What does this mean? Tomorrow he can sleep in and rest easy as the winds pick up and we're supposed to get dumped with snow this weekend.
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| Roof is on!! |
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| Roof Coma |
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Roof is Done!
Nathan worked a bit later than usual tonight because he was ALMOST DONE with the roof. He had his head lamp on and was putting up the last of the drip edge.
What does this mean? Tomorrow he can sleep in and rest easy as the winds pick up and we're supposed to get dumped with snow this weekend.
J and I got over there just before it got really dark so we could snap a picture and be able to yell in the street like crazy people! :) Needless to say, it's been a much anticipated day!
The treatment for Roof Coma is to veg out! J was happy to assist. She's watching her movie, he's watching his movie. Mom is knitting. Yea!
What does this mean? Tomorrow he can sleep in and rest easy as the winds pick up and we're supposed to get dumped with snow this weekend.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Super Insulated House
"Oh MY! It's such a big house!" is something we're hearing quite a bit now. I want to explain partly why this house looks big:
First of all, the house is designed as two separate living spaces, but with some flexibility for overlap when we want it for big family events like Thanksgiving or birthday parties. As a whole though, at about 3000 square feet, and providing housing for 5 people (Terese, Keith, Kristen, Jocelyn & Nathan) we all work with about 600 square feet each- down to 500 if we have another kid some day- so we are way below american norms of recent decades. Check out this article on sq ft per person for mor on that: http://www.100khouse.com/2008/10/20/so-many-square-feet-so-few-people/
Note: we'd be down to 448 square feet each if we end up have in-home nursing care for "nona & papa" some day...
A second issue is that we decided early on to spend our money going up, not down. With no basement (just a crawlspace) our square footage is all above ground, making our house fit in scale with some of the biggest houses down the street, but actually being a bit smaller from a real-estate perspective...
We also have an issue with "goss" square footage (based on outside dimentions) and "net" square footage (based on usabe interior dimensions- excludes wall thickness). Anyone that knows Keith or Nathan knows that 'building a house' isn't going to be a "normal" house. One of the things about our new house that was not discussed very much up front, was the insultation quantity. We all knew the house was going to be super insulated. There were no objections!
Nathan often talks about his dislike for houses that are built in a way that they are cold in the winter and warm in the summer...instead of warm in the winter & cool in the summer. Well, do have a house that does this, it requires much more insulation than a 'regular' house.
A code minumum house has an R-19 wall. Most construction projects don't go above this value. If you want to know more about R-Values you can geek out a bit here. Our wall insulation when we're done will be at R-50. When the interior walls are built, the thickness from the outside wall to the inside wall will be 12 inches. This gives us quite a bit of space to fill up the void from the outside to the inside framing with insulation.
To give you an idea of the difference this makes, here are some numbers for you.
(The gross is the outside footprint of the house)
The gross square footage of the main floor is 1897 sq/ft
The gross square footage of the second floor is 1339 sq/ft
(The net is the inside, usable space of the house)
The net square footage of the main floor is 1580 sq/t
The net square footage of the second floor is 1080 sq/ft
That's a 24% difference between outside & inside square footage. All buildings have a difference between the gross and the net footage. They are not usually THAT different.
This isn't a common practice (yet) to build a super insulated house becuase of the extra materials cost. Inside framing materials and double the insulation price. When you are looking at your house building budget and you see a value that *could be cut in half, it's pretty tempting to go ahead and do that.
We decided not to.
In order to compliment our super insualted walls we went with the best quality an R-Value windows and doors we could find. Any hole (window) we punch through the envelope of the house is energy we are loosing. We want natural light without having to give up
1. The charm & beauty of a the window (We decided we didn't want to do a basement because we value the light so much)
2. Energy efficiency of the structure.
3. Meets code & egress requirements.
We did order another window to view it before making a final decision. The window did not end up meeting the code requirements for egress, even though that was one of the specifications of the window when we bought it. We returned it.
We did go with Marvin Windows. They are not paying me to say this! Quite the contrary, in fact! :) They are made in America, Minnesota to be exact. They are triple paned. They are easy to clean. They have aluminum cladding (we're not fans of the vinyl cladding), Wood structure (other windows we looked at were torqueing - the window wasn't staying plumb! Yikes!). We don't have to comprise on beauty and detail to get this window!
