Day 1

Things are starting to move a little faster. I received a phone call today from the Mendon Building Department, that our Permit is ready to be picked up (and of course paid for). So as of tomorrow I will have a permit. Right now we have a tentative break ground date of August 3rd. We will be ordering our European windows soon, and have to close on our construction loan. So far everything is in line for the Passive House Certification.

I am planing on almost daily posts to bring everyone up to date. I need to go into more detail on our window choice and comparison to standard american windows, our ventilation decision and design, our water heater choices and ductless mini split options. I also will go into a little bit more detail on thermal bridges and two dimensional heat transfer analysis - for all of the thermodynamics nerds out there.

 There is a cascade of decisions that will need to be made very early because the windows and doors have such a long lead time (up to 15 weeks!). We have decided on a wooden front door - so the interior stain needs to go with interior trim, interior doors, flooring, etc. The exterior color of the front door impacts our entire exterior color scheme (or so my wife tells me;))

Why a wooden front door? Our other option is a uPVC door. uPVC is a European PVC. the environmental regulations are different in Europe - so the blowing agent of the PVC has no CFC's. This would be fine, but uPVC cannot be painted. You choose your color and a foil skin is adhered to the door at the factory. We liked the option to "refinish" or "repaint" the door someday if we ever paint the house or re-side the house. So wood it is.

That's about it for tonight - Check back soon for more on Windows coming soon!