With the "shell" all buttoned up for the Winter we headed inside to do what little interior wall framing there was to do. The first issue we wanted to address was the Window Wall. We detected an excessive degree of lateral deflection. (The wall moved when we pushed on it!) With all that glass in the wall there's not much room for wood! SO, we installed two 20' 4x6's vertically, one on each side of the door opening, from the floor right up between the windows to the ceiling....it helped, but it needed more. Then I remembered that single, left-over 11 7/8" x 32' I-joist from the subfloor! Even though you can barely see it in the photo, it's the horizontal element right over the two lower windows and just above the door header, running the full width of the barn. We propped it up there and nailed the piss out of it and that wall was as solid as a rock!! Well, the engineer liked it, the inspector like it and we REALLY liked it!! Even turned out making a nice display shelf when we were all done! Hey, there's always a way!!

(This is the second of a three-part Showcase series! Don't miss the Shell Construction and the Exterior when you're done with this one!)

The 9' x 13' laundry room with a half-bath and an foyer closet was next.

You can see where the 11' bearing wall drops down to the 8' ceiling in the guest rooms under the rear Shed Roof. Also seen is the short hallway they share between the main room and the french doors at the rear of the house

The wall at the edge of the loft for the 700 sq/ft upstairs Master Suite....fancy term for a super big bedroom, bathroom and huge closet in a 32 x 22 loft! Obviously the insulation is going in at the same time. We were going to do the insulation ourselves but when I talked with the local insulation guy, his price for materials and labor was less than I could buy just the insulation with my deep, deep contractor's discount! I said, "Go right ahead."

When we told the plan checker we wanted to hang the dormers out in space he said, fine....just double-up the trusses on either side. Simple! It was also at this time that we had the two Fujitsu ductless heat pump units installed along with all of the 3/4" flex-copper tubing to connect them to the heat exchangers outside. A 24K BTU downstairs and a 7K upstairs.

I had some special planks milled for the stair stringers and treads out of a couple of really nice Port Orford cedar logs. They were a full 2" thick and surfaced on three sides with one edge wained....with the bark!

We had a pretty good idea of how we wanted the stairs to look so we figured we were ready to tackle the landing. We cut the log legs long (say THAT fast five times!) because we had a couple of issues we were still trying to figure out....like the exact height of the landing. It was at this time that we replaced the temporary 8x8 loft support posts with the permanent log posts.

After calculating and measuring and building cutouts and templates and holding up boards and scratchin' our heads, we got the stairs pretty much figured out. We had them going every which way at one time or another and we finally decided on going up to the landing and then 180 back up to the edge of the loft. But there was just one hitch. We needed an additional step to make the 6'-8" head clearance from the step directly under the edge of the loft and it kept screwing up where the top step MET the loft at 11', floor to floor!

So, Harold came charging in the next morning and said, "I got it! Put a step in the landing!" Hey, there's always a way!!

All this time the rough plumbing and electrical have been going in so it's time to hang drywall. You can see that floor joist on the window wall a little better now.

There weren't that many outside corners in the whole place but wherever there was one we treated it with the rounded outside corner bead....just a smoother look. The ceiling was left bare to accept the 1x6 cedar treatment.

I made another trip to Oregon Cedar and picked up our custom milled, kiln dried 1x6 T&G #2 Port Orford cedar for the ceiling, wainscoat and door and window trim. They came in 12' and 14' lengths and we wound up using almost two full units! (600 boards!) We sealed them with SuperDeck natural.

My wife, Ermie wanted to use something from our property in the building of our new Barn Home so we went out in the woods and found a small stand of Alder, Chittum and Myrtlewood saplings from 1 1/2" to 3" diameter....perfect for the decorative stair balusters we had already envisioned.

After we cut them, slightly over length, Ermie spent a whole week hand peeling them all with an old drawshave. Then we cured them all Summer in my motorcycle trailer. (did a really nice job!) When they were thoroughly dried she spent another two weeks using a palm sander to sand them all perfectly smooth and ready to install in our new stairs! Back to Oregon Cedar again....for the fiddleback Port Orford cedar handrails.

Even though the stairs were right smack in the middle of everything I didn't want them to be a visual barrier....thus the open stairs (no risers), baluster size and spacing, spindly legs on the landing....so light and view can pass right through it. Stair treads are mortised into the side of the stringers....all lagged and screwed together, drilled and plugged with wooden dowels! The stairs turned out nice....NO SQUEAKS!

