Front of house view. Grading and drainage is now done on the front. They'll start doing the concrete forms and rebar work next week for the driveway and front sidewalk. The entryway will eventually be laid out in slate - same type used in the guest bathroom but a raw version versus the honed product we used inside. 

Back patio concrete forms and rebar layed out and ready for the concrete pour. They'll do all the back of house stuff first and then tackle the front driveway next week. 

Garage doors installed. Aluminum frames with frosted tempered glass panels. This type of door is more commonly seen at firehouses or mechanics garages but is now making its way into residential projects like Rancho Duderosa. 

When it's all done, the floor looks like this. 

Here's a close up shot of a section of the great room floor where you can already see how the darker dye has interacted with the stain. More to come tomorrow after the floors are swept, washed, and another light coat of stain is applied..... 

Later in the afternoon - here's the great room floor almost dry. This will sit overnight to completely dry out and then the powder will be swept up and all the floors will be washed. 

Here's a picture of the great room immediately after spraying. Notice the lines in the floor. The original plan for the house was to stain the concrete instead of doing a wood or tile floor. Alan designed these cut lines to create an interesting floor pattern.  

That small section of hallway looks like this immediately after the dye application and spraying. And in case you're wondering, the muriatic acid in the stain gives off a fair amount of gas so there's a strong and not so pleasant smell that goes along with the process. 

Kip sprays the stain over the powdered dye that has already been sprinkled onto the floor. 

Here's the dye itself after loading it from the gallon jugs into hudson sprayers. 

Kip - the stainmaster - preps the powdered dye prior to starting the job. 

Here's the winning swatch and how it was done. It starts with a single color of acid stain with a darker color powdered dye sprinkled on to the floor like parmesan cheese on a plate of pasta. As the stain - which is concentrated with muriatic acid to aid in penetration - reacts with the powder, it releases the powdered dye into the floor giving it that reddish flowing tint you see in the image. Once this first step is completed, the floor is swept up, washed with water, and as soon as everything is dried, a second light coating of dye is applied again to the floor to further set the color. Finally, the polyurethane goes on. Voila! 

First, you turn a corner of the garage into a testing area and experiment with various stains, powdered dyes, and sealers. Seen here are 8 different swatches. Each one followed a specific recipe which is written in blue tape below each rectangle. We tried single colors of stain, layered colors, colors plus powdered dye, and various concentrations of stains to give them lighter or darker tones. 

To something that looks more like this? 

How do you go from this gray concrete? 

Metal shroud added to the top of the chimney to obscure the view of the flying saucer shaped spark arresters that are on the top of each chimney pipe and return the roofline to its intended angular look. This is galvanized metal and will be painted to match the roof color. 

Perspective view of the garage and roofline with lights installed along the front. 

Angled view of the lights hung on the exterior of the garage. 

More lights! Close up view of the exterior lighting fixture. 

Let there be lights! Exterior sconce fixtures were installed in all but two locations around the house today. 

Comet dives headlong into her brand new inflatable pool to fetch out a toy. 

Doors - all stained and ready to be re-hung. 

Corner jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. 

Sealed indian multicolor slate in the master bathroom. Grouting is still left to do plus at least one or maybe two more coats of sealer. 

Great room left column and fireplace. 

Completed great room interior columns shot taken from the kitchen. 

The image is a little dark but here are the two interior columns in the great room. Picture was taken from the foyer. 

Angled view of the column on the front entryway. 

Finished column masonry for the front entryway. 

Library fireplace with adjoining stone bench. 

Great room fireplace with completed masonry. You can also see the exterior chimney masonry through the window. 

Lighting is not particularly good but these are the two interior columns in the great room. They're wrapped right now and as the room will be painted in the next couple of days. 

Kitchen slate tile making its way down the stairs. 

Masonry work begins on the exterior entry column. This is a side view - front door would be to the right. 

