let's hope not, Worthy.

It is lovely.

The ICF basement has been a challenge to finish on the outside. I backfilled a section to what I consider a finished state, with drain rock up against the stucco and waterproofing interface to eliminate wicking. I can still wiggle a flashing in there if we desire.

I did this to make it ladder friendly for the siding job which starts today.

We can double back to add decorative stone or whatever, but no plantings right up by the windows and wall.

we will drape all the stucco today with a plastic sheet stapled up under the siding to protect from overspray. The windows get 5/4 x 4 trim in a slate gray.

We have window trim on and just got rolling with the siding when the boom lift sprung a big leak. It's always something!

We did a bunch of spitballing about vertical cedar and now we are doing it at each exterior door area to break things up in a commercial manner.

"Doot Doot doo looking out our side door"

Pour 1 is done, pour 2 Monday.

It is wonderful to finally see the near zero threshhold action.

I ordered up the 7 exterior doors yesterday. this is the low pro sill for all of them.

The upstairs east doors that depend onto the deck are the most exposed with a gable end.

If need be I can add a small awning over each. I do have 2' overhangs everywhere.

every door on the first level has a minimum of a 4' deep roof over it.

we put up a trim stopper for the siding change out front and sided the west wing on the south side.

Now it is easier to visualize some natural cedar on there, some vertical T&G or similar. I think we will do the soffit under there in a similar fashion,

I put the drain pipe, fabric, drain rock, and some diversion membranes in the notch between wall and window well yesterday, and 12+tons of compacted gravel while my brother and the framer put up siding. Today we will form up the approach walk there,

The infrastructure is in place for the water feature, but that whole job is saved for later after we get final.

Today's progress, the approach to the front door is graded and formed and ready to pour in the morning with the carport pour.

They call me Mr. Sleeves!

Seriously, I put sleeves in everywhere for myself and customers.

If you use 1 of 5 you are miles ahead on that equation.

That is cross sloped at a gentle 1.5% and matched to the carport approach at 1.5%.

It slopes towards us at 1.2%

It is nice to have a multiplane grade laser and knowledge.

The last 4' flattens to match the floor of the house. This is where the cast iron bridge grates go over the future water feature.

No blue prints just design on the fly to match what you have. I will cap both the window well and top of the wall with stone, type TBD. That was today's revelation.

I also prepared to pour a simple slab at the basement french doors.

I chose the window trim at the back door for the stopper. It is easy to picture it with real wood there now.

I chose an arbitrary 2' either side of the carport door opening for this one. It keeps it well out of the weather. I plan on finishing the wood with Sikkens Proluxe Cetol log cabin finish. it will last for years on the first application and preserve the natural color without UV fading.

Carport goes up today. Doors deliver Tuesday.

We have no Code governing minimum door threshold above the adjacent grade. But to avoid opening into a snowpile come winter, I try to keep them above the drifting to come.

Drifts? what are snow "drifts" that you speak of?

Apparently they get one event every 10 years or so here, where everything lines up just right. Moisture from the pineapple express gets ran over by the Fraser river cold outflow, and it can snow 2' or more. Figures, those Canadian outflows causing troubles.

Welcome to the worthy residence!

Checking the security cameras for two legged footprints.

we have a deck! We have a carport!

I was going full industrial with concrete treads on channel steel, but do like the looks of timber treads on west coast stringers.

We just don't have much weather here to deal with. I can keep that looking good with minimal effort.

The vinyl deck kit came in from BC and we are preparing to install it ahead of Saturday's possible rains.

I did a thing with my metal roof provider, and ordered custom made fascia metal in Slate Gray. That is our trim color.

The vinyl roof deck material is attached to a flashing that will go over the top edge of that fascia.

My neighbor and I will fabricate custom stainless face mounted posts, and rails and balusters.

I will design the posts and make fabrication jigs for easy assembly.

The metal fascia was quite inexpensive to have made.

I did the same process at the fascia and barge boards, I had custom pieces made in the roof color.

It will never need paint. The paint begins under the soffits.

Ah, to have the skills (and willing relatives) to help in doing lots of the actual work!

On this large build, I'm mostly managing nit picker and labourer/cleaner. Why should I do something that I'm paying someone else to do?

Pics of the day.

Integral sink is built from the cutouts in the counter material, which are then pieced together with lots of "goo" and Voila!

What a beautiful sink! The backsplash is marvelous too. Did Mrs. Worthy pick them?

Credit our designer daughter who is designer furious if questioned. She picked the quartz and quartzite slabs, backsplashes and counters.

If I had known we were going that route, I would have added a few more 2x6s to the walls. I'm still tempted to add vertical supports. Easy to see some partygoer thinking they can just pop their sweeties up on the counter!

Thar's a pretty neat sink.

To be clear, i have two framers and a helper getting paid dearly to do my bidding. Last Friday the one framer and his son were no-shows.

We were looking at weather coming in overnight Saturday night, and I got to scrambling and found two experienced guys that could wiggle free for half a day and give us the boost we needed.

We got 3 courses of the roof vinyl on before we ran out of daylight and functioning backs.

Sunday was a day of rest.

The product is from Global Decking in BC, and it is the Cottage Country pattern.

One of the heat welded lap seams is in the middle of this picture.

The push is on to get it fully wrapped up, paint and exterior doors done this month.

one framer and his son were no-shows

Standard behaviour!

Vinyl. New to me. Safer than torching/

BTW, glad that's our only integral sink. The "drain" is a 3/8" slot at the sloped wall side of the sink. Water only! Snaking any clogs will require disconnecting the drain.

Uggg! Don’t let anyone with long hair near that sink.

It's a first floor powder room where the purpose was Wow! And since we rarely have guests, hopefully not a problem.

I burned the midnight oil, setting nails and puttying and masking windows by headlight.

Yesterday my friend and I shot a first coat on all the siding that had been nailed down so far.

The trim color was matched to the metal a few days ago, and I cut some on for a look. We like it.

The stack of doors in the carport is shrinking. Upstairs main on the left with no lites for privacy, and the common room with 3 lites to mitigate collisions at the door.

I am picking up the last of the siding in the morning and we will get it ready for paint all over by Friday.

I am cutting in a hot/cold outdoor faucet on the left by that shower. It is very inexpensive to do now.

Continued here.