Water, Fire, Air, and Earth

The house grows keeps growing from inside. The outside of the house has grown as large as it is going to get, but the inside of the house is a beehive of activity with different trades working their respective magic seven days a week, bringing the four ancient elements together to bring life to the house.

First, there is water and we are delighted that the laundry room is finally framed and almost completely plumbed. Jenn is pretty stoked about this, as can be seen. I think she is still unhappy about my suggestion to use a combination toilet and sink to save space.



At the same time, the plumbers finally came to their senses and decided against the Alpine location for the water heater and decided to move it to the ground level; no more rappelling gear needed for lighting up the pilot light. Acrophobic plumbers everywhere rejoiced at the news. Here's the new home of the water heater and the 120 gallon stainless steel storage tank, plus all the other gear. Heating the water for this house is no longer a tankless job. Here's where the boiler and tank will be housed in the back patio. The blue tape marks the location of various components.



And here is the plumbing to the new boiler/tank system:



Of course this would not be our house if it were to be simple. This is the schematic drawing of the hot water system that includes 4 pumps, one of which does nothing but circulate the warm water to the various faucets and taps in order to save the cold water we would have to run before the water warms up at the bath or kitchen, by having instant hot water pumped to every tap in the house continuously. We strive to be very Green and save water wherever we can.



Another water-related addition to the house are the manifolds used to control water flow to the radiant heating system. The big red hoses bring hot water from the mini-refinery we are building in the back patio and the manifold distributes the warm water to the different heating zones in the house.



And once the hot water makes it to the bath, the Electronically controlled valve will mix it with just the right amount of cold water and send it to up to six shower heads for our showering pleasure.



And finally at the boundary between water and fire, there is the fire suppression system, or as they are commonly called, the sprinklers, have been installed throughout the house.



and here is a close up of the sprinkler head. Let us hope we never have to figure out if they actually work.



Moving on to fire, we found the fireplace we want to install in the bedroom. Here is a montage of how the fireplace and the flat panel TV will look like on the bedroom wall.



Another fire-related addition is the vent that will take out the cooking vapors from the kitchen when we cook. We do not anticipate using this device very frequently, but it nice to have a way to get the smoke -- I mean cooking smells -- out of the house when we do use the thing with flames for cooking.



As for air, the Grotto is getting equipped with a device than keeps the air inside the concrete enclosure clean and pristine by exhausting the stale air and bringing in fresh air at the same time. Visually, it is pretty boring, basically a big white box, but functionally, it's pretty cool. It's called "Lifebreath." and while exchanging the inside air with fresh outside air, it can filter the air and recover the heat or cooling applied to the air being exhausted by transferring it to the incoming air -- that green thing again.

In the earth department, we are ready for reinforced concrete for the footings, but in the meantime, we have discovered old, fragile concrete in the garage that needs to be carefully buttressed rather than removed for the same reason one does does not attempt to remove the wings of an airplane, even for necessary repairs, while the plane is actually in flight. Suffice it to say that we would like the house to retain its current stature and not be reduced by a couple of floors by sinking into the ground.

These are the trenches lined with rebar waiting to receive the new concrete:




And here is what concrete gone bad looks like:



And in non-elemental news, the data wiring continues:




The interior doors are delivered and are waiting to be hung:



And the massive jack that will make the elevator go up and down has been carefully put in the elevator shaft, although at the moment it is basically a 2000+ pound paper weight. You don't see any paper flying around this house, not on Elevator Jack's Watch, no sir.



Finally, in the structural news, very impressive metal connectors are being installed in the house to tie together the wooden skeleton into a single stiff frame that will resist, the motions of earth, wind, and fire.



Next week: Doors, more windows, even more plumbing, and more elemental news.