Cassilhaus

STEELing Home

The final bits of steel went in at the end of last week.  The two frames where the bridge interesects the main pod were installed.

Zack has fabricated and installed the two pieces that drop from these frames to hold the LVLs that support the lower area of the bridge roof.

The framing for the guest bath is now complete and includes the wacky shaped closet from the guest sleeping loft behind.

In order to maximize the light from the clerestory we put a ceiling in the closet and developed a little alcove above facing into the project studio with a small box out for the diagonal steel support.

We are gone all this week so we expect a big change on our return.

To achieve the marvelous it’s precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.

                            --Tom Robbins

Let the Sun Shine In

Ellen and I met with Graham of Southern Energy Management about solar hot water for Cassilhaus. He brought this cool gizmo that tells you what sort of efficiency you will get in different months of the year given your surrounding trees. Here you see them on scaffolding approximating the location of the panels.  We will have partial shading November to January but the system is still very viable.

Our system would have 2 4'x8' solar panels on the section of roof that drops down below the bridge's metal roof (in front of 3 small windows toward top center).  The panels have food grade glycol running through them which heats the water in the solar storage tank using a heat exchanger.  There is a backup hot water heater for periods of extended shade.  We are very excited about harvesting the energy of the sun.  Stay tuned.

Speaking of the sun it will be in plentiful supply in our master bedroom.  Framing is nearly complete.  It is unusually short and wide as it comes at the widest point of the trapezoid.

There are three very generous windows in addition to the clerestory around the entire perimeter and a soaring ceiling that comes to a peak at the NW corner.

The sun also brought out another picnic crew on Friday--my friends MJ, Saskia, Elizabeth, Deborah, and David enjoyed quite a spread

in our soon to be dinning room.

More internal framing is underway with the footprint plate of the guest bathroom in place. We discovered a conflict with wall

locations in this bathroom and the mullions of the clerestory windows above but thankfully Leon, Myron, Dwayne, and Ellen were able to resolve it quickly, adjust the mullions and come up with a more interesting design in the process.  Fortunately Leon decided to order the windows in stages anticipating such shifts in the sizes during framing.  Each day there are issues and conflicts to resolve but the team is fantastic and most things get solved on the spot. I'll close with another shot down the bridge showing our lovely "floating roof"

There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.

                                                                                                                        Archibald McLeish

A Tree Grows in Cassilwood

Ellen and I got out our picks and shovels to do some do-it-yourself landscaping this past weekend.  It was our very first thing we have planted on the land and very very satisfying.  We bought about 15 plants/trees to make a visual shield to our neighbor's house (don't ask) and are placing them in the woods.  With the criteria of reasonably fast growing/shade tolerant/unappetizing to the roving packs of dear we choose viburnum, green giant, osmanthus, and illicium.  We have all but three planted as of this evening. 

Planting at dusk was quite an adventure and we capped our evening by sitting on the deck and watching the moon rise.  The sound of the water below is magical-almost magical enough to make us forget our aching backs.

Bedroom Picnic

We celebrated progress with our first picnic in the Master Bedroom (or any room for that matter) with our dear friends Scott, JJ, Hannah, and Kaiya last night.  What a glorious day!

There has been a strong push to box and wrap the guest pod and the east end of the bridge. Below you can see the small viewing opening in the west wing wall of the guest pod deck.

They are coming up with some crazy jack/scaffolding combos:

You can get a much better sense of the final views from the guest pod sleeping loft with the cladding on and the one scaffolding removed.

The box down under the far east bridge cantilever is complete and is deeper than at the main part of the bridge as the beams are smaller and the siding needs to come down to the same height.

I am hopeful they will start the framing on the west end of the bridge and the north end of the main pod next week.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.

If we think of defeat, that's what we'll get. If we are undecided then nothing will happen for us. We must just pick something GREAT to do, and then DO it. Never think of failure at all, for as we think now, that's what we'll get.

