As I mentioned in my last post we needed to get some gravel to make a level base pad for our solar array.  I had originally calculated we would need about 11 cubic yards of gravel which I’d figured was about 22 tons.  As it turns out, after speaking with the quarry, they reckoned about 16 tons (a full dumptruck load) would probably do the job, so we ordered that up and had it delivered so it will be ready to go.  It’s somehow not as big a pile as I had imagined.

I also got out to the hardware store and picked up some floor registers, and successfully test fit one in the fresh air supply vent I’d previously roughed-in in the living room floor.

One of the other things on our to-do list on our road to occupancy, was “coverage of combustible insulation”.  This is specifically regarding our basement insulation – we’d previously installed 2″ XPS foam, but apparently this is a flammable product, so it needs to be covered with something fire-proof.  We considered just framing and drywalling in the basement walls, but that will bring on further electrical work, so instead we opted to purchase some Roxul ComfortBoard IS.

This is a rockwool product that comes in stiff, 2′ x 4′ sheets that are 1 1/2″ thick.  We fasten it to the XPS foam with construction adhesive (PL300) and then use a few 16D nails to hold it in place while the adhesive sets.  When we are ready to finish the basement, we will just attach furring strips every 16″ with 6″ concrete screws through the Roxul & XPS foam, securing them to the concrete wall, then hang the drywall from those.

We expect to finish this off in the next day or two, and that’ll be another task off the list!

Finally, we have been struggling with a solution for decent internet out here for some time.  Until now, we have been relegated to using the internet over a 3G modem on Rogers, but the charges for data usage are absolutely ridiculous.  We finally decided to do something about this, and had the internet folks around today to install satellite internet for us.  It’s about the same speed as our previous connection, but is significantly cheaper.  We hope it will continue to serve us well!

That’s about all the news that’s fit to print, hope you enjoyed the update!