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!