House: The Lights get smart

With so many foreclosed houses on the market, a lot of people asked us why we were building a new house - surely, we could find an existing house that we wanted cheap.  Unfortunately, there were probably about 10 things that we figured we would never find and having a 'smart home' was one of them.

Should probably define 'smart home', since most people have different ideas on what that is.  For us, it means that we can control our lights (and eventually audio/video) easily from one central location.  Knowing that we had so many lights in a house that was basically one big open room - we knew we'd never be able to place all the possible light switches in such a way to control the lights the way we would want to?  We also knew with so many lights that we'd end up with a ton of light switches (like 30+) on the wall - and that would just look stupid.

Unfortunately most smart home technology is pretty amateurish.  Don't get me wrong, there are some good options out there, but we needed some rock solid, reliable, and invisible - not something that would be a fun hobby for a few months and then quickly abandoned.

So we went with Control4, which high-end hotels use now to control their lighting automation in guest rooms.  At a high level the installation process is pretty simple -

   1.  ELECTRICIAN WIRES LIGHTS

        Wire the lights just like normal - being certain that each switch is looped to the lights (and only those lights) you want to control with that switch.  You don't want your electrician to take shortcuts by running to the lights, and then a electrical outlet, and then another set of lights in another room.

   2.  ELECTRICIAN WIRES 6-BUTTON CONTROL PADS

        You (can) place control panels (imagine a light switch with 6 buttons or a video screen) in places you would normally put a light switch.  They are not physically wired to anything ... they just need to be powered individually.

   3.  DRYWALL THEN INSTALL SPECIAL LIGHT SWITCHES

        Once the drywall is up, you install the light 'switches' (technically they are 'dimmers').  They look almost identical to a normal paddle light switch, but they are totally different on the inside.  You can turn on a light on and off just like you normally would for a light switch (invisible), but there is also a ZigBee wireless receiver and transmitter inside the switch that allows that switch to receive commands and relay commands to the mother ship (think DVD player sized appliance).

   4.  CONTROL4 GUY IDENTIFIES YOUR SWITHCES

       Your Control4 installer comes in a identifies all your switches - takes an hour.

   5.  CONTROL4 GUY (or YOU) PROGRAMS SCENES and CONTROL BUTTONS

       You program the buttons to specific lighting scenes you have setup.  For example, you probably put a 6 button control panel (step 2) next to the garage door.  So when you walk in from work, you push one of those 6 buttons (that's an event).  You were able to program with a PC what happens when you push that button - say, the mudroom lights turn on for 20 minutes, the kitchen lights turn on after 5 minutes, and (future date when my bank account recovers from this house) plays music to your favorite channel.

I know it sounds kind of geeky and a guy thing, but here are some things I didn't realize until later.

First, it saves you energy (and you can get tax credits for an install), because you can set these lights to turn on to 80% light level (instead of 100%) - something you won't notice visually, but you will notice once you see your light bill is 20% lower.

Second, it has some major family management powers.  Live in a huge house or yard where you have trouble rounding up the kids for dinner?  A button can be programmed to send an email or a tweet to your kid's phone telling them that dinner will be ready in 5 minutes.

Third, it's convenient. I tell you, the ability to turn off all the lights in the house and know that all the lights in the house are off - it's a Godsend.

House: The Lights

Lesson #1653 in Building a House ... lighting is expensive.

I know we all go to Lowe's on the weekend, and see lights that are affordable and inspire you to redo the dining room ... the fact of the matter is when you're building a new house, the lighting industry is controlled by the mafia, and they'll take you to the cleaners if you're not careful.

Typically in building a house, the general contractor gives you a lighting allowance of, say, $10K or $20K, which sounds like an incredible amount of money.  They send you to the local lighting specialist, and they do a great job showing all these wonderful lights - unfortunately, you end up paying top dollar for them.

I didn't like the idea of someone telling me what lights I should have in my house, and then sell me those lights - it's a recipe for financial disaster.  So instead I hired a lighting 'expert' to draft something out, ended up having my architect fix some issues and pick some things out, and then I went shopping on the internet myself ... it took me a really long time.  But I really saved a fortune, and I was really happy with the results ... I figure if I went the full on retail route, I would have ended up with a bill at least 3X what I ended up paying.

Keeping in mind that my old house was about the same size as my new house ... my old house had about 15 lights ... the new house has 88.  

