Here is an image from just over a week ago. Chris Nelson and I needed to have a method of cutting a 22 degree angle into 8 ft long 1″x4″s with a chop saw in a manner that was consistent and could be repeated about 12 times. We through together this guide to help us make the cuts. The guide helped us to hold the 8ft long piece of wood perpendicular to the the blade, enabling us to cut the 22 degree angle into the wood with much greater accuracy.

As the building of our passive house came to a close last week, the mess created by our seemingly innumerable small projects kept on building up. From trying to find 1 1/2″ screws to rummaging for the right size of 1″x4″ scrap, the process of finding the tools and materials to get a job done kept eating up more and more of my time. At its worst, I spent almost one hour looking for the correct bit to put in eight small screws. It appeared that the natural laws of entropy were in full effect at the build site, especially when fourteen people were frantically trying to complete a housing project.

I snapped this photo around mid morning. The interior wood work within the shelving structure is filtering the light nicely, and makes for a really nice effect in the interior.

Here is a quick sketch I drew up on some scrap wood to illustrate an idea I had for a portion of the loft.

John and I spent most of the day installing reused red wood flooring under the sun shading structure. The project went well, but after completing our installation, we discovered some weak spots underneath the flooring that could potentially cause an accident. John and I then pried up the flooring and took extra precautions to make sure that all the weak spots we reinforced properly. Johnny proved the sturdiness of the reinforced section, and got rid of some frustration, by jumping on it. 

Today I jotted down some quick arithmetic to see if we have enough siding left to cover portions of the North and East face of the house. I was accused of being a mad scientist.

Today was the third day of sanding cedar siding for myself and Melisa Brown. Its a pretty dirty job, but the results we are getting for the house look great. I can’t say the same about myself.