Shafted and Entrenched

So it finally happened. The time came to turn the dramatic, open staircase winding its way up from the ground to the top of the house






into a shaft for the elevator.



Here I am waiting for elevator to arrive:



Here are where the elevator will stop at each floor:
Ground Floor: Garage, Wine Cellar, Grotto



First floor: Kitchen, living room, dining room, family room/media room.



Second floor: Office, Guest Bedrooms 1 & 2





Third Floor: Master Suite, Deck.



And here's a view looking down the shaft from the top floor. The wooden platform in the shaft is a temporary platform on the floor below that allows access to the shaft for construction. Eventually, these platforms will be withdrawn and there will be an open shaft all the way down to the garage:



We had to put in additional lights to compensate for closing off the stairs from the natural light coming in from the top:






Speaking of the Master Suite, the skylights arrived, and soon the holes in the roof



will be plugged with the contents of these boxes, Vellux Sky Lights:



Another development was the discovery that the original house lacked a slab foundation and that the entire house was resting on a few inches of concrete in the garage. This explains why parts of the house had sagged down and we had to jack them back up (see this post). Since our Auto Club card does not cover the house getting a flat tire, we need to build a proper foundation in the garage for the house. Typically, this involves digging a hole, a trench in this case, and filling it with -- you guessed it -- lots and lots of beautiful concrete.

Here's the trench:





The concrete will come along a bit later.

Not sure who, but someone has already started partying at the house:



Next week: More plumbing, Fire Suppression, Warm Floors, and maybe windows.