With the ICF's complete we were ready to frame.
Because of the large windows on the south and the balcony over the living
room we have a generous use of engineered wood beams.
Here you see the carpentry crew setting the floor. The
four of them were our largest crew except when I brought in a few extra
hands to set the SIP's for the roof. On the back side I used truss
hangers that were set into the concrete in the ICF wall.
A view of the beam over the 9' bonus room window looking
into the living room. The second floor does not extend all the way
out to the front wall. While this adds a little cost it also makes
for a more interesting design.
This is the view from the top of the stairs overlooking the
living room. From the floor the ceiling is 23' foot making the room
seem far larger than it is. The windows over the opening also allow
the light to penetrate deep into the house during the winter. During
the summer the overhangs shade the windows keeping out the summer heat.
Here is a view from the front door.
The living room and the bonus room adjoin with 5 1/2' pocket
doors. When we have a large party the doors can be open giving
us a large amount of space to entertain. For smaller groups we can
close the doors to hide the clutter, or when we have company it turns into
a guest room.
The smaller window you see is the only window we have on the west side
reducing summer afternoon heating.
This is the master bath with the Jacuzzi tub in place.
The tub and room were completely insulated with fiberglass, some of which
you can see now. This insulation was for sound proofing.
We did have some moisture problems with the skylight in the bath during
the winter. We solved the problem by adding an extra pane of glass
to insulate even better.
Exterior view after frame in. We wrapped the framed
portions of the house with Tyvec to keep unwanted infiltration low.
This photo was taken in early December and note how the windows are fully in
the sun. The house would easily reach 70 on a clear December
day with the heating system no yet installed.
