Friday, May 15, 2009

Our Excavator Rocks!



(Karann) We closed on our construction loan on Thursday. The loan closing actually pushed our schedule back because there were some legal issues with having the contractors working on site before we closed on the loan (even though we held title to the land). Whatever. The excavator mobilized quickly there after. First he managed to gingerly move our 40' cargo container out of the way and into a very tight spot among the trees (I still don't know how he did that!!). Then he cleared the small trees in the footprint of the building and was able to relocate some of them to another property (his, I think.) I'm glad some were able to be "recycled". He then laid down a very nice track pad of 5" to 6" rocks for the remainder of the driveway and scraped the topsoil off. On Monday, he will be ready to dig the hole and get it ready for the Superior Wall (precast foundation walls) that will be delivered and installed on Tuesday.
This weekend we will be going out to the building site with our compass and locating "true south" so the house can be oriented in the optimal position for passive and active solar. In CT, true south (not magnetic south) is facing approximately 14 degrees toward the east of magnetic south. So we will basically rotate the house to the east slightly to get the best sun.
Today, we received all our radiant flooring supplies from the Radiant Flooring Company in Vermont. We decided to go with their design for the solar-assist radiant space heating and domestic hot water system. Jeremy and I felt the most comfortable with their design and it utilizes evacuated tube solar collectors, which we really wanted to incorporate in our house. They are much more efficient, especially on cold or cloudy days, making them a good choice for Connecticut.
Next week should be fun and action packed. Stay tuned.

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