[Drake]

Just wrapping up first season construction of foundation for new eco "winter core" addition to our retirement "cabin". Fairly standard with two walls concrete 48" frost footings that needed to be underpinned to full depth and two walls beefed up PWF to support 1st floor 4" poured in place radiant slab. Sub soil was rock hard so every shovel had to be picked out before removed. Very hard , sweaty work but it gave me a much needed extra foot of width to an already narrow basement footprint. Extra detail to drainage and waterproofing. Footing drains skylighted out thru hillside(I don't trust sump pumps anymore). The 100' foot trench allowed me to drop in 3 runs of 4" surplus swear pipe(less than $50.) for pre tempering winter fresh air intake(no condensation/mold problems warming cold air). Tempered air will go to A/A xchgr when direct warmed fresh air from DIY solar air collector is not available. Only major eco design is that basement will be thermally and airily(?) separated from living space by between floor insulation and sealing stairwell door so basement can be well ventilated for radon(we are located on top of an underground granite mountain). I like a cool workshop even in winter. Snow roof is temp for winter. Completed addition will be same two story profile of existing building extended to length of garage plus a few feet second story will extend halfway back over garage. This new living space will be a super insulated/sealed space to retreat in winter, minimal heating rest unless we want to fired up the wood stove which heats it now for periods.