Oct 27- Nov 27: More Finish

Carpenter, Steve Torkelson, applies the finished wood surfaces to two unique walls, which

 feature exterior and interior barn wood, above and below.    

Below, the tile setter's assistant, Sean, prepares mortar in the moonshine to stay on schedule for the Master Bathroom floor.

Below, tile setter, Tim Giles, adjusts the slope of mortar bed on the floor of the curbless shower to achieve sufficient drainage for the Master Bathroom.

Below, concrete pavers are installed by Gary, of Hi-Style Paving, who is assisted by crew member and daughter, Toneshia, to create the Front Entrance Walkway and other adjacent connecting walkways. 

Todd and Billy are shown in the process of installing the hemlock ceiling boards,  below.

Sept 10-15: Heading for the Finish

Below, the corrugated galvalume siding is installed and details are added for the finish.

 The Mt. Jefferson volcano looms over the house, in the background, above.

Below, the thermal solar collector array started collecting heat on 911, a pleasant surprise and unplanned coincidence that seemed to be an appropriate response to promoting America's national interests through a step in the direction of foreign oil independence.  Aside from a wood stove for ambiance, the thermal solar system will be off the grid and the only system that will provide space heat for the residence. 

Purging the system of air bubbles, Carlos, one of our two solar plumbers, works on the system , below.

At the supply and return manifolds, located in the Mechanical Room in the house, Pierre checks each of the ten individual zones for lingering air pockets, which could interrupt the flow of the propylene glycol and water, a mixture which appears like the color of fluorescent lemonade as it flows through the PEX tubing, below.  Its non-toxic, so Carlos tried some and said that it tasted sweet like pancake syrup.  Well, if you're in the neighborhood, do feel free to come by for a tour and try some of our pancakes with propylene glycol.  Sweet!!

The twenty supply and return zone tubes gracefully hang on the wall and seem to sway down from the manifolds to the floor of the Mechanical Room like a Morris Lewis painting, however one that heats both the space and domestic hot water.

 Well, we're not in Kansas any more, but we feel a lot closer to the end of the rainbow.

July 31: Ready or Not, We're Moving In !!

We moved out of our temporary quarters, in a nearby rental house last weekend, into our new residence at Roundup Ranch even though the construction was not quite finished. We made the move partially due to budgetary considerations but also to enjoy the beauty of the site during the remaining warm months of the year.








Although the doors and corrugated galvalume siding is not in place,  we backed our U-haul trailer up to move beds and assorted kitchen equipment in, including a temporary half-height refrigerator.

Our solar thermal collector array, which will supply the space and domestic water heating,  is located remotely from the residence and is shown to the left in the photo, below.

Galvalume corrugated metal siding is shown being installed, below.

Our high efficiency skylight is shown being installed, above and below.

The handrail, around the chimney flue, is screwed to the roof structure, and all roof penetrations are  repaired and sealed with neoprene, with a view of Mt. Jefferson, below.

Wood trim continues to be installed from the boards stockpiled in our Entrance Foyer, shown above.  A site-built window is shown finished with vertical grain Hemlock trim, right.

Below, sheet rock is in place and prepared to receive a finished coat of clay stucco, as shown in a photo taken of the Dining Room.

Back entrance, adjacent to curving Guest Bedroom Wing to the right, with corrugated siding being installed, below.

Photos below, show the SW and SE elevations of the residence at different stages of construction.

May 9: ERV System installed

Above is shown the Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) [ temporarily displayed on a garbage can pedestal prior to being mounted on the framed wall ], which is designed to pre-heat and humidify incoming air by transferring energy from ventilation air that is exhausted through the ERV to fresh air that is brought into the residence through the ERV.  The temperature fluctuation between the intake and exhaust air through the ERV will only be 2 deg. F. 

Above, supply and return ventilation air manifolds are shown mounted to the SIP ceiling with ducts connected to their respective manifolds, which will in turn connect to the ERV unit (connection to the ERV not completed, at the time of the photo) 

The following photos show ventilation ducts being placed in soffit locations throughout the residence. 

Below, a frame is completed for a site-built air register for the Kitchen.

April 11- 19: Site-built Windows Installed

Since glazing plays such a vital role in an energy efficient residence, I decided not to compromise the design with the use of factory manufactured windows, but rather to design a more dependable, higher performance, lower maintenance, less expensive, and more user friendly window, which we assembled on-site, as shown in the photos above and below.  

For experts in the field of solar design, window manufacturers provide a very limited selection of high performance glass and energy efficient glazing components available for their window products, and in general, have begun a disappointing shift away from quality control in favor of a less expensive business strategy of reducing what is returned to the factory because, according an industry source, many consumers don't understand the subtle differences between a good and a bad window.  So, I decided it was time to design a better window.

The crew and associated construction canines take a lunch break.   Sonny is wearing a red bandana because he is shown recovering from a puncture wound after a kick from a deer on one of his rounds around the site.