Starting the New Year

OK, so we've rounded into 2010 and still have a lot to do before we complete the design and bidding process, but our goal is still to break ground somewhere around the end of March, weather permitting.

Right now here's our status:

• Waiting on one more bid to come back on the excavation/foundation.
• Bids out for the rough lumber.
• Another bid went out for the windows from a different manufacturer.
• Closing in on putting bids out for rough carpentry.
• In the middle of designing the HVAC as well as the Lighting plan.
• Started to talk to Barn Companies and have settled on a 1 1/2 story 26'x38' barn give or take.

Interesting on the HVAC in that we are now seriously looking at doing the entire house heating system with Radiant Heat and using a product called Warmboard as the subflooring.... http://www.warmboard.com/ ... This stuff is interesting in that it can save a lot of cost on the overall flooring installation (for Radiant Heat that is) but there are some complexities.
 
Also, we plan on visting the following companies over the weekend:

• Country Carpenters to look at Barns http://www.countrycarpenters.com/.  We'll be looking at two more Barn companies as well as accepting bids from our rough carpenter.
• PC Richards to begin research on appliances.
• Klaffs http://www.klaffs.com/ home design to look start to get an idea on Kitchen & Bathroom design.

We meet with Wes on Friday, so perhaps better posts next week.