Planning, Planning

Back in the swing of it after being out for about two weeks:

The back porch, which is mostly down now, is just being used to stand on and hold things, and for easy roof access from the second floor:

Skylight update!  This is one of those items that was an obsession point for me.  It had to be the right size, placed in the center of the stairwell shaft, and framed in a cool way to the ceiling at the top of the stairwell shaft.  Seemed pretty straightforward.  But the architect didn't get it, there were several iterations, frustrations, etc. but it finally worked out on the drawing.  Then there was selection of the actual skylight itself, which turned into some controversy as what I had envisioned turned out to be what was considered a 'commercial' skylight, not residential (not really sure what the big deal was here). There was new engineering that had to be done for the roof structure.  Ugh.  So then the day came to actually install, last week, and it required scaffolding and bracing so that the guys could work on this 20+ feet above the kitchen floor.  But here is the installed result- to give some idea, it is 5 feet by 5 feet.  A good sized skylight. Beautiful! 

Looking out the doorway of the laundry room:

Stairs are coming in as well, the set that goes from the first floor to the media (garden) level is in, it is of standard framed wood construction.  But those that rise in the kitchen great room to the second floor, wrapping around the interior window bay with that skylight in the center of the well are being formed today.  These will be free floating and very transparent, and despite their weight should look very light in the space:

There are a million other things happening right now, the pace has become pretty rapid, looking at about 10 - 12 weeks to complete.  

Just a look from the Master Bedroom front window looking to the back of the house: left opening is a short entry hall from the stairwell area, right opening goes to the master bath: