Framing Days 11, 12 & 13 & Kitchen Info

Walking in the house today, it is pretty amazing to think that what started out as a off the wall idea to buy a teardown lot and a floorplan sketched on scratch paper is real. The more amazing part is there are really no "oddities" in the house - everything flows properly and feels how it was envisioned to feel. My biggest fear was always that the house would have all sorts of problem spots and not feel like a professionally designed house - and then I would have to live down all the comments as I am the one that drew it. But it is actually quite the opposite- it really is cool!! Now I am sure some may not find the design "traditional" enough - with 10ft ceilings, a kitchen island our kitchen designer said "is the biggest he has ever seen", contemporary craftsman styling, no real "formal" rooms, and no master bath tub - instead a massive walk in shower.

Anyways, only got three days of framing in this week...Tuesday and Wednesday were just too cold...and by today it was darn near 60. We are still on pace to get windows started this coming Wednesday, and possibly get the shingles going as well. Weather looks good, with another near 60 day coming on Tuesday and temps otherwise in the 40's...hopefully by weeks end this puppy can be "dryed in".

My bigger concern of the moment is what is still in the basement. Given the brutal January weather, there is still a good deal of ice and snow down there, and it is now covered by 2 floors of a framed house. So even though it was almost 60 today, in the basement it feels about 30...as the warm air can't get down there easily to melt the ice. I am hoping with the warmth of the next 4-5 days - it wipes it out, but we shall see. I may have to get creative and stick some space heaters down there or something...as it needs to melt and dry out to get that basement floor poured.


Some of the final outlines are going up. The area above the garage - which will be the master closet, is framed. The only exterior feature still missing is the front porch area...


Just 5 months ago - this is what it looked like...crazy!




The great room area...pic does not do it justice...as those two windows on the back wall are giants...as those are 10ft cielings in that room. The cut out by the tyvek house wrap is where the firepalce will be. Stone will go from floor to ceiling.


Looking into the kitchen...


This is the layout for the kitchen...and yes, that island is large and in charge...it will contain the sink, dishwasher, special "dish" drawers (dishes will be in lower pull out drawers, not in high cabinets), micorwave, a seating area on the opposite side and just altogether, likely the central gathering area in the house...


Now, the pics below are 90% accurate and dont look that great - but give an idea of the layout. The column that comes into the island will not be that large - and I plan to do some sort of "craftsman taper" to it to make it mimic the ones on the front of the house...The color of the cabinets in the mockups below is jsut general...in reality, the wall cabinets will be what KraftMaid calls "Canvas w/ Cocoa Glaze" - and if we have the balls to see it through - the island will be a very dark cherry color - they call it Peppercorn. It is quite possible we have spent nearly as much time planning this kitchen as laying out the house - well, probably not, but it seems like it. And if anyone ever needs a good kitchen designer, I would recco mine to anyone...





The color scheme will be very very close to this - light wall cabinets, dark island. We like it, just get nervous going with two diff color schemes. If we puss out...the island will simply be the same color as the wall cabinets.

Another look into the great room...den and powder room are on other side...