We're building an ICF house

As I stoke the wood stove and fill the pellet stove and worry about how much oil I'm using, I wonder how much it will cost to heat your well-built, well insulated house.

Probably a whole heck of a lot less than my 1790's, leaks-like-a-sieve monster.

As I sit in my new Wheel estate, in my driveway, running off of the house current, I wonder the same thing. The wind is howling outside like a damned banshee, it's 28 degrees out there, according to my thermometer. We have an oil filled radiator heater and it keeps us at 65 quite nicely.

Still making progress, but not much that's worthy of a picture. Most of the interior framing is done, and we've almost completed the wiring on the third level. I started hanging cans on the main level the other day.

We've had sub zero temperatures and without heat working is pretty miserable. I know the crew took the last two days off to work in their shop- they just sent me a picture (via text) of the trim brackets they made. They are made of fir and in the pictures they look pretty sharp.

The heat is scheduled to go in late next week, but I'm sure it'll get delayed. The heat guy is probably running around like crazy fixing people's problems.

The plumber is due to show up in the next week or two to finish the rough-in.

And of course insulation will happen soon after the upstairs wiring, etc is done.

I'll take a few pictures this weekend when we wrap up the wiring. The electrician takes pride in doing neat work. What he's done so far is nice to look at- it's a shame it's getting covered up.

+1

Gimme a few minutes....

Here's a narrative, pictures are uploading now and will be posted in a bit.

Slow and steady is what we've been experiencing.

The GC's crew has completed interior framing and little details here and there. A giant built in medicine cabinet in the master bathroom (basically just using the wall cavity between the bathroom and bedroom). A bookshelf built into one of the walls next to the kitchen. A coat hanging nook in the stairwell going down into the basement. Those kinds of things.

The plumber has started his stuff and did all the venting in the attic the other day.

The electrician is a good friend of mine and we've been working on that together. He's charging me peanuts and he's anal, so it's turning out great. We're putting a sub panel on each floor to minimize home run lengths, and that's turning out to be a good decision. We had the third story wired in 2 days. We're working on the main level now and already kinda started moving into the basement.

We hired an A/V guy to wire the house for whole house audio and phone/data/etc. He's been doing that and we're pretty excited to have music all over the place including on the deck.

As soon as we finished upstairs the insulators blew in cellulose in the attic and upper walls that are not concrete. It was pretty amazing the difference that made. The house is stunningly quiet now and it's holding heat like a bastard. Just a little salamander heater in the basement at the moment and it barely runs. The crew tends to leave a door open for running in and out and that's really the only heat loss we're seeing.

They're currently working on exterior trim and siding is soon to follow.

We just visited with our cabinet maker friend and he's just about done with our kitchen. THEY. ARE. BEAUTIFUL. Can't wait to see them in place.

We decided to do a clear fir ceiling in the living room and dining room. I wanted to do it for the entire first floor until we got the quote.

I'm gearing up to get rolling on the concrete countertops and pre-staining the decking, which has been sitting in our living room for far too long, but we couldn't do it without heat.

For heat we are going with a Buderus (spelling?) boiler with 2 tanks. One tank will run the domestic and one the heat. The domestic tank is a dual coil so we can easily upgrade to solar thermal somewhere down the road. It is not a super-high efficiency boiler, but both the GC and heating guy recommended this "work horse" for it's long term reliability over the more expensive and temperamental models. They both said that our efficiency comes in having a super insulated tight home. Makes sense.

Our GC has been amazing. The quality of work is amazing and we are UNDER budget. That won't be the case for long because we changed a few things in the plumbing department (as in added another bathroom after his original quote) and added a few things in the kitchen as well. Either way, but the end of this project I doubt we'll be more than 3% over if any at all.

Pictures to follow if I don't fall asleep on the couch.

Just uploaded some photos. I'm disappointed- a lot of them are really blurry and the ones of our cabinets are gone.

But here's a few:

Insulation!
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dvB9-973UZdsEIuuQO5_nNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-syJl4WcR9ic/USQv0rqjFlI/AAAAAAAAAdg/8r9u9uHMsGE/s640/P2160047.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/115670853405340716908/February19201302?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">February 19, 2013</a></td></tr></table>

I didn't know these photos were taken. I hate having my picture taken. I was holding up the fir brackets they made to see how they'd look. They are part of the exterior trim. I am attempting to grow my hair to donate it, which is why I look like a ragamuffin.
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/L_K7OmHBXPF_pk-mxUrvyNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-WCKY459GXj4/USQv1FE_iFI/AAAAAAAAAdo/GLPHXjxjBzg/s640/P2160050.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/115670853405340716908/February19201302?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">February 19, 2013</a></td></tr></table>
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PzhcJx-bzgu1_RwD1q4hfdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-VleCKWHDqy0/USQv8VM-m1I/AAAAAAAAAdw/Wh-h0q4M9sQ/s640/P2160053.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/115670853405340716908/February19201302?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">February 19, 2013</a></td></tr></table>

This is what we sent out for a Christmas card this year. It was actually a New Years card because we procrastinated.
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dGsZzBHjyRjbIGXGBfLwcNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-KMcsIEKkWMQ/USQwMFHQjbI/AAAAAAAAAd4/96kp2rFLs70/s640/P1010025.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/115670853405340716908/February19201302?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">February 19, 2013</a></td></tr></table>

Our upstair sub panel. The electrician is very neat.
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VXucjpGyyrAFQGBATRkYE9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-V5p1-UTOrxU/USQyLKFUxmI/AAAAAAAAAec/8VDK5pMd6m4/s640/P2060045.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/115670853405340716908/February19201303?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">February 19, 2013</a></td></tr></table>

Again- sorry for lack of pictures. I'll try to get some more by the weekend.

And for those of you that have shown an interest just want to extend an invitation to visit. Just send a PM.

Nice looking place. Your electrician must have been in the Navy.

Air Force.

Mike Holmes would approve.

I don't think so ! All Holmes's panels are horizontal.

Now that's just dumb. There's no way my electrician would let me install a panel horizontally.

It's legal in some circumstances. In Canada you can mount panels horizontally all day long. In the US, breakers just have to be up/on down/off, so you could use 1/2 the panel, basically.

The more you know

That is what I thought when I saw the panel too!

Yeah I did a quick google search and found that the other day. Aside from looking dumb horizontal panels would be a pain in the ass to mount between studs.

The electrician doing the work (since you ditched me by moving to California) is extremely picky and has gone well beyond code in a lot of places. He insisted on adjustable boxes so they could line up perfectly. He insisted on using 12 wire everywhere including lighting. More smoke detectors than required..... You get the idea.

And the best part is that he works cheap because he likes the side work. He works on a lot of industrial stuff along with SCADA work during the day and enjoys getting back to the basics. He was using my Makita driver the other day and commented on how he liked it. He'll probably find one in his truck sometime soon.

Those are the people to keep happy and hang on to their number. It is always a good thing to peek in an electrical panel and have it look like a robot did it.

sent from my abacus.

Well maybe when I move back you will finally finish that place.

The makita LXT stuff is awesome. I would have gone with Makita if I hadn't already invested in Ridgid li-ion stuff, but will probably make the switch to Makita or Milwaukee this year, as my Ridgid stuff is...tired.

Probably going to be back in NH in April, so if I am, I'll hit you up.