Residents NOW!!!

We have now been residents of 36 Stillwater Way for 3 weeks. Carpenters are still showing up every day but the punch list is getting shorter. We now, as of today, have a fully functioning kitchen with an oven and a microwave. Everything else was installed last week. NO MORE TAKE OUT FOR US!!! Well, at least for a while... The deck is finished and offers fantastic views of the lake and environs. Take a look at the photos below and come visit!!! NOW we have to create memories in this house. We have had visits by several friends for dinner now and it feels great!! Put yourself among our friends and visitors. And in case you were worried, our cat is now reunited with us and annoying me on a every night basis at 4 AM basis again. All is normal. It is perhaps no small irony that with the impending completion of the house, I am spending more and more time in Boston at my new client. Funny how these things work out. A special 'call out' to Deb Smith a great friend and colleague from New Brunswick Canada. She expressed confidence in our ability to pull this together by buying us the sign that states "Welcome to our lake". Thanks Deb! Enjoy the pictures. Matt

A lot has happened...

Greetings to all! It has been a while since I have posted and I am sorry for that. This past week has been the fastest pace yet of our house project yet. And as these things go, there are always ways to further complicate the work load. We moved out of our good friends home on Wednesday of this week - leaving behind for the moment the family cat. She is pretty confused right now to say the least. As we started the process of moving out and trying to get our new home at least marginally habitable in terms of water, air, and a functioning bedroom, there were contractors all over the place. Most of the guys understood the urgency and the reasons and were trying hard to make it happen. One contractor did not quite 'get it' and by holding up his work on the flooring,also held up others. But at the end of today we now have gas to all appliances, water throughout the building - in all the right places - outlets in most of the places we need them, flooring is all down and finished, doors all on, washer and dryer all ready to do their gig. And as an added bonus, we hear the loons every night as we crash into bed... A giant shout out the Reed Ericksons for their gracious hospitality in sharing their home with us for the past 6 weeks. We are deeply indebted to their kindness.

Maddeningly slow

As many of you know that see this posting, I used to travel fairly extensively. Monday mornings I was often on a plan going somewhere far from family and friends. On my return trips, from wherever it was that I had gone, the trip back was usually uneventful - as one wants an airline to be. Basically an airborn taxi. However, even if I was returning from Europe, Australia, or China, the last 10 miles to home was always the very most painful. Flying over Kansas, no problem. Passing the toll booth 5 miles from my doorstep, intolerable. And so it is with this project. We are perilously close to being in but critical work remains and it is this final "10 miles" that is driving me / us crazy. Soon com mon.... Matt

Nearing the move in date!!!!!!

We have painted most of the walls, installed all the hard wood floors (thank you Dan Cassidy!!!), tile is going down, plumbers arrive for final install tomorrow and the main panel is being connected for the switch from temporary power to final. While not official, we are hoping to be in by July 16th or 17. We won't have an occupancy permit but have decided not to wait for that detail while the carpenters finish the last bit of their work. The place inside anyway, is looking great and the weather has been helping the siding to the building progress. Our hosts, Alan and Sharon, have made us feel welcomed and secure in their home. Such friends are a gift beyond measure. SOON!! Matt

The Push is on...

The house nears readiness due to the Herculean efforts of our contractors. The deck is framed, the front portico is nearly completed, the drywall, a major part of what everyone sees, is well underway with completion this next week. Now comes the details of final visits by the plumber, electrician and heating contractors. And of course, we have yet to lay down the hardwood floor which I am doing (what was I thinking!). Site work final work was started today when I rented a dozer/backhoe and had a number of trucks of driveway gravel and 3 inch stone delivered. I also have managed to work the lake side to a level where it doesn't quite look like the surface of the moon. Some pictures follow. The shadow line on the floor is the furthest the sun penetrates (directly) during this summertime months. This is a good thing as the building would overheat without the overhang. Winter suns are lower and the overhand will allow THAT sun to penetrate and thereby heat the building. Note the work to curve the support beams under the catwalk from the main deck to the master bedroom deck. Ryan is an artist. Roof of the breezeway (beadboard). Fir has evolved as our wood of choice on this house. Warm, strong and relatively inexpensive. So with the roof nearly complete the pieces are coming together. Our UNOFFICIAL target to move in is July 11, 12, or 13. Our cat will also be glad as she is terrorized by our good friends the Reed Ericksons cat. She is spending a lot of time outside. Matt

Ok, not so good...

