FINISHING TOUCHES - ALMOST THERE!

More updates  coming soon!

 

BALANCED VENTILATION

 

 

 

Our fresh air ventilation  units arrived last week from 475 High Performance Supply.  We are using the Lunos e2 units for fresh air and the Lunos EGO unit for bathroom exhaust.  These units provide a constant supply of balance fresh air, even when exhausting our bathroom.  More information and installation photos are on the way.  Stay tuned!

UTILITY CONNECTIONS

We began setting up the utility connections last week for power and water.  The existing lines between the shed and main house were re-routed to the Studio's Utility Room.  You can tell by the number of pipes we were trying to prepare for every conceivable situation.

 

We have a power line into the Studio and a power line out to the future garage.  Three water lines into the Studio will accommodate the existing well and future city water.  There's one extra line for a hot tub (fingers crossed??!!) or anything else we might think of in the future.

 

With all that in place, we can set the HVAC pad and disconnect.  We don't want the refrigerant line visible on the side of the house so a small sleeve will be placed below the disconnect.  If all goes well this will be hidden behind the outdoor unit.  Josh and his team at Air Handlers Mechanical Service will install the unit next week.  For this project we are using the Mitsubishi 'Mr. Slim'  high efficiency mini split heat pump. 

 

EXTERIOR SIDING

 

 

Flashing is one of the most rewarding things to do when building a house, especially when it's your own.  A little bit of patience, some extra break metal, and some attention to detail will go a long way.  Architects spend a lot of time drawing details but I've found that executing them can be just as fun. 

 

 

Window box flashing on the south side of the house.

 

 

 

A full length metal break is worth it's weight in gold.

 

All our windows have been 'over-insulated'. Much of the heat loss around fenestrations occurs at the interface between the window unit and the rough opening.  We've installed 1" rigid foam in this area to reduce the thermal bridging around the window's perimeter.

 

At the sill we have to be careful not cover up the weep holes.  Here we used spray foam under the sill board.

 

The siding is going in with the exterior shading device box.  After all the siding and trim is installed, Douglas Fir wood screens will be mounted on sliding tracks above the windows.

 

 

 

PRELIMINARY BLOWER DOOR TEST

Bill Nickerson is our PHIUS + rater.  We performed a preliminary blower door test before we installed the exterior insulation to make sure we were on target. 

 For our preliminary test we achieved about 0.7ACH at 50 pascals.  We have a small space and Bill had to break out the 'D' ring to get the right air flow.  For the final test we need to achieve 0.6 - we are almost there! 

EXTERIOR RIGID INSULATION

2" Polyiso rigid board insulation

 

 

Each window gets a 'window buck' or 4" wood frame around it's perimeter to enclose the insulation.  We also pulled up the vapor barrier from the foundation in order to have a continuous barrier from the underside of the slab up to the roof.

 

As with all the insulation, a tight installation and overlapping seams is a must!

 

We had to add a small strip here but will overlap these seams on the final layer.

 

We liked the grey color so much we are thinking about repainting the entire house......yikes!

 

Once the insulation was installed we added the rain screen battens and taped all the frames.  This is where we lap in the first layer of flexible flashing.

ROOFING INSTALL

 

Once the roof material arrived we didn't waste any time getting in on the building.  We chose the same metal roofing used on the existing house. These are exposed fastener, gavalume coated steel roof panels.  If all goes right it should last for a long, long time.