One coop now

An Eastern rat snake, maybe 5', was curled behind the chicken feed just inside the coop today at 5:00.  I encouraged it to remove itself with a gentle nudge from a rake. Then I sprinkled diatomaceous earth in that corner to discourage further visits. 
I found the littlest peeps (who are bigger than footballs now at 8 wks) huddled behind the open coop door when I went out to put everyone to bed.  I picked up one and the rest followed me into the coop.  Yeah! No more chicken tractor.  I hope it's permanent and they don't need the tractor any more.
Gambol got stung on the eyebrow on his late afternoon walk.  His whole brow was swollen like a (human) boxer's. By our after-dinner walk, he looked much better.  Facebook Brittany page  members say children's Benedryl helps, although he didn't seem to be too distressed after the initial yelp.  Maybe he wants a story written about him like Ferdinand?

Energy Star Rating

Last night the house only lost 4 degrees.  We have the air exchanger on to 10% but haven't used the furnace yet. 

FAQ for Robert (Bob) Beaury and others

1. What was your original vision for the house?

• Originally we were going to have a 2+ story but Jerry convinced us that the scale of a huge rising ceiling in the greatroom would be too much for the footprint, and besides, by lowering the ceiling we saved a bit of money while gaining a great deal of comfort.  He recommended Sarah Susanka's Not so Big House for help. 
• The original design was flipped so that our rear door was the front and more formal door but I wanted an airlock/mudroom at the main entry.
• We also like pocket doors and have none.  We decided that they weren't worth losing space over.  Our few walls are crammed full of HVAC and electrical work.  

1A. What were the two or three most important objectives you hoped to accomplish with the construction of the house?   

• This house needed to fit into the landscape; I wanted a little house in the woods so we didn't want to tear out any more trees than necessary for safe and easy living.  
• It needed to allow us to live on the land; that meant lots of windows, native or local products and local contractors.  Energy (of all sorts) efficiency was important: heavy duty insulation with the SIPs, geothermal heat pump, passive solar from the windows but an overhang that kept the summer sun to a minimum, efficient wood burning stove.
• We want to live here as long as possible and since we are getting a late start on our dream house that meant one floor living: laundry on the first floor; minimal lip, hand rails and seat in the shower; lever door handles; low maintenance HardiePlank, Trex outside stairs, bluestone patio.
• And we wanted a lot of wood.  We have hemlock, hickory, 2 pines, oak, maple, cherry, walnut, douglasfir, cedar.

2. What process did you go through to select a construction contractor and why did you select Envinity?  We knew we wanted a timberframe and I wasn't comfortable with the national brands.  Buying a house should be different from buying a pair of shoes at Payless or a pillow at Walmart.  When we saw the League of Women Voters' house tour (2008?) featured a house under construction (Moonxxx) by Envinity we toured that house as well as Shawn Pardi's.  That live edge post told me to follow up with these guys.

3. What were some of the challenges during the build process from your perspective?  

• Keeping costs down.   
• We'd been working with Michael Haluga, architect, for our basic design but since he is familiar with conventional construction Jerry had to do some redesign to convert it to timberframe.  We probably didn't convert early enough in the process. 
• Knowing where to put electrical features before the SIPs were ordered and the timbers were carved was a challenge. Luckily we had good guidance.
• Timing the orders of the fixtures that we bought to arrive when the crew needed them was a challenge in decision making.  We missed on a few lights.

