NHND to the Pond Framing Update

Front of the House - Screen Porch on left/west, Gable Roof for Front Porch

 

Lots has been happening at the New House Next Door to the Pond. The foundation for the garage is poured. The garage walls and roofs are framed. Forms are in place for pouring a large retaining wall. The front porch roof rafters and screen/sun porch roof rafters are in place. Some of the wall sheathing (which is insulated sheathing, offering continuous insulation - see former post HERE to read about CI) is being installed, as well as the roof sheathing to help keep it dry inside through all these summer thundershowers. (wall sheathing is green, roof sheathing is red) These solid surfaces help you see the shapes of the building more clearly in the photos while also starting to show the dormer design, window seat bump-outs in eating area and master bedroom, and window placement and size. You can see/feel how the light and views will be connected between inside and out as well as some of the intricacies of the massing. (exciting stuff!)

Back of the House - Dormer pops up in roof for stairway

Bump-out Window Seat in Master Bedroom Wing- Long Southern Dormer for Second Floor Bedrooms

Garage Wall poured and interior tamped down and ready for slab pour

Garage Walls & Roof Framed

Screen/Sun Porch- Looking toward Pond and Sunset Views

Stair Landing Window Frames Wooded View

NHND to the Mountains Gets Interior Finishes

Front /South  and Side/ East Exterior View

Here is the newest update on the New House Next Door to the Mountains. The exterior is all done, including all 3 porches. There will also be a future screened  porch to be accessed from French doors in back of the Living Room over the walk-out basement. Final grading is also complete. Just need the grass to grow, and the clouds to clear, so you can appreciate the surrounding mountain views on this property.

View from the Northeast- This is the Mud Room Entry nearest driveway

Back/Northwest View- Shows Walk-out basement

 The interior walls and ceilings are sheet-rocked and painted and the interior finish carpentry (window trim, door installation) is complete. Tiled surfaces (tub and shower surrounds and floors) have all been installed.

Standing in Living Room looking toward front door, triple window where window seat will be, and loft above- When one climbs to the top of the Foyer Stair, one would be standing up there near 3 square windows and able to see over the railing down into the Living Room

Standing in LR still looking toward front- see Fireplace on left and window seat area on right, loft above

Standing in Living Room looking toward back- Those French Doors on right will lead to a future screened porch

Looking through Foyer toward hall closet and passage to Dining Room. Temporary stair leads up to bedrooms.

 

Flat Panel Doors and Traditional Casing/Trim (this is the powder room on first floor)

Traditional Interior Window Casing and Sill/Stool Details- Dining Room

Tiled Shower

Tiled Floor in Mud Room/Side Entry (see pocket door on lower right, which leads into Kitchen and door on upper right of pic which leads to laundry/mechanical room)

Next up will be the finished stairs, (you still see the temporary construction stair in the photo above of the foyer) and railings along the loft, and built -ins like a window seat in the Living Room and shelves in Master Bedroom and cellar stairs- and the installation of plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, and cabinetry. Stay tuned for those final photos!

And if you want to see the earlier posts for this project, click on these links:

Post 1: Too Far Gone to Renovate?

Post 2: framing-another-new-house-next-door.html

Post 3: new-house-framing-picture.html

Post 4: nhnd-to-mountains.html

Post 5: new-house-next-door-in-mountains-update.html

Post 6: nhnd-in-mountains-update.html

Post 7: update-on-new-house-next-to-mountains.html

Framing Continues at the NHND to the Pond

Passing up the 2x10s for the second floor joists

Early this past week beams and second floor joists were being installed at the NHND to the Pond. The end of that week the roof rafters and trusses started going on. Here are some photos showing all the sticks of wood that hold up this house.

Floor Joists (on left) make first floor Office ceiling and second floor - Beam to hold floor/roof load above (on right)

 

Large Pressure Treated Beams set in place to support floor, roof & walls of Screen/Sun Porch

Roof & Dormer Framing and Second Floor Walls are Framed

Roof over Master Bedroom wing is a scissor truss for vaulted ceilings

Standing in MBr and looking out future window seat windo

Screen/Sun Porch floor - looking toward pond

Framing at the New House Next to the Pond

Here is an update on The New House Next to the Pond.

The last post (click HERE to read) showed the site work and the footings - photos of dirt and concrete without too much to help you envision the beautiful house that will be there... But now we have insulated foundation walls and the first floor system and first floor walls framed.

View from Southwest / Driveway approach

In the photo above you can see the walk-out basement room on the left that looks toward the pond. Dirt and a retaining wall will bring the grade higher than it looks now, so that the front porch will only be 3 steps up. You can see the cardboard sonotubes sticking up at the front/south and on the west. These will be filled with concrete to provide a footing for the front porch and screen/sun porch roofs.
On the right side you can see the cantilever bump-out that is part of the eating area, and then the master bedroom wing in the background. In general, you can start to see where windows or doors will be located.