We put in some mullion details that make it fit into the older neighborhood nicely. They have a screen option that allows one to look out the window and not see the screen and the window doesn't look darker when looking at the house. This is important becuase although we want the windows to look like they are all functional, we have some that are functional in the same bay as windows that are not functional. Plus, it's really cool to look out the window and not have the mesh of the screen keep catching your eye!
We treated our big patio door as a window. The door company patio doors couldn't come close to the R value that the Marvin door had.
Remember how big that sucker was?! We wanted to have the view, the flow and versatility this door would give us in the floor plan, but we didn't want it to be negating all energy perfomance we are trying to obtain.
I think we found the sweet spot with Marvin. Doable in the winter? Yes. Dinner parties that can spill out onto the patio garden? Why, yes, you can have that too.
I think I have Marvin's link at the bottom of the page. If not and you want to know more, Karen at Billings Window and Door is awesome!
First of all, the house is designed as two separate living spaces, but with some flexibility for overlap when we want it for big family events like Thanksgiving or birthday parties. As a whole though, at about 3000 square feet, and providing housing for 5 people (Terese, Keith, Kristen, Jocelyn & Nathan) we all work with about 600 square feet each- down to 500 if we have another kid some day- so we are way below american norms of recent decades. Check out this article on sq ft per person for mor on that: http://www.100khouse.com/2008/10/20/so-many-square-feet-so-few-people/
Note: we'd be down to 448 square feet each if we end up have in-home nursing care for "nona & papa" some day...
A second issue is that we decided early on to spend our money going up, not down. With no basement (just a crawlspace) our square footage is all above ground, making our house fit in scale with some of the biggest houses down the street, but actually being a bit smaller from a real-estate perspective...
We also have an issue with "goss" square footage (based on outside dimentions) and "net" square footage (based on usabe interior dimensions- excludes wall thickness). Anyone that knows Keith or Nathan knows that 'building a house' isn't going to be a "normal" house. One of the things about our new house that was not discussed very much up front, was the insultation quantity. We all knew the house was going to be super insulated. There were no objections!
Nathan often talks about his dislike for houses that are built in a way that they are cold in the winter and warm in the summer...instead of warm in the winter & cool in the summer. Well, do have a house that does this, it requires much more insulation than a 'regular' house.
A code minumum house has an R-19 wall. Most construction projects don't go above this value. If you want to know more about R-Values you can geek out a bit here. Our wall insulation when we're done will be at R-50. When the interior walls are built, the thickness from the outside wall to the inside wall will be 12 inches. This gives us quite a bit of space to fill up the void from the outside to the inside framing with insulation.
To give you an idea of the difference this makes, here are some numbers for you.
(The gross is the outside footprint of the house)
The gross square footage of the main floor is 1897 sq/ft
The gross square footage of the second floor is 1339 sq/ft
(The net is the inside, usable space of the house)
The net square footage of the main floor is 1580 sq/t
The net square footage of the second floor is 1080 sq/ft
That's a 24% difference between outside & inside square footage. All buildings have a difference between the gross and the net footage. They are not usually THAT different.
This isn't a common practice (yet) to build a super insulated house becuase of the extra materials cost. Inside framing materials and double the insulation price. When you are looking at your house building budget and you see a value that *could be cut in half, it's pretty tempting to go ahead and do that.
We decided not to.
In order to compliment our super insualted walls we went with the best quality an R-Value windows and doors we could find. Any hole (window) we punch through the envelope of the house is energy we are loosing. We want natural light without having to give up
1. The charm & beauty of a the window (We decided we didn't want to do a basement because we value the light so much)
2. Energy efficiency of the structure.
3. Meets code & egress requirements.
We did order another window to view it before making a final decision. The window did not end up meeting the code requirements for egress, even though that was one of the specifications of the window when we bought it. We returned it.
We did go with Marvin Windows. They are not paying me to say this! Quite the contrary, in fact! :) They are made in America, Minnesota to be exact. They are triple paned. They are easy to clean. They have aluminum cladding (we're not fans of the vinyl cladding), Wood structure (other windows we looked at were torqueing - the window wasn't staying plumb! Yikes!). We don't have to comprise on beauty and detail to get this window!
We put in some mullion details that make it fit into the older neighborhood nicely. They have a screen option that allows one to look out the window and not see the screen and the window doesn't look darker when looking at the house. This is important becuase although we want the windows to look like they are all functional, we have some that are functional in the same bay as windows that are not functional. Plus, it's really cool to look out the window and not have the mesh of the screen keep catching your eye!
