What is LEED?

I had a few questions regarding "what is LEED?"

The LEED site says it pretty good:

"LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building, home or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality."

For the source of the information, here is LEED's site.

LEED counts some really wonderful things & passes up opportunities in other areas.  For this reason, we weren't looking for LEED certification, as we were using a higher standard. 

PLATINUM (contender)

Just got back from a couple days of vacation where Kristen and I got a chance to go over the "LEED for Homes Rating system from the US Green Building Council.  There are a lot of different ways to get points, but in just our informal review of the criteria, it looks like we'll be able to get the highest level : LEED Platinum!   We'll have to see if it makes sense to pay for the formal paperwork to actually get ceritified, but it looks like we could make it with room to spare...

It's Potty Time!

Another whole month has flown by-  we are coming up on the one year anniversary of breaking ground!
There has been a lot of progress, on a lot of different fronts, but they are a little random...

Here are a few of the highlights on Nathan and Keith's recent projects:

We did an open house when the Mother's Day runners came by the house.  15-20 people dropped by afterwards and got tours from Terese, Kristen and Keith while Nathan and Gary worked on the front porch posts...

We've had some wonderfully warm weather, and some serial rainy days... tarping up over the front porch provided shade and dry working conditions as Nathan was finishing up the floor framing...

Nathan- installing 1-1/2" styrofoam ("XPS") as planned, on the exterior of the house prior to installing the porch roof...

The first of the pre-cut, pre-painted rafters over the front porch...

And, as a side project, it really is Party (or as we like to say "potty") Time! After months of having the old house for plumbing, we had to have a port-a-poty on site... Now we actually have a working toilet in the house!  Notice the sheet rock! The first few sheets are UP!


Electrical work is still continuing on the inside-  nice to have interior work to do on hot afternoons or rainy days!  Not much for photos there, just spaghetti...

Nathan got the first 2 of about 30 planned raised beds built.  The plan was to do this next spring, but Kristen picked up some heirloom plants- rasberries, strawberries, and fruit trees from her grandparent's place in Hamilto that needed to go in this year, so...

Here they are...  The 3ft by 8ft dimension has worked well for us in the past, and now that chickens are approved for Billings residences, we'll have a "chicken tractor" that can be be lifted onto any bed for the fowl to scratch out a living....

Jocie and Terese working to unload the composted soil from Nathan's truck into wheelbarrows for transferr into the raised beds...

Everyone doing what they can to help keep the project moving along...

More to come in future posts...  Keep in touch!

Whatcha working on?

We are preparing for an open house that we will be hosting on Saturday from 10am-2pm.  The annual Montana Women's Run brings thousands of runners right by our house, so, we're taking this opportunity for some free publicity :)

With this we've talked about how it looks like 'nothing is happening' right now.  We have lots of people asking us "Whatcha working on now?"  The beginning of the project, earth moving & big diggers make for some donut, coffee and a lounge chair event.  Through the winter it looks like from the outside that NOTHING IS HAPPENING.

Well, we that go inside daily DO see what's happening! AND we are seeing all this hard work add up!

In honor of Mother's Day and this run and the fabulous weather, Nathan will be working on the front and side porch and roof lines.  It will look like 'something is happening' and we can take advantage of perfect weather and be on the outside and then move inside on days that it's really hot. (The house is already AMAZINGLY comfortable when it's hot out.  Because the air isn't moving through the house, on the hottest days we've had (80+), I was downright COLD walking in the house.  HOW COOL IS THAT?!  NO A/C in this house!)

For those that don't get to see daily progress add up and wonder what's happening...

Prepping for concrete foundation for the porch

BIG things are happening when Bloedorn makes a delivery!  AND using the Piggy Back!

 

Yep!  That's work!



All switch, outlet and data boxes are nailed in place

Welcome to the crawl space!  This is just the right height for J to help out a ton in!  She can get in and out so quick!  We can squat and not hit our heads, but moving around needs to be done very carefully.  The line in the background is connecting the house to the city water line.  Foreground pipe is not connected yet, so it looks funny...

What could this be?  Why, Yes, that IS the conduit that will connect my solar panels from the roof to the meter at the back of the house!  Contributing to the grid, we will be!



Spaghetti in the ceiling!  Keith has been busy pulling wires everywhere!  Extra lines are also being pulled in.  We have a few ideas for the future of some rooms and are placing the wires in the walls in the event we decide to do these other projects in years to come.  Much easier to do this NOW, when everything is easy to get at. 



Getting those lines to where they count!  Switch boxes!

 

If you take a quick look you can just see 'In Progress', but when you visit everyday you get to see when all the outlet boxes are places and more wiring is in and your fireplace has been framed in. (Dru!  This is for you...see all that pretty light coming in?  Not blocked by a old house anymore!  This has done WONDERS for that room!)



Although this house needs no furnace, the city code requires the house to have a heat source (and apparently they don't think my fridge will be enough ;)  ahhh, how things are a-changin'!).  It's also not romantic to cuddle around the fridge OR knit around the fridge, so we'll be putting in a fireplace.  We could have put in electric baseboards, but really, the same goes for fridges and baseboards...not romantic at all!