So definitely hire a lighting designer ... or a really good architect that has some skills in the area.  If an architect is adept at looking how you move through a space and balances form over function - a lighting designer does the same thing with just lights.  It's always good to hire people that specialize and are passionate about a specific field ... the couple hundred bucks you pay them, pays you back for decades to come.

Also, find a great online source that you trust and has high quality material.  If you buy something cheap, you won't keep it for long - ending up spending more money in the long run.  The choices online are amazing, and I don't think it was hard to picture something in a space.

Finally, watch the budget.  It's really easy to get out of control - so a little extra time running up to Restoration Hardware for a clearance item could end up saving you a lot of money.

The lights can be all found on Pinterest

House: Radiant Heating

So the vast majority US houses are heated in winter by forced air systems.  Some kind of fuel heats heats up air, and that air is distributed throughout the house.  Notably exception would be wood stoves and radiant floor heating.  The heat rises so usually a fan is used to make sure the air is mixed throughout the house.

Since our house was too insulated to put in a wood stove (and we didn't want to mess with the wood issue), and we had lived in places in Europe that had the radiant heating systems - we opted for that.  Essentially tubing is placed in the floor, which is then encased in concrete - once the thermostat recognizes the need for heat, hot water is pumped through the floor - thus heating the house.

That's the 50,000 foot view, here's the painful details ...

Since it is not a common idea in Indiana, and hence there is a tendency to only put it in higher end homes - the initial estimates on doing this kind of HVAC system were RIDICULOUS (as in $45K).  In the end we ended up doing a lot of the manual low skilled work ourselves and only calling in the experts to do the hard stuff - end cost was around $6K, I think.

Step 1: Find a radiant floor supplier.

   Through several phones calls, I found a plumber/HVAC guy (thanks Eugene !) that gave me the confidence that I could actually tackle this - even though I was DIY incompetent.  He got me in contact with an actual radiant floor supplier ... Viega.  What they were able to do was take my house plans, and setup a tubing map for the basement and first floor (we didn't bother (and didn't need in the end) heating the second floor).

   The detailed tubing maps show you how you need to run the PEX tubes in the basement and first floor.  They have a little software program that takes into account exterior walls, etc; and so you end up with an effiicient distribution system.  For example, you want the floor next to an exterior wall to be heated with the hottest water, and you want the tube lengths to be relatively equal (although they can adjust later).

   Also make sure they know how you want to heat the hot water ... they should be able to size the heater or tell you how many BTU's/hour you need.  Since there are so many different ways to heat water, you want to make sure they know your plans.

Step 2: Lay the tubing at the right time.

   In the case of the basement, the four loops for the 800 square foot space needed to be installed BEFORE they poured the concrete in the basement (or crawlspace) - pretty early in the building process.  Since you need something for the tubes to hold on to, and gravel wouldn't cut it - we had to put down 4' X 8' metal wire (something you put for the concrete floor anyway) and attach the tub with zip ties.  Totally low skilled manual work that you can total do on your own.  Seriously ... you CAN do this on your own, but even if you hired someone, we're talking an $8-$9/hour, not a $30/hour kind of job in this part of the country.

   In the case of the first floor, the 6 loops for the 1400 square foot space needed to be installed basically after the drywall was installed.  Why?  Better fit and finish.  Although you have to make sure the concrete guys don't throw concrete on the walls willy nilly, it makes a total sound proof basement and removes the need for baseboard trim on the first floor (which can cost a lot), since the 3" of concrete make a nice clean finished line.

   You do install PEX tubing differently when you're dealing with plywood, since instead of zip ties and metal wired sheets, you are stapling the tubing (carefully) to the plywood.  A power nailer with a $20 attachment will protect the tubing from being stapled - but even if that happens, it's not a huge deal.  You basically just do what any plumber learns on his first day of class - cut out the bad pex, and join the two ends together with a metal joint that probably has a technical name I should know - see, I'm not a DIYer.

   Other keys to keep in mind ...

      - Keep some excess PEX tubing on each termination, but don't feel like you have to go crazy ... the plan from Viega will tell you where the end goal of all the tubes need to end up, but it's not like you can't extend the tubing easily on the final steps.

