Dawn of Framing

The framers are almost finished doing their portion of the house. Only a few small details remain. Once the framing is done, rough-in will begin inside the house, in roughly this order: HVAC mechanical installation, plumbing rough-in, both water and gas, electrical rough in, low voltage, and fire sprinklers.

Closet With a View

This closet will have a nice view of the hillside and saguaros.

Awning Framed Over Guest Bedroom

This week, the framers have been working mostly on the roof.  Today, they were working on the frames of the awnings that will be over four of the windows.  We will be putting a rusted "Corten Steel" application on the roof of the awning, and then staining the exposed wood a dark color, adding a very inviting rustic feel to the house.

Mid Morning Sun over Phoenix

I caught this interesting photo of the sun over Phoenix while visiting the lot.  At first, I noticed a faint rainbow entirely around the sun, so I took a photo of it. When I got home, I enhanced the photo to bring out the blue color of the sky and increase the contrast of the rainbow "Halo".  Pretty interesting!

See Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)

View From The Hill

The guys were working on the roof again today, so I took a photo from up higher on the hill to see some of the roof progress.

View of House from Afar

Several of you asked for photos of the full house, from afar, to get a feel for what it looks like. I aim to please, so here are some shots.  The framers are working on the roof, so the internal changes aren't as noticeable anyway.

Neighbors

Well, we knew it was going to happen eventually, but were hoping it wouldn't be so soon. It would have been nice if we had clear views from this window when we moved in. But if they start constructing as quickly as our house is, we probably won't see that hillside.  At least it's a sign that the economy is coming back and people are beginning to build again.

Roof Plate in Place

The framers made good progress on Monday and Tuesday, getting most of the roof plating installed.  This is the great room, with most of the plywood plate in place.

View of Roof Plating From Directly Below 

View From Den

Here's a preview of what it will look like when peering out the den window; well, at least, if you stand in the corner of the den and look South.

Lifting Trusses onto Roof

The framers used pure elbow grease to lift all of the trusses onto the roof; no crane needed.  Here they are putting up the remaining trusses over the kitchen and patio area.

Roof Trusses over Greatroom

After the full day off during the rain, the framers came to the lot early on Saturday and completed the roof trusses over the great room.  The rain from the day before left things rather soggy, but the framers were able to work around it.  The other parts of the house, such as the kitchen and garage, will dry out quickly in the sunny Phoenix weather.

Reconfiguring Garage Stairs

The framers originally built the last landing of the garage stairs to walk out directly to where the cars would park.  We asked them if they could change the layout to have the stairs turn and come back toward the inner garage.  This would make it easier to get up the stairs, rather than trying to squeeze by the car door.  Dennis, our builder (on right), was talking with the framer, Ernie, to work out the details.  All part of the fun of building a custom house!

Pouring The Slab

Today (Friday, March 8, 2013) was cold and rainy, so the framers took the day off.  To help you all from getting bored, here are a few videos of the workers pouring the slab and garage floor. They poured the slab on February 14, 2013 (Valentine's day).

Pouring the Main Slab

Pouring the Garage Floor

Cement Truck Backing up to Pumper

Living Room

The framers got both interior walls, East and West, of the Living Room up today.  This is what it looks like when standing at the foyer of the front door, looking in.

Building Interior Walls

All of the exterior walls of the framing are up. Here's a shot of some of the interior walls, with one of the walls for the living room being constructed on its side.  It's interesting that the framers construct the doorways and full length of the wall and then prop it up ready to be raised in one large piece.  That wall must be very heavy with the sheer plating already nailed in.

  

Animation of House

I've been taking photos during the lot's building, and have pasted them all together to make an animation of the lot and house forming.  Here's what it looks like so far, as of late February 2013.

Framing Garage at Night

George and I drove up to the lot last night, as the sky was cloudless and clear, to see how the views and surrounding hills look in the dark.  There are no streetlights inside the community, so we were hoping the stars were more visible from the hill.  Downtown Phoenix is still only a few miles away, so we will never see the full array of stars. But at least we hope for a hint.

At this stage of building, the garage is fully framed out, with the outer kitchen walls nearly complete.  This photo shows the garage and outer kitchen wall, above, with the sky and stars peeking through the windows and roofless ceiling.

View West from Patio

Here's a view facing West, from the patio, which is still being completed. You can see the trusses that will be supporting the patio deck below.

Framing and Roof Trusses

Here's some progress on the framing of the house, with the roof trusses waiting in the street, shown on the right-hand side of the picture.