On the interior, we hung the final sliding door today (though we still have to put handles on them, minor detail). We also have the central vacuum cleaner installed (thanks Gary’s Vacuflo!) and it’s working wonderfully. The desks have been installed in the office space and I’m typing up this blog post on one of them right now.

So we’re making a lot of progress, though we’re hoping to get bathrooms a bit further along. We still have to get our bathtub and showers installed. Getting closer every day!

And we have one more project in the works: the engawa that surrounds the courtyard. Dad got it all laid out and tacked up and I spent this weekend welding it up. It’s great to see these projects coming together.

I also had the opportunity to go speak at Oregon State University this week. Todd Jarvis, the instructor of Sustainability for the Common Good was gracious enough to invite me down. I spoke about the project and fielded a bunch of questions – I think the students found the project interesting. Todd also runs a blog on grey water, Rainbow Water Coalition, it’s well worth following and has some great specifics about Oregon’s new grey water laws (there’s a post and video about my visit).

It’s a built in bed and two side tables with drawers. Both the bed and the drawers hang off of a sheet of steel that is attached to the studs behind the wall. This allows them to cantilever off the wall (the bed has a small post that’s only visible if you look under the bed). So it gives the illusion of the bed and tables floating – a pretty neat effect.

Here’s a closer shot of one of the tables; they don’t have handles, you open them by reaching under and pulling on the plate steel front.

We’re also close to finishing all the electrical in the house. We just have a few things in the kitchen and the exterior lighting to do. We’re really excited to be able to check this one off the list soon!

We’ve tried to accomplish the former by wrapping the edges of the door with a little rubber gasket that should seal around all edges when the door is closed. We’ve also attached the sliding door’s track to the wall at a slight angle, creating a slight inclination to slide shut against its seals. To achieve light transmission, the bulk of the door will be a frosted glass panel.

The doors are far from complete, but they’re coming together. Next steps including making the sliding mechanism more fluid, adding a ‘stop’ to keep the door open, sheeting the door with paneling made from the old house and adding a simple locking mechanism. Whew! Once we get one done however, the rest should be a snap.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve gotten quite a bit done. The kitchen is almost entirely finished we just have a few details to wrap up. We’re starting work on the bathrooms – they’re the last major project we need to finish to get our occupancy permit.

We’ve also been working on some finishing details such as a wall we’re covering in washed blue wood (wood generously donated by Collins and stain by Timber Pro Coatings).

Along with the bathrooms, the next projects we’re working on are finishing up the built in closets for the two ‘master’ bedrooms and the built in desks for the office.

Good luck on the rest of your travels, buddy.

A big thank you to Kelly for helping with the assembly.

Below is an entry in my long-running battle with the angle grinder (angle grinder 4, dustin 0):