The build continues. We continue to push forward on all fronts to get things done, decisions made and slide things into place as the due dates near. The finish date has slipped a week to the third week in August and my inexperience shows with things like this because I don’t know how possible it is to claw back time. I still see a few contingency weeks in the schedule so maybe there is still enough slack to pull things back. Our apartment is going to be paid up until the end of August but I know how things might continue to slip and paying for an extra month of rental really shouldn’t be in the cards. It is very expensive.
The builders finished putting the exterior hard insulation on the house this week and the insulation crew should finish installing the rockwood interior insulation by Monday. Before the interior insulation was even installed, the house was tight enough to hold heat during Vermont’s recent arctic blast with just the solar gain from the huge south windows and a centrally mounted 220v space heater. That is a main goal of the house design so I am pretty happy about that.
The electrician continues to plug away on running wiring. He has been very thoughtful with considering our needs and finding gaps in our initial wiring designs and I think the house’s switch placement and outlet spacing is going to be much better due to his input and guidance.
The Zenhnder ERV is now roughed in and ready for commissioning which should happen sometime mid-summer.
Next week, they plan on tying the garage roof to the main house and then start in on the installation of the cedar that will be the surface of the walkway between the garage and main house and the entirety of the screened porch.
The builder also hooked up our Starlink in a rough spot. The pole mount is on order but will take a few weeks. In the meantime, they now have internet at the house and can use it to make phone calls and use the internet as needed. It will also serve as a good test bed because the router gathers data about uptime, download and upload speeds etc.
We are entering a critical phase right now. We are prepping for selling our current house, selling our second car, trying to get the Covid vaccine, planning a trip to see relatives so we can get out of the house for realtor showings, trying to find a way to get up to Vermont in the next two months, pack everything we own, work full time with no child care. They say the most traumatic thing you can do is have one of the following to happen to you – the death of a loved one, sell your house/move, and/or build a house. Add in a global pandemic and you have just a portion of the stuff we are dealing with right now. I can’t recall a time in my life when I have had more stress. I will be very glad when we are done building this house.