"THE HOUSE" UPDATE

IT HAS BEEN SOMEWHAT OF A SLOG, seemingly work, work, and more work, these last few months.  The main focus has been fitting out the remodeled bedroom.  After much consultation,  Torchlight became the main color, assisted by Grass Mat on the remaining wall, extending into the closets.  Then I cleared everything out to lay the floating floor, a simpatico Tacoma Oak.  This left the trim, finally selecting Crushed Orange.  To several visitors, this was a little startling and one commented, "Robert, you do have to sleep in this room?"  I have moved in, so far as sleeping is concerned and here is a picture of the bedroom end. 

From the outset, I wanted to bring the colors of the outside world into this room, as well as the sense of sunlight.  If you have been to Australia, you will know that there is a lot of red shades there, especially the red earth, so it also reminds me of my original home land.  It turns out that, for me anyway, this is a wonderful room to go to sleep in and especially in which to awake.  The morning sun shines through the eastern windows, steadily filling the room with golden light.  Later, the French doors take over admitting the light, so there are subtle shifts in color all through the day.

So far the house has managed to import heat quite well.  On a day when the temperature is in the mid 40s (F), the furnace rarely starts up.  Later, before next Winter, I will have to pay attention to nocturnal heat loss.  As you may divine from the photo, I run baseboard hot water heaters but revised the furnace somewhat (more of that another time).

With the promise of an early Spring, I ramped up work on the potting (come sun) room putting in insulation in walls, where possible (there is a lot of glass) and ceiling space, then putting up dry wall for the ceiling and on walls.  Today, this Easter Monday, I managed to complete all this work and have now to do the taping and plaster work, which I have just begun.  There were some tricky bits here and there but I am very pleased with my work so far.  What will remain are painting walls and ceiling, fitting the two dome lights to the ceiling, and then tiling the floor.  Somewhere along the way, we will turn on and test the radiant heat loop in the floor (when Ray,the heater man, returns from Florida).  This is a separate zone with a thermostat in the potting room. However, with the insulation and dry-walling, the room is importing heat quite well, running at about 15 degrees (F) above the outside temperature this afternoon.  Again, with all that fenestration, nocturnal heat loss will be a challenge.  Another picture for you, above.


As the weather warms and the days lengthen, the garden calls so my time outside is increasing.  I am preparing the ground ruined by the earth-movers (digging the hole for the potting room) for reseeding. I am pursuing the principles of permaculture (check Wikipedia) and plan for lots of trees, shrubs, and the like.  I have plenty of room!  My first ten trees are on the way from Arbor Day Foundation (their 'Wild bird" mix). I have ordered six blueberry bushes locally, and plan dwarf fruit trees as well.  Again, more on this later.

An underlying theme is a focus on systems: the house as part of the surrounding environment; using a natural approach to manage transfer of heat into and out of the house, according to the season; myself as part of this house/environment system; and the role of my abode to ensure a productive life, with good input into my well-being in this, my last quarter century (75 years next month).  I purchased the house on my birthday last year (May 29) and moved in on June 1st.  So far an amazing experience and lots of work.  I dips my lid to my contractor, Daniel, who has been such an excellent partner in following my dream.  I plan some sideshows for Photo Bucket so you can follow each aspect of the work in more detail.  Keep watching this space!