Google Maps…

Google Maps has just recently been update and the “L” Shaped House now shows up in a search of the neighborhood. I don’t know.. it looks kind of big.

Anchor Block…Photos!

Pat Berry from InsideOut Studios sent me image files of the paver driveway from the Anchor Block photo shoot on Tuesday. He has produced a pair of wonderful photos from both the front and back ends of the driveway. The images are going to be a great addition to our memories of this big adventure.

The “L” Shaped House has never looked better!

The “L” Shaped House…May 2010

I decided to take a couple of “long” shots of the house from the middle of Cottage lane during my visit to the “L” Shaped House this morning. These views will change significantly over the next couple weeks as the exterior painting continues and the driveway “morphs” across the front yard.

First; the view from in front of Frank’s house…

Next; from in front of the Steinhauser’s place…

The Backyard…It's all about the Dogs!

The “L” Shaped House is going to be a “dog friendly” place!

The mudroom, breezeway deck, and backyard dog run are specifically designed to accommodate dog ownership and meant to enhance the lives of our four-legged family members and any of their friends who may come to visit. The first sketch below shows the elements of the “dog friendly” design. The dog kennels will be housed in the mudroom which is connected to the breezeway deck and backyard dog run by a dog door in the outside wall. Wren and Phil will have un-fettered access to the far end of the deck and dog run when they are left behind. The deck area will be partitioned with a set of flexible barriers (bungee-corded cargo netting) that can be moved about to expand or contract the dog area. The ramp will lead to a fenced dog run covered in a specially engineered artificial turf product from K9 Grass. Waste will automatically drain away under the surface of the grass and be carried out beyond the back yard in the 4” PVC  drain pipe already in place for the downspouts.

The dog kennels will be placed under the counter at the end of the mudroom in front of the wash down area. The dog door is a double flap Endura Wall Pet Door from the Pet Door Store.

    

The (crude) Photoshop creation below is meant to give a reasonable idea of the scale and placement of the dog door, ramp, and fenced run outside the back breezeway entrance.

The final drawing is the engineering sketch I put together to help the (somewhat reluctant) landscape crew and K9 Grass guys understand exactly what I want. I think that everyone is going to be especially happy with this unique element of the “L” Shaped House!

Lighting…The Garage Lights

We started looking for lights to hang above the garage doors way back in December of last year. Along the way we considered many different lighting fixtures from a wide variety of manufacturers. The folks at Barnlight Electric make a line of “rustic” light fixtures that just seem to fit in perfectly along the garage wall of the “L” Shaped House. Mike Kloti and I exchanged a couple of messages about the Barnlight Electric fixtures and finally decided to purchase four 16” diameter “Original” gooseneck lights in a galvanized finish. Mike produced the drawing below as we considered sizing possibilities.

The Barnlight Electric website has this nice image that shows the “Original” gooseneck fixture in the middle and an example of the galvanized finish on the right.

And here it is!…one of the Barnlight Electric gooseneck barn lights set up on our dining room table this morning as Deb and I struggled through yet another marathon lighting fixture selection session. They arrived via FedEx a few days ago…to be installed after we paint the outside of the house.

400!

This is posting number 400 on the “L” Shaped House Blog. I never imagined the blog would come this far. I remember telling someone in the beginning that I thought there might be as many 250 entries. What started as a vague plan to document the building of our new home has grown into a rather elaborate and lengthy documentary (some have even used the word obsession). Its way too late to stop now and I have both had fun and learned along the way. I sincerely hope that you have also enjoyed it as much as I have!

No posting is complete without a couple of photos…The first is a panoramic view just inside the front door to the house. This seems an appropriate milestone photo.

The second is a panoramic shot of the back side of the house from a spot near the outlet for drains coming from the paver patio outside the basement walk-out doors…The drains have worked perfectly…phew!

The “L” Shaped House…200 Days

Today marks day 200 in the construction of the “L” Shaped House. I decided to celebrate this important milestone by posting a couple of photos taken with my “real” camera (Canon 5D). The first shows a front view of the house with the beautiful winter sky in the background.