In my last post, I was estatic at the 'blow test' numbers provided by the testing service. Turns out, when he reviewed his data, he had made a fairly significant error and wanted to repeat the test at no charge. We did the repeat and found the infiltration rate really was on the order of 900 cfm - VERY high for an energy efficient house like this. Fortunately we found this out when we could still act on the data. When he came back we spent a lot of time patching, sealing, and caulking any place that not only leaked air but that was like any other place that had leaked air. We managed to get the number down to 800 or so which is a decent improvement but still not where we needed to be. One of the major "leakers" was around the foundation floor where the insulation came up to isolate the floor from the walls. Given that we have about 250 feet of running foundation wall, this was potentially a huge contributor. There were also spots we found that the electrician, gas guys, plumbers had drilled holes in places we had not thought to look since they were tucked down and behind. So in the end this was a positive in that we paid attention to the data. The insulators came in and the plan was to foam the basement walls (cellulose will wick moisture so we had to use foam) and armed with the data we had them focus on areas in the basement we knew to be a problem. We also had a few areas in the south wall that were unreachable for caulk and tape and they foamed those as well. In the end, once we patched yet more holes made by the trades, the number is down to 555 cfm. We feel this is a pretty good improvement and we are on the right path. The thermographic review of the walls indicate that the ceiling, walls and floor are vitually at zero loss. The area now, and I know this is way boring for most folks not bound at the hip with this project, is actually where the shower drain penetrates the slab under the now installed downstairs shower. We have not figured out how to reach this leak yet...but we will. We also know the front doors have not been adjusted yet and leak a little and finally we think there is still some measurement error in that the areas that we covered with plastic (the scuttle for the insulators) could not stand the huge negative pressure of the blower exhaust and kept tearing off the ceiling. It is a pretty good statement, to me anyway, that the suction on the building was so great that we were tearing plastic off the walls even when they were stapled and taped aggressively in place. If a building has a lot of leaks we could not drop the pressure up that low...or so it seems to me. Anyway, insulators done later today. Drywall on Monday or Tuesday. Most mechanicals are done or fully roughed in waiting for drywall. And, as of 7AM this morning, we no longer have any presence on Estes Road having turned over the house to the new owners. A HUGE relief and a HUGE amount of work this week in the final push. Now we have only one house to focus on. Matt

Testing

The big news today is that we had the blow test performed. To give a sense of what the numbers mean, MOST American houses leak 3 to 5 THOUSAND CUBIC FEET A MINUTE. This means that every minute an average American is paying to heat about 4,000 cubic feet per minute. The standard for Energy Star is 669 for a house our size (~2000 ft2) The standard for a very good result is 446 for a house our size. The toughest standard, from Germany called Passiv House, is 268 CFM. Our test involved putting a temporary door in the opening and exhausting the air in the building and attempting to suck the air INTO the building. The tester used a thermographic camera to identify where the air was leaking into the building. Our result, first try, was 328! We identified where we can tighten the building performance by caulking and yet even more red tape. We are convinced we can hit the Passiv House standard on the next test in a few weeks. We did not know if our work and attention to detail would work but it appears that it has. Passive solar and air sourced geothermal only work when the building is tight, tight, tight. I would recommend getting this test done for everyone. The cost is about $250 and is hugely informative. Matt

Convergences

Good evening! First of all, many thanks to those who have continued to express an interest in our rather large undertaking - building an energy efficient retirement house on the lake. The final stages of the project are imminent. Plumbing is roughed in and approved (today), HRV (heat recovery ventilation)system is about half installed, partitions all up and staged for the drywall contractor, garage is DONE with drywall, paint, all doors of all sorts, windows trimmed, metal roof layout done and ordered, and rough in electrical started. Plan is to release the building to the drywallers by June 15th - an aggressive target. We are doing the blow test tomorrow testing the entire house for leaks by applying pressure to the interior and scanning with thermographic instruments. All these disciplines are "converging" onto the site. At one point we had 6 distinct disciplines on the site in addition to us the owners and the building inspector. Part of my role is to help them all play well in the same sand box we will call our home. On other related fronts, we now have the aforementioned garage to store our 'stuff' in so that process starts on Saturday. My brother and son are coming to assist. This initial move is all boxes and we are leaving the HEAVY stuff like the piano to the movers who arrive on Wednesday June 6th. June 6th will be the first night at our friends the Reed Ericksons. We clean the 7th, turn the house over on the 8th. And then our presence at 163 Estes Road will be history in the past...not the present. We closed on the sale last Friday. All for now... Matt

