The End

OK, so this is a little out of order, but things have been a wee bit chaotic around here, and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Here's a pic of Bob and his able assistant putting the finishing touches on the north window.

From House

And here's what we have been anticipating for 8 months--

From House Many thanks to those of you who have followed along on this project. Words can not express how appreciative we are at your participation. When we look at the house now, it is filled with ideas, suggestions, considerations and participation from a wide variety of family members and friends. You helped in significant ways, weighing in on stain choice, window placement, and even room additions. So the house is in a very real sense, a group effort, not only from the craftsmen who designed and built it, but from you and your feedback. And the house reflects the personality of all of us. And that makes us feel real good. This will be the last entry to Houthpith. If you would like to visit it sometime in the future to regale in the insouciance, you either (1) are desparate for entertainment, or (2) are aware that the web address will be changed to: http://www.houthpith.blogspot.com And finally this. If you wish to continue keeping up with whatever it is that goes on around here, check in at http://www.northpith.blogspot.com ARAMIS IS COMING! From Drop Box

Numbers guys

Big day today--the final evaluation of exactly how tight this house is.

Rich Urban from Focus on Energy conducts the blower door test which sucks air out of the house and checks the amount that the house will 'allow' to blow out. Clear as mud?

Here Charlie videotapes the mud.

And here's what the numbers say. The average new home has a relative number of 100. Charlie's best home until today, had a number of 56, which means that it was 44% more efficient than the average new home. Our house is 44.4, 12% more efficient than Charlie's best to date.

That was somewhat predicted. But here are the numbers that make more sense to me.

Predicted cost to heat the water for heat and domestic hot water? $513 (PER YEAR! Take that Wisconsin Public Service). However, even with that we will emit, get this, 10.6 tons of carbon dioxide, 57.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 29.1 somethings (I can't read my notes) of nitrous oxide.

Since these are only expected and do contain some variables, we will report a year's worth of data to Rich to determine how close they came--the therms, not the nitrous oxide, whatever that is.

If the Doorbell is On . . .

. . . we must be getting close.

In fact the place was crowded again today with Bob the Builder and Brian the Electrician here. But the fireplace guys installed the gas stove so their truck and trailer were there,

and Alanna and her sister, Lisa were doing cleanup duty.

Alanna determines which end is the business end of the vacuum.

Brian is nearing the finish line as well with almost all the exterior lights up and running.

I almost forgot! There was one more visitor today--the building inspector. And we can move in!!!!!! Ann took a shower tonight while I gawked around. We'll move the bed in tomorrow (somehow) and the rest of the stuff over time.

And finally, the doorbell is in.

Let the Finishing Begin

The only thing left in the bath is the mirror above the sink.

Comment from someone we know

The comment section of the recent article in the Rhinelander Daily News holds this gem:

" Most interesting article. It appears that the Eshelman's have done a great job in building a true energy efficient home that compliments the natural surroundings they live in. We are LUCKY (emphasis added) to have conscientious energy minded home builders such as Scott and Ann. "