Greg, our "green" inspector was conducting another blower door test. He is teaching a class on doing home energy audits, so he brought 14 students over to the house on a field trip so they could see how it's done in a real house and also learn about some of the other aspects of green building.
He also did another duct test (that's Greg in the blue striped shirt). It was a little odd having all these people traipsing through the house, but I did get some nice comments from a few of them, and Rob later told me that many of them oohed and aahed over the stairs and other parts of the house when they first arrived. It's always nice to get positive feedback from total strangers!
Greg thanked me for letting him bring his class to the house. He said it was extremely helpful to be able to show them a real green house and point out all the different features. He also told me that ours is the tightest house he's ever tested, and that we earned a HERS rating of 50, which is very impressive. That means that our house is 50% more energy efficient than a house of the same size built according to the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code.Rob and Brian had spent the morning installing the knobs on the doors upstairs. We got these cool glass doorknobs to match the vintage ones on the original doors downstairs.
Rob also hung my pot rack for me. As usual, he overcompensated for my height (or lack thereof) by installing it a bit lower than I would have myself. (Did you see where he put the mailbox?) But I certainly appreciate his taking that into account, and I'm sure it will work fine where it is.
Rob and John also put the doors back on the medicine cabinets. I wasn't able to get them exactly the same color as the vanity, but it's close enough that they still look pretty good as a whole. I am really excited about having double sinks in the master bathroom, because Josh and I are always trying to get ready for bed at the same time, and either have wait until the other one is done or do a complicated dance to get a turn at the sink.
They also had someone come in to refinish our old bathtub. This is NOT a 'green' process -- there was a very strong chemical smell, so they opened the window, turned on the exhaust fan, and closed the door. Hopefully that will dissipate by the time we move back in. The tub certainly looks a lot better!
With the medicine cabinet doors out of the way, I was able start work on my birdhouse. I sanded all the rough edges -- especially around the entrance hole -- and taped the base so the stain wouldn't drip onto it. You'll notice that John made little slits under the eaves of the roof to allow some airflow through the house. Very thoughtful! Brian and I were teasing him that he should have built a miniature replica of my house, complete with foam insulation and solatubes. He said he actually considered building something with little arches in front, but that would have been too complicated.
Still, I did my best to stain it to match the house. I was limited to the colors we had on hand, so I used a light coat of mahogany stain on the roof to give it a reddish hue, and a thick coat of whitewash on the house. I'll try to do another coat of whitewash over the weekend and figure out what to do with the base. I have an idea, but it may be overly ambitious...
Rob told me they had a preliminary inspection this morning and the inspector only found a few items that needed to be corrected in order to pass the final inspection. He's pretty confident that they'll be ready for the final by Wednesday, or possibly even Tuesday afternoon, so we should be good to move back in on Thursday. I'm dreading the actual moving process, but I can't wait to start living in my house!
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