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Harvesting rainwater

 We have the pumping system installed for the irrigation system.  The solar panel is mounted on the roof of the greenhouse.  It charges a 12 volt battery which powers a small 1/12 hp direct current...

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Cedar shaking it

We have been experiencing a six week drought and the irrigation cistern has run dry.  Though we have the well water available, we are definitely rethinking the irrigation strategy to include drip...

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Siding progress

It has been a while since my last posting as there has not been much to report.  I have been slowly installing the cedar shakes one by one.  Three sides of the house are complete now with just a gable...

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Installing the Solar Panels

The solar panels are finally installed waiting only to be wired up and tied to the electrical panel.  Forty panels arrived about three weeks ago coiled up in two large boxes.  The panels are 15 ½” wide...

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Done…ish

The solar panels are finally operational.  The power company finally recovered enough from assisting the clean up efforts after Hurricane Sandy, and came to install the new meters.  The existing meter...

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Lessons Learned

I thought I would share my experience with the Passive House (PH) design system, and relate how it works with LEED.  I had been enamored with PH for some time as a rigorous energy design system....

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LEED for Homes Overview

With all of my experience in LEED, I was under-prepared for the differences in LEED Homes.  I have a better appreciation now for the nuances of the Homes system, and thought I would share with you an...

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Certified!

We received word from the US Green Building Council that our home has been certified at the LEED Platinum level.  The long delay was due primarily to waiting for the installation of the solar panels....

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LEED Operations

We have been in the house for a little over a year now, and I thought I would give a little update on the performance.  The vegetation on the site has filled in nicely.  The wildflowers we have planted...

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Sense and Survivability

It has been quite a while since my last post to this blog.  I have been busy developing a book describing some of my experiences in sustainable building, and the following is a draft of a chapter I'm...

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The turning point

In spite of the short work week we got a lot done.  The heat was turned on with only a few troubleshooting issues with the controls and only a few minor leaks in some of the piping connections.  We...

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Superb Blower Door Test

 It was a quiet week at the Sumac Grove.  For the most part we watched the insulation dry.  We brought in two large commercial dehumidifying units which have been operating for nearly a week now.  The...

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Drying out

The garage door was installed and came out better than I had hoped .  The quality of the door exceeded my expectations and the door operator is extremely quiet.  This picture of the garage door shown...

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Drywall is hung

We had a light snowfall last weekend of a few inches.  Judy drove up to the house with the camera just as sections of the roof were shedding.  We have purchased a snow stop to protect the entrance and...

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Drywall continues

 We spent the weekend assembling cabinets, and now have a basement full.  The assembly was fairly intuitive, which was good since no instructions came with the cabinets.  Fortunately, I am a man, and...

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Priming the drywall

Not a lot of activity this week.  This is no reflection on the drywall crew who worked very hard.  They just took up a lot of the schedule, finishing up yesterday. I started priming the drywall in...

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Trim and Paint

What a difference a week makes.  My paint estimates were woefully inadequate.  I purchased a spray rig to enhance productivity, however it also consumes more paint than rolling it on.  In any case we...

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Trim done and painted ... mostly

 The extended family joined us over a long weekend, and we were able to get a good share of the painting done.  Our three kids Jake, Becky, and Rachael, joined us from Northern Michigan, California,...

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The End is Near

We have completed the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, and should have all of those inspections done this week. I finished painting the closets and installed the closet shelving in the pantry,...

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Hardware installed

 We continued on with the painting, not quite getting as far as we had hoped, though we will be done with everything except the basement by the end of this weekend.  I set up the doors in the garage in...

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Occupancy Permit

Well it is beginning to look like a home.  We finished the painting except for the garage and basement.  All of the hardware is now installed.  The window sills are installed.  The blinds were...

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Floors are sealed

The job we had been dreading for some time turned out much better than we had hoped for.  We expected that applying the second coat of concrete sealer might require hazmat suits and oxygen bottles, but...

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Were in!

We finally moved in with much less anguish than anticipated.  Rae came down the weekend before the move to help us finalize some of the remaining projects in the new house.  Cleaning the cabinets and...

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A few things have changed...

A few things have changed since I last wrote. We had a small grade change that could have affected the sumac grove.  The site provided an abundant harvest of boulders which we used to build a retaining...

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Grass is planted

The excavating work is finally done.  The topsoil has been spread out restoring our view of the meadow, and providing a place to plant the garden.  I spent a day raking and leveling the grade to...

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