4. What features of your house do you feel are particularly special or that you particularly like and why?  

• The railing around the loft and catwalk is a work of art. The only direction we gave was that I needed some softness in the house.  Everything was 90 and 45 degree angles; chamfered edges on the big posts and beams helped but I wanted a curve somewhere.  Bill presented us with a concept drawing of beautiful copper waves through walnut railing.  We'd never talked about copper as a favorite accent metal or our collection of copper measures. Jonas and Bill are woodworking geniuses.
• Then there's the window seat in the loft with 2 bins for bedding storage inside. The doors are very heavy but lift easily and have a great locking mechanism for safety.
• I had a long cherry live edge board from my mother's property near Philadelphia that Doug was able to fold into a powder room vanity.  He did a beautiful job on the dovetail joinery.  I had a picture for him, but his finishing made this piece more beautiful than the original.  He used a piece of local cherry in another detail in that room.
• The walnut tree and brace never fail to catch my eye and welcome me home.
• I love waking up to the view out the 4 big bedroom windows. Right now the trees are sort of raggedy, but it won't be that way forever. Since it's a westerly exposure the afternoon summer sun is a little challenge, but we'll enjoy the winter sun.
• The special features that Scott included in the tile: a  tile "rug" under the wall of windows and a ribbon of glass tile around the shower with an inset diamond on the shower seat. When he turned a corner in the shower with half a tile, it looks like he folded the tile because the same coloring continues on the next wall. He also took a pile of bluestone and turned it into a beautiful hearth for our woodburning stove. 
• I love looking at the joints of each post and beam and wishing that my (former) math and science students could have met Jerry and John to learn a real world use of geometry. 
• Even the basement has special features: the manifold for the water is a design in symmetry and elegance, yet another work of art for this house;  extra heat from the heat pump is fed into the hot water to boost the temperature is another special feature; we are glad to have 8' ceiling space so that at some point in the (distant) future we may finish a room down there.
• Our grandson loves the knee-wall (AKA foxhole) storage that he uses as a fort.  When I told him they were full of toys, he told us he would pull them all out.  The tiny window pass through could have easily been covered over, but Doug saw the potential play factor and finished it as it it were to be seen by crowds of visitors instead of a couple of little boys. 
• We love the character of all the wood, alone and in combination.   The colors, knots, checks and variations in grain prove to us it's real wood and are as beautiful as any painting or sculpture.

5.  What was your experience working with Envinity; what do you think we did really well, what could we have done better?

• We started out answering their questions but soon learned that through conversations and listening to their ideas we'd get something much better than we'd thought of.  They always came to us for approvals before they started work but it didn't take us long to just trust them to have great ideas.
• We hadn't pre-built this house in our minds and were very open to ideas of experience and craftsmen. We were never disappointed.
• Communication between from the crew to us was superb.  Doug and the subs called Paul to let him know of changes in plans and schedules.  Jerry could be contacted by email and cell.  When we had questions we could count on a quick, clear response from anyone of the crew members, 24/7.

6. What has it been like living in the house; has it met your original vision and what plans do you have for the future?

• So far we have been very impressed with the air flow and ease of cooling.  We just open the windows at night and close them mid-day to keep the house comfortable  even without air conditioning.
• Hard-scaping a stone retaining wall and bluestone patio and landscapng with native plants will begin phase III later this summer.

How long have your been planning this project?

• We started thinking about where to put a house in 1974 while we were at U of Michigan.  a college town seemed perfect. 
• Which university town was still a question until 2003.
• Timberframing took hold of Paul in the mid 80's when This Old House featured Bensonwood. It was reinforced with a visit there in the early '90's and a chance to help raise a timberframe gazebo at a Pa Forest Stewards' annual meeting in 2008 at the home of Nancy Baker.
• Which timberframer was still a question until 2007.
• The original concept for house design came from an Internet search and my grandmother's home.  There are probably pieces of each home we've lived in incorporated in the design; the foxhole comes from Spring Ave (Elkins Park, PA), the pantry from Mark St (Bellevue, NE), laundry near the bedrooms (Ann Arbor, MI), the window seat from Nash Rd (Acton, MA),

Cast and Crew Party

Phase III begins

It's still a moving target, and we still haven't converted the mortgage, but we slept in the new (tall) bed in the new, sparkly clean, master bedroom.  I was a little hesitant because thunderstorms were due at 2AM and Buddy still quivers at thunder.  He adapted to the change. Neither dog spent the whole night in his own bed; I looked down to see them sort of snuggling although half of Buddy was under our bed. 
We ate breakfast and showered in the Carriage House since no breakfast items have been transferred and the new shower door isn't on.

