Roof Deck Pavers

The finished roof deck.  Now for some furnishings.

Finished the installation of the roof deck pavers this weekend.

The pavers are 24" square concrete planks, that sit level above the roof membrane on adjustable pedestals.  The roof membrane below is protected from damage, and slopes to the roof drain.

Installation photos below.

Blower Door Test Results

Did our final blower door test yesterday (measures building air-tightness), and the results were excellent.

0.6 Ach50 (Air changes per hour at a pressure of 50 pascals)

We achieved "Passive House" levels of air tightness in our envelope.


As a reference point,
The building code requires a score less than 7.0
Energy Star Homes for Portland and Earth Advantage is less than 4.0.
Lower the better.

It was incredibly useful to do the preliminary blower door test months ago; without it, we would not have been able to identify and rectify a few key leaks in the envelope.  Our results improved dramatically.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the preliminary test to anyone who wants to ensure best air-tightness results.

Big Pink Lantern

Many evenings, the setting sun catches the side of "Big Pink" (a tall building downtown) and it glows like it is on fire.

First Plantings

Lisa is hard at work, changing a construction site into something beautiful. 

Driveway & Sidewalk

Behold the new sidewalk and drive apron

And suddenly the dumpster is gone, safety barriers have come down, and we have completed paving. 

We parked in the driveway last night - it has been a long time coming.

Steel Planter Boxes

Welded some steel together today to make some planters for the front approach.

Heat Wave Report

Didn't take long before our non-air-conditioned house was put to the test.

Broke Something

Oops.  Look what I did.

The Longest Yard

Despite all my efforts, I can't seem to get these last few major items finished.

New (Partial) Driveway

The larger part of the driveway is poured. 

Now we just have to wait another week or more to get the remainder - the curb cut and approach.

Concrete work looks very nice, but of course, no progress can be made on this project without some destruction.

In this case it was the concrete truck driving over the neighbor's water meter vault and crushing it, with possible damage to the piping.

Sigh.

A Dry Run

Finally the Washer and Dryer we bought months ago arrived, after much hassle to get them here.

And...ta da...the dryer is damaged.

***UPDATE***

They brought the new dryer a week later:

And...ta da...that dryer is damaged too.

Basement Blues

We have cleared out of the old house this week, just in time to fix up a few things before Lisa's Mom moves in today. 

Which means we have experienced the vast capacity of a basement to accumulate unessential (and a few essential) items.

We do have more physical space in our new house, and possibly more in-house storage, but lack the junk-drawer-like basement space to swallow up all this schtuff.  Help.