Stairs

We've been working inside all winter, plumbing, ductwork, wiring and STAIRS!

Nathan got the first set of stairs (for our part of the house in the front) done weeks ago,
but yesterday, he finished the back stairs (for Keith and Terese).  Actually, they aren't "finished"
they are just the plywood sub-stairs-  the same wood flooring we are planning for the bulk of the house will be installed on the stairs as well, but we can now walk upstairs and have put away the ladders...

Nathan- with the first stair stringers cut ou with"strong-backs" attached...

Putting the stringers in place...

"Box Treads"- with risers pre-assembled...

The upper flight of stairss going in...

"Barrel blocking" for the winder stairs at the bottom...

J came by for a photo op with the "J" treads...

"Bendi-plywood" wraps around the curved risers...

The Stairs are done!  Good to walk up on.  Now, back to Ductwork!

More to come as we keep making progress...

Time to Remove Old House

The original house on 539 sat on the alley as a rental home for many years.  It was put on
wood "foundations" that have obviously settled and decayed, resulting in a roller coaster of a floor and lots of cracked walls, ceilings and trapezoid-shaped doors...  We've always had it in the plans to remove this house, and now is the time.

It did serve us well as a construction kitchen, bathroom, mini-shop and storage area, but now that our new family home is all closed in, it's time to get the old place removed. There is a fair bit of old lumber from the 1940s tied up in the house:  2x4 walls, 2x6 (and 2x8?) floor framing, 1x6 sub floor and even some t&g fir flooring.  It all looks to be fairly clear, vertically-grained fir, but I don't have the time to take it apart carefully to salvage.  If any of you are interested, it's free for the hauling.  I just have to have it down by May to comply with my demolition permit.  Photos below:

The East Side

The South Side- right next to our new home...

The North Side- from the alley

The North-West Corner

Ship-lap Siding (covered with fiber-cement shingles)...

Typical Rafter Tails and Soffit

Old T&G floor boards (above)...

Typical Wall Stud- siding boards attached...

Floor Joists w/ rough-sawn floor boards above...



That's all for now.  More updates on the new house progress later...

Air Tight

We had our blower door test about a month ago.  It's pretty cool.  Nathan agreed to write this post...and with that, here he is!  I'll add the photos & exact cfm's in later!

After getting all the windows and doors installed, sealed and caulked tight, it was time to call for the "blower door test".  Kristen has mentioned our goal of building a high performance house, and stopping drafts and accidental air leaks (aka: "infiltration" in architect speak) is a critical component of our  overall design. 

For the test, we set up the blower door tent over our front entryway

, sealed that up tight and cranked up the fan- sucking air out of the house until we had established the industry standard pressure of 50 pascals. Note: to achieve this kind of pressure differential naturally, I've been told that you'd have to have around 50mph winds blowing against your house. [Kristen here, the blower door testing guy told us this...]
We had really good results-  with 922 cfm of airflow initially.  We walked around the inside of the house and tried to locate any places where I had missed caulking and sealing the sheathing and windows when I was getting the walls framed up and closed in.  Surprisingly, a couple of our doors were not locked, and as soon as we did that, they sealed up tighter and we had an even better reading on the fan with 897 cfm.

Our goal of reaching "Passive House" standards translates that cfm into total air changes per hour.  The target is 0.6 ACH (Air Changes per Hour), and at the time of this first test, we had hit 1.4 ACH.  I'll attach some links for you all to look at if you are interested, but for reference, current code minimum is 7.0 ACH and "energy star" minimums are at around 6.0 ACH. 

We might not get down to that German "passive haus" standard, but we'll keep improving.  I'll do another blower door test after we get up the sheetrock, and once more after we get the rigid insulation, stucco and siding installed in the summer.

"WINDOOOOWS! AWESOME!"

J said it best as we drove up to the house today...."WINDOOOWS!  AWESOME!  THEY ARE BOOTIFUL"

I have to admit, I was teary eyed as I came around the corner and saw a warm light coming through the beautiful windows!  I love the green we chose.  It feels so full of life while the earth is so brown right now.

K & T's from the West side

Terese came over to check out the windows.  All the windows on their side were installed today.  We had the bounty of having the Marvin guys come over this afternoon and show Nathan how to do the intall.  It also helped to have a few extra hands to install the largest of the windows.

Terese and I were able to help Nathan install the last of the windows.  The double window in Terese's study.  We didn't know that we would be helping, but we were both excited to do it!



At 27°F when we came over, it was a cold but productive day.  J and I brought over a warm cupa to enjoy while looking out the new windows!

J and Nathan taking a load off



K & T's from the east side