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For the last couple weeks, several things have been accomplished on our new little home. The roofers completed the corrugated metal roof, burgundy metal fascia covering and white vinyl soffits. Here the roofers are installing the fascias on the entry gable. We have chosen to cover our fascias and soffits to eliminate future maintenance. In the photo on the left, you can see burgundy paint on the wall (L) and a green that we are considering for the stucco color.

During the building of our new home, things are just not "business as usual." Fortunately, our friends and relatives understand this. Here my brother, Bern, visiting from Kansas "volunteered" to work. He ran some of the low voltage wire with Steven. The Therma-Floor is drying slowly, but we'll be hooking up the radiant heat system and heating the floor to help dry it out further. We plan to install bamboo flooring over much of the house and the concrete needs to be dry to prevent damage to the bamboo.

It may seem trivial to you, but Mary the burrito lady's daily visit is always anticipated around here! She sells burritos and sodas out of the back of her truck with a smile and a word of encouragement. Steven's main diet these days is Mary's burritos.

While the roofers have been busy outside, we've been busy inside. Steven has installed the interior doors, which are fir. Installing doors that are square, plumb and level takes a lot of care and skill because if they aren't installed just right, they'll never open and close correctly.It's been frustrating at times, but they are all in and look good. Thanks to a friend, Paul Sterling, who came through town and spent a day helping Steven with the doors.

Now that the electrical and plumbing rough-ins are complete, we've been filling any cracks, suspected cracks and penetrations for wiring and plumbing with expanding foam. We used rope foam and caulk that is formulated for doors and windows to seal them too (expanding foam will damage doors and windows). The panels are tight, but there are often small cracks and gaps in the crawlspace, where the roof panels meet the walls and where beams penetrate the walls.Our goal is to eliminate infiltration. Fresh air is great, but we want to control it and not let our structure do it. In the photo left, you can see the foam along the cracks between the panels and where the wall panels meet the floor and the roof.

Building a house is a linear process and right now this is very obvious! We had to wait for the electricians to finish the wiring before we could foam the cracks, which have to be foamed before the house is wrapped with Tyvek and before the garage and insulation is put in. The garage insulation and the interior sound insulation needs to be in place before the plaster and drywall can begin, except the frame garage needs to be lathed before the cellulose blown in insulation can be put in since the pounding of the nails when applying the lathe can cause problems for the cellulose. Raw wood should be protected before plaster and drywall begins, so we're varnishing beams, windows, doors and jams to prepare. Steven, shown here taking a short "break" with his sweetheart, Grit, has been finishing the specialty framing and running the low voltage wiring.

I can't get anywhere near the new house with my gardening hoe yet since the stucco men will be all around the house in the next few weeks, so instead, I've started cleaning out, planting and embellishing the arroyo in front of the house where foot traffic won't disturb it. The landscaping will remain natural but we plan to run our gray water and divert rain water to make the native plants happier (without drowning them.)