!!! MOVING FORWARD !!!

June 22

A- We finally get the OK to bury the plumbing inside the house. We had a few minor fixes to the plumbing to bring it into code, add a 4" vent pipe here, drop to 2" pipe here, add a long-sweep wye for the washing machine, change a tiolet pipe to a longsweep, and thats that.

B- Now we can move forward. We were doing small jobs like some landscaping, we built two raised flower beds/vegetable garden, and a much larger though not as impressive garden elsewhere. We also threw in there a vacation of sorts to Washington DC, New York and an amusement park in Pennsylvania. All this while we waited for the OK.

June 28

A- !!! ELECTRICITY !!! We finally got our main power, 400Amps, hooked up to the house, we have two 200Amp Load Centers (Fuse Panels) to handle the load. One of our load centers is specificaly designed for use with a generator. When the power goes off we switch OFF the Main on the load center which then allows us to switch ON our Generator without any electricity running back up the line potentially injuring an electrical worker. Once we switch off all the fuses we wont need we can start the generator, and leave on whichever appliances (frige, freezer, radient heat system, ect.) we do need by turning on or off the fuse switches; so as not to overload the generator.

The green line is the buried cold water line to the secondary bathroom.

B- Everything not essential to the next step in the process has been removed from the house, some went to the greenhouse, which has plenty of space available, yet gets well over 120 degrees during the day, the rest went up to the shed which is nearly bursting at the seems.

C- Leveled the dirt floor so to have a 4 inch thick slab. used the laser level, shovels and the tractor to get the job done. Some of the in-floor plumbing is still visible above the dirt floor, it will be encased in the concrete though.

June 29

A- We are laying the reflective foil on the floor. This is a highly reflective material on one side, it replaces up to 2 inches of styrofoam, by reflecting the heat from the radient system in the concrete slab back up into the house, and blocking the cold from entering the slab. It is also a radon barrier.

B- We will be placing a layer of 6 mil plastic ontop of the reflective foil inorder to prevent the acids in the concrete from damaging the reflective surface, then ontop of the plastic will go the welded wire remesh, to help bond the concrete, and to zip tie the radiant pipes to it.

As of St Patrics Day ...

An up date on the roof seems to be in order, the shingles are done, the house looks great, Dave Steffen of DDS Construction did a marvelous job. I don't know where the photos of the finished product are, I'll post them as soon as I find them.

What we still need to do to the roof is put up the soffits and fascia.

Now that the weather has warmed above freezing, the ground inside the house is thawing, and is a wet sandy mess, its like walking into a freezer in the morning, and there is truely a dissernable fog in the house, which clears out once we open the windows, the outside temp is warm comparetively.

Outside the ground has thawed, and is a heavenly mess; if observing D is any indication. My son loves all the mud, this is the reason we wash his cloths separately from the rest of the laundry.

Onto the photos I do have...


Entering the door to the kitchen, these are the wires to several (six I believe), light configurations. Note that these pictures are only of the wiring for the lights, we still need to run wires for the outlets everywhere, except the kitchen, it is already wired for GFI outlets, RG6-u cable, and CAT5-e. The CAT5-e is for security, phoneline, intercom, speakers, ect, whatever we choose to put wherever we choose to put it.


Since we don't have inside walls yet, we can't put the switches in their final loction, so we coiled them up in the general area they will be in. Kevin and Kyle did a masterful job of getting the wires pulled to their correct locations in an orderly and well labled fashion.


Another place with alot of switches is here, next to where the fireplace will be, this is the junction of the entry area, dining, kitchen, and fireplace. Eight switches I think, I dont have the scematic infront of me at the moment, so that is just a guess.


More wires for the lighting, these are for the bedrooms and bathroom.


I have all the wires coming into the power room enter through one area, that way we can keep track as to where the wires are going, all the wires are currently labled on both ends for what they do and where they go. I showed Kevin how to make a basket weave of the wires so they get closer, taking up far less room, and stay much more orderly.


Just below the nicely ordered wiring we have this spaghetti mess, we'll get it wired in and pretty soon.


