HVAC and Sun-shades/eyebrows

It was a long road. But we settled on a great solution for heating and cooling our new home. We wanted to avoid the typical central air/heat that would require ductwork throughout the house. So Brent worked with a contractor to design a high-efficiency "split" system with minimal ducting.

The installation is happening this week.

Lower level work area for HVAC. Notice the units hung on the ceiling?

2 of the very few ducts installed in the walls of the master.

It's quite a relief to have this very important work getting done so quickly. With this hurdle cleared we can begin the finishing of the interior.

Meanwhile, outside the huge retaining wall on the east side of the house is nearly finished.

Greg Wheeler with Brent admiring the fit of this massive structure.
Our deck will integrate with this wall and the positioning is perfect.

Greg is working on our walls on the side (in his spare time) and is doing a fabulous job. The east side is the most difficult because of the deck, the slope and the cistern placement. Once this is finished, Greg says the west side will be easy. It's just 3 short walls, each being only a couple of rocks high.

For the last two weeks Rick and Dave have been working on our "eyebrows." These are the structures that will hold corrugate metal roofing material and serve as shades for the windows on the South. There are several others to be built over some windows on the east and west side and one on the north over the garage doors.

The most important eyebrow on the south side. It provides shade to the lower level
windows and the sliding door for the Sunspace.

Here's a shot of the eyebrow on the north side. It's the same construction as the once on the south.
It's included only to carry the look around the house (since we won't have need for shade on this side).

We are spending most of our time these days trying to wrangle showings of our house in Shawnee. It's quite a trick to manage random showings with 3 teenagers home from school, a dog and both of us at work. Hopefully, it will be a brief struggle with a big payoff. The house really looks beautiful and will make a great home for some lucky family. Here's a picture of the wonderful patio and terraces that Brent and the boys built.

I know our new place will have charming spaces to rival this one,
but it's hard to imagine.

The "guys"

Some days are big. Saturday was one of those days. That was the day we met the "guys."

What a face! This is our fawn alpaca cushing calmly for his picture.

Unfortunately, I was so busy talking to Kyla of Blue Diamond Alpacas that I can't put names with the faces of the 7 alpaca males that will call our farm their home. But I can tell you a few: Loki, Truimph, Temptation and Toby.

The black guy is the dominant one of the group. He kinda has that look.

The white one, Loki, is the only gelding - and is the only face
to which I can put a name. I love the markings on the silver gray.

I think this shot got the entire herd in one photo!

We were very excited to meet these guys. And their fiber feels awesome - super soft like just about every alpaca fleece I've had the pleasure to touch. They were friendly, but not pushy, and curious about us. As soon as we entered their space nearly the whole group walked over to say hello.

One of the great parts about the deal we get with the purchase of these boys is the equipment that comes with them. Many gates and panels as well as some fencing will be moved to our farm. Two moveable pens and a scale are also included in the package along with bins, troughs and buckets.

This is a big step and we are excited to have made it.

Yesterday, after spending the entire day on Sunday at our Shawnee house "staging" with some help from a professional (who is unattached to all of our stuff) interior designer, Brent and I and all of the boys were exhausted. We packed up much of the collected nic-nacs, pencils, pens and clutter that we've become accustomed to having around us. And now our house looks super-clean. But we are still rather stunned by the starkness. So yesterday was another big day. And it brought us another step closer to the farm.

And to ground ourselves in a restful and calm sense of the reason for it all, Brent and I visited the farm. We sat in the space on the main floor of the house where our computer desk will be and enjoyed the view, the sound of the wind and birds in the trees. We dreamed of a not-so-distant, much-less-hectic life… and drank a beer :-)

The view from the "desk" of our neighbor's pond on Sunday.

Retaining walls - part 1

Okay, so it has been a while. I can't remember when they first delivered the rock. And I didn't see any photo-worthy progress last weekend. But now…

Greg Wheeler moving one of the rocks.

The retaining walls are finally in the works! Brent and I met Greg Wheeler at the farm Saturday. He and his boys were setting the rocks on the east side for the tallest retaining wall.

Here are some photos of their progress:

Greg and Brent near the cistern at around 11:00.

Here's the way it looked when we left an hour or so later.

This is where they left it. We are short of some needed fill dirt.

Since this is a side job for Greg, our rock guy, he only has the weekends and evenings available to work. His day-job has kept him super-busy and our nicely spaced rains have kept him from being able to start when he did finally have time. We will need to have some dirt brought it and additional rock to help keep things moving on these walls.

We are just happy to see them taking shape. The East side of the house has the highest and most complex retaining wall. It will form the walkway out of the Summer Kitchen. It also brings the ground up to the deck that runs along the East side and wraps to the kitchen and desk area on the South side.

With any luck Brent will build us an arbor for grapes, akebia or kiwi that can grow from a spot on top of that retaining wall. We will need something to shade that kitchen window in the summer.

In addition to the retaining walls, the cedar awnings were started last week. They will add a lot of interest to the house. Rick and Dave are building them and they started with the structure over the garage doors on the North side. It looks great. I can't wait to see the others. Brent and I will finish them off with corrugate steel for a barn roof look.

We continue to see more and more signs that the electrical and plumbing are getting their final touches prior to sheet rock. I am most excited about the gray water system that Grabil plumbing and Rick helped us design. I will love salvaging some good water for irrigating gardens on both the East and West sides of the house.

On the not-so-glamourous side, I pulled a TON of poison ivy up today. I was so nervous and it was so hot wearing 3 layers of stuff to avoid the noxious oil. But I think I got it all. I'll let you know next week if I successfully avoided contamination :-)

Stalling...

Work has really slowed at the construction site. Almost nothing has changed inside the house. Our desire to have little or no ducting and our super-sealed up house have made the design of our climate control system difficult. And the search for a contractor to bid and install the system has been an additional complication. The wait for HVAC has delayed the application of sheetrock and we are now a month (or two) behind.

And, yet, there has been progress.

Rick and Dave have installed the salvaged lumber siding in the Summer Kitchen.

And the maple tree was excavated in preparation for retaining walls.

Both of the cisterns have been installed. And the stand pipe visible in the picture of the maple tree is part of the rainwater collection system that will feed the cistern on the West side - at least I think that's what it is.

The septic system installation is finished and we noticed that electrical boxes had been placed and wires have been pulled to them inside.

The most exciting thing coming up will be the retaining walls. We meet with Greg, the installer, on Friday to finalize their positioning. He should be able to install them this weekend. I can't wait to see them. They will define the first gardens!

But best of all the happenings at the farm is the chances we have to bring our family visitors out to see our future home.

My sister-in-law and nieces and nephew with Brent, Logan and Jeremy.

And, of course, the plants seem to keep doing their work, growing and trying to be productive - to my utter amazement. We may have apples this year from the first trees we planted in 2011!

Apples ripening.