That is some great carpentry. I noticed the rafters are really like floor joists to support a lot of weight -- that's what I shoulda used but too expensive. Besides, my roof is pitched more & I only needed 2x6's.
Have you thought about skylites? Now's the time! Even though it's on North side, you'll get much more natural lite. I love my skylites...also have 2 sola-tubes in my kitchen & one in bath ...love them!
What is the dimensions of this addition? 2 rooms you say? What will they be used for? For me, Millet, Laaz, Benny, Stan, Ned, Garnetmoth, Gina, Citrus Joe, ETC as a place to stay when we all visit? LOL!!!!
Can't wait to see the final!!
Patty
(wishing I had money to hire people to do this crap)

The roof framing will be used to support roof tiles that are matched to existing house as per city regulations. Can't add skylights anymore as those that will be installed on the sides are really big windows. The original plan was Bay windows, but our city is very strict, telling us that if we used Bay windows, those are counted as living spaces (weird regulations really) and will be enroaching our privacy setback from the fence (must be 15 ft from the fence in our zone). Was truly disappointing to learn late in the design that Bay windows will violate our privacy setback requirements. The amount of window that we have added is at the maximum allowed by the city as per energy regulations and other rules.

Yes, those are extra guest rooms for you guys when you come over. Actually one is a guest bedroom and the other is a study room.

We will be adding skylights or side windows on our existing house near the roof to where the new one is adjoined, to compensate for the shading out from the room addition project.

Project would be done by end of May this year.

Joe:
I might visit you during the final stage of your addition to get some pointers. I for a long time now have the same idea as you have and you beat me to it.
I already have the drawing plans but I need some idea how to improve my idea. What stopped me before was the city disapprove my plans because they said it needs some heating in the addition.
Is it OK?
I visit my sister when she needs me to do electrical.

Hi Benny,

Yes, it took us 6 months before the design got approved. One of the most expensive thing that we would have done was to replace the central unit, provide ducting vents into the room addition, and all the recalculation and would have made our existing house uglier because of those added ducting vents, and not to mention that we will have to upgrade each and every existing duct work to comply with new energy laws and regulations.

Well we finally decided on using independent window type Amana Heat Pump Unit that when calculation was done is enough to heat or cool the 2 rooms. And besides during the summer, we can just turn off the main unit and stay in that room that will be cooled by a lot smaller unit. Very cheap unit and easy to install too and they are also within the approved range of energy efficiency approved by the state.

Hey Benny, you must have some very weird building codes there!
I remember we talked about this before. When I built my addition, I said it would be a 3 season sunroom (like a big enclosed porch) and "3 season" means it doesn't need heat... and I live in z5 too!
There's gotta be a way you can get around that. Just call it an "enclosed porch" instead of a "room". My room is 16X18' & I could've made it bigger. It looks like the rest of house - not like a porch at all. When I want more heat in there, I just open the french doors from kitchen! Or, say it's an attached GREENHOUSE that doesn't need heat. Then, you can finish the inside any way you want. Just a suggestion.

And where can you buy this Amana heat pump?
I used to have this central AC/Heating heat pump unit to cool and heat my house while I was living at Lakeland Florida.

Patty:
Thanks for your nice suggestion but you know the city boys think they are gods here and once the die is cast it is cast. It was already stamp my permit with big red ink disapprove for that reason.
But in a way I like the idea having heat there in that extra room. It gets cold in my living room most of the time and we got cold in there. It would be nice and cozy looking at your plants with just your just T shirt on I believe so I kinda like the idea even if that is an extra expense.
Nowadays you won't believe the price of the house here.
Would you believe my wife said that just last year the houses where she delivers the mail cost an average of $700 to 800K and now they cost over a million on average?
I know a friend of mine bought a house 3 years a go for 250K then the next year it went over $500K. I don't know how much it cost now I would estimate over $900K. It's crazy.

Benny, I'll check my papers when I get home and tell you contact info on those heat pumps.

I agree with the crazy pricing of houses nowadays. If we move to a 6-bedroom house, it will be $1.2M, whereas, if we add 2 more bedrooms it costs only $55K and then we have a house with 6 bedrooms. Without room addition, our existing house is valued at about $800K, and so we would have been looking for $400K if we want to move to 6-bedroom house. After the room addition project, we would have spent total of $298K including original purchase price to cost of room addition and the house would then be valued at almost $1M. It really cost less to build more to existing house than move to bigger houses.

I will have a mini-greenhouse built next to the room addition project, but my wife and I are still discussing about this.

Here's what was done last Friday:

The roof almost done now, only the sealants needed to where it is attached to existing wall of the house.

Close-up of the windows just installed, no stucco yet:

Already used the space for bottling and corking my Honey Dew and Weeping Santa Rosa wines. I have the Ferrari model of Italian Floor Corker. It was raining heavily outside when I bottled my wine last weekend.

I love your oversize windows Joe.

Benny, to see the garden of course. I will be putting some potted citrus inside this room addition.

And Joe:
Are those bottles of wine?