Doug, John, and Chris completed all the touchup and clean up jobs that they had built into a final list of things to do.  They moved the freezer to the basement and plugged it into the electrical receptacle next to the emergency generator circuit box.  They moved the washer and dryer into the new laundry and stacked them  using the hardware kit I got about 6 months ago--luckily our washer-dryer combination was designed to stack, so it only took a $15 kit to put that together.  Doug took the task of bolting everything together and getting it to sit level in the laundry.  John installed all the towel racks and toilet paper holders in the three bathrooms.  Chris spent a lot of time cleaning and dusting off the walls.  Mike the painter was around to touch up the paint where dings and marks had appeared.

Dwayne installed the 5 spots in the kitchen, although the spots need some new bulbs, 50 watt, PAR20 medium base 120 volt halogen bulbs to be exact.

Harry Burd arrived to give us our final building code inspection. He used the exterior stairs that Doug had built for the bumpout door and checked the other door that had been disabled by removing the door handle. The rest of his inspection involved checking the electrical receptacles on the great room wall and in the kitchen.  Everything passed with flying colors and Harry will issue the occupancy certificate to Huston Twp, Envinity, and us.  With that we will be able to transition the construction loan to the permanent mortgage.   

With the achievement of the occupancy certificate milestone, our construction phase II is complete.  Move in date is a moving target, but we have our 'cast and crew' party scheduled for

this coming Saturday (July 31), so we will likely be(somewhat) moved in by then.

Hoss and Empress visited for their inspection: 5' black rat snake greeted them in the coop.

last punch list

from Doug.

Doug removed the handle from the door on the left side of the bump out so that it will be inaccessible and pass the code test.  

While Doug was here the gutter crew arrived to work on the garage gutters (screens and new drip edge around the entry), but their material was not the right kind so they will return next week.  The Kohlhepps guy arrived and I helped him place the stairs and stones.  Except for some skin scrapped off my right ring finger, all were installed without a problem.  I decided to remove the boxes from the stone slabs but leave the box around the base for the stairs.  I packed crushed rock around the back and sides and front of the stone and then spread dirt out to cover the packed stone.  I have the front entry all finished and just need a load of dirt to cover the crushed rock for the rear entry.  They look pretty good, if I must say so myself.

Outside steps

Two platforms for our major entry doors which will accept bluestone treads and in the breezeway rear exit, to accept pre-formed concrete steps are made out of treated 2 x 8 lumber screwed together and the corners reinforced with metal "L" brackets that are nailed in.  The top of the 2 platforms for the bluestone treads are about 6 inches below the entry porch; the bottom of the platform has some crushed driveway rock pounded down with a sledge hammer.  The bases are packed with 2-4 inches of crushed rock and have a .25 inch slope away from the porch so the tread will shed water.  The tread for the main entry is 6' long, 16" deep, and 6" thick with a classic bluestone color; the one for the rear entry is 4' long, 16" deep, and 6" thick with a dark gray color; the concrete steps are 3' wide, 2' deep and include 2 steps with a total height of 15 inches.  The platform for the steps has a full tractor load of crushed rock inside it, so the steps should have a very firm foundation.

The final grading around the house is complete; the walkout to the basement is a much less steep climb than before.

 Yesterday Doug performed some cleanup and installed a set of stairs for the bumpout door to help us pass the building code inspection.  He also installed two screen doors (bumpout and rear breezeway entries).

The generator went on during the scheduled outage for the local substation work.  Power went back on at about 1030, a full 30 minutes early.  Generator shut down as it should so it looks like it is working fairly well.

