Construction Page two

   Even though the house would eventually have a brick exterior, it still had to be framed in wood. The exterior walls were all framed with 2x6 dimensional lumber, as were most of the interior walls. A 16-inch deep, truss-framed partition was built between the first and second floors to provide a “chase” for the wiring and plumbing, and, most importantly, to provide a space for the second story HVAC ductwork. This space can be seen in the adjacent photo as the open space above the walls.
  The framing went fairly quickly until the project had progressed to the elevated porches and the roof. Up to this point, things had been reasonably standard, but second-story porches and complex rooflines take a bit more finesse than rectangular rooms. When the framing was completed, the exterior was covered with ¾-inch Composite Ox-Board, and then a heavy tarpaper. A one-inch air-gap was left between the exterior wood walls and the brick. This air-gap serves as an insulator; of course the walls were further insulated with fiberglass batting. The courses of brick are attached every foot along the way with metal straps to the wood-frame structure.
  Each two-story turret includes ten windows, and the structure in total has 54 windows. The tall walls of this Victorian design called for tall windows, and as such the house is quite bright inside, despite the generally "heavy" Victorian period decorating. Solid Stone lintels span the tops of the windows and doors providing extremely stable brick support.