Windows!

Today was a big day at the house. The windows got delivered and installation is happening! 

What a difference it makes to have light coming in where it used to be all boarded up!

The crew has been busy on the site the last couple of weeks, and it's really nice to see things are in full swing now. The windows were kind of holding everything up, and the plumbing fixtures, but apparently the fixtures are all in the warehouse now, too, and should be getting plumbed in soon. 

That last photo from Tausha the project manager gives you an idea of the beaustiful light we get in the yard. Not entirely sure why... maybe the orientation of the house, but the afternoon light here has always been nice. A good finish to the week.

Measure twice cut once

The design of our house includes a mix of Japanese and Western influences that required special consideration. When it comes to implementing the design, however, there are a lot of details to figure out. 

One of the Japanese features is "shoji" sliding doors in the tatami room area. The tatami room is raised one step above the main floor, and is meant to accomodate sliding shoji screens between the rooms. Shoji screens can be a beautiful alternative to walls or heavy doors.

Now we're trying to work out the positioning of the shoji doors. I made a few sketch up drawings to show some of the options I talked about with the builder. 

This one isn't great because of the gap between to floor and the doors: 

This one would require more space:

This one is more traditional: 

And lastly, the solid wall could be removed to permit an arrangement of three or four shoji screens.

Inside jobs

This update is a little overdue but last week there was a lot of activity going on inside the house.

Stairs! Not the final ones of course, but much better for going up and down compared to the ladder we have been climbing. And notice that the alcove next to the stairs has been framed in now too.

In the tatami room area the drop ceiling has been framed in. It covers the ducts for the medium velocity forced air system.

And here's looking towards the bath area. It is worth saying that our project manager and builder have done a phenomenal job of dealing with a whole pile of design related issues, from figuring out where to place light switches, to adjusting door widths so that they will actually fit. There are so many little details involved in building houses that I never knew about. We feel quite lucky to have someone so knowledgeable and professional looking after these things.

Right now it all looks like a bunch of framing and sheathing but you can still get an idea of how it is shaping up. We're expecting windows from Dalmen to be delivered this week and that will be a major piece of the puzzle.