The interior ceiling of the upper room has a lowered area around the perimeter. This allows us to install recessed light fixtures without having to penetrate the insulated ceiling plane. It also lines up with the exterior soffits creating a very pleasing relationship between interior and exterior surfaces. The architect used sloped surfaces for the interior soffit which looks very nice.

While interior work is being done our carpenters have moved outside to the deck. The deck is constructed using red cedar. The support beams underneath the deck have some decorative features. We will cap the top of the beam ends with metal flashings.

The first unit we started work on is on the upper floor . It has tremendous views to the east and north, overlooking the Cannon River and Carleton College. The outdoor patio on the unit looks like a great place to enjoy a morning cup of coffee.

We created a closet in one of the rooms, installed some pocket doors, removed an interior wall, etc. We also have applied the first coat of finish paint to the walls and ceilings. The ceramic tile work has been mostly completed in the bathrooms and laundry room.

The second unit we are working on is one floor down on the third floor. It also has magnificent views to the east and north. All the rooms in these units are very generous in size and the high ceilings create a nice spacious feeling.

The workers are concentrating on completing the roof soffit work. The soffits on this home have a nice detail that includes painted wood trim strips on the sides of the ventilation louver. The electricians installed recessed lights earlier. The large windows give excellent views of the wildlife pond and nearby lake.

These are the types of things that can pop up unexpectedly when doing remodeling work, especially if a house has not been owned long before the remodeling project is undertaken.

This room addition incorporates large windows. While standing in the room today I could get a real feel for the wonderful views of the lake, pond and creek. It is a fun project to be working on.

The south wall incorporates two big casement windows as well as the bump out for a gas fireplace. We installed a patio door on the east wall that we salvaged from the common wall on the  house.

We constructed the foundation walls from insulated concrete forms to provide a strong, water-tight foundation wall. We let the walls cure for a week or so before we backfill against them.

One of the items that was changed recently in the Minnesota Building Code deals with higher insulation values at the rim joists. The new requirement is R-10. On larger home projects we accomplish this by spraying foam insulation onto the rim joist. On a small project like this it is cost prohibitive to use spray foam. Instead we manufacture our own insulated rim joist using 2” expanded foam sheets. We sandwich the foam between two layers of structural rim joist material. Insulating rim joists to R-10 really helps keep the floors warmer in a home. On this addition we have insulated rims sitting on top of insulated concrete foundation walls, creating a very tight, warm structure.

As we do with many of our residential projects, we used insulated concrete forms for the walls. These create a highly insulated, strong foundation wall. As we place the forms we install steel reinforcing bars both vertically and horizontally. Then once the concrete is placed in the forms it creates a very strong concrete wall with insulation on each side. The workers use a special concrete vibrator to consolidate the concrete and make sure there are no air pockets in the wall. The interior insulation is covered with moisture resistant drywall as a fire protection, and the exterior insulation is covered with a gray fiberglass protection liner.