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.

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).