2025
Getting Close to the Finish Line!
April 2025
Installation of the exterior layers began. First came the smart air barrier from Pro Clima called Adhero 3000. What is a smart air barrier, you may ask? It allows the walls to breathe, letting vapor out, when the weather is dry and then closes up to keep vapor from the outside from coming in when the weather is wet. Our installer loved it because compared to standard house wrap like Tyvex, it was so easy to apply and felt more durable.
We otherwise called it the rebuild’s “Blue Period.”
After the Adhero, we applied a layer of Gutex wood fiber insulation to improve the R-Value and give our walls added thickness, which we prefer aesthetically. Wood fiber insulation is completely non toxic and carbon neutral. Gutex, however, comes from Germany, raising its lifecycle emissions. Timber HP is made in the USA and making a similar product, and while its distribution was not mature enough for or product, it holds promise to be a good domestic option for future projects. A big shout out to 475 High Performance Building Supply who supplied the Adhero, and who sell Gutex, but sent us to the wonderful folks at Mr. Insulation in San Raphael to find the size we needed.
The next layer is the 1/2 inch magnesium oxide board (MgO), which is a non-toxic, non-combustible low to negative carbon product that can be used in lieu of other standard wall material like gypsum or dry wall. We are putting it as a substrate to our stone veneer and on the interior as a substrate to lime plaster on the walls and ceilings, in order to make the walls and roof fire rated. James at Taynr was our distributor and as an engineer who has specialized in using this product and researching many manufacturers, did an awesome job sourcing the best available material for us. Unfortunately from a climate perspective, the available MgO board is made in China, but domestic US manufacturing, which has had a bumpy start, is hopefully going to scale soon.
Fields of sunshine! 🌻 After the rain, Coast Sunflowers blanket the hills on our morning walk. April 26,2025
May – June 2025
Another piece of good news: we got chickens! Pinky, Goldie, Dotty, and Silvie have joined our family.
Ona is getting to put her livestock guardian breed skills to work:
Inspection
We’ve been getting through a series of complexities finishing up our fire hydrant and fire sprinkler requirements. On the day of inspection, after months of coordination and and hard work, we had five subcontractors present to manage all the moving parts. The inspector asked the electrical contractor to demonstrate the water storage tank alarm. We had gone through two vendors to get that alarm to function. And now…it didn’t work. The good news is that it wasn’t our fault. The power was out. Yes, five minutes after the inspector arrived, SCE had a black out in our whole area. Matthias scrambled to get the generator going, and the team all rallied to somehow get us through it, and we passed!
We are ready for final framing and mechanicals inspection.
