With the Cedars gone from in front of the old house, the evolution of the housing stock is made evident. The solar panels (for hot water & heating) provide my Fire theme and contrast with the solar clothes dryer stretched around the old porch.
The porch gots its roofing and skylights installed.
The two plumbing vents on the north side of the roof have been joined by the gas boiler vent.
I was taken by the length of the shadow of the overhang. Heck, by the time summer gets here that shade will be down to the top of the downstairs windows. Also you can see that the angle and inclination of the roof are perfect for the solar panels which are flush to the roofing. The color of the panels is a pretty good match with the roofing too - nobody planned that!
Porch skylights from the side that matters.
The downside of the solar panels is shown below. The big tank is the solar reservoir which has a closed circuit (an antifreeze solution) with the panels on the roof. Running through that big tank is a heat exchange loop from the small tank which is the domestic hot water and radiant floor heating. If the solar tank isn't hot enough, then the propane boiler on the left (110,000 BTU - which actually isn't that big) will kick in to heat the water in the small tank. All those tubes and controls on the right wall are for the radiant floor zones - each zone has its own thermostat.
We are preparing for the kitchen cabinets with the frames they will sit on. Turns out there is a lot of space in that kitchen area. Although I'd rather not, code requires that we use treated lumber here because its wood in contact with a concrete floor.
Progress on the downstairs trim: living room looking out to porch
Computer room-to-music room pocket doors.
Computer room to front door.
The pocket doors from the other side
And the work to come: these 1x10's will be used for baseboard - after we get them sanded. They were a bit thin and when we planed them it didn't really produce a finished surface over 100% of the area. Home grown wood has its costs - one of which was my new DeWalt planer burning out. Still under free parts and labor warrentee though - if I can get it to Spartenburg.
Now for the Earth part - about half of the tiling is done. We await a special order for the rest. Brick pavers accent the upstairs hall and sunroom
The walk-in shower in the West bathroom - its just like a locker room!
Well, a classy locker room anyway - maybe the Decathalon club.
We like the floor tiles in here too, which are continuous into the laundry room.
Speaking of Water, Dave from the capentry crew helped me mix and pour the concrete wall before we left for a week in CA, and today I got around to pulling the forms off. View from below:
and view from above:
A mighty dam! Then I spent the evening++ getting the spring floor cleaned off and the seeping pipes laid. Its hard to see but the top of those PVC pipes are chopped all along with a skilsaw to allow water to seep in. I'm going to put 4-foot risers on those two ends so that after this is all filled up, there will be a way to flush the pipes when they get sediment in them.
I thought it was interesting that when I laid the pipes in the lowest places in the rock floor, they formed a parallel pattern - then I realized the bedrock probably has a grain that caused this.And in the "right tool for the job" category, we have the Bosch "Impactor" Cordless Impact Driver. The carpentry crew have been using them, and I uncovered a justification when my Makita cordless drill started to drag; end-of-life for the second set of expensive batteries. This Bosch is very small and tight and much better than my old Makita for doing screws and bolts. This model has a LED light in the front that illuminates what you're working on. Buy one today!
