Because the induction cook top uses a magnetic field we had to find magnetic pans which was a fun little adventure. We got some magnets and tested the pans we were interested in and got a couple of weird looks at the stores but ultimately ended up with everything we wanted.

So for those looking for an alternative to a gas cooktop, be it for energy reasons or because running an gas line is too expensive/impossible. I highly recommend a induction cooktop. Would we have gone induction if we hadn’t had the restriction probably not. But so far it’s worked out great. On really nice thing about the induction cook top is that it is easy to clean and has a nice low profile.

We have been experiencing the joys of a passive house. For example, our concrete floors are not cold to the touch you can walk on them comfortably. The same goes with the tile in the bathroom. The window frames are also surprisingly warm to the touch. The passive house design seems to be living up to the hype so far. All parts of the inside of the home are comfortable.

Dave’s design of south facing windows has also really proven to be very effective. We can leave the lights off completely during the day even in overcast weather. In fact I’m typing this right now with just the outside light.

I’m looking forward to getting the power metering hooked up so we can start producing graphs of data to measure how we are doing.

Sorry for the delay between posts. I’m not sure who’s dumb idea it was to try and maintain a blog and build a house at the same time… Things are going well. We are expecting to move into our new home the first week of December. The solar panels are now on, and the heating and cooling system should be finished up today. The Appliances are in and Dave Brach has done an excellent job on the cabinets. Not only good design but also an excellent craftsman. The countertops by Mass Concrete look awesome. We are looking forward to seeing how the final wax coating changes them up if at all.

We haven’t been without our trials of course. The guard screen for the stairs took much longer then originally expected. And the patio stone that was supposed to be here was delayed until next February. So we won’t get a patio before the ground is too frozen to work with. And our steam punk looking boiler showed up later then we had hoped. I want to thank the guys at Helio Centric for working all night long to try and get the heating and cooling system up.

Today we are applying for our certificate of occupancy. Hopefully that will go well and we can sign for the long term loan the following Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Just a word to those that think that Thanksgiving is a good week to close on for a loan.  Yeah don’t. . Scheduling with the missing two days of Thanksgiving and the day after has been a challenge.

Thank you for everyones kind words of support and encouragement both public and private. The end is in sight and hopefully that will free up some more time so that we can describe the process in more detail.

We are currently working on trying to pick out the final plumbing fixtures for the upstairs, tile for both bathrooms, closet in the master, lighting fixtures, and of course the electrical plan. We have spent the weekend at IKEA and Bedrosian’s looking at lighting fixtures, tile, counter tops  and possible closet solutions. We did order our tub filler, downstairs bathroom faucet. Next week looks like more lighting fixtures, and maybe taking a crack at a counter top.

1. The windows shipped, and we are looking forward to them arriving tomorrow Aug 3rd.

2. We’ve been trying to figure out what we will be doing for the patio. And weather or not the flooring from the patio makes it into the breezeway or if the breezeway will mimic the house.

3. We’ve gotten the list of toilets down to two manufacturers. Either Toto Coroma.

4. We’ve almost finalized the plumbing finishes. We’re still looking for a great tub filler.

For this up coming week we should be doing the electrical walk through.

1. Super insulation
2. Reduced air exchanges (how much air leaks from your house)
3. Reduced thermal bridges (the ways that heat can leave or enter the home)

When you combine these three concepts you can radically (up to 90%) reduce the energy demands on heating and cooling. In other words you don’t have to heat and cool the air around your house just the inside of the home. The pictures we’ve recently uploaded demonstrate this. For example, you want to seal everything so that no air will leak. In the sealing picture you can see that the outside shielding is sealed to the outside framing providing for an air tight enclosure. The exterrior framing is futher air proofed by adding a rubber gasket that sits between the exterrior framing and the basement walls. Additionally, thermal bridges are reduced because a  gap between the framing exists so that the framing doesn’t reach from the inside of the home to the exterrior. The gap in this shot will be filled with insulation.

It is pretty exciting to see the home start to come together and some of the passive house concepts be put into practice.

Framing for the first floor started on Thursday June 25^th on the same day concrete for the ICF’s was poured and dirt was being filled back in over the footings on the garage. Seeing the framing started for the first floor made us realize our house is going to be tall. Saturday the concrete slab for the garage was poured and on Sunday they came and cut it. All the pictures are up in the see our passive house section.

The first section ‘remodel design’ are the design from Mr. Brach when we were thinking that we could just remodel the home instead of having to tear it down. The main idea was to extend the tall part of the house back a little more, and raise the ceiling level of the main floor. However, it turns out that doing this extensive of a remodel was pretty close to starting over and doing a new house. Also we had to place the garage in the back yard something we weren’t very excited about.

The second section ‘Design’ includes snapshots of the current building plans. These are all renderings taken from Sketchup, from the model that Mr. Brach has been putting together for us. You can see how similar the design of tear down and rebuild is to the remodel images. The 6th picture (the one with no texture) is the image that started us in the ‘breezeway direction’.

The third section is the ‘Pre Demolition’ section. These include pictures of the home before the destruction. These were taken largely to show that none of the homes on our street had a sidewalk. So we shouldn’t have to place a sidewalk as well. You can also see images of pillars that don’t reach the floor and of interior flooring that desperately needed to be replaced… with a new home!

The demolition pictures are just that. The 3 days that it took to tear down the home.

The building pictures include everything from the old home being removed and the new hole for the new home added. More to come on the building process.