A few momentus days

Wow...The pace has quickened but the road has also lengthened. The now infamous windows are now installed and no one died in the process and no windows were broken. To get a scope of the work here one must realize that these windows had to be installed at an elevation of about 12 feet, weighed in excess of 500 pounds, were unwieldy in the extreme (12feet x 9 feet), fragile and hugely expensive and also critical to the project since they are also energy generators. The long and short of it is that the whole BIG process - the installation of the major front 5 windows took about 3.5 hours and used the efforts of 9 men and 1 woman. Risk was ever present and all hands were watching for it. In one situation, the window that included two french doors and 2 casement windows as one unit, the margin of tolerance to slide the window into the building to then slide it onto the scaffolding was less than 1 inch....in a 12 foot span. Moreover, once slid onto the scaffolding with the efforts of said 9 men, the tolerance into the opening was 1/4 inch in the 12 foot span. That meant that the window basically had to be slid into the openning horizontally - no easy task when one is on scaffolding 12 feet above the ground with a window weighing over 500 pounds. At any rate, the take away is that contractors NOT associated with the specific work being assigned (Jason Parker, Randy Maddock from Brocks), friends (Alan Reed Erickson and Dan Cassidy), and the extrodinary efforts of Ryan Bilodeau (lead contractor / carpenter extrodinaire) and his CAPABLE assistants were instrumental in making all this happen without injury or other bad outcome. In addition, the site had gas contractors, gas stove installers, plumbers, the building inspector and of course, the owners (Karen and me) all in the same general space working intently. One of the interesting aspects that I personally have enjoyed is the HUGE amount of detail in combination with the comraderie of various contractors, sales personnel from local vendors, the Loewen vendor, architects, and regulatory agencies. Everyone seems turned on by this interesting project and is sharing information with me that I dearly need and use. The vast majority of this information is free and is often coached in the "if this were my house, I would".... While some is not what we want or can afford, MOST is "oh, yeah, good point". AND all this in the context of closing on our own house tomorrow morning, managing the costs, enjoying life, packing to move and building a consultancy and working as a nurse (Karen) and a consultant (that would be me). I also found out today that the drywall will take a lot longer than I expected and hence the road has lengthened somewhat. In addition the drywaller will be on vacation the first week of July so if he is not done by then, it will automatically mean a week delay. Here are some pictures, more come tomorrow. Matt

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A big day tomorrow

Tomorrow promises to be a big day. We hope, with assistance from friends (Alan and Dan), contractors and others associated (willingly or unwillingly) with the project to hand the three big windows on the front of the house. In addition to this major event, we have the fireplace contractors, insulators for the garage, the plumbers, and finally the HRV system (heat recovery ventilation) installation starts. The heat system, air sourced geothermal, installation started with each week. We did a design upgrade in the front LVL beam to stiffen it significantly. This is where reality meets design. Interesting process to pick this piece of .25 inch x 3.5 inch steel plate from Novel Steel company in Greenland. It was a lot like the industries I used to intervene with when I was with Tyco and a step back into the 18th century. The front entry portico has been roughed in, the breezeway with bead board fir and fir beams is complete and orders placed for the siding. Pictures tomorrow!

Progress but less...

