And then the photovoltaic (PV) panels arrived. ASCOM Electrical Service (http://www.ascomelectric.com/) is our electrician and PV supplier. They have also guided us through the process of the state and federal rebate programs for solar energy.

More panels.
And the full array! The two white panels on the left side of the main roof are solar hot water panels — they have covers on them until they are hooked up. There are 10 PV panels on the garage roof and 30 on the main roof.

Our windows and doors arrived at the end of March. We ordered them from Bieber Windows, a company in the Alsace region of France. The windows are double-paned, filled with argon gas. They have double weather-stripping as well. And are made with wood from managed forests in Scandinavia. They are beautiful!
Benoit Luys, the U.S. representative from Bieber, came down from New York to ensure a good delivery and to give Craig pointers for installing the windows.

We started installing the windows that week.
Close-up of the front door.
Looking good!
View from the inside.

Back to the blog — lot’s of updating to do.
The roofing was done by Seth Rohrbaugh and crew — and a fine job they did. The flat backs are rubber. They will eventually be planted with trays of sedum to make a green roof.
The steep pitched roofs have standing seam metal roofing on them. The photovoltaic panels will fasten onto the seams.

Now we’re really down in the trenches. It was time to lay the geothermal lines around the house. The red tubing will be buried under 6 inches of crusher waste (ground up stone) and 4+ feet of dirt. Air in red tubes will feed into the air-to-air heat exchanger inside the house.
The air will be cooler than the outside air in the summer and warmer than the outside air in the winter. I’ll write more about the heating/cooling system as I learn more about it. But our job this day was to separate the red tubes, keeping one close to the shale and one about 3 inches from the house, and shovel the crusher waste on top. Luckily, Martin was able to get the bulldozer and backhoe into the very small back yard and carefully dump the crusher waste almost exactly where we needed it. Craig, Will, and I had to just smooth it out.

And, lest anyone think that all I do is take pictures and write blog postings, here I am

with my hair in a ponytail

raking crusher waste!

This was the week of trenches. We dug a trench from the street below up to the house to run water lines.

We dug a trench from the house up to the electric pole and ran electric lines, cable (which will include fiberoptic lines), and phone.

We also had the foundation wall in the front insulated.
Stay tuned for Trenches, Part 2

Monday morning, and Will gets a treat — he’s staying home from school to watch day 2 of installing the walls. He and Craig headed for the job site at 7:00 AM. First task, Will gets to operate the 60-ton crane (sans load).
Then Will helped secure the below-grade front walls in place;
posed for a photo for his mom;
and ended his day by climbing the back hill to get a view of the whole house.
(You can also see Craig over on the left, standing on the trailer bed, surveying his domain!)