The second photo of the dining room and kitchen shows the overall construction progress at the “L” Shaped House nicely. The drywall on the first floor is ready to be primed…finish carpentry will follow shortly.

In the last two photos I have tried to capture two of the first floor sight lines that show the “open” floor plan and architectural “layering” effect Mike Kloti envisioned during the design process more than a year ago (see Mike’s original thoughts here).

OH…Happy 299th posting as well!

Siding…day 1

The Tappe siding crew started work at the “L” Shaped House today. By noon they had the end wall of the garage finished and a good start on the front. The first photo below shows the primed Hardie siding and finished MiraTec trim on the end wall. The eaves and soffit are covered with metal as the siding is installed.

The next photo shows the front side of the garage with siding, Trim, and the beginnings of the “thin white line” that will wrap the house installed. It looks like our friend Camille will get her wish…we will probably have a green house (at least for a while).

No “Pork Chops” for you…

  

One of the more interesting aspects of building a new home is being a part of the interactions between the people involved. Everyone working on The “L” Shaped House up to this point has left their mark on the place and everyone has been a good sport putting up with my obsessive attention. I have enjoyed watching and working with everyone immensely.

Mike Kloti and I started meeting to discuss our new home 10 months ago (long before it was called The “L” Shaped House). Mike is passionate about the project and has a specific vision for how it will look. Details that most of us would ignore (including me) sometimes inflame those passions in Mike. Photos on this blog of the eaves on the “L” Shaped House got Mike’s attention and stirred him into action. After about half of the boxed eave returns were installed as “Pork Chop” returns we had the Tappe guys rebuild them all as “Kloti Chops” (see page 202 here).

Thank you, Mike…both for your passion and attention!

Roofing…Day 2

In spite of the windy conditions and threat of rain the roofing guys are hard at work. The photo below shows the first 1/4 of the bonus room with the flashing, roofing paper, and shingles going up. The Charcoal color looks nice and it feels good to get the roof going.

The next photos show the work progressing on the opposite side of the bonus room. First a close up of the roof tail between the dormers showing a close up of the flashing and shingles. The second photo shows the back section of the roof with just the first course of shingles applied.

Framing…Day 10

The Tappe crew spent the day building the last exterior wall sections on the second floor and adding a whole bunch of the small sections of OSB that complete the siding of the house. Then they carefully wrapped and taped Tyvek all around the house and garage. The first photo shows the front of The “L” Shaped House with the book nook wall above the front door in place and the Tyvek house wrapping.

They also added the treated ledger board that will serve as attachment points for the front, and breezeway porches. In this photo we see the front porch ledgers with the ice shield barrier installed behind and the metal flashing at the very top.

The next photo shows the ledger that will anchor the breezeway entry porch a little earlier in the installation process with the ice shield, sealing tape, and metal flashing in place.

The last photo shows the back side of the house pretty much completely wrapped in Tyvek. Its amazing how many joints have to be taped.

Exterior Colors… Many Options

Remember what I said about picking a siding color from the James Hardie color palette?

Well…Never Mind!

It turns out that the plan all along has been to put up primed siding and paint the exterior after the siding, and trim are installed. This means that the whole Sherwin Williams exterior paint color palette is now in play (1269 colors). Deb and I played around with the Color Visualizer on the Sherwin Williams website last night. We both liked Cloak Grey with white trim (Deb insists she wants a red door…). I colored Mike Kloti’s front elevation view and included it below. The sketch also includes Landmark Plus dimensional shingles (in Moire Black) from Certain Teed.

*Update*… “James” from the James Hardie Company points out (below) that there is a nice color selector tool available on the new James Hardie Facebook page (here). It’s a nice tool and kind of fun!

Exterior Colors…choices

We will have to make our final choices on the exterior color scheme for The “L” Shaped House right away. The windows and trim will be white. The roofing a dark slate. The first Hardie Board siding needs to be installed on the face of the floor trusses before the front porch is framed. We will probably put a couple of samples up and make our final choice very soon.

We have narrowed down the siding color to… Evening Blue

and Iron Grey

The house sketch with Iron Grey siding placed on the site (with reasonable accuracy).