Water!

Today was a milestone.

Thanks to the work of our plumbing contractors, the boiler was installed, providing us with both heat (in the form of radiant heat under the floors) and hot and cold water. We've been waiting a long time for this and it was a moment of joy to witness the cascade of water pouring out of our garden hose hook-up on the side of the house. We now have the potential to hook up any old fixture we want and will be thinking about how we may do that, and when.

Meanwhile, Joe has begun work on the exterior window trim project. He's set up a work station and begun cutting the pieces. It'll be really satisfying to see the outside start to transform from green Zip-system to finish trim and clapboard.

I've been busy wrapping up the seemingly endless details before we begin insulating. I expect we'll get going on it next week.

All in all a good week of progress.

Glass of water anyone? Here, let me get you one.

Watershed

Today felt like a bit of a turning point.

I completed some long running plumbing projects, pressure tested the hot water supply lines (they're good), and re-arranged some electrical stuff while Joe continues to make great project on all the pre-insulation blocking work.

I also had a little fun with the water supply configuration. I needed to make another block to keep the upper horizontal copper manifold held off the plywood. Why not make the blocks fish? Of course I got totally excited at the idea and had to do it, and I'm glad I did. I live for that sort of thing.

I also went outside at 12:00pm to see where the sun landed. Unfortunately just as it hit noon the clouds came over. It wasn't for about 10 minutes until it cleared again. In any case, it seems --to my sublime pleasure-- that the sun pretty much lines up with the point of the triangle at noon. What varies is the angle of the sun in an up or down manner depending on the proximity of the solstice or equinox. I couldn't be more pleased about this. Its like an homage to the sun, a recognition of that which is so much greater then everything else we know. It also will stand as a testament to that greatness long after you or I will cease to be, provided the house remains as it is.

On a more earthly note, we have hired a plumbing contractor to install the boiler which will provide the radiant hot water and domestic (drinking and washing) hot water supply. They will also install the pressure tank. This is starting tomorrow morning, so I expect that we will have the availability of running hot and cold water within a week. We've been waiting a long, long time for this.