Make room for metal

The roofer finally started installing our roof this week, and we are really impressed with how it looks. We chose a metal roof for several reasons. One is that it is more environmentally friendly than a regular shingle roof -- the metal is not made from petroleum products, so it is recyclable and the runoff is much cleaner. Also, metal is more durable. When first considering a metal roof, we were a bit concerned about the color. Our only experience with metal roofs was the bright blue, red and green roofs you often see on businesses. Luckily, many other colors are available, and we picked a handsome dark brown that looks nice and blends in with the neighborhood.

Now that the leaves are down for the winter, we can finally see the new house from the upstairs of our current house. This view is from our current master bedroom window.


The north side of the roof.


The front porch view.

The south side of the house, with a view of the story break overhang. It was raining while we took these photos, and we were surprised how loud the rain was on the overhangs. Upstairs, the sound of the rain hitting the upper metal roof was dampened by the trusses and ceiling (and will be further muffled by attic insulation). But the overhang noise inside the living room was louder than we expected, although that will be much more muffled once windows and all the wall insulation are installed.

A close-up of the porch roof, as viewed from one of the bedrooms.

Power up

The electricians came over to the house this week and started doing the wiring for lights and outlets. We also have a front door now, and our windows have arrived, although they are not installed yet. Also, our roofing material is here, although it is not yet installed. Soon the house will actually be sealed up.

Here is our new front door. It has a fancy five-point lock system that will make it extra secure and also provides a tighter seal to prevent air flow around the edges of the closed door.

Welcome to our home!

On the left is a light switch box for our living room and porch lights. The blue box higher on the wall is for one of our wall sconce lights. We will have two sconce lights in the living room, as well as several overhead recessed lights.


These are three of our kitchen lights, which are recessed.


Here's another light switch box. This one is for hall, kitchen and living room light switches.


Here is our breaker panel in the garage.

A lucky break

I had some good luck this week that will help us a bit with the house. I won a giveaway hosted by Portland General Electric, our electric company, for a free porch light from Rejuvenation. Rejuvenation is a cool Portland company that makes vintage-style lighting. Their beautiful lights are made-to-order, and they are not cheap, so we're excited to get one for free! We picked out our new front porch light this week, and they're making it now.

We chose the Aurora, with an oil-rubbed bronze finish and the gold-white art glass:

www.rejuvenation.com/fixshowW757/templates/selection.phtml

Story breaks

This week, our builders created our story breaks -- overhangs along the length of the sides of the house, at porch roof level. They serve two purposes: to help provide shade for the downstairs windows during summer, and to break up the view of the giant two-story wall. With the overhang, we think it really helps with the aesthetics on the sides of the house by providing a visual break that makes the wall not look so large. Here are some photos to explain.

The view from the north side of the house. The story break basically extends the porch roof down the sides of the house.

The view from the street as you drive by.

Here you can see both the story break overhang, and the overhang of the roof above (the dark brown rafter tails on the left). Those rafters were painted this week -- they are a nice dark brown that will match the color of the roof.