The interior partitions are essentially done. The BIG wait is on for the roof of the garage. The roofers came yesterday to do it and it was STILL too wet to do the job. They are going to try again Monday before the rain comes in again on Monday afternoon for 3 days. Given that we are now HERE until June 8th, it is a bit less stressful but the schedule needs to be followed or other contractors will be held up doing their work. As it is, deliveries are being delayed as the 'storage' in the garage is not ready. Reviewed the electrical plan for the garage, did a lot of site work to allow the Genie lift to get around, stabilized the dock on the water and cleaned up the site. Some trim was done on the front of the house AND two of the windows went into place. The rest of the windows and the doors, yet to arrive on site, might well be in by the end of the week! IF all that happens, we might be ready for the 'blow test' where the house is pressurized to see if there are air leaks. That will be a big result as there is about 75 rolls of bright red sealing tape in the house on all the seams, junctions, wall and roof penetrations and floor openings. The new owners of our current house have started to store stuff in our garage (their garage) and to fill the wood shed. They are evidently burning dry pine...this is not a good sign. Matt

Windows and Floors!

We now have solid floors as the concrete hardens. The bottom floor - walk out basement was poured yesterday with the first pour at 6:30 AM. A real challenge for the guy who did the work as the specifications from the Architect called for 4 inches of polystyrene to insulate the floor from the cold earth. What was perhaps not fully appreciated was that polystyrene floats and concrete at the liquid stage is mostly water. The concrete guy had a real challenge to keep the polystyrene where it belonged as he swept his machines over the surface. In the end, he did great but at times it was a tad frustrating. We will have to trim some of the borders a bit tomorrow with a sawz all. The windows arrived today from Ottawa. A 70 foot trailer delivered them and it became quickly evident that he could not back down the driveway...he immediately got one set of wheels stuck. No harm done, we used the Lull (a cross between a forktruck and a crane) to transport them down our driveway about 600 feet. The challenge was really in handling these VERY heavy and expensive windows. I am hugely fortunate to have 4 friends to help out with their labor and their ideas on moving these to the actual site and into the building. At one point with the largest and heaviest window, we had Randy from Brocks, the three carpenters then on site, the Loewen window rep, Alan, Adam, Bob Brisboe and myself all lifting on this window and the best we could do was lift / slide it the 40 feet to its storage place. That is 9 guys lifting....and now somehow we have to lift this thing 20 feet into the air to the spot it will ultimately reside. Picked up an error I made for the garage doors...by overhearing Ryan mention the doors were not trimmed in yet...and I thought they were. I had given those measurements to the door vendor 2 days ago. Turns out we are losing 7 inches on the height. Called him straightaway and hope he can make the alterations before we buy doors that do not fit. Entirely my error. And today is my 38th wedding annivesary. Matt

Framing is now very nearly complete. Inside walls up and the unique ceiling conceived and designed by Jesse Thompson of Kaplan Thompson Architects of Portland Maine is up and giving a very unique sense of space. As you know, the house faces the sun and a huge expanse of lake. The ceiling forces the views outward into the near by forest and the lake just beyond. It works really well in this smallish space. The bottom floor "floor" was poured today. The young owner of Creative Concrete was there at 3:30 this morning to prep the site and finish the details before the first cement truck rolled in at 6:30 AM. I was there at 5:45 and he beat me by nearly 2 hours. We got word that closing on our Rochester house will definitely happen May 25th. Wow...14 days away. Not sure how it is all going to play out in spite of the planning we have done. Some things are unknowable. See the pictures below for a sense of where we are at! Matt

Basement insulation. We have used a LOT of incredibly sticky red tape on this project. ALL seams, plastic, piping through walls, plywood sheets that touch, corners of building and countless other 'touch' points all need sealing with this red tape.

Fir rafters on the breezeway. These will have bead board ceiling installed. Another concept from Kaplan Thompson (Jesse) who envisioned coming into the landing area of the driveway and immediately seeing through to the lake. My addition was enlarging this space and exposed fir beams.

Rainy but productive week.

The work continues in spite of the rain. The rain has delayed the pouring of the floors and installation of the roof however. The PLAN for this next week is: pour garage floor (critical to the move out date from Rochester) and pour the basement floor, pad for the gas tanks and the sonotubes for the deck supports. In addition, the breezeway materials are on site waiting for a sunny day which should happen Monday / Tuesday. Then WEDNESDAY we are scheduled to have the windows arrive on site. Several friends are graciously assisting us. Most of the windows will be far too heavy to lift from the truck so we will use the Lull we still have here. One of the windows is a combination window / door arrangement that is 12 x 14 feet so having extra hands to slide that one will be helpful. Inside partitions essentially done. Insulation guy, heating guy, roofing guy and building inspector were all on site this week. It appears that we will be able to use our garage as a SHORT term storage as it is detached and we guarentee that it will meet all local codes. I took a few more photos this week. Some may be hard to interpret so if you want a tour, let me know. We actually have a real work product to show for going onto 2 years of planning.

