It took the better part of the week but all the walls were raised on Thursday and Friday. The entire main floor is now framed! Wow, it looks great!!
It's interesting to see how the rooms look a lot bigger once the framing is up versus when the wall layout is placed only on the floor. I guess it is the 3D perspective that really alters perspective. I'm not sure what that says about reviewing your architect's design before the framing is complete. It might be better to trust your contractor's instinct on room sizes before making any drastic changes.
Also in the picture is a load of dirt we got for free on Craigslist. I posted an add requesting clean fill and someone who was digging a crawl space responded. They dropped off 3 dump truck loads, about 30 cubic yards, of nice stuff. However, it looks like that will barely make a dent in the front yard! Fortunately, one of Brian's crew - "framer Dave" - his father is in the excavation business and has set aside 150 cubic yards of great quality dirt for us which will be available in a couple of weeks. I guess we underestimated all the slopes on our property and the demolition took quite a bit of dirt away.
In preparation for the arrival of megadirt, I spent the day Saturday cleaning up the backyard creek. What a nightmare. 20 years of the previous owner dumping all sorts of crap back there - branches, flower pots, fences, metal, glass jugs, pipes, barbed wire etc etc. Some people just have no respect for nature which is really sad. We even had a full telephone post back there all chopped into 4 foot sections buried under the ivy vines. It's amazing how creosote preserves wood, it must have been 20+ years old and was still in decent shape despite being buried under a foot of dirt and roots.
Next week Structural FX will start framing the garage and put the shear walls (plywood covering all the frame) on the two floors. They ordered the trusses for the roof this past week which should be here in a couple of weeks. The windows will arrive almost the same time. The pace continues to be blazing fast. We're expecting a huge bonus on our garage trusses. Brian dropped these down and we should be able to get another 30 foot x 10 foot room up there! That should make a great artist loft or playroom for the kids.
One unexpected arrival this past week was all our kitchen cabinets from Thomasville, 2 weeks early. It was a huge load that took a good 4 hours to open and check and then stack in our storage gazebo. It looks like only one was damaged and we're missing 3 other parts which we'll follow up with the shipper and Thomasville. Our Kraftmaid cabinets are still outstanding but should be here in a week.
Also arrived: the door hardware from Omnia, amazingly took only a week; the Viking rangetop and Vent a Hood range hood - took 2 months - and the tile - took 2 weeks.
Next on the list: searching for lights - mini-pendants for our kitchen island, chandeliers, vanity lights for the bathrooms, scones, hall lights and outdoor units. We also placed the order for the fireplace slate this week - we ended up going with Vermont Natural Stoneworks who were 50% less than the other quotes we got. After getting their samples, we were content to proceed. Brian will get some local epoxy to glue these together. This will look fabulous when done!
