Do It Yourself Homebuilding: Wiring and Insulation

We have been busy. It has taken us forever to rough in the electrical work. To date we have run well over 2000 feet of 14-2 wire, 500′ of 12-2 wire, 150′ of 8 gauge wire, 100′ of 10 gauge wire, 750′ of CAT 5 communications cable, 500′ and counting of plenum rated speaker wire, and some 400′ of HVAC thermostat and control wire. We are wired for the eventual addition of solar photovoltaics and wind, along with a transfer panel for a diesel generator. A few years ago an engineer for IdaTech – a fuel cell manufacturer in Bend, told me that the average French farmhouse got by on wiring for less than 1k power. With the National Electrical Code, and insurance regulations, this is entirely not possible here in the USA. When we see the price of copper, we sure wish it was possible to get by with less. We also recently installed a 16′ garage door, – something akin to putting together a life size erector set. Now only three more garage doors to go on the “barn”.

Saturday we sprayed 1″ of foam insulation on all of the exterior walls in the house. We used a product called “Foam it Green”. We are truely impressed with the results, not only did the foam seal up the walls, it also tightened up the structure. I would recommend this DIY foam kit to anyone. Today, we placed R19 insulation on all of the second floor exterior walls, this week Chip will work away on doing R19 insulation on the remaining exterior walls after work each night. Our finished iusulation package calls 1″ of foam board beneath stucco on the exterior walls for something like an R29 in the exterior walls.

Peggy has been learning to do western landscape painting from M.C. Poulson at the Buffallo Bill Historical Center Friday afternoons and every other Saturday. She sits with her easel before millions of dollars of art in the Whitney Gallery ( I tell her not to splash her colors). We are proud of her work to date. This and our other activities have kept us occupied in Cody’s “slow season”.

We hope that you all have a great week.

-Chip, Peg, Dan, Katie,