Eighteen weeks ago the first footing forms were nailed together, signalling the beginning of the house project. Since then the house has risen from the excavation and in the last weeks has been transformed into our dream with the addition of the sculpted trees and final finishes on the exterior of the building. Our goal was to finish as much of the exterior of the house as possible before our crew went back to school. We did that and more, thanks in large part to the efforts of our young crew.

Today, the last work day of summer was Peter's the last day to work on the project as he returns to university tomorrow. We sculpted the last few feet of facia board, now all around the house. Phoebe's tree house by the back porch is now sculpted and ready for paint.

Out front the trees have gotten two of the three glazes. This week promises to stay warm and dry meaning we should be able to finish the painting of the porch area.

Monday morning the crew from Element Spray Foam start in on the insulation in the ceiling of the house. They will spray the underside of the roof with six inches of two pound foam. The foam also acts as a vapour barrier. The sprayed foam will give us true R40 insulation with no chance of air leakage, unlike conventional batt insulation and plastic vapour barriers. The attic space is unvented and instead treated as interior, conditioned airspace. Heating and cooling air ducts in essence come into the house instead of being outside the insulated space. This means less energy is wasted. The spray foam is one more step in making our house one of the most energy efficient and greenest possible.

-grampa dan