Master bath shower. Slate flooring and the band under the seat is Indian Multicolor Slate. Gray tile is a Dal Tile porcelain called Aqua. Bench seat and tub counter is a red marble. 

Bedroom and loft wing of the house with completed roof. Column in front of the master bedroom will receive the same masonry treatment as the rest of the exterior.

House from Kit's driveway.

perspectives on the roof - bedroom wing with master bedroom chimney.

Perspective on the roof - garage and great room.

Kitchen floor in progress. Tile is a green slate from Vermont.

Finished exterior column masonry.

Finished chimney masonry - two images sewn together for complete vertical perspective.

Kali emerges from the deep in the bush...

Great Room Interior - First day of masonry work on one of the columns.

Guest Bathroom - Shower area tile is now in place. The 12" tile is a porcelain called Aqua. The 6" band at the top is a slate called Autumn Mist. The slate will be sealed to further enhance the colors that you see now. The bathroom floor will be done with a 12" version of Autumn Mist slate as well.

Roofing - this is the extrusion machine. Metal is coming off the roll in the rear of the photo and into the machine. The machine is programmed to process the desired length of panel and then it cuts it automatically.

Roofing - the crew is doing the metal panel extrusion on-site. This panel is 40ft long. Panels are fastened together with clips and then a sleeve is run down the entire length of the panel to cover the seam.

A new view of the house taken from the mountain trail above us by Kit recently. The house and green roof structure in the foreground belong to my neighbors Mike & Allison. All the other structures you see are mine - red shed on the right, the compound in the right center portion of the pic - and then the house in the back. This shot was taken before any of the masonry had been done on the chimney stack. 

End of the first day of masonry work. Shot taken from the driveway in front of the house. 

End of the first day of masonry work. Shot taken from the rear of the house. 

Mason at work. Kurt working on the big chimney. In the larger view of the image, you can see how nicely the rock blends with the yellow color of the loft tower. You can also see the lighter grays in the stone that should blend equally well with the gray/blue color on the rest of the house. The stone being used is actually cast concrete made by the El Dorado Stone Company. Colors chosen are a combination of Sierra Mountain Ledge and Shasta Mountain Ledge. They're both very similar styles but provided us with a slightly wider spectrum of browns/tans and light grays. 

A first sign that civilization is approaching Rancho Duderosa - the range hood has been installed in the kitchen. It's not wired yet but the dream of a meal cooked in an honest to god kitchen just got a little closer to reality this morning. Brand is Dacor for anyone who is wondering. The ductwork above the cabinetry will be masked in soon by masonry. 

Say hello to one of the doors...this one happens to be the coat closet in the foyer. They are big - 9ft high - and heavy - made out of slightly knotty alder. These will be stained soon - probably in a similar color to the cabinetry throughout the house. 

Master bath countertop (partial view). 

Guest bathroom countertop. 

Kitchen counter - funky granite, eh? 

Loft and bedroom wing perspective taken from Kit's driveway. 

SKY & SUN - IN DEFENSE OF COLOR

Alright everyone - the questions and comments are starting to come in from many of you regarding the house colors. Some like it and some are - shall we say - not so crazy about it. Comments range from - Really cool! - to - Can I get my Starbucks card punched here?- to my favorite so far, -Hey Chris, put up an arch and sell burgers! (Thank you Scott G for this honest declaration after his third Mai Tai of the night this past Friday). We actually put a serious amount of thought into the color choices and so I want to explain it to everyone so that they can put the decisions into context. Note that this doesn't mean you have to like it - and it should be known that this is an ongoing experiment for us as well - and one that we're continuing to evaluate on a daily basis as construction continues.

Anyway, permit me to climb on my blogging soapbox and wax architectural for a moment.

We spent a lot of time reviewing colors and trying to tie the house into palettes that are seen around the valley. We had a number of choices. Browns, tans, and grays abound in both the rocks above the house and in the brush that turns tan/brown during the course of each summer. During the winter and spring, we see interesting greens ranging from light sages to deeper forests. And finally, we have abundant sunlight and blue skies that offer a nearly endless spectrum of blues, gray-blues, and golds depending on cloud cover, time of day, etc.

