More ceiling and deck framing

Look at all that ceiling!

Our deck (and the storage area below, AKA The Barn) is being framed -- and framing a misty view.

The Barn from below.

Our deck will be here. The large board in the middle is our exterior sheathing, Agepan. Insulation will be blown in under the Agepan, and the Agepan will keep the wall system dry.

Our 6-foot eaves will shade the house from the heat of the summer sun.

The guys power-washed the concrete floor last week and it looks awesome!
We love the mottled grey (concrete) and rust (mud/clay) colors, unintentional as they are.
Later it'll get some cool finishing; we're looking forward to the final product.

Planning for planting

Today our landscape designer (and my friend) Rachel joined us during our site meeting, and we discussed her ideas for the various areas around the house. There is a lot of land to cover! We're going for mostly native, deer-resistant plants. What I learned from her this morning is that deer usually don't like fuzzy plants, such as fluffy grasses and puffy flowers -- so we'll be putting lots of those in.

Our special triple-paned windows from Poland will arrive in 3-4 weeks, so somewhere around that time our house will be warmed up to start drying out. I'm looking forward to not freezing!

The house from the "soccer field" -- which is a flattened area on the south side.

The ceiling is going in.

We'll have a big slider door here leading out to the deck that's being framed this week.

The back side of the mudroom and garage, with the future skylights on top.

This is Agepan, our exterior sheathing. According to Skylar (our Passive House Consultant at H+H), it's "a vapor permeable T&G wax impregnated fiberboard that could be left in a puddle of water for years without any adverse impacts to performance. This sheathing also promotes aggressive drying of the wall assembly to prevent potentially damaging moisture accumulation."

Press coverage!

The article about our house ran in the Oregonian this morning (in our local "Community News" section) and was posted on Oregon Live yesterday:

http://www.oregonlive.com/north-of-26/index.ssf/2013/01/north_plains_couples_passive_h.html

On Thursday, Val and I spent an hour going over the spacing of the kitchen cabinets. The western side of the kitchen is sandwiched between two walls, and before Val frames those walls he wants to be sure there's enough room between the walls for the cabinets. We already own the cabinets (they're flat-packed in Bryan's dad's garage) and we based our cabinet purchase on the drawings, but there are variables that are not obvious to newbies like me and Bryan, such as how much space we need on either side of the refrigerator and the end cabinets, as well as between the cabinets. We're pretty tight, but we agreed that we can adjust the southern wall (which borders the door to my office) and shrink the office door's molding, or even the door itself, if we need to. We're hoping to still be able to fit my giant teak desk in through the office door, but if necessary we can bring it into the office through the stairwell. Watch out, movers!

More roof, less mess

I love that we have visible progress every day. The next steps include framing the upper interior walls and the deck, and pressure washing the lower concrete floor.

The house's latest look, with paper on the roof. It's mostly dry inside!

The house has been cleared of excess supports and the floor is clean.

Insulation baffles, which keep the insulation clear of the roof vents.

This space is where my office will be. The front window is part of the kitchen, the middle window is in my office (the thicker framing on the wall is where the door will be), and the biggest visible window is the stairwell window. The office will have a half wall into the stairwell, so that I get the benefit of the stairwell window (and can spy on the kids below me).

Roof in progress

The roof is in progress, and it's looking more like a house every day!

The view from the inside ...

The same section from the outside.

The house from the end of the driveway.

Roof trusses!

The guys have been hard at work since the roof trusses arrived yesterday, and in theory at least some of the sheeting will be on the roof before the weekend. I'll be taking more photos on Friday!

Once again, the house has a new profile.

Roof under construction.

The front door.

Val and Pete work on the garage roof.

Ice, an interview and progress!

Today after our site meeting we (along with Hammer & Hand owner Sam Hagerman) were interviewed by a reporter from the Oregonian about our passive house. That story is slated to run on January 21, so be sure to check in then.

When we drove up to our property this morning, we were immediately impressed by our new gravel driveway; no more muddy bog!

We can actually drive up our driveway now!

And as we approached the house, we saw that the garage is now framed, giving the house an entirely different profile:

As we continued on our journey of discovery, we found that we now can actually see out from our downstairs; the berm of dirt has been resdistributed!

And our bioswale is in place. It looks like a pile of rocks, but it actually has a purpose:

That grey circle toward the middle of the frozen mud is the bioswale.

As we held our meetings, it was below freezing and we were dusted with snow. The frost made for beautiful but fragile sculptures in the yard:

The freezing weather also created a slight hazard: ice on the downstairs floor. No one slipped (that I'm aware of), and thankfully this is just a temporary issue:

And, of course, my post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the beautiful view -- this time with frosty trees (and taken from downstairs):

Next up: Roof trusses are being delivered tomorrow!

Garage framing

On Monday 60 cubic yards of gravel was poured onto our garage footings, allowing the guys to start the garage framing:

The concrete for the garage floor and the apron of the driveway will be poured closer to the end of the build.

They're still working on additional framing for the roof, as well:

And, just in case anyone is unclear about how thrilled I am about my new view, here it is from the master bedroom window:

You can even see the valley when the clouds are high enough (or on a clear day).

Chugging along

There hasn't been a lot of visible progress in the last week, but today they theoretically poured our garage floor:

The garage awaiting its floor.

In the next week we'll be framing our garage and starting the upper deck, then working on the roof trusses and finishing off the roof.

I like that we can look into a front window, see straight through the house and out to the view through the stairway window. While standing on the driveway.