Downstairs is moving forward!

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?