14 May 2014
Pulled the forms off
the sauna building footers while Larry, Kevin, Victor, Scott, and Rick Martell
did the same to the house footers.
Somehow they won that race. Sean stopped by to check on progress and
take away some of the materials needed so he can make the many penetrations
that have to be put in the cellar walls for incoming power, telephone, water, etc.
and outgoing power, water, and septic waste.
Made the form for the concrete pad the sauna stove will sit on and
discovered that the sauna French drain would be right underneath that pad. That wouldna work so good! Tammy, of course, had use of the backhoe when
she installed the 55 gallon drain barrel in the (wrong) spot I specified. So had to hand dig that barrel back out of
the ground. Had accomplished that task,
with much sweat expended, by late morning.
As I was about to put the barrel back into its final resting space two
of the banks collapsed. Lunch time!!!! Finished reburying the barrel and placing the
sauna stove concrete pad form just before time to leave for an eagerly
anticipated meeting the Sean and Dennis (at Dennis’ office in Vergennes) to
make final decisions about the HVAC system for the house. A very productive
meeting… and the price plummeted drastically based on the system design Chree
and I had agreed on coupled with the energy use modeling done by Matt Sergeant
(Efficiency Vermont). Still no word from
Spaffords (well drillers) on whether the water quality in this area is suitable
for use in a geothermal energy system.
After our meeting with Dennis, Sean took me just around the corner to
the house he just bought… and will move into just as soon as he finds some free
time. With triple pane windows and
doors, 18 inch thick walls with R60 insulation (R30 is what our Fern Lake house
will have), R80 ceiling insulation (we’ll have R50), the ANNUAL heating and
cooling cost last year was $261. The builder (not Sean) won all sorts of energy
efficiency innovation awards for that house… and many commissions to build
more. While admiring the house features,
met Ashley, Abigail, and Tucker, Sean’s wife and kids.
