Hearthwood Dome

Last night Jean and I bundled up after dinner and rolled over to Hearthwood. We cranked up the generator and halogen lights (though we debated working in the moonlight, it was so bright), and finished up (or almost anyway) for our waterproofing inspection.

Our view really is incredible. Even in the half moon, the landscape was bathed in cool moonlight and the stars were very bright. Our trees block out much of the peripheral light pollution, giving us an extra-clear view of the night sky. I can't wait until we live there:)

We had begun work on our parging, plastic cover and such on Sunday. Yesterday, in two hours, Jean finished the parging, and put the plastic up. Last night we put up the pressure-treated plywood strips that lap the seam between the plastic and tyvek. That's to keep the house water-proof where the dirt is bermed up against it. We also had to lay the black plastic drain pipe just outside the foundation, in the trench, to drain water away from the house.

We got our first snow at Hearthwood this week. We only got about 3 inches, but it was pretty cold the whole weekend, so most of it stayed around the whole weekend. Fortunately the dome is all weathertight, so it's all dry.

We were glad to have help from Justin - we were able to get a lot done with the extra help. He helped out a lot with arranging the drain pipe outside the house, as well as with the stairs.

That's right. Only two bars, but it works. How do I know? We put the last skylight into place last Saturday and I got to climb on the dome. What a view!

We began by poking my parents' enormous ladder up into the skylight hole, and our smaller one up to the dormer window, where I climbed out and up on the roof to remove the tarp and wood cap Ken had devised.

Bob tied me off to a tree on the opposite side and I hooked it up to the climbing harness, both borrowed from my parents. They have a four story house, so painting and shingle work is a serious chore for them.

Man what a weekend! We put up the two enormous LVL "green beams" to serve as the header material over the kitchen opening AND we got the joists for the second floor all in place save two.

Saturday morning I drove out to Hearthwood to see just how many trees NOVEC had cut down for the power line easement. It was quite a shock. Sunlight streaming through the trees had turned into a clear-cut swath of land 30 feet wide...

Saturday we were again blessed with good weather, temperatures reaching the mid-fifties at least. We used this time to focus on the outside a bit.

First, my dad used the Kubota to backfill the drain pipe with gravel, which we then covered with the remaining tar paper from the roofing.

Meanwhile, Bob finished nailing ALL the nails in the joist hangers; some dozen nails or so for each of the six hangers.

No, not a swarming mass of Eastern Europeans, but rather way-stations for our electric line!