What a Week!

July 16, 2011

Wow! That’s all I can say this week. After watching the tortoise’s pace of clearing, excavating, footings, etc., etc…this week certainly went like the hare. The last time I was at the lake, the foundation was done but no slab yet. What a difference a week makes!

As you can see, the framers made a little progress. This is the view that faces the lake. The rough openings on this side will be windows and a sliding patio door. You can also see that the they’ve got a post in place ready for the big LVL beam. All of the first floor partitions are framed and, that lumber laying on the second floor is all of the rafters got and ready to go. I bet they’ll get the roof framed and sheathed on Monday.

Here’s a view from the south facing side. The rough opening to the left will be for windows in the dining area and the one to the right is for a bay window.

Here’s a view from the back of the cottage taken earlier in the day before showing the rough openings for the windows for the two bedrooms (they’re using one of the openings as the entryway so it’s not fully framed yet.

The framers are a really experienced crew and have been working with our GC for 30 years. They’re doing a great job and I was pleased that they’re also doing the windows and siding.

One experiment I tried was to use T1-11 plywood ( a trextured and grooved plywood usually used for siding) as the subfloor material with the grooves facing down. I was hoping that it might look good enough to be the finished ceiling and I think, with a little trim work that it just might:

A couple more random views to give you a feel for the inside of the cottage….Here’s the view from the girls’ room

The ladder here is where the stairs to the loft will be

Here’s looking down onto the dining/living room and kitchen area from the loft

The framers aren’t the only ones that have been busy. Work on the septic has started. I arrived in the early am and the pit for the septic tank and pump station were dug

There were a tone of rocks and boulders that came out of that pit. We’ve got no shortage of rocks for landscaping.

When I came back at the end of the day, the tanks and manhole for the pump were in place

They’ve also got the leaching field started with a couple legs of the drain tile in place

These guys sure have been working hard…it was 5:30 on Friday afternoon and they were still at it, back filling the drain tile

One thing that I’ve been somewhat conscious of is the view of the building from the lake. We’ve been hoping to keep it pretty well hidden and not be conspicuous. I drove around to other side of the lake and took this picture. I think we’re pretty well hidden and with brown siding, it should blend in even more. We’re in the middle of the this image, to the left of the pretty visible cottage. If you look closely, that’s our little aluminum boat sitting on the dock.