The End is Near . . .

Greetings all. This blog hasn’t been updated in a while, so I will let everyone know what has been happening. Over the last several months team members have been working 9am-11pm daily to get the house finished. The week before last we gave tours of the nearly finished house to a few groups who specifically asked for tours. To everyone else, sorry we weren’t prepared to give public tours before the competition. I guess you are just going to have to come to see the house in Washington D.C. During this past week we began taking the house apart. It really is weird to see this house built and ready to go getting torn down so quickly.
This week gravel was layed on the lot around the house to better support the trucks and machinery that will be used to lift the house. Volunteers from Rolla Technical Institute (RTI) have been in and out all week working on odd projects that needed to be done. Thanks guys! We are currently loading up a trailer with the tools and equipment that we will need when we get out there.
The PV, battery, and inverter system have been taken apart. The PV array has been disassembled and is already packed into the trailer. We are running extension cords and such from the 2005 house to power are tools and lights.
Also this week we found out renting the Penske truck is going to be more difficult or impossible than originally thought. With out going into the details we are trying to work with another company to rent the truck.
I am not privy to all the details of the move, but this is how I understand the logistics. Starting tomorrow, we will start loading the major house components onto trucks and trailers. There will be crane parked North of the 2007 house and will lift the roof sections and pieces above 8 feet off the house. It will then swing around and set them on a trailer just north of the crane. The house is built in two separate modules (that run east west, a major design difference from the 2002 and 2005 UMR houses). One module at a time will be lifted on jacks from the basement. The house will then slide out on rails and be strapped to the crane. The crane will then pick it up and set it on trailer bed.
On the trip to Washington D.C. we are going to have quite the convoy:
1 Pickup and Trailer
1 Van
1 Rental Box Truck (if the lawyers are able to work something out)
2 Semis each with one of the house modules on it
1 Semi with the roof, walls above 8feet and large equipment (aka the Gem)
I am going to try to update this every other day or so. I might get someone to update it with their thoughts. If you have any questions please feel free to post them here or drop and e-mail to sunhome@umr.edu.