76th Post – Cabinets

Week 21 of Construction

This week the cabinets are being installed.  The men said this is some of the most beautiful wood they have worked with, thank you giving tree.  They also said this will be a one of a kind kitchen, which I had hoped it would be.

Tile in the Kitchen Great Room

I picked out the countertop material today.  This is the only non-green item that I decided for this house.  I choose rainforest green marble.  It will work perfect with the cabinets with veins of brown and green going out in many direction like branches of a tree.  The house, cabinets and countertops should last 100 years or more.

Our boy's bathroom

Master Bathroom

 Tile is slowly going in, since I am doing most of the tiling.  I will start to show some of items that I have made for our house.  






At the top of blog will be pictures of my work in the Array Art link, my business name, because of the variety of art that I design and make.

A reader asked what was the bulk of our air sealing? It is the closed foam insulation (see post 56).  This was sprayed on all exterior walls and mini basement walls and inside the roof on top of the ceiling, so the house is totally sealed.

75th Post – Passive House Conference

Week 20 of Construction

Wow, what a week.  There was just a little done in our home itself, but we were trying to prepare our PH for the Passive House Tour -- just cleaning up the building site and leveling out the walkway so people wouldn’t trip and so on.

On Thursday, they had an open forum for anyone interested to come and learn about passive houses and to look at posters of what people are building.  Ethan and I were there to field questions about our build/poster and looked at the other projects.  It was very interesting. 

On Friday, there was a dinner and Ted and I were able to talk with others who were at the conference.  If you are thinking of building a passive house or are a builder, coming to a conference like this would give you great information.  Yes, it may cost to come to the conference, but the cost of building a home is a large investment and in the long run coming would save you money.  I was impressed about the give and take and people willing to share their experiences with what works and what doesn’t.

On Sunday, they had a passive house tour and our home was one of five homes open to those registered.  We had around 140 people who came through and we had great feedback!   Four of us spoke and gave information in the beginning and then we opened it up for questions and answers.  I also had a slideshow of the construction, like the one on the side of my blog.  The plans were out and people wandered around and even some adventurous individuals ventured into the mini basement to look at the ventilation and heating system.

It was great to show our passive house and how we are building a little differently then other passive homes.

74th Post – Finish work, wood floors and garage doors

Week 19 of Construction

The garage doors are now on and the panel style reflects the windows in the back of the house.

Around the house shelves are being installed by the finish carpenter.  He has also been hanging all of the doors, here they are finished.

Wood floors are being installed this week.  There is a great green story behind this wood.  The lumber was used as blocking for loads in between steel. These blocks are made from hard woods because this is the only wood that is sturdy enough to seperate the steel for the journey.  Once here they would just be discarded, but here they are turned into flooring.  So a variety of hard woods from all over Mexico that once were blockings for steel are now having a second, very long life as our floors.  Here they are in the unfinished state.

This week is the Passive House Conference here in Portland, Oregon.  Our home will be on the tour on Sunday.