View from the master bedroom window looking at the lake.

If you look closely you can see the water trails of 2 loons swimming by.

Karens nook on the left back of photo and kitchen framing for wall oven and pantry. This all faces north away from the lake.

This is the eastern edge of what will be the curvilinear shaped ceiling. You can see Ryans template tacked into place. In the background is the entry closet and the laundry room and linen closet. At the far end is the entrance to what will be this next week, the screened in breezeway leading to the garage.

photos!

The weather has held and the crew has been working with dedication. It is hard to tell where we are in the process relative to being 'done'. The inside partitions are started and will be done this week - they go up FAST once they are clear about what Karen and I want....and that frankly is the biggest hurdle. Now that the space has a real time shape, it has moved from the abstract two dimensional drawings to one of concrete 'this is it. this is what we 'ordered' - let's hope it is what we want" stage. The front of the building will be like looking from a mountain down at the lake. The weather has been clear and cool so the skies are reflecting their deep blue into the deeper blue waters of Ayers Lake. The plumbers, as can be seen in the photos, have completed the downstairs rough in. Nick, the son of the owner is there with an apprentice about his same age. This job seems to be nearly entirely worked by youth. Nicer more competent young men could not be found. The windows arrive May 9th and the doors arrive shortly thereafter. It will be a BIG moment as there has been a fair bit of discussion about size and fit. If all goes as planned, the effect will be captivating. It is a much smaller space than we are accustomed to so rethinking identity as a function of space is an interesting exercise. What do I/we need and why do I think I need it? Ryan has been very helpful in working with us to massage the final floor pattern. Creative and intelligent, we've enjoyed working with him, his Dad Gaston (Gus), Chris, Taylor (who is heading to the Marine Corp at the end of May) and Sean.

Master Bedroom

Taught myself how to use the Lull which is basically a cross between a crane and a forklift. I used it to pull the dock out of the water to be fitted with floats instead of poles. I cannot say I was skilled but I can say that in the end, I was effective. Note I did not use the word efficient. Matt

Continuing progress!

We now have roofs - sort of. The sheathing for the roof to the garage and the house are now on. This zip form of roofing is virtually waterproof so it will start to protect the interior to the building for the trades who will start to move in for their work now. The REAL work at the moment is the work on our home in Rochester. We have a move OUT date of May 25th and a punch list of things to get done prior to that as a condition of sale. The house is a shambles as more and more boxes appear out of no where and get filled and taped. Our hope is that the garage at the new home will be ready soon and our move can happen gradually. A shout out thanks to our friends Alan and Sharon who have offered to put us up and to put up with us for the month between our new home and our old home.

Pictures of progress

Here are a few shots of the structure going up. As my previous note indicated, there has been some angst in figuring out a few details. However, at the moment, seems like we are on track.

Heart stopping moments ... amidst progress

The framing is moving right along and we are pleased with the progress and what is taking shape. It has not been without its' share of heartstopping moments. Twice in two weeks now we have found 'issues' with dimensions and design regarding our southfacing wall. Keep in mind that this wall holds most of the glass in the project and that the glass is far and away the most expensive part of the project AND that they are ordered and CANNOT be returned. So if the dimensions and framing of the wall that holds this glass is not built both solidly and in a way that allows them to be installed, we could end up with some pretty expensive hunks of trash. LOTS of animated conversations between the parties involved. Not yet fully resolved in my mind at least on the path...
A large pine tree was taken down this week that posed a risk to the building. Solo and very mature pine trees are very prone to coming down in storms. While I am competent with a chain saw after using one for over 40 years, the risk of taking this one down and the possible consequences made it too much to lay on the line. Urban Tree took it down and it really cleared the space.

A roofer who is way more reasonable regarding the cost has been found so while still over budget, it helped a lot.

Our house is under contract but still working its way through the process. I will not relax until we are clear of the hurdles. No news of real issues with the house inspection but won't know for sure until tomorrow...

The sleepless nights continue and will for a while.