The safe choice was to go in the tan/brown/gray direction. Just about every house in the valley has chosen something from that palette - and ultimately we did as well - but I wanted something extra and different. Lighter sage greens combined with some tans were also seriously considered - the nearby Winterton house used a very light sage/almost tan color for example. But the colors that made the greatest statements were primarily in the -sky and sun- palettes. So we took a deep breath, decided not to play it safe and chose to move down that path. As noted above, we will still be using lots of gray/brown colors found in the extensive masonry on the exterior and the roof which will remain a galvanized silver color and hopefully help tie the blue/gray house color in with the masonry. That's the theory anyway.

Finally, if you take a look at the above set of images, you will see how various shades of sky and sun are seen in nature and on actual houses. Variations of sunlight in the form of a montage of sunset photos (upper left) , a picture of the local terrain taken recently on a Rhino trek with Kit (lower left), and another application of blue and yellow used on a house up in the Seattle area. I'm not crazy about the house itself but use it as an example of color.

The house in the lower right corner has been a major inspiration. This house is built out of cinderblock, has a metal roof, and the tower you see in the image is made of a stained wood. Furthermore, it's located in an area with similar topography to here as you can see from the mountain peaks in the distance and abundant dried up brush in the foreground. We chose to avoid any type of exposed wood on the exterior due to the potential for fires but we liked how this gray and yellow fit in with the overall terrain - rising above it without overwhelming it.

As to the specific colors we chose, the bluish gray has an amazingly wide variation of shading depending on how the sunlight hits it. I was playing around with the Photoshop color sampling tool the other day and grabbed about a dozen different variations on the color of the house from the photographs I've shot so far - depending on the location, amount of sun hitting the surface of the building, cloud cover, and time of day. I'll admit that it takes some getting used to but it's interesting how the colors on the house can change dramatically from minute to minute.

The gold/yellow color also has quite a bit of variation in it depending on the amount of sunlight hitting the surface of the house but has been a fairly comfortable choice so far. I like the warmth and brightness of this color and it effectively accomplishes that "sun" connection that we set out to make.

Will it all work in the end? I like to think so but we shall see.

Hello from Comet... 

The line between the yellow loft color and the eventual masonry of the chimney stack. 

A look along the master bath/bedroom wall. 

Yelllow meets gray along the edge of the master bathroom. 

Bedroom wing with loft tower in the background. Chimney and column on the left will be rocked in by the mason. 

Bedroom wing of the house. 

Rear house view taken from Kit's driveway. The bedroom wing on the right had not received color treatment yet. 

Wider angle view of the rear of the house. 

Rear house view. 

Close up view of the garage with the great room, loft, and chimney in the background. 

Closer-in view of the bedroom wing and loft. 

Complete color treatment of the bedroom wing with the loft on the right. As noted previously, the chimney stack and the colum on the lower level will be rocked in with masonry in the coming weeks. 

FInal acrylic coat being applied by the crew to the bedroom wing of the house. 

Complete view of the rear of the house. Garage (on left) and tower (on right) has been primed but not treated with the acrylic yet. Center area of the great room is complete in terms of color. The three unprimed columns will be rocked in with masonry over the next few weeks. 

Sewn together panoramic shot of the front of the house. The two faces of the tower are finished along with the edging. The bedroom wing is primed and will be treated with the acrylic tomorrow. The remaining front needs to be both primed and then hit with the acrylic. 

View of the bedroom wing of the house - master bedroom is on the left side - with the tower jutting up at the top. Left panel of the tower still needs the final acrylic treatment. 

Higher elevation view of the tower and with the bedroom wing of the house in the foreground. 

Front of house view showing the fully treated tower on this side with the primed front of the bedrooms in the foreground. 

