HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical

All of this equipment will be painted to match
the siding and trim, just like the gas supply
line on the left side of the meter.

Todd also installed a supply line for our
underground sprinkling system.

On the right side is the new dedicated manifold
for the toilets.

He replaced the main cold water trunk line
between the water meter and the utility
room to make sure that we would could fill
our air tub quickly. And, he improved the
design of the system that feeds water to
toilets, to prevent sweating. Don Bohs, his
boss, recommended making those changes.

Todd, from Shoreline Plumbing, made some
adjustments in our bathrooms and improved
several aspects of our plumbing system design.

We plan to have the exterior panels painted at a
body shop so that it will blend in with the house.

Our Heat Pump/Air Conditioner is larger than we
expected, but we are OK with it because its size is
a product of its efficiency (15 SEER, 8.7 HSPF).
That's Bill Adams on the right, helping with the
installation.

...and the dining room. Other rooms on the main
level with recessed lights include the master bath,
mud room, guest bath, stairway, and hallway.

...and the main bedroom...

We installed recessed lighting in the living room...

Between the window wells is a pad we built
for the air-source heat pump.

Another view showing the duct that sends
warm air to the rooms in the basement.

The furnace is close to being complete, but the
air source heat pump (with A/C) outside has not
yet been installed.

This is our "Energy Recovery Ventilator" (ERV).
It transfers heat and moisture from stale inside
air being vented out to fresh outside air being
drawn in. The manifold on the left accepts ducts
from the bathrooms and from a central location
near the stairwell (barely visible below).

This is a view of a bulkhead in the downstairs
hallway that hides heating and ventilation ducts,
and plumbing for the kitchen area. At the far end
you can see the access to the crawl space below
the kitchen.

Another view of the same area.

On the opposite side of the same room you can see
the ordered chaos of utilities in the mechanical room.

Another view of the same area.

Want to see some pipes? These pipes and ducts
serve the bath and laundry room on the main
level, as well as the kitchen.

Eleanor's Shower

Stuart's shower

MJM in Shelby is handling the basic plumbing for us.
The system has PEX runs from the manifold (shown above) to
each fixture. Each line has a shutoff valve and a drainage cap.
Two 40 gal water heaters (one gas, one electric) are connected
in series, with the gas heater doing the work. The electric
heater increases the system's capacity for filling tubs, taking
concurrent showers, etc. We have a sump and a grinder pump.
[Update: Several plumbing system adjustments and improvements
are being implemented by Shoreline Plumbing and Heating, also in
Shelby (Don Bohs, Todd & Matt).]

Frank and Chris are the HVAC crew from
Adams Heating and Cooling. The system they are
assembling for us includes a natural gas forced
air furnace, air source heat pump (A/C and heat
down to about 30 degrees outside) with a central
humidifier and an energy recovery ventilator. The
system is controlled by an Arzel HeatPumPro.

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Shingles and Siding

Needs landscaping, doesn't it! Hopefully, we
will get to that next summer (2010).

Gate look OK?

Her is the back side. The gate is made of the
same PVC-based material as the trim on the
windows. Embedded in the top and bottom
frame members are steel plates that the
hinges screw into. I designed and

As a finishing touch, Eleanor and I built a gate
for the pathway between the house and shed.
Here Eleanor helps dig a hole for the gate post.

And here it is... our new home as it appears on May 6, 2009.
Still needs some siding above and around the garage door.
Notice the bump out? It will give us 2' of additional space for
our Hummer (don't think so!).

We painted the pipes to our gas meeter, but would
have preferred to make them disappear. When the
meeter arrives we'll paint it too.

This is what the shed looks like today (May 6).
Vince and I re-trimmed the doors, and Eleanor
and I mounted them last weekend. We'll hang
some siding on them soon.

And the north side. Now the shed matches the house.

Here is the re-shingled south side. We installed a
ridge vent to keep the inside cooler during the summer.

Completing the east side made the neighbors happy...
and us too. Our siding job, for the house at least, was
complete except for the garage area. That part had to
wait until we finished bumping out the garage door.
So, we decided to re-roof and side the shed.

In this shot Vince and I are installing some trim

around the gable end on the front (east) side.

We put the lights from the old house back up, but
raised them about a foot to accommodate a higher deck.

This is the living room french door on the south side.
We'll hang the deck on the ledger boards below.

This is the west side of the living room.
We'll install a gate so that the meter
and other utilities will be hidden.

Complete, except that we will need to add a vent for
the fireplace between the two windows on the far side.

Vincent working on the north wall.

This shot shows the rough texture of the siding.

The training wall is covered, and now it's time to get
productive. We found an experienced and very likable
siding contractor, Vincent Vanduinen, who was happy
to help us out.

Eleanor gave me the cool tool belt for valentine's day.
Thanks sweetheart!

Time for some siding! This is our "training wall" next to
the boardwalk, where we learned how to install it. We are
using Certainteed Cedar Impressions double 9" rough split
shake siding, herring bone color.

This french door opens to the kitchen. We are
planning to do a little custom trim work below
the left side of the gable in order to make it look
more like the corner on the right side.

The deck area (west side) now has rim boards on
both sides. We hope to begin building the deck
this summer.

In this pic you can see vent pipes for the furnace
and water heater, and the electric service. The
mechanical room is in the basement, just inside
this wall.

The house is ready for siding, but we decided to
delay installation until March or April when
warmer weather will make the task easier.

In this pic you can see that the old garage entry
door on the north side has been removed.

The 12" boards at the top of the gables seem
to make the house more inviting.

Our new front door has not yet been installed.

We decided to use 12" trim boards at the top
of the gables. The next few photos (above)
show the house with completed trim except for
the garage. We plan to bump out the garage
door 2' this spring. The entry door you see on
the south side of the garage was the front door
of the old house.

Another view.

Steve helps us decide whether to expand the trim
on our gables to 12".

Brian installs trim above the kitchen window.

This is not the best day to be installing a soffit.
Brian takes a blast of snow from the roof in this pic.

A close-up of the porch light and soffit.

The porch soffit is partly done in this photo.

Now, they are working on the east side.

The crew is adding a soffit on the North side today.

This photo, dated 12/16/08 , shows the north
and east windows before trim is applied.

Before installing the siding, Craig and his crew install
window and door trim, soffit and fascia material. This pic
shows trim (Restoration Millwork by Certainteed) on
the french door and dining room window.

Tyvek will protect the OSB.

The type of siding we selected (Certainteed, Cedar
Impressions) cannot be installed directly on an ICF
wall, so we skinned the outside walls with OSB.

Our new roof.

Installing Grace Ice & Water Shield

The shingles arrive. Sam Near (Eleanor's distant
cousin) is handling this job.

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