The past week has been extremely busy. Off the job site, our baby daughter was born on her due date and we couldn't be happier :)

As for on the job site activities, we have the sub-floor completed and all first floor walls up. The RJ Stegora crew started early morning in 20 degree snowy weather. In one way, I assume it helped with freezing all the mud and made the site a bit more building friendly (I really hope that was the case). As the sun made its way out, our neighbor kid and our oldest found an interesting place to catch a view of the action!

Framing does go up relatively quickly, but with this house it is done twice to accommodate the extra insulation on the exterior of the house. The second floor will need to be framed in addition to the roof before the vapor barrier can be placed on the external walls. The I-joist is not structural, but since it is installed in full height sections of the house, it will provide great support in addition to housing the insulation. The drawing to the left provides a comparative wall assembly diagram to help better understand the differences between Passive and standard construction. Plumbing was also completed in the basement and with inspection scheduled for next week, we will finally see the 6" insulation boards placed in the basement and 4" concrete slab can then be poured on top.