Zoomed in on the rear wall of the great room. 

Close up shot of the rear of the house. 

Zoomed in shot of the great room and tower area. The yellow acrylic coat is complete on the top left of the tower and along the edges but still needs to completed along the face. The gray-blue along the great room wall has been treated with the acrylic. Darker gray areas of the three columns and the entire chimney will be rocked in with masonry starting (hopefully) next week. 

Another angle on the color applcation to the tower. The area to the left has been primed but has not received the final gray acrylic. 

Yellow acrylic coat being applied to front side of tower. The column on the ground level will eventually be rocked in. 

Crew applies the acrylic coat to the great room area while priming of the loft tower continues. 

Color coat in progress - yellow primer has been painted onto the loft tower wall. 

Sunset looking directly west. 

Sunset in the Valley. 

Kit's Rhino at sunset. 

Mount Cuyamaca (I think) with snow still on it from a storm that blew through here a week or so ago. 

Cool clouds - shot from the top of a nearby ridge while trekking around with Kit in his Rhino the other day. 

My nieghbor and I drove up to a nearby ridge overlooking the El Capitan Resevoir and I created this panoramic photo from two pix I took in sequence. 

Great room looking into kitchen with finished cabinetry installed. 

Master bathroom cabinet. 

Great room taken from the garage entry doorway. Object in the foreground is the kitchen island. 

Brown coat complete on the rear of the house. 

Stucco crew applies a vertical expansion joint along a line below the upper corner of the loft to create a more natural separation between the two colors Alan has spec'd for the house.  

Brown coating in progress. Crew is spraying the stucco onto the side of the house while the two guys in the foreground mix up more stucco to feed to the pump. 

Interior plastering of the great room in progress. 

View of the loft and master bedroom taken from Kit's driveway. 

Front of house after scratch coat was completed. 

View of the north side of the house with stucco scratch coat. Windows are the master bedroom on the left and guest bedroom on the right.  

Side/Rear view of the house with the garage in the foreground and the library/loft space jutting out in the rear of the photo. 

Side view of the garage. 

Chimney stack over the great room. 

Southeast corner of the house showing the chimney above the master bedroom. 

Front of house view as the crew finishes the initial scratch coat of stucco. There will be a second coat applied tomorrow - then a day of curing time - followed by the brown coat. There are two layers of brown coat that are applied followed by 10 days of curing/dry time and after that, the color coat is applied. 

Stucco being applied under the eaves. 

Scratch coat of stucco being applied via spray gun. 

Great Room - shot taken from the doorway of the library/rec room and looking toward the kitchen. Columns on the left will be rocked in with dry stacked cultured stone in the next few weeks. 

Master bedroom - fireplace still needs to be drywalled in - the entire hearth and wall above the fireplace will also be rocked in with dry stacked cultured stone in the next few weeks. 

The crew hanging drywall in the ceiling of the foyer. 

Guest bedroom - picture is a little dark but flashes don't do well when the house is filled with drywall dust. 

Drywall installation - library/rec room with fireplace installed. Hearth and the wall above the fireplace will be rocked in by the mason with a dry-stacked cultured stone. 

Loft ceiling - this pic was taken from the rear corner of the room looking out toward the windows. 

Drywall Installation - this is a picture of the great room ceiling taken from the kitchen. Open wall is the chimney stack for the fireplace which still has some installation work to be completed. 

Our little buddy perched on the window sill in the master bedroom - he/she also has a friend who is with him in the house from time to time. We surprised both of them late this afternoon - one flew out through the garage and Malaika managed to chase this one into the bedroom. Eventually he flew out through the bedroom door that we opened for him. 

Master bedroom fireplace installed. 

Library/Den fireplace installed. 

Beams for the great room. These are 6x8 douglas fir with an average length of around 16ft-20ft depending on where they are being hung in the room. All the rooms with vaulted ceilings - the great room, loft office, and master bedroom will be getting beams installed in the ceiling. 