In the trusses I had Kevin build this cat walk, it is the trunk for all the wiring, keeping the wires as neat and orderly as possible, once inspections are done, a lid will be placed over this, and all the wiring will be well shielded.


Looking up to the trunk line, you can also see the Reflective/Bubble/Bubble/Reflective insulation. This is attatched to the underside of the top cord of the truss, creating an enclosed and well insulated chase between the soffits and the roof vent.


Up here in the trusses you can see the bubble wrap attatched to the top corde, and wrapped around the bracings.

Looking over to the sill plate, note the 20 inch energy heel, we can put 20 inches of blown-in insulation at the top edges of the outside walls, most houses don't have this option.

It is amazing how much light is reflected by this stuff, it also stops cellphone and radio signals, I was up here stapling down the wires in the trunkline, and never recieved any of the phonecalls from Mary. It makes for a great tinfoil hat. :)

Paused - Started - Paused - Started - and - Paused Again

Well the weather has been barely cooperative, too much snow, too cold, too much rain, too muddy, and the ground inside froze and heaved, so until I can get the floor to thaw I can't lay the septic lines, water lines, radiant heat.

We did squeeze in between the weather, shingles on the south side of the house, but reference above to know why we haven't shingled the north side.




There is a layer of reflective sheeting beneath the tar paper, it is to reflect the radiant heat so as to minimize the heat transfer into the attic space. The reflective foil really helped warm the guys up when the sun came out, should have been twice the radiant warmth of a conventional roof. The temp where I was standing on the ground, was 24 degrees, the guys on the roof had to take off their coats and sweat shirts.




The style of our shingle is "Colonial Slate," there are reds, blues, greens, greys, and black.

Dec 2 2009

Tons of progress today.
The roof is completely sheeted, and the septic system is going in.

The 1500 gallon septic tank, the field will go out to where the farthest guy is standing, three rows of chambers across more pics of them tomorrow.


Here is the trench on the inside for the sewerlines.


Here is where the sewer lines exit the house and enter into the tank. (Which in this picture the tank hasnt been dropped in.)


An inside look at the living dining and kitchen, note the roof.


I climbed the neighbors hill and took a pic down into our valley. And a nice shot of the greenhouse too.


An end shot of the house looking towards the bedrooms. Note the black loops, those are the chambers for the septic field. Also note the finished roof...ok so not finished, but it is sheeted completely.


And a pic from the valley up to the house and the hill behind from where the other pic was taken.


And a pic of the kitchen end and utility room, the big gapping hole under the small roof, will be blocked up awaiting the garage, then it will become part of a connecting walkway forming the south side of an enclosed courtyard.

November 30th

We have our trusses set, and they are sheeting it as I type.

The first truss going up, they set the orange beam before I got there this morning.


This is only the second month that the crane operator has been running a crane, we were a bit nervous when he showed up, never seen before, braces, and a heavily bandaged finger he had severed recently. But he did an OUTSTANDING job moving those trusses around.

The final truss on the main house beeing set.

The end truss on the master besroom being set.

And here they are sheeting the horth side keeping in mind that the plywood leaning against the house are full 4x8 sheets. Not bad of a height for a one story house.

And a look inside while they were still setting the trusses.

Night Sky At Our Home Site.

Night sky from our drive way.

Ah the night sky, this pic is of the "Seven Sisters" just using our camera, beautiful dark crystal clear skys the last two nights, Wednesday Morning at 1:00 there were also several shooting stars.


Remember this is taken with our camera, it is Jupiter, and you can see three of its moons right up close to it. I love our camera, now all I need is a sky-tracker so they don't blur into little lines.

I will get new house pictures up tomorrow.

!!!!! Finally !!!!!

All the walls are up to their final height, 12 feet. Now we just need to pour this level, and we can start on the water lines and the floor before putting on the roof.

The kitchen is at the far end.


The dining room picture window.


Mary standing in the 8 foot tall entry door.

The house seen from the row boat....just kidding the flood waters have receeded, and it is dry again in our front yard. Here Mary is standing in what will be the screen porch french doorway off the living room.

And the house seen from D'Artagnon's sand pit.