Beverly Heights House on EcoSolar Home Tour!

We're happy to announce that a month from now, we'll be opening up the house for the general public to tour during the Eco Solar Home Tour on June 4, 2011!  See http://ecosolar.ca/ for more info! Hope we'll have railing installed by then! And maybe starting on fixtures? I guess you'll see!

Drywall has begun!

 I contracted out the drywall and now I am seeing the skeleton of the house being covered up, bit by bit. Spaces are becoming actual rooms. And some of the errors are becoming apparent.  Like the placement of a few lights. I had to move 3 lights already and found a few junction boxes missing as the drywall went up. Ah, well. All part of the process I imagine.

Not without issues- we'll need to use acoustic
sealant to fix some of these tears.

Basement stairwell/entry area.

measuring/marking. 

basement hall/kitchen area.

     

Poly Vapour barrier passes! Really? But we're not perfect...

Wow~ another green sticker for passing the vapour barrier/insulation installation!  But I must admit, I'm a little surprised.  We have a bunch of gaps/holes in the vapour barrier and stuff we still need to fix. I found a bunch of places were we still need to use some [or a lot] of acoustical sealant to fix the vapour barrier to the wall. Or to something. And today, I spent some time taping up the slits the electrician made in the vapour hats of the pot lights in the attic. And I checked the loft floor windows. And I ran out of sticky tape. Doh!

Today, we had a couple of netzero home gurus drop by!  Peter Amerongen & Bob Heath dropped by to check out our progress. I wish they would have came by a month ago! I'm sure they could have talked me out of using sticky red tape and had all sorts of suggestions. Like how to use acoustic sealant around electrical outlet vapour hats without using a half a roll of tuck tape to ensure a good seal. And there was a discussion about polyurethane vs. epoxy on floors. And a very helpful tip not to put anything against the triple paned windows on a hot day, as Bob has shattered the middle glass pane because of the super heated air space causing too much pressure. Weird. But it was great to have them over to talk shop. And hope we can all learn much more from each other.

Some work to do after pre-drywall blower door/thermal scan...

Searching for weak spots.

Found a cold spot!

Cold spot behind some I-joist blocking.

We finished the poly vapour barrier installation- just after the blower door tester walked into the house today. Overall, it seems like the house is fairly tight.  And very well insulated. When the house was de-pressurized by the activated blower installed in the door, the "certified energy evaluator" walked around with a thermal camera to show any weak spots.  We found a bunch.  The windows- and poly seal with tuck tape around them was the biggest culprit.  So were the places were we used scrap pieces of insulation- rather than fresh/perfectly cut pieces. The blower door seemed to suck air right through the pieces of insulation. Wiring and pipe penetration were also obvious week spots, as were the I-joists and blocking that sit on top of the foundation wall. So, we went around with a red pen and marked all the locations that we need to re-visit.  *Sigh* More work to do with that red sticky tape and acoustic sealant.

Yay! Another Green Sticker [for ventilation rough-in]

Happiness is a green sticker.

We passed our ventilation rough-in! So, all the fresh air and exhaust ducts that go in and out of the 2 HRVs are good to go!