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February 19, 2009
Second Floor Framing
Stairway & Su-z's Closet
The stairway will have a small landing at the top with a door for privacy and to cut down on noise transmission between the 2 floors.
The stairway door will be in the opening to the left of the step ladder. Su-z's closet door is to the right of the step ladder.
We call it a door,
but it will probably be just the walk in opening as neither Su-z nor I are great believers in closet doors.
The chair sitting in the closet gives some scale to the size.
My closet on the other side of the bedroom will be slightly smaller as the master bath will steal part of its space.
The stairwell will also have a ceiling on top of the walls for noise transmittal suppression.
Su-z is already talking about using that for "storage". I think it will be a good place to mount the second floor A/C equipment.
We finally have something around the big holes of the stairwell.
Everyone had to be very careful not to take the short cut straight down to the first floor when walking around upstairs.
These night shots under artificial lighting say a bunch about what custom building means.
Sometimes it feels like we are paying for a solid gold house. At least in these pictures
it looks like we are getting our money's worth!
The scary thing is that we are actually getting quite a return for our investment.
I can't imagine anyone wanting to spend the same money for an inferior quality stick house.
Bathroom
The bases for the master bathroom walls in position.
The curved section to the right will be the back wall of the bathroom. The space between the far end of the curved section and
the dome shell will have an access opening to get behind the bathroom wall for plumbing or hot water heater servicing.
All other second floor areas use the entire space to the dome shell, but the master bath will be
isolated from the rest of the second floor living area and vented independently to
keep humidity from spreading throughout the up stairs.
The master bath walls going up.
The master bath walls will reach from floor to the dome. All other second floor walls are 8' tall to allow for air circulation.
The master bath doorway is in the center. The doorway to the left is to my (Dave's) closet.
We'll see how long it takes before Su-z starts taking over my closet too.
Why is it a guy can live out of a suitcase, but a woman needs acres for storage?
There appears to be sufficient room between the back master bath wall and the dome for the small water heater we plan to use.
Downstairs will have the large water heater, but having waited forever
for hot water to get to the furthest bathroom in the old house, we decided to give the master bath its own close by water heater.
The water heater we will use is quick heating. It will have a wall switch
that will allow it to only heat when needed, thus saving electricity. I still plan to add
solar hot water heating to cut down on the electricity needed for water heating. Passive systems are easy and inexpensive to build.
The doorway to the right of the step ladder is the entrance to the double shower and double sink room.
1 shower with 2 shower heads and enough floor space for 2 people to shower comfortably at the same time and 2
sinks with counters so each has their own. The ladder is in the toilet and linen closet area.
Would you believe 2 toilets so there will be no waiting. A good thing at our ages!
Dividing Wall & David's Closet
The center wall. This is an 8' tall wall to divide the bedroom and sitting room areas.
It will have short wings to isolate the bed from the rest of the second floor.
Each end of the center wall will have an opening. This one is to allow access to the master bath from the
sitting room without having to walk back to the stairwell and around the bed.
The opening previously described is to the left and the other opening to
connect the sitting room to the stairs is to the right. Each end of the wall will have a "wing",
a wall extending towards the camera. This is so that people
entering the second floor from the stairway or going to the master bath from the sitting room will not be looking at the (probably) unmade bed.