We were a little more serious about moving in this weekend.  We emptied 3 boxes of kitchen stuff and I remembered another reason that this will be my last move.  We bought food (in this case it was flour, sugar, mustard, spices/herbs) in Nebraska, paid the moving company to move it, stored it for 3 years and then composted it in PA.  Just another aggravation to avoid.  The dish washer isn't working yet so I washed a lot by hand but left a lot more for another day. Paul brought his guns and some rugs down from the carriage house attic.  Guns and beer go in the basement closet.

We took the cherry bedframe and 2 bedside cabinets to the main house but because Gambol had a bit of a pee problem (he got too excited watching a squirrel through the very clean great room glass) we decided to let them adjust to the whole moving idea slowly.  Maybe the glass will get dirty too.  For now, we'll sleep on the mattress/boxsprings on the floor.

As I drove up the hill this afternoon I noticed the front porch was empty of the big boxes and trash cans.    Doug and John were hauling stuff to the truck and attempted to hook the work trailer to the truck.  Something was up; the construction is really coming to an end.  It's a bittersweet feeling.  I'm tired of the dust and decisions looming as well as the small quarters, but we have very much enjoyed the crew and their talent.  I know Paul will miss the Friday wrap-ups. In a front page news article Envinity was featured for their solar system installation expertise.

Doug hung this year's Boalsburg People's Art Fest purchase for me.  It's to display some of the wooden bowls.

POWER PLAY: PART TWO

Electricity rate increase may not be severe

Nick Malawskey

- nmalawsk@centredaily.com

July 13, 2010 7:59am EDT

STATE COLLEGE — There are days, said Akhlesh Lakhtakia, when he and his wife can stand outside their State College home and watch their electric meter run backward.

CDT photos/Christopher Weddle

Envinity Inc. installers Marcus Cullen, front, and Asa Myers place a solar module on a home in Potter Township. As the expiration date for caps on electricity nears, many homeowners are investing in other forms of electricity.

View larger

• Rate caps: Share your experience?
• What will happen when electricity is deregulated in Pa.
POLL
What do you expect will happen when the electric rate caps come off?
 I'll pay about the same as now
 I'll pay less than I pay now
 I'll pay more by 5 to 10 percent
 I'll pay more by 20 to 25 percent
 My rates will go up by more than 25 percent
 My rates will go up by more than 50 percent
 I really don't know

By harnessing the power of the sun, the Penn State professor has, during the past 10 months, watched his home energy bills plummet.

Last year the Lakhtakias took advantage of a state and federal program that helped pay the costs of home solar projects. They installed a solar array on their roof, one of the first in the area, and have reaped the benefits since.

“We are extremely happy,” he said, adding that he expects the project to pay for itself in five to seven years.

He recently had a monitoring system installed that allows him to review his power generation daily. He won’t be able to perform a year’s analysis for a few more months, but in general, he figures the solar array has reduced the amount of power the family has to purchase by 80 percent.

“And frequently, we generate more power than we need,” he said.

Shaun Pardi is president of State College-based Envinity, an energy company that works in a variety of fields, including solar. This year, he has two crews working on solar projects, and they’re booked through the summer with residential projects, he said. He’s thinking of adding a third installation crew to keep up with the demand.

But for most homeowners, a $30,000-plus solar array is probably not feasible, especially since Pennsylvania eliminated its solar rebate program.

There is some good news from Allegheny Power regarding the future of energy prices, which will fluctuate based on market rates when rate caps, in place since 1997, expire on Dec. 31.

“We’re not seeing that big rate increase that was being speculated,” said Allegheny spokesman Doug Colafella. “All those big figures that were bandied about ... 30 percent, 60 percent ... we’re looking at a single-digit rate increase.”

On the auction block

In one of the first areas where rate caps were removed, Pike County, residents were slammed in 2005 when, as a result of a single energy purchase by the utility in the post- Katrina open market, electricity bills jumped an average of 73 percent.

PPL customers in southeastern Pennsylvania were a little bit luckier when its caps expired in 2009. When the company purchased electricity, its customers saw a roughly 30 percent increase in prices. That led to a massive amount of shopping around by consumers, with roughly 30 percent choosing a different supplier.