Temporary scaffolding being created that the guys can use to get the beams up to ceiling height. 

Dan mugs for the camera while he preps the ceiling by installing bracing that the beams will eventually be bolted to once they're ready to hang. 

Dan hauls the beam onto the makeshift scaffolding while the other guys (not seen) push it towards him. 

Dan and crew lift one of the beams into place and prepare to attach it to the ceiling. 

Clay re-installs the jam extensions in the garage windows. 

Latest view of the house - fully wrapped in moisture barrier material and all scaffolding in place in preparation for stucco work to begin. 

Stained doors drying and waiting for sealing.

More staining in action. 

Staining in progress at the finisher's shop. 

More cabinets - stacked and waiting to be sent over to the finisher for staining and sealing. 

Kitchen cabinets in progress. This is the island - which is actually sitting on end in the shop - and has been rotated using the marvels of modern image processing... 

Comet contededly munches on a stick during a recent afternoon walk to the water tank. 

Kitchen cabinets plan view. 

This is one of the three slabs of granite we'll be using for the kitchen countertops - and if there's any left over, it may also be used in the powder room. The stone is called Blue Louise and comes from Brazil. 

Kitchen sink area elevation. 

Kitchen cabinetry and oven area elevation. 

Kitchen wall oven and microwave cabinet elevation. 

Kitchen island elevations. 

Kitchen island and sideview of the cabinetry along the exterior wall where the main sink and dishwasher will be located. 

Loft built in file cabinet and shelf unit elevation. 

Pantry shelf elevations. 

Pantry plan view. 

Powder room linen closet elevation. 

Powder room sink and cabinet elevation. 

Hall/Guest bathroom cabinetry plans. Flooring still to be determined and finalized. 

Hall linen closet plans. 

Cabinetry plans for master bathroom. Wood used will be alder stained in sort of light-ish honey color. Floor tile for this space hasn't been picked out yet. 

New attic clerestory window openings are cut with two new windows now ordered and on the way from Pella. 

Wrapping of the house in progress. 

Crew sets up scaffolding over the great room roofdeck. 

Interior view of the garage with the four upper windows visibile at the top of the picture. 

Interior view of the kitchen windows - the kitchen sink and counters will eventually occupy the space below this set of windows with an upper set of cabinets on the left. 

Interior view of 2 out of 3 of the great room rear (west) wall doorways and windows. Column frames between the windows and to the right will eventually be encased in stacked stone that will continue out to the exterior. 

Interior view of the loft corner windows that are at the stop of the stairway. 

Interior view of the two west facing loft windows. Opening at the top will be sealed up tomorrow when the house wrapping is completed. 

Interior view of the small loft window on the rear (west) facing wall of the house. The opening at the bottom will be sealed up when the house is wrapped tomorrow. 

Exterior views of the windows in the library/den(below) and loft office (above). 

Corner loft window. 

Closer view of the great room windows in place - the three open doorways are also due to measurement errors that occurred in the initial order. All four doors are being re-manufactured and shipped out to us within the next few weeks. 

Garage windows now fully installed. 

Side view of the house with the garage in the foreground showing the scaffolding in place along that side of the house. 

View of the rear house - now with most windows installed - the one remaining window has to be re-ordered due to a manufacturing error. Scaffolding is now in place to accomodate the window installation that took place today, house wrapping which will happen tomorrow, stucco work, and eventually masonry. 

Great room fireplace - with built in air intakes and recirculation fan. This can effectively heat a 2,500 square foot house - so it can act as a nice supplement to our heating system as the cost of propane continues to go up. The slightly worn appearance of the unit is due to it being previously owned by Pete - our builder - who remodeled his house recently and was looking to part with this beast. 

Pete measures the opening for one of the upper windows in the great room. 

Other mom with three pups. 

Mom and 4 pups - there are two moms who had litters at the same time and they're jointly whelping the pups. 

Wrestling with her brother. 