      - Make sure your lumber supplier knows that you intend on putting 3"+ of concrete down on the first floor - since the floor will need more support from the extra weight.  We did I-Joists, which we probably would have done anyway for their no squeak abilities.  Also put down Sturdi-floor plywood.  You are guaranteed that your concrete will crack (that is part of it's charm), but the Sturdi-floor will keep it to a minimum if the floors are poured correctly.

      - Don't get amateur concrete pourers ... not all are created equal.  You want guys who are clean (so you don't get concrete on the walls), and you want them to understand that this isn't some sidewalk outside, but will end up being the finish floor of your house.  Again,  the floor will crack, but no sense making it easy for them, or not putting in expansion joints.  Also spring for the pump truck - you'll need it to get the control you want.

     - Worst possible disaster is if you have a hole in the PEX tubing and the concrete is poured ... you can't fix that.  So ... test the system JUST before the pour by pressurizing it (plumbers do it all the time and know how (I used a low tech bicycle pump).  And once you know it's fine, guard it like a hawk.  For example, ANYONE walking on the floor should be watch so they don't puncture it (hard to do, but again, you don't want the 1% chance to become a reality, because you'll have a mess).

Step 3:

   Setup the heater and water distribution manifolds.  You (or rather your radiant installer) do this once you have the proper utility and electricity installed in the house - so this is one of the last things you do in building your house.

   Again, your Viega reseller or supplier should be able to tell you what heating unit you can use.  They are usually resellers of a certain product and know how to install them.  This bit takes a good two days, and it's not a job for a newbie plumber (even though it's 90% plumbing work) - make sure they have experience installing this type of heating unit and radiant heating system.  Viega reseller should know the right people (otherwise how else would they be able to sell their equipment).

   Essentially the system works like this ...

      House drops below thermostat set point and sends a call to the heating system to send up more heat.  A small water pump moves water through the boiler (which has also automatically turned on) and run the hot water through the manifold (think 1 big in, 1 big out, with the in and out loops connected in the middle.).  These manifolds can be manually turned on and off, so if you have an area of your house that you don't want heated (e.g. guest bedroom), then you have true zone heating.  Once the house reaches temperature then the pump and boiler turn off ... pretty basic.

     Unfortunately it requires a whole bunch of things like an expansion tank, small pumps, controllers, and a lot of (expensive) copper tubing.  Keep in mind the water is essentially closed - so you hardly ever add water once it it initially primed.  That means water that might start at 135, might go through the floors and drop down to 105 before going back into the boiler.  But heating from 105 to 135 is a lot better than starting at 70 or 50.

    I would have to look at my notes again, but taking the the heating element out of the equation (since that all depends on your energy source, house size, and insulation), I want to say half of the cost was materials, and the other half was labor.  Of the labor, the majority (90%) was for doing the final manifold install (I didn't pay myself but in coffee).  But even if you don't want to lay the tubing yourself - say two people at a high $10/hour should only take one full day for each floor (in my case 1400 square feet) - so $200 smacks per floor - cheap.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

   - The hard part is the technical design and manifold install - which would be the case with any HVAC system.  But you can find the experts to help you.  You should know early on in the design process of your house if this is going to work for you.

   - It's cleaner, since you're not blowing hot air around ... in fact, we don't have any air supply or returns except for what we needed for the HRV or Humidifier, so the look in an open house is cleaner.

   - The system is incredibly efficient.  Funny story ... initially when the system was installed (Sept), and when it started to get really cold (end of Dec), we noticed that the system had a hard time keeping the first floor at temperature ... we had it set at 70, but we saw it dropping to 68 or 69 when it was really cold.  So we called the installers in to take a look.  Turns out they had 5 of the 6 loops on the first floor (and 2 of the 4 loops in the basement) shut off by mistake.  So essentially we had 1 loop heating the entire first floor, when it was only meant to heat 1/6th of that floor.  Once they turned the right knobs, we never had an issue.

   - Concrete rocks.  Don't make the mistake of putting in a radiant floor heating system and then castrate it with a carpet or wood flooring.  A rug here or there is fine, but you don't want the heat to be smothered by an insulating material - especially carpet.  I'll do an entire post on concrete later, but in short - you can stain it easily to be any color or texture you want (so why add another expensive floor covering on top of it), it's not a cold and harsh (quite the opposite when you have hot water heating it regularly).  And best of all ... concrete can be cleaned ... really cleaned ... and cleaned easily.  Once you see the dirt that you pull up from a concrete floor, you will ask yourself what is really sitting in your carpets.  I'm not a clean freak, but I'll never go back to carpet ... ever.