Framing has started!!!

Everything lies in wait for the arrival of the carpenters. The site work, the foundation, the well and septic all were accouterments to the main show...the building.
It has been hard not to pick up a hammer and join in but my role as GC is to support them and make sure they have what they need - not mention earning some money doing some actual paid work. I know that but still....

Pictures of where we are are shown below.
On other fronts, my major client is having financial troubles and cut me loose. Timing is perfect. I'll / we will miss the money but right now it works out well. Finally, we've had a number of showings on the house we now live in. Two couples, one tomorrow, are coming back for a second look. A good sign we are told.

View from the Guest bedroom...want to come visit???

We are as far in as we will ever be out...

The framing starts on Wednesday this week. With all the infrastructure elements all in place and paid for, the building will be a visual representation of all the work to date. When one looks at a home, one does not necessarily appreciate the septic, the power, the well etc. But the HOUSE, well that is a different matter. Doors and appliances purchased Saturday.

By my reckoning, we are about 1/2 of the way through the project which makes us "As far in as we'll ever be out".

Matt

We have the FINAL approval of the septic system!

Ok, I understand why not everyone would be as excited about that as I am. Then again, few others have had to stand in that 12 foot deep hole to shovel sand or dig the tank openings free either. This represents a real milestone as we now have power, water, a foundation, septic, dock, site work, and a driveway - virtually all the major elements PRIOR to the house are now present.

Alledgedly the builders start on Wednesday. I've been working with Brocks to arrange the staging of materials in the right sequence so the site does not get jammed or robbed with too much material hanging around.

On another note, we have shown the house 4 times in the past few weeks. As of this morning, 2 want to take another look at it! We are NOT used to having the house this "polished" all the time!
Matt

Persistance, persistance, persistance

Here are some photos of the site waiting for the arrival of the Herr State Septic Inspector. After shoveling 2 yards of sand onto the tubes and packing it down along with installation of a T into the inlet of the tank we appear to be ready. I'll let you know how it goes.
Karen and I attended the planning board plan review meeting last night. In some way quite well run by the chairperson but the town planner was not well organized and was confusing the process at every turn. In the end, the chairman stated that it did not make sense to put us through all this so lets just ask the attorney for the town what the simplest thing to do was to be able to move forward. Ah, the sweet smell of common sense.
And we now have power to the site. That was finished today.

Todays project

Today the project is to install venting on the septic system. Fortunately it has not yet been used so it is a clean dirty job if that makes any sense. The hole I will be working in is about 10 feet deep (sloping precautions taken). I cut all the pipes to length two days ago so today is digging and assembly.
We are still waiting for power out at the site...COME ON PUBLIC SERVICE!!!
Matt

The process of "Lasts" starts.

As we prepare to erect our new home, we are engaged in the usual spring time clean up and prep of the house we have grown to know and love over the past 30 years. Inanimate objects are not supposed to have personality or feelings but it is hard to imagine that our house does not 'feel' this transition.

As we worked around the yard yesterday in the beautiful springtime weather, Karen and I exchanged many "do you remember" moments. From her playing basketball with our very tall son and winning on occasion by using her elbows, to raking leaves from around the pool to cleaning out the gardens and seeing the buds already peaking out, and conversing with a long time friend and neighbor as he tapped our maple trees - they all had history and memories.

We try to move toward something in our lives and not 'away' from things. For us it allows for a more positive and directed method of living a mindful life. We have caught ourselves in moments of sweet nostalgia wondering about all the history we are leaving behind. We know intellectually it is the right decision and that this house needs kids and families. Emotionally we are not always as sure. The tug of war will continue until we create a home with laughter with family and friends some months distant. Feeling a bit unsettled, we float between the two.
Matt

Work behind the scenes

There is much that goes on that does not actually involve digging holes, pounding nails or moving materials. Yesterday, reviewed the window schedule for the final time and plan to place the order today. This is about 10% of the total cost of the house and arguably the most visible and striking part of the project. The goal is NOT have a door that swings the wrong way, a window that is sized incorrectly, or of the wrong style.
The power should reach the site early next week - just waiting on Public Service to arrive.
Driveway permit paperwork all submitted. Seems they have forms for everything. I had to submit a waiver form to not do an engineering study costing about $1,000 with no visible or tangible outcome. Karen is going to present the application to the planning board...
The house goes on the market today after the realtor visits. We keep looking to June 1 when all this will be behind us. Karen issues her patented LOON call every now and again to remind us of why we are doing this.
Matt

