Cold Day, Warm House

Know what makes me happy about this picture?

In addition to being a sweet moment with my boy, this picture makes me happy because we are sitting in the HUGE window sill of our dinette. Outside this morning, the temperature was 12 degrees. The temperature on the window sill? About as warm and toasty as the rest of the house. Generally, big windows mean big heat loss. Niels and I marveled at how warm it was there. We actually were sitting there awhile before it occurred to us that we should be freezing our bottoms off! I am tickled pink by how tight and toasty the insulated concrete forms make our home. If you need more proof, check out our first utility bill.

Since receiving the first bills for our almost-done home, we have had a little bit more sealing. For example, here is the heavy duty insulating...tape. It's a nice upgrade from the open hole we had before, and cuts down on the draftiness in the foyer. We look forward to our permanent lock going in soon! :-)

Another outward sign of the inner difference of our full ICF home is that the snow on our room is still on our roof. This means that we aren't losing a ton of heat through our room. The part of the roofline, as seen through D's room, is above the dining room which has that huge window, a sliding door and a large transom window. In theory, if any room in the house lost heat, it would be that one. We are pleased.

One last just-for-fun shot. One of things that first caught our eye about four years ago in a Charis home was the deep window sills. At the time, I knew nothing about construction. I just thought they looked pretty and it would be fun someday for the baby in my belly to crawl on them. Today I got to see my three-year-old "baby" play on the ICF sill on the coldest day of the season, and he was perfectly warm. I am so happy to move HOME!

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