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| Advance framing floor joists |
Hello and welcome to Local Fruit Folsom!
Our construction project has benefited from three weeks of dry weather after the foundation was poured. We continue to enjoy watching the house rise from the foundation, and to see the walls take shape. This photo shows the advanced framing floor joists. The advanced framing method allows for lumber orders to be delivered very close to the correct size needed in order to minimize wasted wood and maximize strength.
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| Old Zoe watching the neighborhood |
The garage apartment is being framed, but without stairs it is difficult to get to the top. But the main house is easy to enter and we are pleased to walk the spaces. Even Zoe the dog seems quite content to go to the job site and just hang around, watching squirrels and birds. What is it about dogs and construction?
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| Main house, fig tree, garage |
We are measuring the rough walls in each room to verify that the dimensions are right, and found that a bathroom is a few inches too narrow according to the plan. I may be reading the plans incorrectly because being short by five inches could eliminate the possibility of installing a future shower in the downstairs bath. One more question to ask our builder, Gai Kirkegaard Construction and framer… we are grateful that these guys are patient with us as we are constantly thinking of questions.
We bought the claw foot bathtub on Friday. Although I feel guilty about buying an iron tub made in China, the fact that it has been sitting in inventory in Sacramento since before the recession eases my conscience. The builder has asked for the tub delivery to occur the same day and time the lumber crane is lifting roofing trusses. Of course the scheduling gets complicated as the crane date for delivering roof trusses is a moving target, and the tub delivery can only occur on certain days. If we can get both events to coincide it will be much easier for the crew. It is not every day that a heavy tub is lifted over trees to be placed in a closet!
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| Garage - SE Corner |
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| Garage - SW corner |
We also ordered the art glass inserts for the small fixed glass windows in the parlor and family room. Othon Art has a stained glass showroom in nearby Orangevale with a very impressive workshop. When the glass is ready, we will pick it up and take it to the window company to be incorporated into the frames. This was actually more fun than any product we’ve had to choose so far.
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| Worker coming through the crawl space access |
In the past two weeks the first floor subfloor was built, the first floor exterior walls were framed and some of the first floor interior walls were framed. This week the stairs will be built, the second floor framing will begin and possibly the roofing trusses (and tub!) will arrive. However, the ten-day forecast calls for rain showers on six of the next ten days; we should expect a weather delay. After all, we are framing in January and that simply can not be accomplished in most of the country.
Check in soon as the photos will show significant progress over the next 2-3 weeks. In addition, the energy calculations should be finalized in the next week or so. We are building this home to be as efficient as possible and it is exciting to see the energy engineers’ reports that quantify the results of our efforts in kilowatt hours and therms. This means we can estimate the energy spent heating and cooling our home, and also estimate the energy savings (which translates directly to $ savings) and the rebate incentives from the local utility companies. The energy nerd in me is excited to finalize the utility reports and the frugalista in me is eager to equate the projected energy usage to lower operating expenses. We are very eager to apply to PG&E and SMUD for rebates.
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