The Crowning Jewel

This week they worked on the crowning jewel of the house: the back deck! Hmm, well I guess it wasn't really the deck they completed, but the roof that will go over the deck. This is the place that we'll probably be spending most of our time once the house is completed. At our last house, the deck was uncovered and on the west side of the house, which means that in the summer it was 4 billion degrees out there. Ok maybe not 4 billion, but with the national debt as high as it is, that's how far I have to reach to make the exaggeration seem like an exaggeration.

This actually shows how the same ceiling will go from the great room out to the deck. It will be covered with pine tongue and groove strips in the great room through to the deck. It's going to look so cool!

They set all these trusses last Saturday with Brett's help. He worked the material handler that they rented to hold the trusses steady while they secured them. The material handler is the machine that can barely be seen on the right of this picture:

This process also included that last wall that separates the great room from the deck. I think he saved that one for last because he wasn't sure how it would look.

Originally these windows were to have an arch on the top instead of a point. But it's easier to trim around the pentagon shape rather than a curve. I didn't think I was going to like it since I was looking forward to the arch, but I do. The windows will have to be special order, but the wall 'o windows will totally take advantage of the view.

By the end of the week, they had almost all trusses set and the sheeting covering the whole house.

The only place they need to complete for the trusses is on the front entryway. I had to go home and look at the drawing to remember how this is going to work. There will be another peak to the left of the one on the right, and it will flow from that top one like the one on the right does. So pretty just a mirror image of what's there now.

Speaking of windows, we had to go meet the window guy for the first time. We figured out what brand, the sizes, styles, and color of vinyl we want. Do you want a picture (single non-movable sheet of glass), a slider (slide open left to right or right to left), a single-hung (slide up and down), or a casement window (has the hand crank and the entire window cranks open). These are in rank of lowest cost to highest cost. Code requires you to be able to exit a bedroom in case of emergency, so that requires a window that is able to open. And in some spots we just want to be able to open a window for fresh air. Most of the windows we chose were picture with a couple single-hungs and a couple sliders thrown in. No casements. An interesting window will be a pretty big one over the soaking tub in the master bath. It will be a picture over a 16" slider. The tub has a great view of Mission Ridge so we put in a good size window over it. It's something like 5' by 5' total, with the slider included in the 5' height.

The roofers should be starting this week. We need to pick out a shingle brand and color...probably by tomorrow. Which means we need to narrow down the colors of exterior paint for the house. The roof and exterior paint don't have to match, they just have to look nice together. And Brian needs to paint something on the underside of the decking that he'll be installing this week...another reason to pick out our exterior colors. We've chosen two colors but need to figure out which colors go where and if we're going to add a third color. A lot of decisions need to be made in the next 4 months or so. And they're starting to come at us pretty quickly.

We spent quite a few hours out there yesterday. I like to go out there and do cleanup...I make piles of the waste lumber pieces and sweep up the sawdust and nails inside the house. My back muscles are a little sore today since I haven't done that much sweeping in, well ever. I figure the more of the cleanup I do, the less Brian has to and he can concentrate on the important stuff.