Garage footings & pics from a sunny day

The garage footings were poured on Friday.

The master bedroom wall is up. The door on the right side will lead to a patio.

The north wall.

 At the east end of the house, a giant slider door will lead to the deck.

Looking at the house from the east, the edge of the forest.

From the southern edge of the property.

The southern view, compacted by the panorama function.

Deer! Hanging out down the hill from us. Hopefully when we move in, they'll venture closer again.
Now there's too much mud.

More framing

After our house's TV debut, it was also featured in an article at Earth Techling, a website for green technology:

http://earthtechling.com/2012/12/oregon-passive-house-aims-for-90-percent-energy-reduction/

And on Friday, here's what the house looked like:

The front door.

The entry, mudroom and mudroom bath.

The master bedroom still needs a wall raised.

There can never be enough photos of this awesome view (from the great room).

Upper framing

In the last few days, the I have come to really understand how truly inefficient our current home is. With a few adjustments to the thermostat, I realized that the temperature in my house frequently drops by at least four degrees with all the doors and windows closed and nobody home over the course of just a few hours -- and it may well cool off more than that if we didn't have a minimum temperature setting. We heat it, it cools down. We heat it, it cools down. And we pay significant electric and gas bills. I can barely contain my glee at the thought of living in my new super-insulated passive house, where the temperature will vary by a measly degree or two all year round with a practically nonexistent heating bill. Can I really stay warm and comfortable all winter long for pennies? I'm ready! I'm looking forward to seeing how this constant-temperature house actually feels.

In the meantime, it's taking shape:

Looking through the great room windows.

The stairway windows from the upper floor.

The great room windows, kitchen and master suite.

Standing in the master bedroom on the west side of the house, looking east through the house.

The front door wall still needs to be finished and raised (looking from the great room toward the garage).

A tiny bit famous

Our house-in-progress was on TV! Check out the clip here:

http://www.digitalwave.tv/Hammer_and_Hand_409835SEQ%20.html

And the water storage tank is in:

And our upper floor (the main floor) is in progress:

 Creating the south wall on the main floor -- they build it first, then raise it.

And prep for the garage is underway:

A blurry shot of the future garage.

And the remains of our poison oak (which we brutally sprayed in October) is gone. It was dead, but even dead plants can still carry the horrible urushiol oil that causes the rash. The remaining plants have mostly been buried under dirt that has been leveled from the mounds around the property. Hooray! However, with all the dirt that has been moved around, the site was even more treacherous than before: I nearly lost my boots in the muck a few times and ended up with pounds of mud stuck to my feet. Thankfully, the gravel truck was due to arrive to counteract the mud shortly after I left.

Pushing dirt

A lot of the dirt has been flattened and used to backfill around the house.

Dirt has been backfilled around the top of the house, except for here. This is where our water storage tank will be buried -- under our entry, in front of the front door. The tank was delivered right after we left the property this morning (we passed the truck on our way out).

More framing! Standing in the guest closet looking through a bathroom and family room toward the boys' area.

The boys' rooms and hallway.

The view from what will be INSIDE my house -- somewhere around the kitchen. Love it!

The newly cleared path to the forest for the leach field.

Trenches and pipes and septic, oh my

Our concrete floors are hard enough to walk on. (Standing in the boys' area, looking west.)

During the last couple of days, the excavators have been creating the trenches for our septic system, and the guys have been laying the pipes. The system goes to almost our property line, so the approach to the forest has been cleared for the pipes and to accommodate the drain field. We're excited to have such easy access to the forest, since previously we had to battle through overgrown brush, both prickly and not, to reach the forest. (Inside the forest there is very little undergrowth, in theory at least partly due to the elk that roam through.)

The septic system is coming together.

The septic system goes from the house (on the right) to the forest (on the left).

Standing at the end of the leach field drains (at the edge of the forest) looking back toward the house.

Pour the floor

Yesterday they were pouring the concrete for the downstairs floor. Here they're working in the boys' bedrooms.

The ecofoam is glued firmly in place, with perf board (not really a board) covering it and more waiting to be applied.

Perf is draped over the waterproofing and ecofoam. The tarps on top are to minimize leakage into the structure, where the concrete floor is being poured.

Prepping for the concrete floor

The hole in the roof isn't a skylight, it's for the stairs.

Eco-foam and serious waterproofing sheets have been laid on the footings and gravel in preparation for the next round of concrete (our floor!), which will be poured on Friday or Monday. (Standing in the guest room, looking through to the downstairs family room and the boys' rooms.)

... and even some cover!

Standing in the downstairs family room, looking toward the boys' rooms. The next steps are laying eco-foam over the gravel, then laying the blue water barrier from wall to wall, completely covering the gravel and sub-foundation with an insulated, water-tight membrane. After that, the cement foundation will be poured -- hopefully on Friday -- and then covered with cardboard to protect it during the remaining building process, until we seal it.

The grey part of the wall is the mostly finished version; the holes in it are for our exterior stairway lighting. 

This big walkway will all be backfilled with dirt after the perf-board (for drainage) is installed.

The laundry and mechanicals rooms.

Holy cow, it looks like a house!

What a difference a few days makes! The guys are furiously framing and before we know it we'll have an upper floor.

From the west -- this is the guest room.

Standing in the guest room, looking east.

The boys' rooms (tall windows) with their bathroom (high window) in between.

From the east, looking at the boys' rooms on down.