House progress

I have so many little things that want to be given a post, and somehow not as much time as I would like to do that. ;) But I did get outside and took a few photos of what's happened on the house in the last week (nothing happened the week I was in Bulgaria or the week after that because Matt had lots of computer work to do, and as nice as it is to get work done on the house, it's nice to do work that someone's paying you to do, too!)

Three things of note on the house:

1) the last of the "board and batten" boards are up, so the house is completely covered (with the exception of the small chunk of wall where the entry door goes.) Most of the battens above the flat roof are on, leaving only the ones under the flat roof to do maybe this fall, maybe in the spring.

2) this morning, with some help from Mike (our framer), Matt was able to put in the entry door! This is one important piece of getting some rudimentary heat into the building so we can work on the inside without freezing. ;) Our first method of doing that will be simply opening up the window that will eventually become the doorway that connects the addition to the main house, and eventually, will be with the radiant system of the addition once we pass our rough-in inspection (which won't happen until we have that done, of course! That's the next priority.)

3) The first layer of interior insulation is in! Matt has this addition detailed to be highly insulated. There's the 1" of foam continuous on the exterior, boosting insulation R-value as well as not having any "cold" spots at studs. Then, in the 2x4 exterior walls there is fiberglass batt insulation, which you see here. Then, there will be a 1" space for running all of the electrical, and then a second exterior wall (only a 2x3) inside of which we will blow cellulose, once again providing a thermal break at stud locations. Theoretically, this should make the house much more energy efficient to heat, and will also help to keep it cooler in the summer.