A similar situation worked itself out in Duquesne Light’s territory in western Pennsylvania, where about 20 percent of the company’s customers chose to go with a different energy generator after caps were removed in 2005.

Each time the changes were driven by substantial increases in prices after rate cap removal.

The difference between those cap removals and what is likely to happen with Allegheny is experience, said Public Utility Commission spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher. She said both the utilities and the commission learned from the past and changed the way the utilities purchase power.

Allegheny and Penelec, which operates in northwestern Centre County, are buying their energy at a number of “auctions.”

In each auction the companies put out requests for power, telling suppliers how much they wish to purchase, and the electricity suppliers then bid on the contracts.

Allegheny was also allowed to move its auction dates around to take advantage of changes in market prices.

“With the struggling economy, the energy prices had dropped,” Kocher said. “So Allegheny petitioned to move its auction dates to take advantage of the favorable market prices.”

Because of the maneuvering, customers in the Allegheny Power territory who choose not to shop around will likely get a pretty good deal — a typical residential customer’s bill will likely increase $3.72 per month, or only 4 percent over this year’s level.

Nick Malawskey can be reached at 235-3928.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/07/12/2087643/increase-may-not-be-severe.html#ixzz0u5c0HTOo

Harry Burd stopped by for the almost final building code inspection on Friday and was completely impressed with the work the crew had done. His only complaint was that the exterior doors need to have easy access (meaning stairs), so after the final grading is done, the crew will install some stairs for the two doors at the bumpout. The final grading will bring the grade up for the main entry, the rear entry, and the breezeway rear entry doors. For those doors we may need to add a stone tread so that the step up to the concrete stoop is not so high. At least Harry gave us the OK to start moving furniture into the new house. He will return to give a final inspection and issue the certificate of occupancy when we have the exterior door access issue corrected. This is important because we need that certificate to transition from the construction loan to the mortgage.

Friday saw more cosmetic touchup and adjustments. Friday evening the cleaning crew arrived to give the house a final once-over. They arrived too late to see well so we had to vacuum the closets, drawers and several corners.
Over the weekend we cleaned up several pieces of furniture that had been stored in our garage for the past 3 years. The furniture was, surprisingly, in good shape and after some vacuuming and washing down to get rid of cobwebs and dust, we moved the pieces into the dining room, great room, and loft. Jonathan's fox holes are now filled with blocks of several varieties and trains.

The drop in oven is now wired up and ready to go, only need the wiring for the cooktop and down draft vent to complete the electricity in the kitchen.
The chandelier over the dining table is up but we'll have to decide on the length of the chain now that the table is in place. This fixture needs a switch which will be located just to the right of the kitchen cabinets. The electrical short in the lighting under the catwalk has been repaired and the replacement wiring has been hidden with some wooden wire chases, so without knowing where the new wiring has been placed, you just can't see it.
The powder room sink has been installed but Jeff, our plumber, found a hairline crack in the faucet, so a replacement faucet is on order. The mirror was moved up and centered on the sink. The light fixture can be installed now that we know how high the mirror hangs on the wall. The claw foot tub is installed; Jeff will make final adjustments to the legs to get the tub to sit so the water flows toward the drain.  This weekend was ArtsFest so I took a picture of the installed daffodil sink to the vendor for his portfolio.

In the basement the electrical circuits for the air exchanger and its programmable controller were installed. The controller can modify the percentage of the time the exchanger is operating and the final setting for the exchanger will be determined, based on the results of the energy audit.

Moving in

It's a process that started today and will last a while. No predictions on how long.

Jeff worked on the all three bathrooms today, the shower in the master bath, the vanity sink in the powder room, and the claw foot tub in the loft bath.