Trish is holding up the newest member of the Rancho Duderosa Canine Corps. She's a 4 and a half week old chocolate lab - yet to be named. We'll pick her up after the first weekend of January. 

Master bath corner windows. 

Front of house with windows installed. 

Interior view from the kitchen window. 

Master Bath exterior door and window. 

Kitchen window. 

Pete installing the front door. 

Roofers apply the "peel and seal" paper to the roof deck to waterproof the house until we're ready to install the real roof. 

Windows and doors arrive. 

View of the rear of the house from Kit's driveway. 

View of the master bedroom exterior and loft. 

Additional perspectives on the house from my neighbor Kit's property. 

House Exterior - Rear of House Exterior

House Exterior - Front of house exterior. 

Loft looking down the stairs into the hallway with the library area off to the left. 

Great Room Interior - Second shot of the same space taken from the same vantage point. Vaulted ceiling is more clearly visible in this shot versus the previous one. 

Great Room Interior - with the chimney stack walls still not closed up, this shot was taken from the loft looking down into the great room. Kitchen, Living Room, Pantry, and the doorway to the Garage are all clearly visible in this shot as is the drop down steps that lead from both the kitchen and the front entryway. 

Loft - View out the picture windows looking out the rear of the house. El Cap is the large peak in the background. 

Loft - Vaulted interior ceiling. 

Stairway leading up to the loft. 

Master Bedroom - Interior shot of the vaulted ceiling. 

Master Bathroom - this corner will ultimately be occupied by a corner bathtub. 

Master Bedroom interior - additional view through the picture window along the front wall of the house. 

Master Bedroom interior looking out one of the picture windows. Fireplace is in the corner. 

Library interior looking through the picture window. Fireplace for this room is along the right wall. 

Library interior looking at the stairway and window. Doorway in the corner will likely be an under the stairway control center for all the house electronics - servers, patch panels, etc... 

Garage Interior - View from the doorway looking up to the clerestory windows at the top of the space and out through the large picture window on the exterior wall. 

Great Room Interior - View of the fireplace taken from the kitchen. Doorway to the left leads into the libary/den area. You can also see up into the loft through the stud wall above the fireplace right now. 

Great Room Interior- View into the kitchen. Pantry is on the right. Doorway slightly off to the right leads into the garage. 

Great Room - view out the rear doors and windows. 

Front Entryway - the currently straight column on the left will ultimately look angled once the stone veneer is added later on in the construction. 

Garage - looking in from the outside 

Alan - This shot shows the space available between the garage and the slope. 

Alan - This shot shows the space between the back of the great room and the slope. 

Final shot of the house from a higher elevation. Circle on the left is the neighbor's training circle for their horses. 

View of the entry courtyard of the house with bedroom wing on the left and garage to the far right. 

Almost directly overhead shot of the house. 

Guest photographer of the day shots. My neighbor John was up with a friend of his earlier today in a private Cessna and snapped four choice shots of the property. This shot shows the master bedroom wing of the house most clearly along with the overall layout of the house on the pad. 

Full view of the house sewn together from two separate pix. Roof deck should be completely in place across most of the house by the end of the day today.

Rear view of the house with all sheer panels now installed across the entire exterior. White rectangles in the lower foreground are cages Trish built to protect the veggie garden from the evil squirrels, gophers, and rabbits who are tearing into the stuff before we have a chance to eat anything. 

View of the side of the master bedroom with the patio roof now taking shape on the far left. For those of you who've asked, the pine tree in this shot is a fire survivor and was planted from a small 1 gallon pot 4 years ago and marked the far left corner of what used to be the dog run. 

Master Bedroom view looking out the side patio doorway. 

Master Bedroom area looking up into the rafters. Ceiling in this room will be capped at 10ft and flat so the slope you see now will not be seen inside the room. 

2nd Floor Loft floor looing left into the attic space over the bedroom wing of the house. 

