Buttoned up, sort of...

Well as you can see by this photo, the windows are in.  The poor subs that have had to work in this cold windy shell have fashioned some temporary doors to make the inside almost bearable.

And speaking of doors, this photo highlights the depth of the walls.  Normally, the exterior doors would be hung on the outside of the framing and swing in.  If there is no wall to obstruct it on the inside, the door could conceivable swing all the way to the inside wall and be completely out of the way when opened.

One of the issues with high efficiency homes is because of the thickness of the walls, an exterior door mounted to the outside would only swing in 90 degrees, and then it would hit the side of the exterior wall, which would leave it very much in the way when opened.  The front door opens to the stairs, so if you were coming in the front door and planned to run upstairs to grab something (after removing your shoes of course!!)  you would need to step around and close the door behind you to get to the stairs.

So after much discussion and back and forth with Nate and our door supplier, we decided to mount the exterior doors to the inside of the framing.  The picture above shows where the doors will eventually be hung.  I think this will be a very cool, old fashioned look with the doors set deep into the framing.

So as of today, the rough wiring is all in place, with a few minor changes needed, and the rough plumbing is nearly complete.  Here's a shot of all the tubing to feed the heat recovery ventilator that I talked about last time.  It's sort of un-worldy looking in the basement with all these tubes hanging down from the floors above.

We also contracted with Sean at Techhome to come in and wire us for any audio/visual/phone/security wiring we may ever need.  The plan is to eventually run all technology to a rack in the basement, and this wiring will feed TV's, speakers, security cameras, etc., from one location.  You can use your smartphone to lower the volume, play different music in the basement or upstairs, or see who's banging on the front door.  

There is no better or cheaper time to do this wiring, even if you never use the technology.  If we decided to add this stuff later, the cost would be tenfold, to say nothing about the hassle of cutting and patching sheetrock.

So this short week before Turkey day should see the tech wiring completed.  Next we add the tubing for the central vac and then I think we're ready for insulation.

It was nice and sunny today and warmer than it has been, so I spent some time sort of absorbing the vibe in each one of the rooms, even the closets (very Zen!!).  The house has a great feel to it, very cool site lines from different locations, I can't wait to be living there.

Happy Thanksgiving all!!