Dwayne and crew got the emergency electrical generator fired up and running today for the first time.  It is fairly quiet and will not present a noise problem for sleeping in the rooms on the west side of the house.  Dwayne installed a hook for the pendant light in the loft bath, closet lights in the two bedroom closets, lights in all the knee wall (foxhole) closets, and ran another electrical wire to correct the short under the loft catwalk.  All the outside lights are now installed and functional, including the lanterns at the basement door, the two bumpout doors, and the rear entry door which has a hanging lantern similar to the front entry.  The breezeway rear entry has two small but strong spot lights.
The paint crew was active today and now the door to the kitchen and the door to the garage are the same color as the breezeway walls.  The window seat and the knee wall closet doors were given a nice finish coat.  They also applied touchup to minor dings around the house.

Doug and Chris were hard at work finishing up the insulation and aluminum panels on the basement walls.  With the panels in place they also applied interior trim to the basement door and one of the two basement windows.  The door trim was complicated by an intrusion sensor from our security system, but Doug called the security company and got them to ignore the warnings from our sensor until it was reinstalled on the new trim board.  This was Chris' last day on the job as he heads off on vacation tomorrow, so that's a sign that work is quickly coming to an end.

Doug installed the main entry brass oak leaf door knocker from the 2009 State College Arts Festival, how appropriate that this is the week of the 2010 Artsfest.

We told Doug we were going to the Peoples Art Fest in Boalsburg. He suggested we look for Dave Ferree, a Centre Hall wood crafter whose house he worked on.  We talked to Dave for quite a while.about how much respect we have for Doug and the team at Envinity.

We got our almost final building code inspection on Friday. Harry Burd stopped by and was completely impressed with the work the crew had done.
His only complaint was that the exterior doors need to have easy access (meaning stairs), so after we get the final grading done, the crew will install some stairs for the two doors at the bumpout and the final grading will bring the grade up for the main entry, the rear entry, and the breezeway rear entry doors. For those doors we may need to add a stone tread so that the step up to the concrete stoop is not so high. At least Harry gave us the OK to start moving furniture into the new house. Harry will return to give a final inspection and issue the certificate of occupancy when we have the exterior door access issue corrected. This is important because we need that certificate to transition from the construction loan to the mortgage For most of the day on Friday there was more cosmetic touchup and adjustments and on Friday evening the cleaning crew arrived to give the house a final once-over. Over the weekend we cleaned up several pieces of furniture that had been stored in our garage for the past 3 years. The furniture was, surprisingly, in good shape and after some vacuuming and washing down to get rid of the cobweb and dust, we moved the pieces into the dining room, great room, and loft. The layout of the furniture is sort of haphazard right now.
The drop in oven is now wired up and ready to go, only need the wiring for the cooktop and down draft vent to complete the electricity in the kitchen.
The chandelier over the dining table is up but we'll have to decide on the length of the chain now that the table is in place. This fixture needs a switch which will be located just to the right of the kitchen cabinets. The electrical short in the lighting under the catwalk has been repaired and the replacement wiring has been hidden with some wooden wire chases, so without knowing where the new wiring has been placed, you just can't see it.
The powder room sink has been installed and Jeff, our plumber, found a hairline crack in the faucet, so a replacement faucet is on order. The mirror was moved up and centered on the sink and it all looks great. The light fixture can be installed now that we know how high the mirror hangs on the wall. The claw foot tub is installed and Jeff will make final adjustments to the legs to get the tub to sit properly.
In the basement the electrical circuits for the air exchanger and its programmable controller were installed. The controller can modify the percentage of the time the exchanger is operating and the final setting for the exchanger will be determined, based on the results of the energy audit.

Down the home stretch

New floor registers were installed by Chris who routed out the openings on several of the floor vents to permit the registers to fit correctly.  They sit up about 1/4" so that dust-bunnies and marbles have a harder time rolling into the grates. Chris and Doug also spent time sanding and cleaning dings and imperfections marked by blue tape.

