Bill McKnight at Hollow & Stone took the first run at the floor plan from a sketch you'd brought from Brooklyn — a great room oriented south, a primary bay set behind it, a studio thirty feet off the house. Five revisions over six weeks before the slab outline locked.
Clearing was confined to the 38-yard slab footprint plus the meadow for the ground-mount solar. The 130-year-old sugar maple at the southeast corner was kept — its drip line shapes the trellis at the entry today.
6" of EPS foam beneath the slab — generous for climate 5B and essential for the radiant strategy. Hydronic loops were laid in eight zones; the polished finish would later become the finished floor on the main level.
The reference set — every interior wall photographed from both sides before insulation and drywall. Tagged with stud locations, plumbing runs, electrical chases, and the cedar blocking placed for future fixtures. The reading bay studs are 4×6, by request, for a future built-in.
Result: 0.46 ACH₅₀ — inside Passive House territory, well clear of the design target of 0.60. Bill was on site with the rater; no significant leakage anywhere on the envelope.
European larch from an Adirondack mill, vertically applied. Each board photographed before install and tagged in the panel map — when one needs replacement years from now, the right board comes from the same lot. The mill saved 18 spare boards for you; they're stacked in the studio loft.
The walkthrough was logged in 54 stops across the house and the studio. Every system demonstrated. The closing gift was a bottle of Awestruck cider from the Hudson Valley and a hand-bound book of the build — the same book that now lives on this portal.
The ERV is the lungs of the home — it brings in fresh outside air and exhausts stale air, recovering 86% of the energy in the process. It runs continuously at low speed and is the reason your indoor air stays under 500 ppm CO₂ even with the home sealed tight. Cole Mechanical services it twice a year.