no chimney required. as such, it will be surrounded by glass.

above is the view from the driveway approaching the garage.

above is the garage, which is under the den and entry hall, which is under the covered roof deck. you can see that the land is still a few feet shy of reaching the front door. we're still working out the details for the front steps.

above, the view from the backyard.

our first night at the house

hello friends and family. this week the first image goes to our new friend arthur. arthur is the resident fowl at clinton vineyards, a highlight among local stanford-area attractions. this past weekend, billy and i, along with our dear friends carey and justine (actually we just met justine, but after a few rounds of lawn bocce and some kumbaya 'round the fire, i feel like we're the oldest of gal pals) set up camp in our future backyard and got to know our new home. the weather was perfect, in fact refreshingly chilly at night, which was a welcome change from the recent oppressive august heat. we visited a few vineyards, played some bocce, and roasted some marshmallows, and didn't actually sing kumbaya. but there was a fire. and the pure silence was bliss come bedtime. it was all really nice until my peaceful slumber was disrupted by a vicious man-eating wildebeest and its epic blood fest featuring a giant grizzly bear right outside my tent. or, it was a gentle deer. eating a leaf. either way, there may have been a grand total of two hours of real sleep for me. but hey, my mind goes to dark places sometimes. needless to say, i'll be very happy when this house has central ac, a shower, and light. lots of glorious, artificial light.

so, here's the house. doesn't look all that different from last week, but now there's backfill around the foundation, so the house doesn't actually look like it's three storeys tall. and the interior framing on the second floor is pretty much done. this week, walter's going to begin framing out the roof.






c'est tout.

second floor

this week, the exterior walls on the second floor were framed out. "rub-r-wall" was also applied to the foundation for waterproofing. what you see around most of the foundation in the picture above is actually insulating foam. this should help to prevent any heat loss through the basement walls.

walter also started backfilling the area around the foundation, although this picture isn't the best evidence.

at the far end of the photo, you'll notice that there are no walls on the second floor - this will be the outdoor living room, complete with ipe floors and ceiling and a cable railing.

in this shot from the backyard, you can see the window openings on the second floor. we used a standard 3' wide by 4' tall window unit in all the upstairs rooms. here's the layout, from the left...

• first set of double windows is in the master bedroom
• second set of double windows is in the master bathroom
• the next two single windows are in one of the guest rooms
• the final set of double windows is in the other guest room

the stairs to the second level will be just to the left of the outdoor living room.

this shot shows the front of the house from across the driveway (the white trailer is in the driveway). again, the insulating foam is visible. additional fill will be brought in such that all of the insulation is covered.

hi walter.

we'll update again next weekend, when we hope to have the interior walls on the second floor framed.

first floor

hello friends and family. as you see above, we have our first floor all framed out. there isn't much interior wall since the majority of the first floor is one large space. the three big openings you see on the eastern wall are where our floor-to-ceiling windows/doors will be - this is the kitchen/dining/living space. the big opening on the short wall is where our fireplace will be - there's an old rendering of the interior of that wall in an earlier post below. the layout has been refined a bit since the rendering was made, but the windows will look the same. in the foreground, an extra floor joist serves as a scary plank to get over an 11 foot deep hole.


this is looking at the house from the backyard/pool area. again, that's our kitchen/dining/living space. there will be a stone patio off that room, possibly with an integrated herb/vegetable garden. to the right of the large window bays is a bathroom, stairs to the second level, the entry space and a TV room.


above is our main living space, as viewed through the fireplace wall. the windows on the western (left) wall are much smaller and serve to frame pretty views of the oak and pine trees. the smaller windows will also help minimize the effects of the hot afternoon sun. if you zoom in, you can see the wall where our refrigerator and wall cabinets will go. there will be a kitchen island that is the same width as that wall (13 feet), with plenty of stools. on either side of the kitchen wall is a hallway - check out the floorplans in this old post for more detail.


above is a shot of the tv room. this room will also have floor-to-ceiling windows on the eastern wall and the smaller windows on the western wall. the tv will go against the wall on the left, and the sofa will go on the wall on the right. at the very left of the photo, you can see an opening in the ceiling - this is for our stairs to the second level. turning left at the top of those stairs will take you down a hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms. on the right will be a door to a covered outdoor living space. if you zoom in, you can actually see how the subfloor of this space is sloped down to the north (right) to allow any water to drain properly. the floor itself will be level, as the ipe planks will be attached to sleepers that are angled to negate the slope of the subfloor.


and finally, this is a shot of the front elevation. you can see the garage to the left. above is the tv room, then the front door, then the hallway, then the kitchen/dining/living space. we'll eventually bring in fill, such that there is level earth from the front door to the southern (far) end of the house. there will be stone stairs from our driveway to the front door, and the exposed foundation above the stairs and around the garage door will be clad in ledgestone.

join us next week, when we hope to post photos of the second floor framing.

framing

Framing has begun! Our first floor trusses, subfloor and shear walls are now in place. Above, you can see the shear walls - these metal units are required as we have large expanses of glass that cannot support the weight of the materials above. There's a massive header that rests on top of the shear walls and distributes the weight evenly (it was installed after our visit, so it's not in the picture). In the above shot, the near wall with three shear walls will face our backyard/pool - the three large openings along that wall will be floor to ceiling windows.



