The first Three Months

This is just a quick update on the utility bills. We have been in the house for over 3 months now. The weather was very mild for August and we were out of town for 6 days of that. I suspect the bill next year will be a good amount higher. Just to recap, this house is pretty much all electric. There is a propane tank for the range, we have our own well and septic. I suspect that our biggest energy hog is the water heater. I am not sure how I can go about confirming that though. September and October both seemed pretty normal so Those bills should be pretty reflective of what we can expect in the future. The HVAC has been off 99% of the time for the past 2 months. The house has been 66° in the morning when we get up and by the time we get home from work it is up to about 70°. On a couple cool cloudy days we will turn the heat pump on to get the temp up to about 69° before bed then shut it off. So far I am very happy with how things are working. It will be interesting to see how things go once we really start dipping below 30°. We just closed on the old house so my focus will be getting the wood stove put in. The stove will be the primary heat source when winter really creeps in so it will be interesting to see how well it keeps up. We did decide to keep the stove from the old house witch is a jotul f100. I am working on figuring out how the outside air kit works with it. It will be interesting to see how well this small of a stove will work in this size of a house.Anyways, here is the first 3 months utility bills, August 2013-October 2013.

Done!

Alright, that's a wrap. We just passed our final inspection. I will post up some final interior shots in the next couple of weeks. I will also be tracking the utility bills closely and I will report back when I have a decent amount of data collected. Beyond that I will be shifting my terrible writing to my other blog at onesojourner.org. I will be focusing on the happenings around the house, mostly cool little projects like charcoal making, wood gasification, electricity generation, small scale animal husbandry, gardening, permaculture and "stuff".

Almost Done (3)

Last night I grouted the backsplash, or at least the part of the back splash I was allowed to put up. I think I found a propane guy to get a tank out here, Garretts Propane. I found a great deal on a range yesterday online and it happened to be in-stock. That got dropped off today. I also found some good deals on a fridge and a dishwasher so we went ahead and ordered all of our appliances. As long as the propane guy comes through we may be ready for our inspection tomorrow afternoon. CRAZY!

Some Inside shots.

Napoleon Gray Marble

Concrete

Concrete

Almost Done (2)

My to-do list has dwindled. The list is finally a manageable weekend project. I finished getting all the counter tops in. The Sinks are all installed with the exception of the drain on one. I have to reset on toilet because the wax ring is leaking a bit. The work outside is pretty much done. The downspout drains are all in except one, the sidewalk is done. We had a new load of gravel brought out and the west steps are placed. I talked to the inspector today and he said we have to have a functional stove, so I am trying to find a propane company that will get a tank out there asap. We were going to use the primo and cook on that for a month or two.

Anyways here are the "final" pics from the outside of the house. 

Bathroom counter done and one sink mounted

Just a quick update. I used a lithium silica densifier and sealed the master countertop. We got it put into place and fit one of the sinks up.

Almost done (1)

Alright I finally feel like we are in the almost done stage. There are really no "big" projects left. We finished spreading out the dirt piles and ran a harley rake over the yard and got it in pretty good shape. We spread some grass seed and it has rained a good amount so the seed has been wet for 3 days straight now. If we have any chance of getting the grass growing in July it is this week. We got the front door hung and it fit just perfect. We bought the hand rails for the garage and basement. Those should go up in a day or two once the stain dries. We have a bit or trim to finish but that should go pretty quick. The concrete counter tops are coming along.

Rail, counters

We made some more movement yesterday. The rail around the stairs got delivered. The limestone counter tops for the kitchen got dropped off (except for the pieces around the sink) and I started polishing the counter tops for the bathroom.