We finally buttoned up the lid in the "Great Room" and trimmed out the other "floating" dormer.

The "Knotty Alder" kitchen cabinets from Diamond Cabinets arrived right on time with no dings or dents....and they actually sent what we ordered!

Buddy walked in startled and was like, "What the....!?!?"

We had them unpacked and installed in no time....they all fit our layout perfectly. Extremely fine quality solid wood boxes and fronts with self-closing doors and drawers.

Oregon Cedar once again for the 5/4" x 8" T&G plank flooring....it came in 13' and 15' rough cut lengths a full inch thick with micro-beveled edges and the back side relieved. We let it "acclimate" for 3 weeks before installation.

The cedar is just beautiful and by this time the whole place is smellin' pretty nice....if you like that cedar smell!!

The long planks worked out great....they eliminated a lot of "butt" joints in the floor. We used a three disc rotary floor sander for the field and a regular palm sander for the border.

A little tricky going around the stairs, support posts and the island but we managed to do a nice job.

The wood portion of the floor went all through the main room........and right out into the hallway between the two mirrored guest rooms.

We managed to get the island situated according to plan and all of the appliances installed in their carefully calculated locations. The Golden Crystal "leathered" granite countertops REALLY brought it all together.

The whole project used up almost every last bit of two 9' x 5' slabs, a full 1 3/16" thick. Our granite guy, Jack, did a hand chiseled "quarry" edge on everything. There was just enough left over to cover a couple of small end tables.

The island turned out attractive AND functional with a dedicated prep area and sink, an electric convection oven and a gas cook top complete with serving deck....ORDER UP!

We finished off the floor with a coat of Watco Danish Oil penetrating wood stain then brushed on two coats of Varathane clear polyurethane, high traffic floor finish....bulletproof!

Well, Ermie's gettin' pretty tired of living in the garage so, little by little, pieces of furniture are finding their way into the house! Hint-Hint! That's the cue to wrap it up!

But first we gotta get the wood stove hooked up, starting with the hearth. We laid down 1/2" OSB so when the carpet was installed it would match the level of the wood floor. Then we built the framework out of solid criss-crossed 4x8's so we could split the occasional piece of firewood without destroying the hearth.

Then we screwed and glued down 1/4" Hardi-Board on the top and expanded metal lath on the sides....

....to accept the slate and rock veneer that we'll be using a LOT of, later.

Then we installed the Lopi "Endeavor" wood stove and 25' of flue pipe. The reason for the extra length is for roof clearance on the outside. The top of the chimney has to be two feet above anything ten feet away so, with the steep gambrel roof, you have to go up a little further than you'd think.

Let's not forget the "Big Ass Fan" from, who else....Big Ass Fans out of Lexington, KY. It's a 10', ten blade, er....excuse me, TEN AIRFOIL ceiling fan and, Brother, they don't GIVE 'em away!! But I have to say, it's the only thing that works in a room with a 24' ceiling and this many cubic feet of airspace. The wood stove sends the heat UP and the Big Ass Fan mixes it until the air is the same temperature at the ceiling upstairs as it is on the floor downstairs....and that only takes about an hour from the time you light the stove!

OK....time for carpet. Jim, the owner of the local "Color Tile" outlet, and his crew arrived with the carpet in a 15' roll (not the typical 12' roll) totaling nearly 500 sq/ft of super thick Berber weighing close to the same in pounds....thus five guys!!

Since a roll that size doesn't bend that easy, they decided to do a straight shot through the side door and right up over the stairs into the loft. Some smart ass scrawled "NASA" on the side of the roll....well it's as BIG as a rocket!

Proof that they all escaped with their lives. Jim's on the right. The tough looking redhead with his thumb on his chest didn't want to be mistaken for anybody but the installer!!

The seldom seen seam seems seamless.

This guy knows his way around a Berber Rug!!

He also finished up the carpeted areas in the reading/music space....

....and the TV space. Nice job on those curves! Well, Ermie finally took over and the furniture came pouring in....she got busy making the house a home. I guess it's time for me to head back outside.

(This is the second of a three-part Showcase series! Don't miss the Shell Construction and the Exterior when you're done with this one)