More progress.

Work continues all around the house. The carpenters were busy wrapping up the framing of the interior walls and putting in all the needed backing for drywall. The soffits are now done and our crew is busy working up to them. Out back Peter was busy welding up the tree fort on the edge of the back patio. The tree is half outside the house and half inside, surrounding  the door to the staircase leading to Phoebe's secret room upstairs.

Out front we managed to cement and sculpt the giant truss. The wall behind it will be plastered tomorrow morning and then Peter will be welding up the top of the last tree on that part of the house. The mudding of the super large front two trees will start in the next few days, changing the look of the house in a very big way in a hurry.

On the east side of the house we are testing paint colors and painting techniques. We've pretty much decided ho the main panels will look but the trim pieces are still in testing. By the end if the week we should be painting down on the rocks with the painted trim going on as a last step in a couple of weeks.

Up on the roof the Penfold's Roofing crew continues to work hard. They finished the first eyebrow today and it looks mighty fine. They should be finished the west half of the roof tomorrow or close to it. I's sure liking the look of these shingles!

This evening the house got a thorough and complete clean in preparation for the arrival of the electricians tomorrow. Janis and I spent considerable time in each room planning out where each light would go and how it will be switched. Tomorrow the plan is to start in on the many plugs throughout the house. Marv, our HVAC and air conditioning installer also begins his ducting work as well.

Progress around the house

Each day I can scarcely follow the progress that happens with the house project. So many people are doing so many things all around the building - all at the same time! While I do my best to do actual physical work, a lot of my time is spent making sure things are going according to the plan that largely lives in my head. Janis and I tour the site a number of times each day to look things over and to discuss changes and modifications, ideally before the project is started.

Up on the roof the Penfold's Roofers are busy nailing on the recycled rubber shinlges. They are doing a great job payng particular attetion to the curved eyebrows. I watched for a while as one of the fellows worked on the curved roof over the entry. He carefully test fit each piece, trimming as necessary and also careful not to put any joints near the valleys of the roof. He explained the why's of everything he was doing. I learned lots! We are confident the roof will serve us well for many, many years into the future!

The carpenters were busy tidying up the various bits of framing of the walls through the house. They also finished the high soffits on the back patio roof. They will be finished this stage of construction in a few days.

Our crew were busy through the day mixing and applying the fiberglass reinforced concrete in many paces around the house exterior. We sculpted the first of the trees in the carport. 

We also mudded the high facia on the front gable. We used a snorkle lift to reach as it was the fastest and safest way to get way up there. 

I get many enquiries about the process we use to do the sculpting of the concrete on our house. We sculpt with a special concrete mix that is called FRC - fiberglass reinforced concrete. It is trowelled on the expanded steel lath about an inch thick and allowed to set up until it is cured enough to carve. This generally takes one to two hours depending on the wind, sunshine and humidity. 

We then use a variety of special tools to carve and sculpt the concrete to the shape and texture we desire. It is important that we carve quickly, at the same rate we applied the concrete, for the open time for carving is very short. It will become rock hard soon!

It was a great day today! Much was done on the house and we are all eager to get goong once again tomorrow. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Curving the hallway ceilings.

One of the themes that will run through every aspect of the house is the arch. The windows, beams and many of the ceilings feature arches. I've long believed that curves are much more pleasing than straight lines.

Although we've had our MultiCam CNC router for better than six years, our new house is the first time we've used it for all aspects of a very large project. Generally, we do the theme work with others in charge of the framing. In the case of our new house we are using the computerized router in every possible aspect of the build. The router cuts the pieces we need extremely fast and extremely accurately. I take careful measurements and then use a program called EnRoute Pro to design and create the cutting files. These are sent to the router from my desk. The hard part of the process is loading and unloading the plywood onto the router.

I designed and cut forty plywood pieces for the arched hallway ceiling in less than an hour today. They hd a smooth arch on the bottom, but the top side was notched for the built-in vacuum and runs of wiring. Each piece was cut perfectly without effort. It took me far longer to fasten the pieces into place.

This week we'll put in the potlights and run a bunch more wiring. Then we'll put in the insulation and board up the bottom. Lastly we'll staple on the lath just before we trowel on the concrete plaster. The curved celing will have a heavy crown molding under it and hidden in the top of the molding will be plenty of LED lights to give the curved ceiling a beautiful glow. I can hardly wait!

-grampa dan