The Earth Advantage certification was a breeze (excuse the pun).  We passed with flying colors.  Our house is tight!  We scored a 1.5 (maybe it was 1.7?) on the blower door test.  Blake tells me a typical spec home score is like 11.  The EA guy said our house is the tightest he has ever tested.  Blake’s crack filling compulsiveness paid off.  The ERVs will be crucial to move outside air in the house so we’re not stewing this winter.

When you build a custom home the unplanned elements are the most fun to discover.  Each night around 7 pm we get this extrodinary light show.

Life has been crazy with our move and the end of the academic year.  I promise I’ll have some pics of the house soon; now that we are actually living in it.  I keep waiting for the house to be “picked up” but I have come to the conlcusion that this might never happen with our two kids working against us!

The house is better than we expected.  It’s functional, efficient, and sustainable.  The natural light is incredible; we barely switch on the lights.  We can’t wait to have you all over soon.

It will be interesting to see what Simon does to these things!  Blake did an amazing custom job to save us a ton of money.  We’re either going to paint the track black to match the rollers or grind them down to the original metal finish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathowie/tags/mcnameehouse/

Check out where Simon’s attention is.  He actually stood still for more than a min. to watch the loader.

It wasn’t easy finding CFL ready lighting, especially on our budget.  But with Blake and Larry’s help we found some pretty cool (and efficient) lighting options.  I am really impressed with the light the new CFLs provide.