Peeking into the basement through the walk-out door

 Some plumbing has been roughed in under the basement slab so that a future bathroom can be built on the lowest level. (white pipes sticking up on the right). The opening in the floor shows where the stair will connecting the levels.

North Side Elevation

 This is the back of the house. On the left is the master bedroom wing, which also is where the garage will connect into the mud room. On the right is the high spaces for the office and living room with the stair in between.

South Elevation (front)

Footing forms await concrete delivery for garage

The 24' x 36' garage is tucked behind the house. They will start building that next and then build a connection between the roofs for a dry walk from house to car.

Coming up: Second Floor framing and Roof!

Program Analysis for the NHND to the Pond

After (but really during - that's the thing- architects are thinking about everything all at once) analyzing the building site, (see post about Site Analysis HERE.) I analyze the building program. The "program" is the architect term for all the spaces that are needed/wanted and in the analysis we think about how they relate to each other, the size or proportion of each space, and where on the site (solar orientation,view, privacy) is the most desirable. (for example, the kitchen wants to be near the eating area and also convenient for carrying in groceries, and perhaps wants to be open to the living space, and sunny in the morning and throughout the day.) The program for just about anybody's house can be similar, of course, but a custom-designed house can be more responsive to the wants and needs of the folks who will live there and to the specific site the building is on.

These clients liked the idea that this house would have almost all the spaces be on the main level, with only the kid's spaces being upstairs, and a (future) recreation/guest room facing the pond in the basement level where the hill drops away. A very large garage was included to store two cars and the myriad of outdoor recreation equipment the family owns. With all this ground-floor space, this was starting to look like a really big footprint on the site! Aside: When I asked them to show me photos of architectural styles they liked, a two-story farmhouse "box" was among their picks, but I had to explain that that was not at all the massing we were ending up with because of the master bedroom, office, etc all being on the main level. They also showed me lots of bungalows, capes, and craftsmen styles, and stylistically that's what we strove toward with our design, as those building shapes tend toward prominent roofs with minimal upper floor spaces being located within the roof/attic. That is another aspect of pre-design: looking at precedents- a picture really does tell a thousand words, so I always ask clients to show me photos of things they like and explain what they like about them.

One of the precedents my clients showed me- by Locati Architects in Montana

You can see photos of the above "modern bungalow" at another blog by clicking below:
http://hookedonhouses.net/2015/03/16/a-new-bungalow-built-to-blend-into-an-old-neighborhood/

One of the best ways to "be green" when designing a building is to keep the building as small as you can. Early on, my clients decided they didn't need a formal dining room and that one eating area and one living/family area was all they needed- and this helped a lot. They wanted an open and informal kitchen/living/eating space and liked the idea of incorporating a built-in bench for the eating area. Built-ins are great space savers! (think of a Tiny House on wheels and how everything is built-in) A built-in bench seat can be right against the wall/window, whereas with chairs around a table, you need 2.5 feet minimum behind each chair to slide it back or walk around, ending up with a much larger required space. I proposed a few more built-ins (storage cubbies and a bench in the mud room entry from the garage, a window seat & shelves to display art and store books in the master bedroom, book shelves on the stair landing) and all these features added to the functionality of the space and allowed each of those rooms to be a bit smaller, while also adding interest and detail. (but I'm getting ahead of myself again)

In placing the spaces in relation to each other and on the site, I ended up with something like the diagram above. I wanted  the kitchen to be the front/south - open to other spaces -including an outside space- and filled with light. I wanted the garage hidden but with a direct connection to a mudroom entry. I wanted a sunny southern porch and a western facing sun/screen porch toward the pond. I wanted the master bedroom to be away and private and not have any second floor over it, so I could vault it's ceiling and give it a feeling of expansiveness despite it's not-huge size. I wanted to office to be able to be closed off for privacy, but to also be able to be open to the living spaces with wide pocket doors to share space when they want/need extra space. I wanted the stair to be a beautiful piece of woodwork that is visible from the living area. I wanted diagonal views from kitchen, through living toward big windows facing the pond and long views from the master suite toward the public areas of the house. Of course, I wanted them to have lots of storage space, but also lots of windows and an friendly, uncomplicated feeling about the place.

These bubble diagrams become squared-off spaces with walls, doors, windows, ceilings, materials... you start to figure out how a roof might be shaped to cover it all... and the house design goes on from there, getting more and more refined, stretched, re-organized, detailed, etc. - that's the design process!