Air, snow and solar

December feels like it is going to run by like a frightened deer! Thanksgiving was good. I ate too much, slept in, and enjoyed spending time in front of the fire at my parents place. My dad and I also continued to work on items for the house.

We worked on constructing the parts of the vent house. We got all the sides fabricated. The east and west side have a slope at the top for the roof to sit on. The south side will be solid. The north side will have the air intake.

West side with vent grill sitting in front of it.

North side, with the hole cut for where the air intake will go.

Later in the weekend, we went out and did a little patching. The ground has been settling around the house. On the north side, it was pulling the drainage material down the wall, and exposing the waterproofing. I wanted to keep the waterproofing covered. So we put in a scrap piece of the drainage material. The ground will probably settle more over the winter, so we will have to make some adjustments to keep things properly covered.

 Ground is settling.

Out where Adam had dug out dirt for backfill, it was becoming a pond.

We have been having quite a bit of rain, and trying to not track in great gobs of mud on my shoes, has become a challenge. I decided that since I was going to want a path around to the front from the driveway anyway, I may as well start putting down materials which would also help keep the mud off the feet. I put down weed fabric. This will get covered with stone in the future, but for now, it helps reduce the mud on the shoes at least.

A path begins.

This weekend we had a small snow storm move through. It was enough to cover things fairly well. Today though it got above freezing and started to melt and make things even messier. At least I got some pictures before that.

 Looking toward the solar array piers.

The view from the front yard.

The roof had a pretty good cover.

This afternoon, I started installing the aluminum for the solar array. I attached the base pieces on to the piers. Dad and I were going to install them last weekend, but found that the piers had move enough that the holes were not going to line up. So yesterday, we did some drilling and made the back hole, into a slot on each piece. I was able to install the base pieces today. However I did find that some of them are no longer level. I am not sure if we will have problems from that yet.

Aluminum bases bolted down.

I also am getting quotes on the drywall work for inside. The first contractor sounds like he has good experience for working with my house. I will have to see how expensive this is going to be though. Another contractor I was going to meet today, was having trouble with vehicles. Including the one he borrowed to come up to my place this afternoon. So, I will have to try to meet with him early this week. I am hoping that I might have the drywall hung on the outside walls, and in the garage before Christmas so I can start work on my electrical.