Safe and Sound (or not)

Safe we may be, but Sound we have not. We have an alarm system installed now along with all the other house systems so we are probably safer than we were. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing have all passed inspection and the Framing inspection was supposed to occur today. Also, though we have a whole heap of insulation. We have rigid polystyrene. We have fiberglass batts. Some with paper, some without. We have blown-in fiberglass. We have Icynene. Don't know what any of this is? See the pictures for some brief explanations. The long and short of it is you can't have an energy efficient house (or it's definitely a lot more difficult) if you don't have insulation. And, like I said, we have heaps of it. Our first house in Atlanta had insulation in the roof, but none in the floors or walls (brrr). Our second house had more of it, but it was falling down in the crawl space. This house has it everywhere you can have it and when you walk in and shut the door, it's like stepping into a vaccuum. You can barely hear the street noise at all. The benefit of insulation for energy's sake is that it is also good for sound. Shortly, we will have a painted exterior, drywall, and other interesting stuff.

To answer a question I keep hearing day in and day out....We will probably and hopefully be moving in at the end of August or first of September.

A rare look in the garage with cake batter (Icynene - or spray-foam insluation) on the ceiling.







Spray-foam in the ceiling (cut to fit in the rafters) and blown-in stuff in the walls.

Spray-foam up in the bonus room,

again cut to the rafters.

Spray-foam in the attic

(cake batter again)

Blown-in stuff in the living room.

Gives the room a completely different feel. They staple some felt-like material on the studs,
cut a hole in it and then blow it full (chock full) of fiberglass fluff.




Blown-in stuff in our bedroom.
The diagonal wall is interesting huh?
You can also see the ceiling insulation for sound control.

Spray-foam in between the floors next to the stair.

From St. Louis with Love

We are currrently on vacation in St. Louis, so I will keep this brief, but there has been some exciting new developments which you need to see. A new hadrail on the balcony, more roofing (almost finished) and brackets under the roof highlight the additions. On our way out of town on Friday, we stopped by and were amazed. On the exterior, only a few things remain to make it look finalized. See what you think. Happy Memorial Day!

On The Brink

It seems like during the course of a house, you are always on the brink of something. About to start grading, almost to framing, we should have a roof soon. But now, we are full-fledged in the midst. But we are alas still on the brink. On the brink of being finished with the roof. On the brink of getting electrical and mechanical inspections, along with our Earthcraft framing stage inspection (the realy important one). On the brink of getting paint on the outside. On the brink of insulation and drywall. Its exciting to think there is always something about to happen, and it's exciting all the things which have happened.

Interesting side story: Lura might have a new client. A lady called my office today (bear with me) and our receptionist, knowing that we don't do single family homes, gave her my name in order that I might put her in touch with Lura. Through the conversation, I learned it is a couple with two kids who have relocated from New Orleans. They bought a house in need of some addition and renovation. I told them a little about Lura and about our house. I also asked where their house was. When she told me downtown Greenville and the street. I said, "oh my gosh, that is like 2 blocks from us, we are on Stone". Then she exclaimed, "You're not the Earthcraft House are you??" They want to stay as green as possible with the renovation. It's interesting how some things work out. Lura started out with some potential clients and we ended up with future neighbors. Cool, huh?

Well, anyway, on with the pictures.

Weekly Wrapup

Good evening friends. Welcome to the Weekly Wrapup. The News program that dares to take you where few can go, mainly because we are some of the few people with a key to the door. Friends, as good as our coverage usually is, sometimes still photos just don't cut it. Some times you have to tell the ever-loving truth using moving pictures, with living color and sound and everything. For that we turn to our local partner in media, our local NBC affiliate, WYFF News 4.

There she was, just minding her own business, doing a normal site visit at about 10:30 on Monday morning. She was actually just about to leave, when out of the blue, Mark Allen with WYFF News here in Greenville stopped in with his cameraman in town and asked the carpenter if they could film a little bit and ask a few questions. "There's the lady you need to talk to" he said "She's the Owner and the Architect" So one thing led to another and suddenly we were a feature in the 5:00 news hour. Apparently another story which was being prepared fell through and some of the folks at WYFF, which happens to be around the corner from our house, mentioned that Mark should go over and get some info on "that house we pass everyday".

Lura did a great job explaining our purpose for doing the house and a little about the green features. It wasn't long, probably 3 minutes at the most, but it made us feel like some people out there are interested in what we are trying to do. I was great! They don't have any video, but here is a link to the text article on their website. http://www.wyff4.com/news/13234958/detail.html

If I find a way to upload the video (youtube or something maybe) I will let our viewing public know.

