Framing, Framing and More Framing!

I just returned from another visit to the site. There’s been quite a bit of progress, just not any of the significant energy features yet. The weather was good but then again it’s always good. It’ll be raining in Vancouver and sunny up there but that’s because it’s a dryer area, right on the edge of the Okanagan desert. What I can’t get over is how remote it is! Even though it’s only nine kilometers off the highway it feels like you’re a 100 miles into the bush.

Another reason I like the location so much is because it’s only about 20 minutes from one of the best golf courses in BC, Big Sky. That golf course is amazing. Pemberton is fairly flat – at about 1,000 feet and then there’s Mount Currie at 8,400 feet… so the landscape turns from flat to straight up a rock cliff. It’s spectacular country. When I look down the lake from my windows I’m looking at the backside of Mount Currie. In fact, the guys who are working for me will go heli-skiing up there from time to time. The crew of builders and tradesmen has been great, they’re really very receptive and knowledgeable.

As for the work on the house, the framing itself is on track. We’re starting to see some of the framed openings for the windows. You can see how many windows there are and why we want to use high-performance glass. The basement has now been completely framed in and the second floor is almost complete. What I’ve been surprised by at this point is the amount of lumber being used. I did plan this but now I’m looking at the walls and realizing how much wood is in there, which is why we’re using Cladmate, an exterior insulation.

Most people don’t use exterior insulation but because there’s so much lumber the exterior insulation creates a thermal stop to the bridging of the heat going out through the wood. The wood is used for structuring the house and because we have an open plan it requires more supporting structure which means a lot of studs. There are a whole pile of studs in the way so there’s no R-Value in those areas of the exterior walls (we’re using high R-Value Icynene inside). So, adding insulation to the outside of the wall adds that R-Value to the wood, making the Cladmate obviously very valuable to this project.

We’ve ordered the SIPS so that’s supposed to come around the end of the third week in May. The next three weeks are just framing detail and clean-up. We may start building the dock. The next large project around the corner will be putting on the roof. We’re going to have to get a crane in for that. They’re scheduling to do this on a Saturday but I have a hunch it may take longer. I hope I can be up there when the crane’s there, it’ll be pretty cool to see.