Snow has struck

The 10 inches of snow we received put a damper on the construction project for a week or two. Not a real issue as our contractors were finishing up other work they had committed to. I am confident now that we are at least keeping up with the curve of what we need to do and won't be holding anyone else up. Need to order the windows this week as they have a 8 to 10 week lead time which surprised me.
Our realtor is visiting us this week to list the house and take photos. Aside from the septic permit - a neverending battle with the state and a prima donna designer - the sale of this house will make it all work. That does mean that we will be homeless for a few months if it sells right away.
Matt

The rules keep changing

One of the frustrations with this house is the arbitrary and capricious regulatory maze that we have had to wade through at considerable expense. We started out, and still are, very mindful of the fact that water and wet lands are particularly vulnerable. We hired a local soil surveyor who had experience and knowledge of the area and the area's experts on land surveying. Neither were inexpensive and both had significant delays. We instructed the soil surveyor to adhere to the old law as the new one passed by the state was virtually useless in terms of protecting the waterfront.

Now that we need our system 'recertified' by the state [the system has sat in the ground 'approved' for 16 years UNUSED] we find that it had to be connected to the foundation which we did not have at the time. I was told by the State guy that once connected, he would revisit, look at the pipe [not sure why] and then issue the re certification. NOW I find that he also thinks 'it would be a good idea' to have vent pipes also. And my soil surveyor thinks it is a requirement of the state [unknown evidently by the state guy] to have two plans drawn up showing the current location of the foundation. Can you see the $$$ stacking up? The two authorities don't even agree with each other!

Also we applied for a driveway permit. The old driveway was a tortuous route through others driveway circuits. We are at the end of the cul de sac with NO ONE possible on that end. We own all the way around. We were told that the usual route of getting the road agent to approve will not work and that I have to have an engineered driveway showing location. Again, no reason given really. More $$$. When I called Norway Plains, who did the original survey THEY asked why I was being required to do this as it is unheard of.

And these are the same guys who we want to manage our school system, our infrastructure and our emergency services?

Surveying oddities and Power Poles

Today we signed releases for a piece of our new property to be used by a neighbor and to allow us to use his power pole to bring power to our new home.

The back story is that when we first considered buying the land, we were mindful that most New England land has a checkered history in terms of boundries and history. Therefore we hired a firm to survey the property. As it turned out, we owned about 30 feet of our neighbors driveway that he and his wife had been using for over 20 years. Not wanting to leave unresolved issues for our off spring, we offered an easement to the land without cost if they wrote up the documents. Later, when we were considering how to bring power to our site, our new neighbors graciously offered to let us their power pole at no cost saving us about $2,000. It is an auspicious start to being neighbors.
My brother, who is a notary, assisted by officiating the signing of these documents.
Matt

One of the final 2 domino's has fallen

Today we got word that we are cleared to close on the bridge loan for the new house. Up to now, we've been financing all this out of pocket and the pocket was getting empty. This will enable us to continue to build while we try to sell our house. It is a bit of pushing all of ones chips into the center of the table hoping one has a winning hand. We do have a plan B and a plan C however if we do not sell the house by late summer.

The final domino, in case you had not guessed it, is selling the house. ONE of the goals is to emerge from this debt free or nearly so. Rolling the dice.... Matt

Site work done.

The site work is essentially done. Hugely over budget by $9000 as so much fill had to be brought in. In the end, all looks good and two massive stone walls were built. Getting to the water is going to require stairs for sure. I will be happy when the site guys are gone. We had a fully loaded dump truck tip over onto the foundation when the bank they were traversing gave way. They hit the corner of the garage, argueably the strongest part, and it held. The truck was at 45 degrees when it stopped. It took a big chunk out of the wall and probably did not do the truck much good either. The same outfit took a notch out of another part of the foundation wall with the bucket and put a hair line crack in what will become the wine cellar? or storage? or concrete vault for when I get out of hand?

