Touchin' base.

I've been having a real tough time keeping up with my blogging duties lately - sorry about that. The good news is, however, that I have been busy making progress on this project. I had the last three weeks free from my "day job" and got quite a bit done including the installation of the biggest of the windows and much "stuffing" of insulation. So, now that things are cooling off again a little, I hope to get back to some semblance of regular posting!

What I like to do on my "holidays".

Treetop Flyer - Stephen Stills

Road map.

With my last post, we pretty much came to the end of the foundation work. I'm sure there will be a few revisits in the future, but now I'm looking forward to getting into all the other stuff. At a couple of points I had skipped ahead and made a few posts on some of the framing and airsealing work. In this post I wanted to start this new phase of the blog by laying out a "road map" - so as to show where I've been and where I'm going.

At various points throughout this project, I have had moments where the end goal seemed almost impossibly far away. During those moments I always found it useful to break the journey down into smaller pieces and simply focus on the next task - one task at a time and the next thing you know, you've made substantial progress.

Mr. Sun.

My last post was on getting my project ready for winter. A matter of equal importance is the effect of UV light on certain materials. Given that my project is taking place over a relatively long timescale, UV considerations dictated my construction agenda more than once and also demanded that some protective measures be taken. Here is a list of the materials I was/am mainly concerned with (if anyone can fill in the blanks in this list, please feel free to comment):

• Uponor hePEX - 30 days (unconfirmed)
• DOW Square Edge rigid insulation - Unknown
• #15 Asphalt felt (ASTM D4869) - Unknown but suspected to be about 30 days.
• 3M All weather flashing tape 8067 - 6 months (as per manufacturer's literature)
• Typar housewrap - 60 days

Winter is coming...

Or rather, "was coming" and some time was required to prepare. My first concern was the foundation. As mentioned in earlier posts, the foundation is fully wrapped in insulation and includes an insulated "skirt" around the perimeter. Additionally, the foundation was built on top of a thick layer of compacted gravel. These features make the foundation somewhat resilient against frost heave, which in some cases can easily crack footings (thick as they are) and leave the house to settle unevenly after the thaw. However, given that our winters can get very cold and that the basement would not be heated, I was not ready to "bet the farm" on these features keeping the frost out of the ground underneath the foundation without some heat loss through the slab.

The design phase.

The design phase... My favorite phase. So many possibilities. At times I wish I were a design professional so that every day could be a day for the design phase. I started my planning and research for this project in 2007 and started construction in the late spring of 2011 so at least I got to spend a lot of time in the design phase for this house. I think it's important to not be in rush to complete the design phase - for anyone contemplating the design of a new house: start early and don't set deadlines too early.