Electrical, plumbing and HVAC progress

The plumbers are still working hard on finalizing plumbing the bathrooms and kitchens as well as the mudroom in the main house. Drain, wall-hung toilet carriers and water is almost done in all rooms.

The electrician has been busy placing all boxes, cans and outlets. We did our first electrical walkthrough last week and there are a few changes that we have asked for.

On the outside of the house, they has placed all mounting brackets for the exterior wall sconces and outlets.

The entire outside of the house is now being prepped to start the stucco work on Monday. 

Plumbing

The plumbing crew has been busy for 3 days now and are making tons of progress. Most of the drains are in at this point.

Plumbing crew at work today.

Plumbing in the mudroom.

Stack ready for master bathroom vanities.

Septic is going in

The septic system has now been completed - I just didn't have time to post some of the in-progress pictures before now. The install went well without any glitches or cost overruns. 

The system is installed down the hillside.

Pool and HVAC

We now officially have a pool - or rather the shell of a pool. About a week ago the pool crew formed the gunite pool and it looks awesome! It is 30' x 12' and has an infinity edge along the backside.

To the left is the cavity for the automated pool cover.

Infinity edge and trough.

On the inside of the house the HVAC system is going in with all the ducting. We are using a series of Mitsubishi minisplit heat pumps to heat and cool the house in different zones.

Instead of the normal registers and grilles, we have chosen to put in some long 4" x 72" slot diffusers that are inserted into the ceiling. The custom made housings have been installed now so that the exterior portion of the diffuser can mount to the housing after drywall has gone in.

Some serious insulation going in around the ducting to prevent any heat loss.

It's a bit of a puzzle to route all the duct work around the house to the different rooms.

Windows

In the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of activity on the house. One of the things we have been looking forward to is seeing the windows and see them being installed. When we designed the house we decided not to skimp on windows and decided to use thermally broken all-aluminum windows from Schuco in Germany. We bought the custom sized windows through Tru Architecture near Los Angeles. And boy, are we happy with that decision now that the windows are going in. They are the most beautiful and sturdy aluminum windows I have ever seen. The windows, handles, hinges etc just smell like German engineering at its best.

Here are the six SouthWest facing window units. The two sliding sections to the left already have glass installed.

Windows and doors facing the outdoor living area.

Second unit facade facing SW.

North facing windows.

The two small windows in the guest bath and mechanical room.

Entrance door. 9 ft tall.

The remaining glass is sitting in the garage right now waiting for the crew to come back on Monday and install the rest. Those large glass panes weigh approximately 500 pounds each. 

One of the window assemblies up in the second floor rooms. Fixed frames mostly and a tilt-turn window to the right. The tilt-turn window can be opened as a normal "in-swing" window if you tilt the handle 90 degrees and can be tilted inwards if you tilt the handle 180 degrees. Pretty unusual in the US, but normal in Europe.

Here is the handle detail.

Windows in the office.

Triple sliders in the dining area

Door that leads out to the outdoor living area.

Roof

After a short period of rain, the roofing crew is not onsite and working hard to get the roof closed off. Since we have a flat roof they are using high density foam boards to build up the slope of the roof and then a very thick roof membrane on top of the boards to seal everything. 

We chose to create a cold roof by facing the white side of the membrane upwards since most of our energy requirements in the house are for cooling the house in the summer time. The white surface will reflect the sun better and help keep the house cool.

Here are the foam boards they use to build up the roof. The boards provide both the slope and extra thermal insulation in the roof.

In the last 2-3 days they finished half of he roof on the main house. The insulation is pretty significant since the thickness of the roof boards is 10-12"  

Window flashing and Huber Zip System

This past week the crew has been working on flashing all the windows to get ready for the window installation. The windows are supposed to be shipped on October 10th and the installation is supposed to begin on October 17th.

The flashing is a combination of flashing tape and a liquid flashing membrane.

They have also framed up the pool shed (left in the picture) and have begun applying the Huber Zip tape. This picture is taken in the beginning of the week before they started applying tape.

The sheathing system we are using consists of a structural panel with an embedded vapor, water and air-barrier applied directly to it. In order to create a completely airtight and watertight sheathing skin, the gaps between the Zip panels are taped with a special black Zip tape from the same manufacturer that bonds with the panels and seals the seams between them.

This picture is taken Friday after they started applying the black Zip tape.

Framing and sheathing - almost complete

Great progress again this week. The crew is in full swing finalizing the framing and sheathing. The parapet has been framed out and sheathing is almost complete. We had our structural inspection a couple of days ago and it came back with no remarks - everything looks good. These first two pictures are from the beginning of the week.

As you can see from the photos it's really beginning to look like a house.

Windows should be arriving on site around October 11th and when they go in it will begin to give a much better sense of the interior. The following photos are from Thursday this week.