18th Post – Our inside doors are here!

Yes, laugh all you want, no house but we have inside doors.  We just could not pass up pre-hung knotty Alder for 130.00.  A picture is below.  I took a train over to Spokane and they loaded them up in a rented truck and I drove them back.  The Ugly Duck Warehouse said they would be receiving more of a similar great buy soon.  If you call, tell Nancy that you read it on my blog (509)-326-0199.

Don't worry we only had the doors stored this way for a few days.  They will be stored upside down so they will not split.

Our windows are ordered because we wanted in be under a price increase for Serious Glass.  They are the only glass company that can make a window in the US that comes within the PH standards.  There are other companies from Europe and Canada but we want to buy as local as possible.  It will take some time to make and ship the windows because many other people are doing the same thing we are to beat the increase.  So it will be OK to order them early. 

Ted Nickell will be at the PHIUS – Passive House Institute of US on March 26 in Olympia for the NW regional meeting.  He will be sharing our plans and listening to others for great give and take sessions. 

No word from the city of West Linn.  At this point, no news is good news.

Here is a bracelet I designed.  I made all the glass beads on the torch.  The purple and green beads are hollow.

17th Post – Plans are at the city!

Yes, our plans are now in the hands of the city of West Linn.  The city building officials meet once a week to look at house plans and we might hear back in two weeks.  They will meet to look and discuss the plans and make sure things are to code.  We know we won’t be to code because on the books it says we need a heating system that will provide heat to 68 degrees.  We don’t have a conventional HVAC system, soooo as they said we are ahead of the curve.  This is when Ted will help!

I have also been looking into the pellet stoves.  I have found one that is very small and made in Eugene, Oregon.  The unit itself is very tight, but it’s the vent system I need to investigate.  I have called the company to find out if they have tested their vent and how well it can be sealed; they will get back to me later.  Plus we need to find a way to place insulation around the vent. Because of our commitment to the PH standard we will have two pipes running out of the house, one for air intake and the second for the combusted air to be taken out.  I was figuring on using a fire blanket, which is used in kilns.  Then we can make sure the insulation won’t become hot.  This pellet stove will work by the air inside the house being pulled into the stove and heated around the unit.  So the air outside and the air inside will never meet.  I will give everybody an update later.

We raise guide dogs.  The dog on the right is our 7^th guide dog, Orrin and he is 15 months old.  The one on the left is Niles and he is over two years old.  He just left guide dogs because of dog and bird distraction, so now he is a house dog.  He was attacked by an off leash dog when he was seven months old and never recovered from it.  

16th Post – Looking ahead

Things are still moving, but as slow as usual.  We made changes to the garage because we wanted storage space above, so now we need a new truss bid.  We have also made small changes to the house plans.  I went around the house to measure things to make sure they would fit.  It is much cheaper to make changes on paper than to change while they are building or afterwards!  This has pushed us back another week or two.  So it looks like this March, yes this month we should start! YEA!!!!!

I meet with the cabinetmaker and went over the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.  Some decisions need to be made about the height of the cabinets.  I am short, only 5’2” and I can hardly reach my second shelf now, so high cabinets are a waste for me.  So how high shall we go?  Another decision to make.  Wow, I have been writing down all the items that I had to plan or make decisions and the list is growing so long.  

Last night, I designed the gate and fence and I will be making some stained glass lights for the gate and front door entry.  After I know the dimensions I will draw up some designs for the glass. 

Be Blue – Protect your sky – use your tax refund on insulation and/or other energy savings items.  Then you’ll have a tax rebate plus savings on your bills.