We Finally Got Our HERS Rating (and a Rocking Air Exchange Rate)

Waaaaaay back in the beginning of our building experience, our first builder suggested we obtain an eventual HERS rating. He uses that in his marketing, so I'm sure he was eager to have us foot that bill (and, of course, pay his profit margin on it as well). We sat down with the rater before …

Would We Use Them Again? Which Businesses Made the Cut

Overall, we are very pleased with how our home turned out. It has been a long and sometimes stressful process, but now that we've been living in the house for a few weeks, we thought we'd share some thoughts on our experiences with subs. Mostly it was a good process, with only a few hiccups. …

Insulation Done, County Inspection Passed, and Working Toward a Good HERS Index Score

169th day of build. (about 24 weeks) The insulation guys finished all the nooks and crannies, and the Iron County inspector found nothing wrong. We went with more insulation than the typical house because of the cost of electric heating and air conditioning. We also plan to obtain a HERS (Home Energy Rating System) index …

Odds and Ends Before the Drywall Goes Up

164th day of build. (about 23 1/2 weeks) Lots of stuff has to happen at the Atomic Ranch before drywall goes up. The framers decided that they weren't going to finish anything else outside of installing basement windows. I'm not sure how they can just decide that, but we're spending even more money on a …

Insulation! And Also Snow

159th day of build. The rental where we live right now sits a bit above 6,000 feet in elevation. Our new house sits right around 5,500 feet. We awoke at our rental this morning to chilly temperatures but no snow. But out at the new place there was still snow on the ground at lunchtime. …

Roof Activity, and More Framing Drama

113th day of build. So I have to say that finishing our roof took WAY less time than shingling the multi-hipped roofs on the homes around our subdivision. We had no idea the roofers would be there today, but as we pulled up, there they were, busy as bees, getting that TPO (Thermoplastic Polyolefin) membrane …

Seeing Green

91st day of build. (13 weeks) We drove up to the ranch just after sundown to see green outer walls. This is the Zip System that we're sheathing the house with to provide a thermal envelope and prevent thermal bridging (wall studs are very good at transferring hot/cold to where you don't want it). The typical …