Several years ago there was a news article on the 'Disappearance of the Open House Signs', that sprang up every Saturday morning! It seems many buyers weren't comfortable with their neighbors and strangers walking through their home, without desired results of offers. From statistics, (I presume from the industry) the article stated that an 'Open House' rarely benefited the house in which it was held, and the Realtor usually sold one of their other listings to the potential buyers! So good avenue for Realtors, not so good for your house!

While the threshold will be aluminum, the side jambs will be wood. You should install a flashing detail that keeps the wood from contacting the stone. It could be metal or one of the rubberized adhesive products that will go over the stone and run up the RO jack studs about a foot. Ron

We have a literally 45 degree West facing bank about 12 feet high & 40 feet wide which sits above a flower border, 2/3rds is close covered with hypericum about 12-18 inches high, with odd brambles which I need to kill. The problem is grass appears and seeds between the hypericum, some seed heads attaining 4-5 feet high, which I am anxious to control so grass seeds don't spread futher around the borders. It is hard to access & do much as you often need one hand to hang on! I would be grateful for any ideas. Soil is sandy. The other 1/3rd is on one side & rough grass & ant hills, and this is difficult to strim safely. Paths are either side & above bank.

I don't see anywhere what is the size of the house. Is it mostly one story with a partial second story? The insulation value of 16 inches of blown insulation is about R-49. That should be good for Montana. You should be concerned about the attic area which you can't see and is the cold area. There may be little or no insulation in that area. You didn't say what period of time you burned through 500 gallons of propane. That amount of propane represents 45.75 million BTUs. That is a lot of heat. You have to factor in the furnace efficiency which I hope is at least 95%, and how much was used for cooking and domestic hot water. But the real problem is the large variation of temperature through the house. It could be air infiltration and lack of insulation. Do you like keeping your house at 65 degrees? Because if you set the temperature to the typical 70 - 72 degree range then I think you would see an even bigger temperature variation. The question you need to ask your builder is why is your brand new house is so uncomfortable. You want to know how the bathroom exhaust is vented to the outside and is there a flap on it to prevent outside air from coming in. Also tell him the attic area where you can't see is very cold. You want to verify it is properly insulated and sealed. Let him figure out how he is going to do that.