Part of the reason this small heater can do this is that our house is VERY well insulated at this point. The doors haven't even been fully sealed yet. A couple even have holes where the doorknob should go (some of the doors don't operate, so no doorknobs were needed). Below I have an image of our door to the (future) screen porch and a close up of the border where the final seal is yet to be made. Even with these areas though, the house is holding the heat well. I can't wait to see how well it does once the house is complete!
This week the low voltage guys from Lucid Integrated Systems are wiring downstairs for ethernet outlets, camera, monitor and networking. Even though I am a bit of a networking geek, I'm very happy to have these guys doing this. My knowledge in a few areas are adequate, but the knowledge these guys have in all the areas is exceptional. They make it look easy! The siders have done all the facia needed so the gutters can go on. Measurements were made last week, so hopefully we will be hearing soon about when those will go on. Once they do, the steel roof is next! We have power!!
We have strung the cabling for the in-floor outlets that will be below our game table. I have a few images showing them below including one with the first power cable. I was quite surprised how easy it was to feed that cabling through the conduit. In the third image you can see where I fed it into the conduit by the wall. In the fourth image, you can see where we have power, and a conduit for a HDMI cable for a projector. This is placed in the center of the game room, right above the game table. I'm not planning on having this in place when we move in. If we decide we want one though, it will be prewired and ready to go. The fifth image is another view of the north wall. Near the top you will see some angled supports and you might be able to see a power box. The ceiling will follow that angle, similar to a tray ceiling, the ceiling right over the game table is about a foot higher than the rest of the room. Along that angle, will be a monitor which can be used to allow for friends to join our gaming sessions by services such as Skype, Google, or other video conference programs. Oh, you may also notice two other things. First, we have a lot of room in the ceiling. Second, the game room is on the west end of the house, as is our bedroom upstairs! When designing the house with our architect, managing sound was a big factor. We have an 18 inch truss and the drop down section around most of the game room. Once we complete the wiring for the network, we will be insulating that space. We also don't have any air return ductwork that connects upstairs and downstairs (ask me how I know this is important, sorry honey!) We will also have some materials on the walls and cabinet doors that will help absorb sound, so I can be gaming downstairs without keeping my wonderful wife awake upstairs:) I'll post more about that as we install that.
Weather has been a challenge for us. If you didn't see the blog, at one point we had two inches of standing water in the basement, just as work on the basement was going to start. It took a bit, however, we are now back on track. Spray foam insulation has been added up around the edges of the trusses and lots of HVAC work has been done. Both in terms of ventilation ductwork and more tubing leading to the upstairs radiant heat "panels". The upstairs tubing on the floors is not yet in place, but the main lines from the mechanical room to the access panels upstairs are in place. HVAC ductwork is all in place. I am rather amazed at the amount of ductwork and the skill of the guys from Massman at getting all the ducts to work smoothly, even when framing and such get in the way. When ever possible, straight runs of ductwork use the least amount of energy. When bends are necessary, angled or curved bends work better than a 90 degree bend. The reason for this is every time air movement goes around a corner, it slows down. Because of this, to get the appropriate amount of airflow, the fan has to work harder the more corners their are. In some places angles are simply unavoidable. Our air return shown in the third image above is a good example of that. I actually was wondering how the guys were going to connect the four air return vents in that same area to the main air return run. They did it wonderfully, don't ever challenge these guys to Tetris! The electrical work is also moving along. After the HVAC guys did their work, we started on electrical. The boxes for outlets and switches are in place and some of the wiring has been run. The main panels are being connected both to the main meter of the house and the upstairs wiring which was completed earlier. We will also have a smaller panel which will have all the connection for equipment we want to run during a power outage. This way, our future battery back up system will power just part of the house. The refrigerator, HVAC, a couple of outlets, a TV and the network. If the power goes out in the summer, we won't use the HVAC. However, during the winter we will want to run the HVAC at minimal levels just to insure the pipes don't freeze up. If all goes as planned, we will have some house power this week! The first thing I want to get on internal power is those sump pumps so I don't need to worry about more water in the basement! Work on the siding of the house continues. Above we have photos of the progress. I apologize about the pictures, they show a lot of edges and color changes that aren't really there. Something about the angle of the light or such?
The amount of rain we have been getting is slowing down the work. I really appreciate the guys working so hard in this sloppy mess. Who would have thought we would have had so much rain in November and the first half of December?
Inside we now have the drywall that is designed to support tile installed in the kitchen. I'd describe where the tile is going, but the picture does a better job of it than I ever could. Also, the ceiling drywall is complete throughout the upper floor! 
Sometimes I can go a bit overboard with my appreciation of electric cars (they are just so much fun to drive!). I am always happy to answer questions anyone may have. I generally will jump at any chance to share my personal experiences driving electric for the past five years, or any of the knowledge I have picked up. Occasionally, I even get stopped in a parking lot, even a gas station (I was stopping to get a drink). I've met and spoken with all sorts of people. Car enthusiasts, performance fans, environmentally concerned people, kids, people for whom national security is their number one concern. Just the other day a curious onlooker was checking out our LEAF sitting in the driveway when we arrived home after visiting our future home. He seemed a bit shy, wasn't kicking the tires much, but certainly was paying close attention to the fenders and bumper! This was a first though, and I'm not sure how well I did as they rather flew off in a huff. No turkeys nor LEAFS were harmed in this video
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