// Noah, Siming, and myself are up here in San Francisco hammering out the final details of our on-site signage. After tonight, they start being printed. Its funny, the studio we are working in is totally packed with other design students of CCA, and they aren't even working on Solar Decathlon!

It's really coming down to the wire, and though these look tight, the midnight oil is burning fast. But do not despair friends of ours, we'll make sure to have slept before you see us! Some words from Noah and Siming:

"I need to get more sleep than this" -Noah

"No. Just make something up that's funny and interesting to read" -Siming "Little Tiger" Wong

I still can't get past how different we are from our San Franciscan comrades (I say this as I look around at everyone around us in the studio). As dorky as this is about to sound, it's as if the plane they exist on is 45 degrees skewed from ours. But in the name of collaboration, we learn to turn those differences into vectors of strength!

In other news, we've started deconstruction. All of the skin siding is down. Tomorrow I start removing my ABS pipe including the rain leader

// Whew! All of the preparation for our photoshoot looks like it was a success. Despite a grueling amount of cleaning, many equipment mishaps, and an awfully hot day, we still managed to get some good shots of our beautiful Refract House. Patricia and David of SearchCafe did a tremendous job managing the whole process and I'm really excited to see what they can do with them.

The photoshoot signals the end of building and the start of takedown. In the next couple of days we will be taking down the panels, adjusting the racking for transit, removing siding, wrapping the home, and putting them on trucks. Then from there we'll be adding more content to the website (if any of our fans are aggravated with our delayed content, blame me)and prepare ourselves for the contests!

Also, a big thank you to Robert of Capitol Nursery for loaning us plants!

// Its 1AM and we just finished cleaning the site and doing some work on controls. Sitting with me here is Ross Ruecker who is going to give some words: First, Preet's computer is very small and the lighting is terrible, so don't criticize my typing skills too much.

Working late has become a fact of life. It doesn't seem too bad any more. Well, maybe that's a lie. I've gone from construction to monitoring guy in the last week. I'm running out of time, I should have made the switch earlier.

Dan asked me if I am ready to take down the house in two days. No way, we are finally getting the home set up the way we want and then we will tear it down. There is no time for enjoyment. Its going to be frustrating taking everything down that we spent so long setting up. But I believe the final construction in DC will be worth it.

Preet here again. We'd like to thank the folks from National Semiconductor who came out and helped out on the site. John Giddings, the director of Solar Magic, has really been our cheerleader there. Thanks John! Also, we had some SCU alum come help by doing everything from staining and finishing the deck to cleaning up the site before we have some pictures.

Although this picture is from the day of the Send Off Event, we would all like to use the bed since the day it was put in.

Ross and I just closed down and are now heading out to get not nearly enough sleep. This house is going to get to DC.

// The folks at SearchCafe came by today to help out with their technology. They also brought us some interesting Kombucha to try. To those that don't know what I'm talking about (I was in this category until about 8 hours ago), Kombucha is a Chinese Tea that is aged and harvested for its probiotics. It tastes pretty decent, but it's not for the faint of taste.

Erica and I placed the tanks under the deck today to begin pressurizing the domestic water system. As I speak right now, Tim's water tank is heating up. Also, speaking of the students, I want to thank Collin, Brian Reeves, Erica Fieger, Tim Sennott, Ross Ruecker, Sean Irwin, and none other than Dan Ruffoni for putting in 14 hour days over this weekend. To show the house as best we can, I anticipate we will all be putting in 80 hour weeks until the competition.

As a reminder again, we'll be leaving soon for DC, so please come get a tour before the house takes off!

// It's Friday at 1130PM, but none of the guys working on controls have gone anywhere. To make the Refract House as controllable as possible, our guys have been doing every extra bit of engineering to add a strong level of automation for the homeowner. From programming the smart switches with scenario settings to setting temperatures via the touch screen, they've been pushing. I won't give too many details because I want it to be a surprise for DC.

Speaking of DC, the house will be leaving soon, so if any of you want a tour, please come by very soon. We're down here at Santa Clara University's campus. There are always Santa Clara students here, because we'll be working straight until the house gets placed on Pasha's trucks to get moved out.

The house is looking really nice though. The slate has been placed and it looks really nice. We're in the final lap and we just keep getting faster and faster.