Blower door tests and pumbing

My friend Sean came over to visit and take a look at the house.  He also happens to be a HERS rater.  This means that he analyzes house energy efficiency.  It just so happened that he had his testing equipment and offered to run the test for us. 

He explained that most houses had a score in the 3000's and he and his company can improve that score to about 2500.  (Lower is better)

When he ran the test it came back at 1300, one of the tightest, efficient, houses he has seen.  WOOT!

To read this chart follow the first line across the top (cfm at 50Pa) and you can see that we are well below the "tight" category.  It really seems that our research and hard work is paying off.  We are so excited.

In other news, Tim, our plumber finished today and everything is working great!

Well, we hope to have our CO this week, and move in next week.  Wow.

Thanks for reading!

details on tilework- cabinets being put in.

Here are some close-ups of the tile work in our house that Jason Burnett created.  In the first picture you can see the foyer layout (light colors with diamond accent) on the left moving to our kitchen blue gray slate.  In between is a beautiful transition piece.

In this second photo you can see the transition between our dining room (bottom) to our living room.  Jason developed a new pattern to break the sightlines.  He liked it so much he plans on using it in future work.

 In this last photo of tile you can see the staircase on the left and the transition of the foyer to the living room.  The work that Jason did, 1,100 square feet of tile, is outstanding.  We couldn't be more pleased with him.

We are starting to hang curtains!  It's beginning to feel like a home, not just a house!

Cabinets and garage trim

Hi everybody. Today I went to Home Depot and bought trim for the garage.  I had measured each side and figured what I needed.  It occurred to me while I was driving to Coventry that a year ago I would have never even considered attempting this project, and today it was just one of many. 

I have never considered myself particularly handy but this past year in general, and these past two months in particular have really given me confidence to try and do things.  I know that if it wasn't for Jim Burnett I wouldn't be able to do any of these projects; not only has he shown me how to do half a dozen basic tasks, but he has lent me the proper tools to be able to do them. 

If there is one thing that I have learned its that you need the right tool to do the job, or it becomes a nightmare/impossible.  For example, I had never even heard of an impact wrench before and now it has become an essential part of my tool box.  Jim and I would have never been able to put the garage doors together without it.  We hung all the doors using a pneumatic trim gun.  Rebecca and I used the same trim gun to hang all the window trim. 

Thank-you Jim.

Below are some pictures of the current state of our cabinets.  Rueven estimates two more days and everything (including counter-top) will be in.  When that is done, plumbing and electrical will finish.

Monday Wragg Well drilling is coming in to test our water. It takes two weeks to test, and should be the last thing before we get our C.O.!!

Here are two pictures of the trim around the garage doors.

Thanks for reading!

Carpet!

Whew!  A lot going on at the new house-  Jason is almost done tiling and it looks fantastic.  Teri has picked out great colors.  We have two toilets installed and the sinks to go with them.  We are now just waiting on the master bath and the kitchen sink, which will come after the cabinets are installed. Below is a picture of a door with a handle on it.  Pretty ordinary, right?  Well this door is very special!  To get a certificate of occupancy, (CO) you need:

1. All of your electrical outlets either covered or installed. 
2. A working kitchen and all plumbing work completed.
3. One bathroom with a door and casing all around it.

You guessed it! this is my bathroom with a finished door and trim!  We are almost done!

The next pictures show Rebecca and I installing all of the window trim. She worked with me solidly for over three hours. What a great help.

Next, my brother Larry is sanding/finishing my stairs. He worked all day on the stairs while Jim and I installed all of the interior doors.

Next are some pictures of the carpet guys coming in and installing 180 sq yards of carpet today.

180 sq yards is more area than my entire house on Maple st.

Rebecca hiding in her closet.

The view out of my window today.  :)

The end is in sight.  Thank goodness....

Stairs and tiles, oh my

Ok, this is the master bathroom, tiled, ready for plumbing.

 View of our new chandelier, then out the front window to the lake.

 Down our newly made staircase (made today).

 Ben standing on the landing.

 Ben at the bottom.

 Detail work.

 Kitchen tiled, ready for cabinets and counter tops.

 The living room, almost finished (can see the spacers sticking out of some of the corners).

inside pictures

So, this IS a "green" house, right?

Beautiful stuff going on at the house today.  We stuttered a little yesterday because of the storm.  But today Teri and the kids painted Rebecca's room.  It's an absolutely gorgeous light purple.  Rebecca worked the whole day with spurts of effort from the boys.
Meanwhile, Poppy and I put together the first garage door and finished everything except the spring system.  We will finish that one and work on the second one tomorrow.

Tim and Chad (electrician and carpenter, respectively) were also here- Tim started putting in all the wall sockets and switches in.  He hung the pendant lights that we bought yesterday and started working on the ceiling fans. Chad almost finished priming/painting. One more bucket will do it.  He will finish tomorrow. 

Jason and Matt J. came and brought under-lay for the tile.  They are coming tomorrow to put the plywood in.  Tile will come in next Tuesday.

Now to the main part and the reason for the title of this post. 

First off, I have noticed that much of my last few months of posting have been pictures or what progress had been made, and not writing about our philosophy.  I suspect this to be expected due to the fact that we are GCing our own house, and have to take care of the small details.  But now that we have an enclosed shell, with the heat on I would like to reflect upon our original ideas, and how close we are coming to them. 

To be perfectly honest with you all I had been worried that all of this "stuff" would work.  By stuff I mean the passive solar aspects of the house.  It all seems like smoke and mirrors, having the sun heat our house.  It sounds good, but really? Although I was confident that the insulation and tight building specs would be helpful in keeping energy costs down, Teri and I really set out to build as close to a zero carbon footprint as possible. 

Today our concept really hit home for me.  I spent the entire day in/around the house today.  When Jim and I got to the site, it was about 10am and very cold (about 30 degrees).  I had set the house temperature at 58 degrees, but when I got into the house it was 62!  Our passive solar design truly worked!  Tim the electrician, was amazed- he called me in from the garage at one point in the afternoon and asked me to explain what was going on.  I explained about the special windows that I had put in, and that we had situated the house towards true north/south.  He was standing in the light and couldn't believe how warm it was.  During the course of the day our geothermal heat only came on twice, for about 5 minutes each time. This while four kids (not to mention seven adults) were coming in and out of the house constantly, leaving doors open to load and unload equipment.  I was thrilled.  I suspect that when we install our wood stove, our heat might not go on at all.

Today was a real morale booster.

Thanks for reading.