First, since we primarily live in the basement and have turned into cave dwellers, this is what we look like when we come out 'into the light'.
Jenni
Rowan (her nose really is that long! :o)
And, this is our good friend Sally, who spends a lot of time with us. Poor thing.
Now, back to serious construction matters........
This was a really exciting week at the house. We have been so curious to see how the whole spray foam insulation thing is done, not to mention it has been getting into to 20's at night here and has been FREEZING in the house! All of a sudden we are ready for this project to be finished. Our electrical & framing inspection went off without a hitch on Monday (whew!) so we can plough along with the next phase. WARMTH!
Here are the photos from this week:
The spray foam guys arrived and immediately started covering every inch of the inside of the house with plastic to keep the excess foam particles from sticking to absolutely everything.
As the guys suited up in their martian suites and hooked up the long hoses that will shoot the foam into the ceilings, it didn't take long for us to realize we were about to be in a science fiction movie . The first thing that came to my mind was the 1985 movie Cocoon. We now live in one! :o)
The foam comes out of the sprayer at roughly 120 degrees C and takes less than 7 seconds to expand 5-7 inches as it is sprayed into the rafters. Extremely cool to watch it happen.
Later that evening, Rowan and I couldn't wait to inspect our new cocoon of warmth. It was amazing how we immediately noticed a temperature difference as we entered the 'under construction' portion of the house. It was about 50 degrees instead of 35. Yahoo!
A view of Rowan down in the kitchen from up in the new vaulted ceiling.
I had to get right up there and touch the foam to see how tight it is in the rafters.
The next day, our boys (that's what we call our construction crew. They consider Jenni their mother now :o)) arrived early to start insulating the exterior walls of the new construction. They will be using a layer of sheet foam first that will be caulked around the edges and then a layer of fiberglass batting over that. This will achieve an Energy Star rating for our region for the exterior walls. Since our winter months here are generally very cold, between 32 and 5 degrees with snow, we will welcome the extra warmth this system will provide.
Who is this masked man? That's Josh, master sheet foam cutter.
The other exciting thing that happened this week was the concrete porch was poured. Our concrete guy Justin, came with his crew to prepare the base for the pour and set the rebar and get all of that beautiful stone covered with plastic to keep the concrete from splattering everywhere. This is the same crew that came to pour our garage slab a couple of years ago, so it was fun to see them all again.
The guys worked 'til it was starting to get dark so everything is ready for tomorrow's pour.
The next day the concrete truck arrived about noon. The temps in the morning were too cold, about 35 degrees, to start any earlier. Instead of going for the typical grey concrete color for the porch, we chose to use the color Sierra. This will bring a warmer, natural stone/earth color to the floor.
Here is the view towards the house where the new french doors will open onto the porch. We have decided this will be our new dance floor. Now, all we need is a mirror ball :o)
So, it looks like our cocoon wrap has extended to the porch! They have wrapped up the concrete to keep it warm when it gets down to 30 degrees tonight.
Time for another culinary interlude..........sort of....
Our good friend and master cabinet builder Steve Neuenschwander just returned from a 7 week building trip to New Orleans. He phoned us to say we needed to get together for an Absenthe party. You see, while in New Orleans he discovered the Absente House and the magical properties of this very controversial and still illegal drink in some states in the US. It is basically an anise based liquor made with wormwood - go here for a VERY interesting history of the drink: http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/History.html
Anyway, Steve came over and we were very afraid (for a second) about what he pulled out of his bag. He had 4 different bottles of Absenthe with all of the mixings and ointments we would need to try 4 different drinks. Oh, dear! I feel a flashback coming on :o) Rowan and I made dinner while Steve made magic with the Absenthe.
Just taste it. I promise it won't hurt you! This man is hilarious!
So, we did live through the evening. Thank you lord! How age and experience continues to save my life! I began the weekend by working on staining and sealing our new front door. We had it milled in Eugene, Oregon out of Pacific Cherry. It is going to be a stunning addition to the new look of the front of the house.
We began by doing stain test strips on a piece of the cherry brick mold that we will not use.
Staining the door frame
The door is in the bungalow style. It looks like it is going to be just beautiful.
Oh, and by the way............Happy Halloween!