2nd Floor Loft floor looing toward stairway which is not installed yet (pieces are all cut and awaiting installation by the framers). 

Library/Den interior looking out the large window toward the mountain. 

Great Room interior looking out through the center and far right doorways out toward the mountains. 

Garage Interior 

Front Entryway - roofing braces are now in place across most of the house. 

Snake! Trish almost stepped on this guy...a fine looking gopher snake measuring 4-5ft long (1.5 meters+ for my friends reading this outside the US). Non poisonous, this critter does an excellent job eating up the local gophers, ground squirrels, and field mice.

Kali (left) and Malaika (right) enjoy the cooler weather at the end of a banner day of construction.....stay tuned for Day 4 which I am told will finish off the garage, begin work on the second floor loft and continue to build out the trusswork in preparation for the plywood roof to be put on. 

Framing Day 3 - view of the entire rear face of the house. Shot taken from nearby the orange tree for those of you who have been here and know the layout of the property. 

Framing Day 3 - great room and garage wings of the house. Front wall of the garage remains open and still to be built. 

Framing Day 3 - bedroom wing of the house at the end of the day after the crew has left. 

Framing Day 3 - Second garage wall goes into place. 

Framing Day 3 - Crew braces garage wall. 

Framing Day 3 - First garage wall being lifted into position. 

Framing Day 3 - Crew connects the two walls with scrap wood and bracing to hold them in place. 

Framing Day 3 - Second exerior wall of the great room / kitchen. 

Framing Day 3 - First exterior wall of the great room. 

Framing Day 3 - Exterior wall of the library goes up. 

Framing Day 3 - Wide shot of the bedroom and library/office walls now up and in place. 

Framing Day 3 - Crew hauls the library/office exterior wall into position. 

Framing Day 3 - Interior wall of spare bedroom being locked into place by the crew. 

Framing Day 3 - Bedroom and bathroom wall goes up into place. 

Framing Day 3 - Crew sets the stud walls into place on top of the foundation bolts. 

Framing Day 3 - First stud walls go up on the master bedroom side of the house. 

Framing Day 3 - Early morning shot of the crew at work. 

Framing Day 2 - view of the garage taken from inside what will eventually be the pantry. 

Framing Day 2 - view of the great room, library, and bedroom area taken from the kitchen. 

Framing Day 2 - view of the great room (foreground below the lumber on the lower area of the picture) and kitchen area (up the stairway on the opposite side of the great room) taken from the library. 

Framing Day 2 - view of the additional bedrooms and bathroom opposite the master bedroom. 

Framing Day 2 - view of the master suite with master bathroom in the foreground and bedroom in the back. 

Framing Day 2 - View of the house showing the great room in the center and garage off to the right. 

Framing Day 2 - Crew finishes periphery work and starts in on the initial stud walls. View is of the bedroom wing of the house. 

Framing layout begins. Crew is laying out pressure treated, termite resistant lumber along the entire periphery of the foundation in preparation for the main framing crew to come in and build all the walls. 

The gang moves on to the garage. 

Final finishing. As water continues to percolate up from the concrete to the surface, yet another guy continues to trowel the entire space making sure that everything remains consistently smoothe across the whole floor. 

Smoothing out the concrete Step 3. Another guy works with a finishing trowel attached to a large pole to further smoothe the surface. 

Smoothing out the concrete Step 2. One guy stamps the concrete down the metal tool on the right and then uses a hand trowel to smoothe the coat even further. He goes the entire length and width of the room doing this. 

Smoothing out the concrete Step 1. The guys wade their way backwards through the concrete with a big 2x4 smoothing out the concrete to an even layer at the tops of the forms. 

How it works Part 2 - one guy holds the end of the hose and dumps the concrete onto the ground filling up the space. 

How it works - The cement mixerm truck on the right feeds the cement into the cement pumper on the left. 

Foundation Day 2 - Crew arrives for the pouring of the great room and garage areas of the foundation.