Busy, Busy, Busy!

Formaldehyde-free fiberglass batts.  By using fiberglass in our exterior wall cavities we saved a lot of money as we're able to do it ourselves and make certain it's done well.  Also note the lack of a vapor barrier.  We have 1" of foam board surrounding the exterior sheathing of the house.  If we used batts with a vapor barrier attached we'd be sandwiching material between two barriers and creating moisture issues.  This way the entire wall cavity can breath and wick moisture.  The formaldehyde-free designation is important so that the binders in the batts do not off-gas into the home.  This type of insulation is now widely available at certain home improvement stores.  We special ordered ours so we could get R-21 out of a higher density product as compared with the R-19 (performs at about R-17) on the shelf.  This improvement only added about $300.00 to the cost of construction.  Note that every cavity is 100% full, the batts aren't "squished" (it's the zillions of air pockets that insulate, not the fiberglass itself), and every wire, pipe, and box is cut around.

The wider stud spacing provided by 2x6 construction allows more space for insulation.  This means less "thermal bridging" through studs in the building envelope and a higher ratio of insulation to surface area.

Anywhere we have portions of the stud cavities that don't receive sheet rock we use foam board as an air barrier (as seen in the HVAC soffit above).  It's important to do this so that the insulation can actually perform as it's supposed to.

Every window sash is insulated with low-expansion foam (the yellow stuff in the picture).  This is one of the simplest and most cost effective things a builder can do when installing a window to make it less drafty.

Bathroom tile.

Master bath tile.  Masonry material like tile is not only very durable but adds a bit of "incidental mass" to the building.  These are surfaces with a high "specific heat" that take a while to heat up and cool down.  This helps to smooth out the temperature "fly wheel" in a passive home.

When building an economical floor plan (smaller, less consumptive) it's important to separate the spaces well.  In this case we used mineral wool insulation between the floors to dampen sound transfer.  This allows bedrooms upstairs to remain peaceful and useful while people play cards downstairs.  It also provides a level of protection against fire as it remains durable in very high temperatures.

The vaulted portions of the ceiling are covered in White Pine.  Because of the hips in our roof, sheet rock would have shown cracks and been very difficult to hang.  The pine is a beautiful and durable substitute.