Work on the Trees continues... status update on many things

Seems like I look away and another week has past.

Ryan and I are busily trying to get to Washougal every chance we get to cut on the trees some more. We are making steady progress. We have just started to get into the trunks of both trees and have at least a cord of wood in our pile already as we have been taking the time to cut up the branches as well.

This is where we were at as of a few days ago. We are trying to be fastidious so that we don't have to revisit areas once the wood has been cut. I think this also helps Mike navigate with his mower better.



Other than that, Ryan and I are slowly letting ideas percolate in our heads for the house. In the last few weeks we have revisited the entire first floor layout to address an issue of providing a buffer space between the entry and the living space, this led to the total relocation of the stairs going into the basement (AKA Ryan's new train layout) as well as positioning of the mudroom in the garage instead of in the house.

Moving the stairs and the mudroom creates a condition where we can completely seal off the heat envelope of the main living areas from the "transitional" areas where there will be a lot of movement from inside to outside. I will be posting the layout of our house on this blog at some point once all of the major changes have been made.

We are also researching quite a few things for the house and yard. The Living Building spec  (of which I have not posted all of the Petals yet. My bad  :( ) wants us to locally source as much of the materials as possible. However, the "ideas" for what we are planning can come from anywhere in the world. I like that.

We were contacted by Barry LaDuke of LaDuke Radiant Sales. He is a resource that can get our grubby little hands on an actual Daikin Altherma, now that we have decided that that is the way we want to go. His website has a lot of cool stuff on it, so check it out. He has also introduced us to a product created, developed and manufactured in Tualatin, OR. Barry will be sending us a sample and we are excited about reading into the Ecowarm Panel

A while back, I had helped my friend Allen Poole install the tubing for his radiant heat flooring. His method was to use plywood sleepers to hold down the tubing and create a surface to attach flooring to as well as absorb and redistribute heat from the tubes to the room. The Ecowarm is the same idea except that the sleepers use a smaller tubing, there is a recycled aluminum layer that more efficiently distributes the heat from the tubes and the tube size can be smaller. Thinking about it, it sounds like a no brainer, but we are eagerly awaiting the sample and want to consult with Allen to get his opinion on what he thinks as well.

Isn't this ingenious? Allen's Kitchen floor

Allen, I continue to be blown away by your project. Just looking at this picture makes me smile because when we installed this tubing, it just seemed like this is how everyone should have their floors. Who needs a bunch of noisy forced air vents everywhere? Why aren't more people doing this?  YOU are an inspiration to me.

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