RUACH

Site Planning : We were blessed to find such a cool piece of land (27 acres) and needed a design to take advantage of all the views.

Designed on napkins and graph paper over years of brainstorming, I put it into CAD and had my good friend Doug tidy it up and make it look official for submitting for permits.

Grab a shovel. We have some digging to do. Grading to markers with the right elevations is exciting to see the project start.

"Nobody looks at a house and says, 'WOW, what a great foundation'. - Rob Clippard

Foundations set and ICF with the awesomeness of Manfred Harring and his team start to rise. I love legos and this was legos on roids.

Just incase the Big Bad Wolf is a thing, I'm covered. ICF - insulated concrete forms packed full of steel from the basement floor to the roof.

Troubleshooting challenges as I GC'd the project was a blast. Checking on subs and shifting or adjusting plans on the fly is integral to the process.

Who doesn't love to create or build something? My kids left unattended on the jobsite naturally find something to build. Love it.

A ways to go. But so exciting to see the shape. We have to build in layers to support exterior ICF and to simplify material access to the floors.

“Is there a place you can go to break away for a little while? If you haven’t yet built your tree house, it’s never too late to start.” Gina Greenlee

Yes, The front door! We'll take care of that old barn later, but the front door is located right on the old family fire pit we used for years.

"Dad, you said we would leave an hour ago."
The kids are sitting on the living room stage in front of where the TV is today.

“Is there a place you can go to break away for a little while? If you haven’t yet built your tree house, it’s never too late to start.” Gina Greenlee

Sunset through the front door opening.
Ist Floor is 1/2 way poured.

Cali hanging out in the playroom for sunset.

The custom stairs were a fun feature to design in ad keep clean and open. The first beam install was the toughest.

3/4 Steel plates sandwiched between 1/2 cedar to frame the living room windows.

Basement and 1st floor cement finished.
Starting the second floor lego ICF phase.

Welding is fun. I had to quickly fabricate some custom brackets to hold wood joist for balcony.

Trusses! Amazing that all were placed in one day keep cost down for labor and crane rental.

Sunset out of the playroom windows.

Teamwork! Kids, despite their ages, where very helpful on the construction site.

Kids playing in the patio off the kitchen.

As we stand on them, we drink them. Breaks are important... specially at sunset.

Immensely important to install the fireplace while framing in the winter! I was nervous about doing this myself - the house hasn't burned down yet.

Living room ceiling 21' up. How can we make this more difficult. Curved Soffits!

Everyone needs a Jeff. This guy is awesome and incredibly good at his job.
High quality, High Integrity.

With a roof on.... Things can finally stay dry and the mechanicals start. This is were we saved the most $$ by doing the majority ourselves.

Why other parents don't let their kids on the roof is beyond me. It beautiful up there.

Sparks are cool. Always finding out how "off" I was setting beams after they're set.

Prototypes are functional art are important. Our railing are unique and expensive. But high quality from a talent and great guy.

Sometimes I needed a break, but Xander continues on as we have goals and deadlines we want to meet. He's not a bad welder at 3.

Building new stair in and around temporary stairs. Good thing I spent so much time as a kid building tree houses. This was fun to do.

Electrical, Audio, Cat6 Oh my. How many miles of wire did we run? Heidi runs Audio cables to her kitchen.

TONS of drywall. Paid our churches youth group to carry them all in. Had so many good people help when needed.

Note: Three year olds should not be 30' in the air on a lift handing tools to dad as we put in the outdoor soffit lights.

I did take the picture.... they were not alone. But Kings Island had nothing on this construction site.

I actually don't mind drywalling. However, if I did this on my own, we would still not have moved in.

Teegan helped witht he drywall too. Although she was really bad at making it smooth and flat.

Automation. A specialty of mine. The entire house is reasonably smart. I can control most everything from my phone.

Living room focal point. Metallic Orange sounds scary, but turned out great.

Tile Work. I had to rider this vendor hard, but she got it all done. On time, under budget.

Square Cabinets in a round kitchen. The masterful art of pre planning and creative construction work.

ALl the flooring (tiling) was another huge $ saver. Heidi did tile herself into a corner though.

Kitchen is taking shape. No more washing dishes in the master bathtub.

Painting was another outsourced job. Again, wouldn't mind doing it, but our time was better spent on doing higher cost items like plumbing or electrical.

Oh yea! Siding. The one issue I had with any vendors was Siding! I simply picked a bad seed and lost a year and 30K on not properly vetting a guy who I initially trusted and liked. Ops..

Balcony hall is taking shape. Heidi still insist on railings. I think that detracts from nurturing an adventurous spirit with kids. Fine.

Water must go somewhere. Xander and I installing all the drainage pipe fo the gutters.

Kid's Foyer. Designed as the place to sit and recap the end of the day before bed.

Artist Dale Chihuly wears an eye patch. But that's not why he is so cool. Inspired to mimik his work, Heidi and I created our own versions of his art.

An amazing group of Christian siding guys come to the rescue. They never had done this type of siding and now they are the largest in Cincinnati.

Siding works for the flat parts! Stucco was required for the radiused portions of the playroom and kitchen.

Heid and I began laying stone and prepping for the landscaping in the spring.

Nearly complete. Amazingly satisfying and a positive experience for Heidi and I.

With the house "mostly" finished, Holidays and Entertaining as we turn this house into a home begins.

Christmas is one of the fondest memories I have of being in a place that is warm, festive, and full of joy. Love this time of year.

The key to successful decks is to find a group of experience and talented individuals to help. Just wish their talent and experience was in building a deck.

With the amount of blocking I did, I should have just made the entire deck a block.

No more Step to nowhere. Trusses are all set and ready for waterproofing.

water proofing with leftover roofing materials and lots of rubber tape.

Laying out the TIMBERTECH decking was the perfect task to help an eight year old develop her dexterity and balance.

Hot wife putting the final touches onthe water proofing as I learn the art of bending PVC decking.

The tedious task of alignment while I cut 3x for everytime I measure once.

Almost there. Super satisfying and saved about $50K doing this myself. And the fact that no contractors would do the curves. I just had to figure it out.

With railings installed (insisted by heidi again) we are ready for our first big outdoor bash!