We treated our big patio door as a window. The door company patio doors couldn't come close to the R value that the Marvin door had.
 |
| patio doors |
I think we found the sweet spot with Marvin. Doable in the winter? Yes. Dinner parties that can spill out onto the patio garden? Why, yes, you can have that too.
I think I have Marvin's link at the bottom of the page. If not and you want to know more, Karen at Billings Window and Door is awesome!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Picture Day
I have some pictues my dad took while he was here and a few more I took. I thought today would be a good day for just pictures.
I do want to start talking more about some of the system we are putting in and giving a bit more detail about why this house is 'green', some of the things we thought about when designing and the systems we will have in place once the house is built to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
And with that ... pictures!
I do want to start talking more about some of the system we are putting in and giving a bit more detail about why this house is 'green', some of the things we thought about when designing and the systems we will have in place once the house is built to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
And with that ... pictures!
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| Attic Space |
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| Rafters |
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| almost finished with rafters! |
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| View from front |
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| Gable up, roof rafters in place |
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| the water membrane is on, this is how it will be until next spring when we put the shingles on. |
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| View from roof looking down onto roof top deck |
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| Everyone's working! |
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| Putting up the roof rafters on the back |
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Snow Day
It snowed. A lot. 4" by the end of the day. The guys were going to work, then it really started to come down, so they opted to button things up & head to the coffee shop.
My dad was really sad. He had to go to Cabela's :)
It's kind of nice to have the stress of the first snow out of the way...
My dad was really sad. He had to go to Cabela's :)
It's kind of nice to have the stress of the first snow out of the way...
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| after a 1/2 day of melting... |
Friday, November 4, 2011
Roof, Day 2!
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| Hams! I think this picture says it all! The wonderful thing about this is that I didn't even ask them to do make fools of themselves, they just did it. They make my job so easy! :) I wanted to show you a view from the front of the house. The house shows easily from the east side, but from the street view, the house is very much to scale of the other houses in the neighborhood. Many of the two story houses are at the other end of the street. Yesterday they got the east side gable up. Something we talked about over dinner...this can happen with three people on the job, where as it took Nathan & Keith lots of thinking and doin' to get the other side up, in a much longer amount of time.  |
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| Why I'd like to have him off the roof when the weather comes... |
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| chattin' on the roof...J is always very careful when she's on the roof...and so are we. |
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| hard to believe there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow...blue skys and 55'...maybe it'll miss us... I haven't posted many interior pictures. I think they just look confusing in photos right now. I am however very excited about our new bedroom and bathroom...The bedroom is a bit different than I thought it was going to be, so I've been rearranging furntiure in my sleep.  |
This is from the doorway looking in & to the right.
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| looking down the hall into our bathroom |
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Boxed In
Yeah! We have the front part of the house all boxed in now! The attic floor is framed & sheathed. My Brother-In-Law (Nathan's cousin) is here helping us before the snow flies. My dad also had a few days, so he's here working again to. We're SO thankful to have a bit of help. I've been stressed seeing the frost on the windshield & know that Nathan is going to be on the slick plywood 30 some odd feet off the ground...not cool!
We do have some safety precautions in place. The biggest one being that he puts tarps over everything so the frost/ice is settling on the tarp and not actually on the surface he's walking on. Ok. That's great. Let's just get the roof on and not have to go up there in potential bad weather, shall we?
Erik, Dad & Nathan pulling up the front roofline
Nathan and Erik toss the lines down, Dad connected the boards and they were hoisted up to the roof! See! Cool things like that can be done with three people! It's a bit more complicated when you're by yourself!
More to come!
We do have some safety precautions in place. The biggest one being that he puts tarps over everything so the frost/ice is settling on the tarp and not actually on the surface he's walking on. Ok. That's great. Let's just get the roof on and not have to go up there in potential bad weather, shall we?
Erik, Dad & Nathan pulling up the front roofline
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| You can do cool things like this with three people! |
Nathan and Erik toss the lines down, Dad connected the boards and they were hoisted up to the roof! See! Cool things like that can be done with three people! It's a bit more complicated when you're by yourself!
 |
| Almost there! |
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| Eye on the sky |
More to come!
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