All photos link to larger images.

The last couple weeks have been busy with a lot of interior work. The plumbers + electricians have done their rough-ins and we've been varnishing beams and windows (to protect them from damage) and building some specialty built-ins.

With the structure up, it's easier to visualize interior spaces and we have been thinking about interior design details. We taped the position of the appliances and cabinets in the kitchen to get a better feel for the layout. (see blue tape on floor) Especially in small homes, these dimensions are critical and competing priorities are everywhere! We have selected shower faucets for the rough-in plumbing since they differ between manufacturers. We've also chosen the finish roofing so we can get dried in. The felt on the roof has done a good job protecting the interior finish wood (windows and beams) from the rain, but once the finish roof is on it'll be even better. Currently we're working on exterior colors so we can cover the fascias with no maintenance coated steel and stucco the exterior.

We built a base for the wood stove with wood storage and decided to add an under-window bookshelf/ window seat along the south wall of the living room out of some of the scrap lumber left after framing. Since Steven is an experienced furniture maker, we've asked him to frame these additions. Later they will be drywalled and he will finish them with tile on the top and wood trim. If you look carefully, you can see some blue tape on the wall behind the wood stove platform. This is marking off the shape and size of the woodstove so we can get a better idea of how it will look.

We installed the windows using a window wrap that goes a long way to protect windows from leaks; especially during a driving rain. We recommend this to all of our customers and spec it in our plans. We used Protecto Wrap, but there are other brands as well.We put tape on the sill before installing the window, then put more tape on the sill, then the sides and the top (in that order). Since it's not as sticky as we'd like, we then stapled the edges so it doesn't blow off before we get the house wrapped.

2"x2" furring strips were nailed vertically to the interior of the panel walls to make electrical installation easier. Wiring is stapled directly to the panels and run below the furring strips. Later, drywall is nailed to the furring strips, leaving an air space between the drywall and the panel. We've found this to be much easier than fishing the wiring through electrical chases in the panels.

Jesus, an electrician, runs wiring through the interior frame walls. They begin by placing the electrical boxes on the walls, then run the wire from the boxes to the main electrical box in the garage. The crawlspace below the wood subfloor is a convenient place to run most of the wiring. The electricians would say it'd be even more convenient if there was a little more space to crawl! (sorry, guys!) It's a good idea to walk through the house once the structure is up with the electrical plans to make sure all of the switches and outlets are where you want them. We have marked many of them on the studs or on the floor to make it easier for the electricians.

We're trying out some different colors for our exterior. So far we have selected a tin roof, which is silver (shown here) and the windows are trimmed in white. We are thinking about using a burgandy metal to wrap the facia boards (the board directly below the roof) and considering a sage green for the stucco color. We took some sage from the yard and brought it in to a paint store to match the color, then bought a quart of paint and painted the possible stucco and facia colors right on the exterior garage wall. We painted large squares of color so we could see them from the street and will look at them over the next few days in several types of light to help us decide if we like them or not. Whenever we are choosing colors, we always buy paint and paint larger samples than the little squares they give you at the paint store. Then there are no surprises.