The last few weeks have been slow and steady mixed with lots of snow shoveling. I have been working primarily by myself now that we have the roof on. The big news is, as of January 26th we have had electricity–no more 100 foot extension cords run from our neighbor’s house! We got hooked up just in time, our neighbor, Sue, sold her house on February 4th. We will miss Sue. She has been extremely generous; not only letting us use her electricity and water spigot, but also allowing us to use her bathroom, and dining room (so we can eat lunch in the warmth).

I have finished the double stud walls on the second and third floors, and I am ready to move on to partition walls. The weather finally warmed up in the last two days, allowing us to move forward with window installation. The adhesive on the flashing tape doesn’t stick in the cold weather and it has been too cold to install it. Guy came up today and we installed five more windows bringing the total to 10 windows installed; 10 more to go. Six of the remaining ten are brand new triple pane windows (unlike all the recycled windows in the rest of the home). The windows are made by Serious, and their R values range from 4.2-5.9 depending on whether or not they are fixed, casement, single hung, or high solar heat gain glass. Serious uses plastic film for their interior panes, which reduces both their cost and weight. We won’t be able to install any of the second floor north or south windows until the metal roof is on. The temporary staging that allows us to work at the eaves of the roof is built in around the windows.

Buying the metal roof has been a fairly drawn out process. It has been difficult to learn about–the manufacturer (ABC) doesn’t want to talk to end-users, and the staff at RK Miles, though very helpful, don’t know all of the details. We are pretty sure at this point what dimensions and flashing materials to order, but after a week and a half, we have been unable to set up a meeting with the manufacturer’s sales rep.