Hi Gary
Thanks for your interest in our project.
I believe the R38 was recommended by the local lumber yard to keep costs down. We have a 150K total budget for this project of which we are currently at 2/3 thirds with most materials on hand. Code or not, we started out with a very dry basement that had a tin roof on it and R13 insulation in the walls and ceiling. Locals tell us the basement was built during the 70's cold war era by a local guy that was working on a nearby missile installation pouring concrete, and the materials were "liberated" to build the basement. It is military grade for sure. Very hard and thick and not a crack anywhere after 40 years. The R13 is still in the basement and we have no intention of tearing out all the drywayy to replace it at this point
The log siding is solid log, 9" wide by 2.5" thick in the middle. Underneath that is 1/2" OSB covered with house wrap. The logs are screwed directly through to the 2x6 studs and have been chinked to seal out any drafts.
The window and door openings were all flashed out with 6" window and door flashing, then the windows/doors installed and more flashing over the nailing fins. We have not installed drain pans and to be honest I never knew we had to! Is this for the weep holes on the outside of the windows? If so they are all flashed and chinked for drainage.
We have not used foamboard anywhere but we have used a lot of great stuff in corners, crevices and cracks
Our HVAC guy tells us that he is very happy with the tightness of the building and doesnt feel we will need a lot of propane to maintain comfortable temps throughout the winter. He is putting in the radiant floor heat system with hot water for tubs and sinks, and doing the plumbing, and also installing mini splits for A/C in the summer. In fact, so far the plumbing and heating have been the most expensive part of the budget, eating up 1/4 of it, which are things we don't feel comfortable doing ourselves.
I really need to take some newer photo's as these were taken during the spring and we have progressed a long way since then.
PS: The way we did the window and door trim with log was to rip 4" strips from the middle of log siding, which gave us pieces the were essentially 4" wide by 2.5" deep lengths of lumber. They were screwed around the outside edges of the windows and doors and then caulked to prevent water intrusion. The log siding was then butted up to it and we have since added chinking around all seams. I will get pics so you can see how it all came together with the chinking.
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