Month: May 2022

It’s typically a bad combination, water and insulation, but in our case we have had great progress with our water tanks and lines as well as interior insulation the past couple weeks.

Water lines have been dug from our tanks to our house. We hope to soon have our cistern installed and we can soon start collecting rainwater.

Below you can see exterior stem wall insulation with cement board on the outside to protect it. You can also see the rainwater lines attached to the outside.

Now let’s take a look at the blown in cellulose interior insulation. Many have asked us questions about why we chose cellulose and the following properties helped make our decision:

• Dense pack cellulose doesn’t settle
• Fire resistant
• Slow release of moisture in the event of water in the walls
• Retains R-value when wet
• 3.5lbs per cubic foot creates excellent sound reduction
• 85% recycled material
• More details here: https://www.greenfiber.com/homeowners/homeowner-benefits

Here is what our insulated walls looks like. The white material is insulation mesh that is stapled to the studs and holds the insulation in prior to drywall being installed.

Here is a short video of the installer filling one of the wall cavities with cellulose:

That’s it for today.

Coming up next:

• Back filling dirt around the house
• Install of cistern next to house
• Exterior insulation
• Roofing and eaves

Sorry for the “radio silence” and not posted for a few weeks. The weather has really been turning around and while we did have a bit of a lull during the electrical install week while the crew was working other jobs, the past 2 weeks have been very active.

First, the sand mound was created. This took 7 loads of sand (~126 tons) and lots of dirt from the site to get built. We now await the tanks, which are expected next week. Here are some photos of the install.

The first phase is the sand mound is to build up the sand, supported by dirt on the side, and cover in gravel. Next phase is laying down the pipes and connecting to the tanks, which we hope is completed next week, followed by inspection. The mound will then be finished off with more gravel and a foot of topsoil.

Next up in our crazy week was the install of our large 5,000 gal water tanks. These had to be taken a few hundred feet up our hill to be installed ~75ft higher in elevation then the house. This is where we will get our ~32 PSI of water pressure without the need for a pressure tank. I didn’t get as many photos, but I have some video.

Last fun update is that our window team arrived to correct a mistake. We ordered privacy glass for our bathroom windows, but they came with clear glass. This past week the privacy glass arrived and instead of throwing the clear glass out, we purchased additional frames and added two *new* windows to the C-wing apartment East wall. This lets beautiful morning sun into the main living space, but we installed the glass high to not sacrifice privacy. I’m so excited at how they turned out!

That about does it for this update. Please note that lots of other things have been going on, but have been a bit harder to document, but maybe I’ll post about it in the future. Here are some other things that have been going on:

• All exterior conduits finished. This means we were able to bring power into the house.
• All grey and black water lines installed and buried
• A & B wing electrical finished
• Zehnder ERV was delivered!!! (we’ve been waiting months for this one)
• Final water/air sealing details finished

Next week we hope to see:

• Septic tanks installed
• Water cistern installed
• Water lines completed between tanks/house/cistern
• Interior cellulose work started
• Exterior stem wall and footer insulation completed and backfilled

That’s a lot, I know, but we’re hopeful.