"A Touch of Glass"

Behold we have glass.  The three sets of glass french doors and main front door will arrive in January along with the siding, but we have a great start!.  We also are getting really close to having heat, as the HVAC and duct work has began growing legs and arms.

Just waiting the double french door sets above the deck.

Triple kitchen window visible.

West side of the house awaiting the dining room french doors.  This will eventually be a very large entertaining/patio area.

Awaiting the massive front door and porch, but we are starting to see how the front of the house is shaping up. 

Upstairs two bedroom windows and one window for the master bathroom.

Garage windows.

Above the garage (obviously).

Kitchen window above the apron front sink.

Dining.

Foyer, bathroom, closet, and mudroom.

Basement 4th bedroom.

Main landing picture window.

Mudroom view.

Heat chase begins.

A web of insulated pipes.

Northwest bedroom.

Northwest bedroom looking west on the timber line.

North view from Northwest bedroom.  Pretty nice view eh?  From the front windows of the house you can see 10-20 miles in all directions.

Stairwell

Main bathroom upstairs.

Master bedroom.  Doubling as a work shop.  :)

Catwalk.

Heat chase upstairs.  Made me feel good that we have 2 Chicago Bears fans working with our electric team.  GO BEARS!

Who can honestly say they would hate doing laundry in this room? 

Venting begins.

Standing Seam Metal Roof

When people build their own custom home, they want it to be special. For us that meant using products that look like the real thing, and avoiding those that breakdown over time. One of those products was our roofing material. Initially we thought about regular asphalt shingles, but on a white house, it doesn't always give you the pop you're looking for - nor does it hold up all that well on the top of a hill with 50mph wind gusts. That's when we were introduced to the idea of a standing seam metal roof. It has all the farmhouse charm we were looking for and it comes with a 50 year warranty. No having to get on the top of the roof to replace a damaged shingle. Once this puppy is on, it's on for good.

We decided to do a charcoal gray roof to set off the white siding. The paint is Energy Star and actually reflects the sunlight to keep your cooling costs to a minimum. We're anxiously awaiting it's installation, but think it's worth the investment.

If you're not exactly sure what a standing seam metal roof looks like, here's a few inspiration pictures:

Connor Building

This picture gives you a good idea of the color we've chosen. It's nearly identical. I love how it looks against the white siding. Hopefully ours will turn out this beautiful. :) In fact, the stone in this picture very much resembles the colors of the stone we chose for our chimney.

We'll most likely need to install some of these "snow angels" as they're called to prevent snow from plummeting from the rooftop.

"From the Windows to the Walls"

Well it's been a balmy average of 8 degrees over the past few days here in sunny Iowa.  Needless to say our contractor and his crew took Monday off to thaw out.  Today we received the bathtub (all 500lbs of it).  The geothermal team was here at lunch beginning to install the HVAC system, and the electrical team is wiring like mad.  Mitch, our lead electrician told me that the geothermal HVAC installers are properly called the tinmen.  Catchy isn't it?  Our roofers should be out this week to measure the roofline for our metal materials, pending 50MPH winds of course.  I will see if I can coerce Erin into posting a picture of what our roof will look like at the finished state.  John (GC, a.k.a. the most powerful force in the universe) put some of the finishing, framing touches on our stairwell and fireplace today, and we are ready for the stone to be stacked on the chimney.  Speaking of chimneys... we squeezed inside the 11th day of Christmas today, and we are left to wonder....what will Santa bring next?  Ah yes.....windows!!!!

Deck and fancy electric box installation happening....whoot whoot.  We will have power soon!

Glass sliders installed out of the basement.  These bad boys are seriously heavy.

The plastic on top of the garage is so the chimney can be faced with our stacked stone.  The masonry guy probably doesn't want to ice-skate on the roof.

The beginning of the front porch.

Staiwell framing is constantly being updated.

Plumbing for vanities.

2nd bathroom plumbing for vanities.

Crate the tub came in.

From the northwest bedroom closet looking in behind the tub.

I just couldn't get over the size of this crate. 

There she is! 

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Downstairs plumbing really starting to take shape.

Downstairs walk out

Fireplace framing.

First bulk of windows. 

2nd bulk of windows.

Small electrical access panel in the basement.

Yes that is snow in the bathroom.

Water heaters and well pressurizer (C3PO&R2D2).

Man cave access.

Our droids in the mechanical room.

Main electic box in the garage south wall.