So one lesson is simple: you’re going to be wrong about your estimates of time (at least until you’ve done this many more times than we have). It can be pretty painful when you’ve told someone you’ll get something done by a certain time, and someone else is holding you up.

Another lesson: write time lines into agreements with contractors. It can be hard to put penalties for not reaching goals, especially because you don’t want them to hurry up a job cutting corners, but at least writing down goals can give both of you a place to reference.

With all of that, there is an upside to being slowed down, it has given us the opportunity to work on other projects. Dustin is working on creating a little art studio in the shop. He’s had fun being able to do some finish work and also built some cool stairs / storage area. The whole process has been an exercise in using space as efficiently as possible (for example, we have one door which functions for either the shower or the toilet, whichever is in use).

I’ve been working up the gumption to post about a home automation system that I’ve been building in the hopes of reducing energy usage and collecting data (such as the water level in the cistern). I haven’t posted about it yet because I wasn’t sure that it would ever come to fruition. However it’s starting to progress despite my woeful lack of electrical engineering knowledge. So with that said, I’ll hopefully be posting a little preview of it soon. Until then, here’s a picture:

The hole for the footing has been dug and nick and crew are beginning to construct the forms for the footing.

I ordered the heat mirror windows, made by Alpen. A big thanks to Dave Maier and Robert Clarke for making it happen, helping us with the order, the generous contribution and believing in our project.

The windows don’t come cheap – high performance things rarely do – the bill was nearly $40k including a special discount and we’ve still got a few more windows to order. It’s by far the biggest single expenditure of the project (I think only solar panels, before rebates/tax credits, will surpass it), but windows are such an integral part of the house’s envelope and overall design – especially in a passive solar heated design.

I started this post last week, prior to the snow, which has foiled any forward progress on the house footings and dashed our hopes of pouring concrete this week. Pouring concrete in freezing conditions poses structural risks to the concrete, although it is possible, but it requires chemical additives, which add to the cost. Waiting for the weather to pass seems the most prudent (and cheapest) option.

So as the cold weather and snow continue our only option is to work on finishing the interior of the shop and of course the unending job of project management (read: boring administrative type work).