Oh, and by the way....some more siding.

Side Items

We haven't put any pictures on here in several days so there is naturally lots of progress. Siding is in progress now, as is fireplace installation, some electrical work, and oh yeah, we have ducts.

Let's get right to it.

A look into the cleaned up 4-square room (our combination kitchen, breakfast, dining and living room) and Now we have a deck (party coming soon)

A look at out feature wall (more on this later)

A new landing and a new dormer window (and then up to the 3rd level)

Speaking of bonus room!

It's okay, this is normal when testing the plumbing


We have been informed that its not a fascia, it's boxing!

Lura says "Natural light in the stair rocks!"

A closer look at our fireplace and we now have our ducts in a row!

And did I mention siding! (looks like a real house!)
Siding and windows on the entry patio and

SO LONG FROM THE MIDDLE DORMER!

And Now, a Word from our Sponsors....

We've shown a lot of pictures already, but some of you are probably wondering..."What is all that stuff?" And "Why are you using that?"

Well, you probably know by now that this is an Earthcraft house, which means its built a little different. We are trying to conserve materials, create a healthly indoor environment, save energy, save water, and use materials that are friendly to the environment. How do we do that?

Well, see the following for info.
Info on the Earthcraft House Program
http://www.southface.org/web/earthcraft_house/ech_main/ech_index.htm
This will tell you some of the practices and theories behind EarthCraft.

Info on US Green Building Council's LEED for Homes Program
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=147
A National program for rating "green" homes.

Info on Energy Star
http://www.energystar.gov/
Lots of great info! We have Energy Star windows, HVAC, doors, some ceiling fans, some light fixtures, some bathroom fans, and all appliances

Some of our materials and products.
Our Exterior Siding: Hardie Siding
http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/prodhome/default.php
Why?
Low maintenance
Not a wood or vinyl product
Doesn't rot or grow mold
Long life span

Windows: Pella Impervia
http://www.pellaimpervia.com/
Why?
Low maintenance
Energy Star (low-e glass)
Fiberglass (not wood or vinyl product)
Doesn't transfer heat or cold through frame

Doors: Therma-Tru
http://www.thermatru.com/
Why?
Energy Star (low-e glass and insulated door)
Fiberglass construction

Roofing: Ryerson Metal Roofing Panels in Cool Color Silver
http://www.ryerson.com/products-services/roof.asp#
Why?
Long Life Span
Recyclable Material
Cool Roofing Color

More info to come as we fill in the house with stuff!

Pella Progress

We have some more windows and doors now. This is a very good thing. After visiting today, we have all but a couple doors and windows in place, so that the whole first floor is "secure". And since the garage doors are not in yet, or at least they can't install them yet due to the order they must do things, they just put up some temporary plywood to close off the openings. We now have a housekey (a big moment unto itself) to get access to the inside.

Other tidbits:

We went to pick out kitchen cabinets this weekend.

They are starting on siding tomorrow.

We had a delay on our roofing so the roof will not go on for another 2-3 weeks.

Pictures to tide you over are below.

4-Letter Words

In the process of building a house, or at least the process of watching a house get built, you say a lot of them. Some in anger, some in amazement, some in joy, some in confusion.

We had one four letter word instance when someone took a [four letter word] on our site because the port-a-john was locked up except for workers. Joy!

Some people have asked us if our marriage is surviving this craziness. That it is such a strain on life in general that we can't possibly be getting on as usual. This has not really been the case. We still get along fine. We still talk to each other in sensible tones (or at least the same loud tones we would normally). We still say "I love you" and kiss each other. We still go out and pay bills and watch TV and all the usual stuff. For us it's more about counting down. Counting down to the day when we are out of the apartment and on to our next big adventure. As the pieces come together more, it's starting to look like something. Something familiar to us because we've already drawn it on paper. When the slab was in, we were looking forward to framing, when the framing was far along, we wanted insulation, when that went up, we want doors, and a roof, and plumbing, and appliances, and drywall. Is it impatience? Greed? A lack of happiness? Nope, just good old fashioned excitement!


Actually most of the 4-letter words we use now are DOOR, and FOAM, and WIRE, and PIPE. As you can see from the pictures, these are much more worthy of shouting out. You can do it at home while you browse.

Another word - WRAP (as in Tyvek)











Back of the house in mid-FOAM

BATH! (well, shower actually)



PIPE!









This was different 4-letter word

(Oops, I put a pipe in the wrong place in the concrete floor)