                             --Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

The WRAP-ture

I got the rare opportunity to spend about 3 hours on the land today by myself.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and got up to about 85.  I spent about an hour with a pick axe working on a trail down to the water--nothing like digging out rocks and roots to cure what ails you. I just kept walking around the house imagining what things will look like. For a guy that doesn't visualize well in 3D there is nothing like the real thing to get you charged up. I am discovering so many wonderful angles and views and connections. I have to give my wife serious kudos for the design on my new favorite spot in the house.

You have to use your imagination a bit but this is basically the view from our small breakfast nook in the kitchen. This small area is open to the second floor and she has placed an all glass window wall right where the two big trees are facing south and light will come streaming down onto our table.

I absolutely love the way the small pod is angled to the bridge.  With the overhangs, bridge cantilever, and the new canopy there is a festival of angles

going on at this end of the house and I can't get enough of it.

I am not liking the house closing in.  As the plywood sheathing and the Tyvek house wrap go up the transparency of the framing has evaporated. I knew this was coming but it was startling to see it happen in a single day.

The view of the middle of the giant beech tree from the south is now gone.

A whole lot of building wrap going on today--Tyvek Stucco Wrap on the pods and Tyvek Drain Wrap on the bridge. I have a feeling we are going to be looking at that for a while.  I really like the canopies over the entrances.  They started them Monday with the steel infrastructure through the walls.

At the end of last week they put the final decking down in the master suite and I was able to walk out on our bedroom floor for the first time.

On the lower right corner of the image above (where the ladder is) there will be a 12' long glass railing that will allow you to look down to the living and dining area below.

Next week I think they will start framing the walls of the double high space in the main pod.

Imagination rules the world. 

                           --Napoleon Bonaparte

Shelter from the Storm

We've been fighting the rain the past few days and they are trying to get the roof in over the small pod and the bridge. Roof framing was

in full swing last week.  My sister Barb was down from PA for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and got the chance to see the

house for the first time--she was blown away.  Roof decking is now nearly complete. We are getting to experience for the first time the

spaces without being totally open and I think we nailed the views.  The overhangs were designed to completely shield the artwork from direct sun in the peak of winter but that does make for limited views to the south inside the gallery. The northern views more than make up for this.

The overhang on the far east end of the bridge needed to be shortened to 18" to accomodate our favorite Hickory tree.

From the entrance to the driveway you can see straight through the south AND north clerestories to the forest beyond.

Tomorrow I think they will start to put down the decking in the master bedroom and bath.

“I think,” said Christopher Robin, “that we ought to eat all our provisions now, so we won’t have so much to carry.”

                                                                                                                                    A.A. Milne

TRUSS me on this.

On the large upper bridge volume we were able to use conventional floor joists from the far east end up to the stair of the main pod.

Beyond that we need custom floor trusses both for structure and to accomodate HVAC ducts. Very early in the design process in another of those discussions about why trapezoidal shapes would drive costs significantly higher, I was proudly sporting my devil's advocate suit and said "THESE days you just plug the dimension at one end and then the other into the computer and all the custom lengths spit out and you just order them.  Yeah it's a little more but not that big a deal." So I show up on the job site one day and Steve and Dwayne are standing on opposite steel beams on the bridge with a tape measure and writing dimensions for our trusses on a scrap of 2x8 as they slide the tape in 16" increments. Then we get this amazing 21 page set of truss shop drawings:

Download cassilhaus_floor_truss_shop_drawings_mar_19.pdf

with an individual page for each of our unique A-U trusses--holy alphabet soup Batman! Each has a unique design and load bearing requirement. OK so its not so simple...

The trusses came Tuesday and went in very quickly--

You can see above the box out for the HVAC duct in the center.

These will support the decking and framing for our master bath and master bedroom and allow them to finish up the decking on the house.

They have also done the waterproofing for the roof terrace immediately adjacent to these trusses and shaped the drain

area for the outdoor shower. 

There is a very nice slope down to the scuppers (at far right above) and after they apply the built up roof they will build an ipe deck on sleepers with a reverse slope so that the roof terrace will be flat.

Those who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve. --Tom Robbins