We did it!! Great blower door result

This is just a brief post about our blower door test today. I was hoping for about 1ach50 which translates to 1 air change per hour at 50 pascals of pressure. 50 pascals of pressure is about equivalent to the pressure exerted on a house by a 20 mile per hour wind.

We hit .48 ach50 which is below the necessary standard for Passivhaus. I am so excited. Carlton and I were high fiving because we did it. We made a really air tight building enclosure.

Now after worrying about this for days, I have to go to my real job so I can
pay for the house.

This is the actual result. It is hard to see but the result is 94 cfm50 which translates to .48 ach50 when you correct for volume. Dean Benton of Benton Green Energy was impressed with the result so he is taking a picture of it as well. 

Thank you everybody for all your help in making this an air tight house.

Progress on Halloween - the Metal Roof is done

The roof guys essentially finished the roof today. They have to come back to completely install the roof around the pipe for the woodstove which will be on the front porch and complete the installation of the roofing around the sun tunnels on the back dormer. 

Front view of the house. I just think the roof looks wonderful.

Side view of the house. The flashing on the end of the front porch is not done because that is where the wood stovepipe will go and they have to cut around the pipe and flash it.

Back porch and side porch. The dormers have been painted because the roof is so steep you couldn't stand on it to paint. The trim on the front of the dormer is not painted yet. The hole on the side of the dormer is where the Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) - the Lunos e2 - goes.

This is the driveway side. The roof looks so much better with flashing on the end. You can see where we are debating about trim colors - the top color on the side trim is called "Earl Grey" below it is John's favorite called "Hopsack". I like the darker color better. The siding will be painted "Adobe White."

Carlton and Myron have sealed around the windows inside. I hope to do a blower door test next week to see how well our airsealing is going.

Where we are today - the end of October

I'm doing this post to show people where we are in the construction process because everybody asks me "How is the house coming?"

Below are few photos of the exterior. The metal roof is almost done. It looks beautiful. It is shiny and bright which will help a lot in the summer in terms of reflecting the sun's heat.

Front view of the house, the roof has been installed on more than 1/2 of the steep part of the roof. They will install porch roofing last. These are iPhone photos and the light was going so the pictures are a little blurry.

Side view of the house. I really like the detail of the roof and the overhang. John will cover the porch columns with some other wood to beef it up a little bit. The porch will also be stained. The piers look crooked in the photo but that is just distortion from the camera.

Back side of the house. Those boxes on the top are for the sun tunnels to provide light to the upstairs bathroom and the stairway. You can see how nice the roofing looks.

This is the driveway side - the 3 windows are the upstairs bedroom window, the kitchen window over the sink, and a small fixed window in the downstairs bathroom. I realize it is not very symmetrical or aesthetically pleasing, but we needed the back corner room for utilities and a window didn't fit. Also the window in the bathroom has to be small because there is a shower in there. And you know what happens to windows in showers - moisture issues. So this view of the house is kind of goofy, but I think with landscaping we can make it look much better. I would like a small patio on this side between the stairs to the porches.

Mahogany Door - Almost Finished Refinishing

After several weeks of serious sanding, followed by stain and several coats of spar polyurethane, the door is essentially finished. I think there are a couple of spots that need to be touched up, but I think it looks great.

There were a few blobs of bristles and thickened varnish that I lightly sanded off with 600 grit sandpaper. They need a new coat of varnish (polyurethane) on top. 

Here is the panel that I sanded. The color really looks more like the color in the first photo. But it is so much prettier than it was when we got it.

John is ready for it to be put up in the doorway, but Carlton is going to wait because people will be bringing drywall, wood flooring, tubes to blow in cellulose, and other supplies through the door and he doesn't want the door to get dinged up.

Should anyone decide to refinish a door like this, the key to it is sanding, sanding. The panel corners, moulding are extremely difficult. We really like the Dremel tool detail sander. It made it so much easier to get to those difficult spots in a timely fashion without KILLING our fingers.