Well. sorry it has been awhile since I have updated the blog on the project! The walls are up, the roof is on and the interior walls and stairs have been framed. We are waiting for the spray air sealing with a low air permeable coating (which will turn the outside exterior black), and then the insulation, then windows and doors. The windows are from a company Serious Glass out of Colorado, and they make a R11.1 value for the large fixed windows and R7.2 for the awning windows. We chose to make most of the large windows fixed to save money and to up the R value, and add awning windows to the bottoms in places for a bit of air and mostly for sound to hear the sound of the brook below the building. Right now all the windows are plastic sheeting, but it is nice to sit inside on a warm spring day and take in the space. The stairs just were built at the end of this past week, and cool air rises up from the first floor through the stair opening just like air conditioning! The plans for the two story post and beam porch are being finalized and the windows should be installed by mid April. The framing of the first floor walls continues with some adjustments here and there for added storage built within the wall framing in the bedroom and studio.

Emelyn's Ashes

At the foundation pouring for the first floor studio, I found a small film canister to place some of mom's ashes into. When the cement was just right I pushed it down until it was level with the cement, in an area which will be the front left corner of dad's main studio work area floor. On top of this canister of Emelyn's ashes, I placed a small talavera tile brought back from our trip last February to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. San Miguel is an artist town full of creative people, many of them Americans who winter in it's mountain plateau weather - warm during the day and cool every night. I had heard of San Miguel for years and always had wanted to go. After Doug and I spent 2 weeks there, visiting American artist friends who now have homes there and choose to live there either full time or for the winter, we learned that mom also had a desire to travel and take classes in San Miguel. While reading through mom's sketchbooks last summer, I found lots of information about traveling to San Miguel and thought it fitting to honor her desire to be connected to such a place with a ceramic tile to mark her now forever presence in the new studio building. I had the opportunity to spend this past Christmas again in San Miguel de Allende, and traveled with more of her ashes, placing some around the city, at both art schools and out in Pozos, a wonderful abandoned 1500's mining town about an hours drive from SMA.
Emelyn, I thank you for your wisdom, energy, strength, and precious time devoted to preserving family resources. Your concerned diligence made this building possible for dad to move under our care and continue to work within the creative realm. I miss you mom.

I love this shot at our driveway of the moon with really wild clouds, shot using Subaru headlights. Our house is on the left and the driveway swings around up the left into our dooryard.

This is the TSS system that is now all underground. It is made of foam insulated panels and 14-18" of spray expanding foam. After it was all put together, it was lined then filled with tubing, a storage tank, and sand making it solid and well insulated. All this is now has been back filled and is underground. The solar panels will feed into this system, as well as our GARN wood boiler which is heating our home, and dad's new building. The storage from this tank will be able to heat the super insulated building for about a month and a half in winter, giving us the flexibility to travel away from home/studio if needed.

Sorry folks, that it has been months since I have posted in this blog. The building has consumed our time as it progresses. Progress is the key word here. The foundation was poured back on October 9 and then the floor on November 24, 2009. We added a small canister of (my mom)Emelyn's ashes to the foundation corner which will be in Dad's studio, and placed a small Talevera tile from San Miguel de Allende on top of the canister, and also spread some ashes over the pour after it was finished. The TSS (thermal storage solutions) pit for an ECX vault (Environmental Climate Exchange) was dug to the left of the photo above. The size of storage is 1800 cubic feet. It is designed to store underground the heat from the wood boiler and solar panels.