 Young David King stopped by to install the repaired butler pantry doors and swap out the half depth drawers for the kitchen island.  He had to leave before he could finish up the trim and toe-kick boards for the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.  He took with him one of the twin mirrors in the Master Bath so the senior David King can fashion hickory frames for both mirrors.  The Home Depot mirrors had a reddish cherry finish on them that just didn't quite match the hickory cabinets or the oak floor trim.  Senior David is working on a hall tree for the breezeway, so he will be returning for that installation in about 2 weeks.
Doug applied caulk to the edge of the hearth stones where the quarter round floor trim meets.  Scott would have been caulking, but he is recovering from surgery.

Dwayne installed some temporary light fixtures in the kitchen to fill in for the 5 spot light fixtures and a 3 light bar over the kitchen sink--all are on order but not expected until late July.  Dwayne hooked up the Idaho Wood light that hangs over the rear entry and conducted some trouble shooting of a short in the wiring under the catwalk. He also reinstalled the breezeway lights using the oak mounting panels, that Chris cut and Doug finished, to hide the gaps in the drywall around the circular light fixture mounting plate. We at first thought of a round copper plate, but couldn't find any that matched very well.  Most of the other lights in the house have a wooden mounting plate so this solution works better than the copper.

The Dow thermax insulation (4' x 8' x 2") that will be installed on the basement walls were delivered today.  These panels have a aluminum looking overlay on both sides to retard fire, so they can be installed without any drywall covering yet still pass a code inspection. They have an R-value of 13 so even the basement should stay toasty in the winter.
Mike Fedor and Tim Maurer visited the site to talk over the final grading so that Mike can get everything in line with Tim's landscape design.  That work will probably start next week.

 Powder room

dishwasher and ice-maker are ready to use;

kitchen island with stovetop, vent and back-splash installed

loft floor has final coat

master bath shower is tiled, partially grouted

stained glass and copper lights in the great room

.

 

Doug, John, and Chris are finishing off the roof trim.  We have a copper splash guard that deflects water from rushing over the gutter.  Nice touch.

Adrian finished work on the heat pump.  He may have to return to adjust the air exchanger based on how tight the house is. 

Buddy found a turtle and gave it to Paul with some serious direction.  The turtle’s shell on the underside is broken in one section, not sure if Buddy did that.  I can’t tell if it is a boy or girl, but it's in a  tub for now and when it emerges from its shell maybe I can tell from the eyes: yellow for female and red for male.

Blueberries picked in about 45 minutes this morning.  Scrumptious!

Doug recommended putting a wood block above the Builders Mission lights that will be installed under the catwalk and in the master bedroom hall.  The 10 inch square lights do not have a top and because they will be placed on 8 inch wide beams, the lights will overhang the beams and their wiring and insulation will show, as it does on the one light that has been installed. Doug checked with Dwayne and he said it would be OK to make a mounting block that was about 10.25 inches square and that would act as a top for the lights.

Scott was concerned about the right color of caulk that will be used around the edge of the hearth, so he made a pallet of possible choices.  We will probably go with the lightest color as it will blend in better with the wood.  We are constantly amazed at the creativity in problem solving that all the members of this team deliver:  the pallette, above, to show is the caulk choices is just one example. The extra board to make the stairs pass inspection, below, is another.

The stairs now have gap fillers of 1x1 oak strips under the front of the treads to make the gap a legal 4 inches.  Now we have a reverse Oreo cookie staircase.
We have several holes in the floor for the registers that distribute the heating or cooling from the heat pump and a couple of larger holes for grills that will return air to the heat pump.  Paul ordered maple drop in registers and steel scroll work for the grills.

 
The clear glass makes for much better views out of the windows.  The crew took the protective film off today.  We need sunglasses.

We have 5 more pieces of yard art but they'll have to acclimate in the chicken tractor for a few weeks.  They are 4 month old maran pullets.  One is a cuckoo, kind of speckled white and black similar to a barred rock; 3 are copper and will have copper hackles, and 1 is blue.  All are expected to lay dark brown, almost mahogany, eggs. Joe the breeder says they are not aggressive, hardy, and good layers.