House Update: Nov 4 2005

Things are moving along rapidly now. They've done most of the exterior and roofing work, poured the columns that will support the porch roofs and carport, done all the interior wiring, plumbing, and insulation. Here's the latest photo of the exterior:



We had a little snafu with the city inspector that stopped work for a couple of days but our builder worked it out. Yesterday the drywall and the stone (for the exterior) were delivered and that work started. Unfortunately, with the time change we can't get to the site before dark after work so I don't have any pictures of that.

We have worked out the final cabinet plans with the cabinet guys and Julie is working hard on picking fixtures.

The builder tells us that the target completion date is 1 March 2006. Happy birthday to me (if it really happens that quick).

Here are some more pictures of the recent construction:

Support pillar for screened porch:



Exterior trim paint details:




Hall from master bedroom, showing insulation:



View showing the roof:



In addition to the interior walls and exterior stonework, they are fabricating all the metal brackets that will support the porch roofs and the awnings over the windows. Once those are done they'll be installed and the remaining exterior finish work will be completed.

The insulation is amazing. It's this foam that's blown in to the walls and the difference it makes is astounding. We were on the site the day before they installed it and you could hear lots of street noise and the house was pretty hot. When we went back after they had put in the insullation the interior was erily silent, even with windows and doors open, and the temperature inside was noticably cooler than outside, just from breezes and whatnot.

The insulation is part of the green design, in that it is a large part of what makes the house energy efficient. Other efficiency features are the awnings for the windows, which block the sun at the hotest part of the day, the metal roof, which reflects about 80 or 90 percent of the radiant heat hitting the house, and high efficiency windows, which also block most of the radiant heat hitting them.

The downside of the insulation is that it totally engulfs all the wiring and plumbing in the walls and completely fills all the space in the walls, so running new wires or plumbing in the future will require a bit more destruction and rebuilding than in older houses. But there's no free lunch.

Screen porch roof edge detail: