Walls of first floor

The first and second pictures are taken from the back of the house. You can see the bump out that is part of the kitchen and where a table will sit. The room next to the kitchen (in the back) will be the study. It will have a nice set of windows and door to the backyard.
This picture is the sunken family room. The big opening will house 2 in-swing French doors totaling 6'wide and 8'tall! There is great sun from this side. It will eventually open onto a beautiful stone patio. We will use stones from around the property and from the blasting. The two front windows will look out onto the 8' screened farmers porch.
Here we have the front door entrance, although the ell entrance will be used more often. Basically this is the kitchen. The corner windows represent the location of the sink. The long wall will house a double wall oven, refridgerator, range top and some counter space. There will also be a wood island (hopefully we can use the tiger maple that was cut down from the property). As you walk in from the front door there will be a wood stove with a stoned face (yes more stone from the property) going up. The stairs will be behind the wood stove and come down into the kitchen. A butlers pantry will be tucked under the stairs as well. This will all make more sense as we move along.
And now we have the basic box plus some Typar. Keep in mind the wrap around farmers porch!

Outdoor living

Some of you may recognize these outdoor chairs around our old campfire. Now the crew has lunch here and we wind up and wind down our days sitting outside with Clarke of course.

First floor framing

Here you can see the framework for the first floor. You can see the square opening in the center of the top picture, this is where the chimney will be. The bottom picture shows the sunken family room. The crew used blocking which is a higher quality way to support the floor, preventing creaking and warping.

Then they put Advantech or OSB (Orientated Strand Board) down. This is a form of plywood that uses minimal chemicals compared to regular plywood. We are trying to be somewhat "green" with our new home. Although, our friends Meghan and Dave have far surpassed us. Check out their blog and building project at http://19ridgeroad.blogspot.com/ It is awesome.

Our goal (really my goal) is to have no mold, and that is why I really wanted all wood framing like they would have done 100 years ago, but no one else agreed. In my reading heartwood is the best to use to prevent mold. But our builder guarantees our house is going to be so well built that we will not have to worry about mold. We shall see!

Frogger

Well, we apologize for the 2 month delay. Summer got the best of us and Kevin has been in no mood to keep the blog updated. So I shall take over the duty.

This is a dessicated frog I found along the edge of the foundation. Clarke meowed, "Where's the beef?"

Framing begins..........

Here, Danny, Steve and Al layout the support beams that our house will sit on. Look how well these guys work together......one happy framing crew.

Slab's in......

Here's the slab in all it's glory...or is it Nelle and Kevin's new street hockey rink?...

Finishing the slab...

We are getting closer to having all of the prep work complete so we can begin the framing next week..... You are looking at the foundation with the interior drain and radon mitigation piping covered over with stones with a layer of poly laid ontop....bring on the concrete!