The house continues to take form, with the main floor being framed today. This is better shown in pictures, so here goes:

Tomorrow I will meet Matt and the plumber bright and early at 8:00 AM. Matt says that the rough plumbing will then be laid out and once it passes inspection, the basement floors can be poured.

Tonight's visit to the lot reveals more progress on the house, including the main story's floor and a garage wall.

The footings for the porch and grillin' deck were also poured today.

Tonight we also had the opportunity to meet our neighbors from two doors down, each way. It is exciting for everyone to see the progress and to watch everything take shape.

Today, I got an e-mail back from Focus on Energy, with information on how to get a sign for the lot. They were going to ship me one, but I went to their office to pick it up, to save unnecessary shipping. I really liked how, in their parking lot, the best spots were reserved for "Alternate Fuel Vehicles Only." I gladly parked there, and I'll have to see if we can get one of those signs for our own garage.

Anyway, we have proudly posted the sign at the jobsite:

The basement walls and ceiling are now framed.

As promised, engineered wood "I" joists are used for the floors. This gains a point for item D.21 on the green built checklist.

There has also been work on the geothermal system. On Friday, a trench had been dug to the wells.

Today, the wells have been connected, and the piping run under the (future) basement floor. This avoids the need to run (and super-insulate) the pipes across the ceiling.

The waterproofing of the walls was finished on Monday, and by Tuesday night, the back-filling was done around much of the foundation. Simply stepping over the rear foundation wall allowed the first inside look at the structure.

We are expecting the framing to begin as early as Thursday, or as late as next Monday.