Every corner of our floor plan has been etched in my mind having been seeing and working with it everyday since its inception back in January. It went through several generations of changes and adjustments to suit our needs and site requirements. Building the scale model and drawing 3D renderings helped us visualize the spaces more fully. Last week the framing for these interior spaces went up and for the first time we got to see what we created for real. Very exciting!
Finalized floor plan prior to construction
My latest sketch showing our color scheme
After the main house shell was weather proofed and second layer of sub floor plywood was laid, Jim B., our framer, reviewed the layout with us and began marking the walls on the floor with pencil and chalk line. We only had to make a few minor adjustments to some of the wall positions because the working drawings don’t always jive with what actually gets built.
Our plan also had specific design elements that were not included in Deltec’s working drawing set, so I drafted up additional floor plan, sections and elevations to aid the crew. Funny thing is the scale model ended up being the best tool for Jim B. to understand what I wanted built. He made a comment to Al, our contractor, that he would like a model for every project in the future. That’s a great compliment for us. Deltec expressed an interest as well in our model a couple of months ago. I see a future endeavor there.
A side note: It is tough for me to release control and my paranoia that things won’t get built correctly, so I have a tendency to hover, but I am trying to trust that it will be done right. In my defense this comes from past experience back in Florida
Al can not be on site at all times to supervise, so being there personally as a second pair of eyes has been helpful. Anyway, my point is it is good to be on site if something gets accidentally missed or if questions come up, especially since some decisions are made in the moment. 
Jim and Harry lay out the walls
The first wall is the entrance to our bedroom. The connection at the top - because the walls didn't line up with the trusses - is called "dead wood."
Because of the configuration of the trusses the ceiling in the kitchen forms an arch rather than coming to a point which I thought would happen. The arch is a nice surprise.
This is the finished arch - the back wall of the kitchen
Jerry, a full time fire fighter, joins Jim's crew on his days off. He is working on Edrianna's healing room.
Jerry begins forming the glass opening above the wall between the living area and Edrianna's healing room. We created this to allow for more light penetration between the two rooms. We haven't decided how it will be finished but we have been looking at a lot of options.
This is the wall that is between the living area and Jim's office. It is an open wall that steps from 4' 6" to 7'. This allows for a feeling of openness for light and air circulation. It will come in handy in the winter because the heat from the wood stove will easily work its way back through my office and into the master bedroom.
Over the past few days Mitchel has been working on adding connecting plates to all 15 interior corners of our house. You can see two of them in this photo. There are actually 3 per corner. One at the base of the header, one at mid height, and one at the bottom of the wall.
On Friday afternoon Jim Burleson commented that this is the strongest build home he has ever worked on.
Edrianna took this photo of our model inside our house. We made the model to check how light would penetrate the windows.
Even though we are in a different season and the sun's angle has changed, the sun still comes through the windows pretty much the way we anticipated.
I love it when a plan comes together!
For those who liked watching THE A TEAM...
"I pity the fool who doesn't think this house is cool!"
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