Posts for the deck are in place which adds a real amount of realism that above those spots will be a 10 foot wide and 45 foot long deck with a hot tub overlooking the lake.

Met with Brocks lumber and I must say they have been excellant. They have caught several errors and have suggested less expensive alternatives to the proposed way of dealing with any particular issue. We have had animated discussions with our architect. For example, they proposed a curved exterior roof that required a membrane roof and glu-lam beams. Total saved when we went to straight salt box and metal roofing? >$40,000. AND we like the result better. To their credit, Jesse proposed a method for an interior that was really novel. We got the part we really wanted which is a curved and to me, 'sensuous' ceiling in the main part of the house. I will post a picture to show what that looks like in another house.
We ought to close on the bridge loan next week. When THAT domino falls, MUCH stress leaves my life - at least temporarily.

I had email conversations with a friend in Arizona who with his wife are looking for a house. Unable to find what they want, they are working to implement their plan B which is putting their 'stuff' into storage and moving back to Minnesota for the summer. It struck me how much effort we put into our space, the karma of our abode and the projection of our personality into our nest. Our thoughts go out to Terry and Muffi.

Work continues with Karen being a house readying fool carpeting, painting, stripping wall paper, towel racks, light fixtures...and on and on. I am reacquainted with the royal 'we'.

All for now. Love to all, Matt

Small update

Site work is nearly done. Inside stone all laid in place. Drainage in place. Have to place column supports this week for the upper deck. 50 foot long and 8 foot high stone wall built. Need to get septic certified this week and apply for a new driveway permit. Bank loan should be finalized this week or early next. House on the market within 2 weeks. We both just spent the weekend in North Carolina visiting friends. We really needed to get away from the many many details.

Environmental approaches

The question has been asked as to what we are doing regarding environmental aspects to this building to make it "green".
The choices really range the whole project. We are using air sourced heat pumps made by Mitsubishi that are good to -17 F in combination to extensive solar exposures with thickened drywall for a heat sink. The south facing wall will be a 14 foot high wall of glass. This brings on other issues like heat loss at night and the possible sheer glare of all that sun. Roof overhangs become critical for shading the interior during the summer. We will have, because I admittedly hedged my bets a little, a small gas space heater on the walkout basement floor 'just in case'. There is no conventional furnace. The building will be extraordinarily tight which drives other choices which basically make the environmental decisions way more personal. For example, as the building will be so tight, off gassing of the typical VOC [volatile organic compounds like 2 common solvents xylene and toluene) becomes a MUCH more real hazard. Hence, we specified low or no voc paints.
The building is earth bermed - much like the one we have now. This eliminates the basement which is a costly piece of a building that typically gets filled with junk. Lighting will be LED lighting almost exclusively.

More later but this will start the discussion!
Matt

An eventful week 2/13/12

We now have a foundation, footing drains, have started the building of a massive stone wall on the lake side edge, a drilled well at 300 feet and 6 GPM, and some of the backfilling has started. The new driveway is in and with luck the bridge financing from the bank will be finalized next week. Up to now, this has all been on our own dime. THAT dime is getting thin...

In later posts I will post some observations and lessons learned but right now, I wanted to post some pictures to give it some context.

Welcome!

We are delighted that you want to know more about our efforts to build an net zero energy efficient home on Ayers Lake. If you want to visit the site, feel free but try to do it after 5 PM. When there are people there, the contractors stop and well, time is money...specifically mine. However, after hours, please do stop by!

A few details about the house. It was designed with Passive House energy standards, the toughest in the world. However, design is one thing, execution is another. As the GC on this project, the details of what can be forgotten and thus affect the Passive house design are intimidating. In addition, with a year or so we hope to be net zero meaning that we create as much energy as we use. The roof is R 60 and the walls R 40. It will have an infiltration test where the house is basically pressurized and we look to see if leaks (from colored smoke) are visible.

As in all adult situations, context is important. Karen is working 4 to 5 days a week as a nurse on a busy OB unit. I am working basically full time with my own consultancy in Industrial Safety. We are getting our house ready for the market (again) with painting walls, stripping wall paper and hiring folks to put down new carpets, repair roofs etc. Plus we have our usual volunteer activities.

So life is good...and very full at the moment...a quality problem to have.









Here are some pictures!