Above is a view toward the house from the backyard. You can see where the three sets of windows will be between the shear walls - each set of windows contains a sliding door that will open onto a stone patio. The ground will then be terraced down to the driveway on the right.


Above, framers installing the outer wall near our pantry.


Above, a view into our garage (near) and basement (far). There will be a wall, stairway and mechanicals between the two spaces. Our garage will get light through windows in the door, but the basement will unfortunately have no windows as the house is nestled into the hill. We'll have an air exchange unit down there to keep the air fresh. Can't have a bar/pool room with stale air.


Above, we've got squatters! There are a couple of bird's nests in the floor trusses. Apparently this is very common during construction, and our framers actually keep an eye out to make sure the eggs hatch undisturbed.


On our way out of town, this guy was in front of us. Gonna have to get me one of them.

We're hopefully going back up toward the end of this week - might even have a second floor by then! This part of the construction process is supposed to fly, so expect significant activity over the coming months.

See ya.

big concrete box

hello again. we officially have a foundation! this bad boy is what will keep our house anchored to the ground should a big bad wolf ever cause us any trouble. in a nutshell the next steps after this are pouring the basement floor, and waterproofing the outside of the concrete. then framing begins in a week or two, with laying the floor trusses for the main floor. after a good amount of framing happens, a good amount of weight will then be sitting on the concrete, and walter will begin to backfill the gaps around the foundation with a mix of special backfill dirt, and some dirt dug out from the excavation.

below is what the approach will look like from the driveway - you can see the concrete peeking up from the hill.

next picture is a closeup of the top of the wall. these anchor bolts that were cast into the concrete is what the framing gets screwed into. you'll also notice that we stepped the wall in order to use a bottom-bearing open web truss joist system for the floor. which, to keep it simple, allows us to have a larger open span, and also bring the finished floor inside lower to ground level.


above you can see our primary electric inside the basement. walter (right) and the electrician are trying to figure out where to locate our main electrical panel. below is a picture of the well. bill and i got a little nervous when we noticed the electrical wires sharing a conduit with the well water pipe, until walter explained that the pump for the well uses a special water-proof wire.


and this is the septic tank where all the poop goes. all the waste water in the house from sinks, showers + toilets gets flushed into this tank. the solids collect at the bottom (ew), while the water rises to the top and spills out into a pipe carrying it to our leech field (in the distance), where it is distributed evenly over the whole field through a series of pipes, and evaporates. and because the water from the waste is so rich in nitrates, it's the perfect irrigation system for the lush wildflowers that will populate the field.

class dismissed.

almost out of the ground...

this week, the formwork for our foundation walls was nearly complete. all that's left to do is install the anchor bolts within the formwork. the anchor bolts are cast into the foundation and then the wood framing is screwed into them, thereby anchoring the house into the ground. what you see above are metal forms, shored up by the long 2x's leaning in. these 2x's have spring-loaded adjusters (i don't know the techncial term for these) at the ends, so that the walls can be very precisely adjusted and straightened. inside the metal forms is our network of steel rebar, specified by our engineer. and by the looks of this network, i say bring on the extreme winds because this baby is going to outlast the cockroaches.

above is our footing drain. this is a perforated pipe that runs around the perimeter of the foundation to drain water away from the house.

this is a view of the house site from the back yard. the finished floor will be just below where that top 2x is located (about 12" below the top of those forms). once it's backfilled (after the framing goes up), and we move some earth around, the finished floor inside will ideally be at the same level as the yard.


and this is the view from the driveway, facing the garage door. not really all that informative at this time, but i just thought it was a cool picture.

footings

don't have much time to post now, but i'd thought i'd get some of these up before our next post, which will hopefully be sunday night, when we will have full foundation walls! these are our footings, which is what the walls are attached to through what is called a keyhole (a groove cast into the footings, and this steel rebar sticking out of the footings.

that's billy, checking things out in the distance, with bill our mason, who works with another guy named bill.

and this is our work permit. woop woop.