framing almost finished

As the title suggests, the framing is almost done.  Teri and I are so excited about this part of the project.  It has been a real pleasure to work with Jim Engel.  He constantly worked with us; giving ideas about different things we can do with our space.  It's beautiful inside and out.  Tim Pallas, our electrician and part-time GC, told us that from this point on, we can expect things to stay on budget, and we will know before hand about any "extras".  I am still worried though because we burned thru alot more then we thought for the clearing and excavating of the property.  Ah, well, who needs a kitchen anyways.  :)  Honestly, we are going to be breathing fumes by the time we get near the end.  Landscaping, interior molding, and extras are going to have to wait I think.

I will post up some pictures of the outside soon.  The porches are finished, and are absolutely stunning.  We changed the front porch from one that stretches the whole length of the house to one that is a more modest 14 feet- enough to get into the house, and also to be able to put a couple of chairs or planters on.  The side porch is the length of the width of the house, 24 feet.  We decided to use a wood composite product for the decking.  It is durable and won't need painting or staining for the life of the deck. (About 20 years.)

The second floor has some changes also.  Because of the reorientation of the garage to the house we had to move where the garage stairs to the bonus room was placed.  That gave us some extra space upstairs, and we used it to make a separate laundry room.  The upstairs main bath is HUGE- and gives a great view of the lake.  We will be able to put in (eventually) some custom linen closets and be able to actually store our towels and such.  YEA!

This past week has also been very busy meeting with subcontractors.  I met with a cabinet maker who took measurements of the kitchen and will be plugging in the numbers into a software program to give us a 3-d view of our cabinets.  Cool.

I had a walkthrough with the geothermal guys, they are going to lay the ducts within the next two weeks, and will be drilling the well at about the same time.

The solar panel installer came to measure our roof, and get a read on the amount of sunlight we will get.  He says that the monthly cost of the lease will be a bit higher than the electricity we will produce, but I'm pretty sure that I still want to do it for a few reasons:

1. The price of electricity keeps increasing.  It has double in the last decade, about 10% a year, but the lease price is guaranteed for 15 years, so right now it costs a little more per month, but if the price keeps rising, I will be locked in at the lower price, and could save a lot of money in the long run.
2. At the end of the lease I will own the panels and infrastructure (panels, wires and such) which might not be great because of the advancing technology of the panels, but the panels are rated for 40years.
3. It is the "green" way to go, and even if it is a few dollars more right now, I know that the energy that I am using comes from a renewable source.

Tomorrow the windows are going in and the shingling of the roof will begin.  Next week- electrician, plumber and HVAC.  Things are really cranking along.