Ya gotta believe me, I'm being framed!

The framing crew is here and things are clipping right along.  I drive by our property every day on the way to and from work, so I can see if there is activity in the morning, usually around 7 am.  I always stop on the way home to see what has happened that day and snap a few pics.

Sunday afternoon.

This series of photos was taken each day this past week, starting Sunday afternoon, just to get a good before picture.  We've had a stellar week of great building weather, so Kevin Lovejoy and his crew were able to make great progress.

On Sunday we have a foundation ready to go and a pile of foam insulation.

Monday evening, the first floor joists are all in place along with the supporting beam in the basement.  This is the first time I've been able to access the basement as there was finally a ladder available to climb down.

This won't be finished at the outset, but we plan to add a small exercise room and finish off a portion for that man-cave that I've always wanted.  Since I was in High School, I've dreamed of having a pool table but never had the right space for it.  Good things come to those who wait.

Monday evening

By Tuesday evening, the decking has been glued and screwed down and the outside walls are starting to take shape.  There's lots of little intricacies involved in the framing.  There is an outside wall that contains all the headers and structural stuff needed to keep the house standing.  Then there is an interior mirror wall to accommodate 12 inches of dense packed  cellulose insulation.

On Wednesday evening I was pleased, (thrilled actually), to walk inside the house for the first time to get a feel for the size of the

Looking East through the mud room.
 

downstairs.

You can see from these photos the cool green sheathing and tape that forms the vapor barrier on the outside of the house.

By Thursday evening, all of the interior walls on the first floor were in place.  Now we can finally get a sense of the size and flow of the rooms as well as the views from the windows.  Even though it was a bit overcast, the Adirondacks were stunning.  We chose 9 foot ceilings for the first floor and I'm glad we did.  The extra height and large window openings really provide an airy feel.

One of the windows on the south side.
 

You can get a sense of the size of the windows on the south side.  The pretty blonde in the picture stands about 5 foot 2.  These windows are triple glazed and Nate Hayward tells me they will generate more BTU's in the winter than our heat exchangers will.  I'll have a little more data on these in a future post. 

 

We've maximized the glass on the southern exposure and minimized it on the north side of the house.  I believe we'll have two windows on that side.  All we had to do was look around our little neighborhood to see examples of just the opposite. 

 

Another area that received great attention was sealing the gap between the foundation and the sill plate.  Most builders would lay a strip of foam under the sill and call it a day.  Ours ran two beads of heavy duty caulk under the sill and compressed that into place.  They then caulked the seam outside the sill, then sprayed foam insulation on the inside of the 


A view of the front of our house.

sheathing and compressed that into place.  Lastly, more of the special tape will be applied to the bottom of the sheathing.  You can see an example of this on the front of the house.  If air permeates one of these boundaries, it still needs to get thru three more in order to find its way into our house.

 

Unfortunately, the 9 am delivery of materials to install the second floor deck arrived around 2 pm, so Kevin and his crew lost some momentum on Friday.  We are still thrilled at the amount that was accomplished in one week.

 

Stay tuned, there's lot's more to come...