   - There is nothing like radiant floor heating - and once you live in a house with it, you'll NEVER EVER go back to forced air.  Forced air needs to heat the whole house, and since heat rises, that's a lot of volume to produce and move.  With radiant floor heating, you are heating solid objects, and most of the (subtle) heat hits your feet first and stays in the bottom 7' of the room.  I don't know about you, but if my feet are warm, then I'm comfortable.  I think we made a mistake in those huge Victorian homes when we removed the steam radiators (essentially another form of radiant heating) and replaced it with forced air.

House: No air conditioning

As expected the house is not typical in the way it is heated or cooled - would you expect anything less.

So how did we cool this house ... uh, we didn't.

Since the walls are R42 and as tight as a balloon, and we didn't want to mess with a bunch of air returns flying through the timber frame; we decided to forgo air conditioning.  Personally we are not fans of air conditioning ... it's just too cold and what we would find later with our electrical bills - too expensive.  But I totally get if people think we're crazy.  The day I was putting in the wood floor upstairs in the middle of July, temperatures reached 105 degrees, and humidity in Indiana - albeit not as bad as places in the South - is nothing to sneeze at.

After a full very hot summer of this grand experiment I can tell you that the summer was surprisingly comfortable.  Don't get me wrong, there were days when we just sat on the screened porch and watched the chickens fuss about drinking sweet tea - but it's completely manageable.  Considering we probably ended up saving about $800 in lower electricity bills, it's a total do again.  Here's what we learned ...

1.  The key is not how hot it gets during the day, but how cold it gets at night.

       We actually shut all the windows in the house during the day, to keep the cool air inside.  We opened the windows at night when it got cold.  Sounds like a pain, but we only had about 4-6 weeks of running around doing this, and we only opened a few key windows.  Basically whatever the nighttime temperature got down to, that was the temperature during the day.

      We should get even better, once our plants have a chance to shade all the possible places where heat can come in.

2.  A fan takes the edge off

      We installed one in our bedroom (look for an efficient one), and we found it made us feel about 3 degrees cooler, which can mean a big difference when nighttime temperatures have not dropped below 90.

3.  You adapt

      Just as winter makes you slow down and rest for a busy season of planting and harvesting, so does the high summer heat.  You do move slower.  Most of the people who came to visit found the inside temperature surprisingly manageable - but many who just ran in from their air conditioned car and were still moving fast took awhile to adjust.

4.  There is a backup plan

     In the event we tire of this no cooling in summer thing, we did have backup plans.  And keep in mind, eventually the house will need to be resold to someone, and right now, you need an air conditioned house, apparently.

     First, the radiant floor heating system can be converted into a relatively easy radiant cooling system.  In fact, the people who did our system also did the Indianapolis Airport which is cooled in summer by radiant cooling as well.  Basically you just tell the system to pump 70 water through the floor if there's a cooling call from the thermostat - but honestly, we don't see doing that anytime soon.

     Second, we put in a whole house dehumidifer - since that is essentially what an air conditioner is doing.  We figured that we could handle a 90 degree day, what we didn't want to deal with was the 95% humidity that went along with it.  In truth, we didn't really turn it on during the summer, since it takes about a day to make it worthwhile, and usually the nights were low enough to want to open the windows.

Sorry if that sounds a little hippie to those of us familiar with a Hoosier summer, but believe me, it works.

House: Flooring (Concrete and IKEA)

Since our house is pretty much open, our flooring options are pretty simple.

With the exception of some cool tile in the bathroom, the second floor is entirely from IKEA and their Tundra laminated flooring.  It was super cheap $1.20/sqft and easy to install - and considering we just aren't up there enough, it's perfect.  A proper wood floor would have run at least $6/sqft, and we had other places to put our money.

The first floor was a little more interesting, since we had some overriding requirements.

First, the first floor had to be all one level - I'm talking no bumps more than 1/4" even coming in from the front door, going out to the porches, or going into the shower.  Why?  Physical access.

   I've had elderly family members that have or had issues in mobility - so that little bump is a huge hurdle for them.  My sister also did a lot of work with people in wheelchairs, and it just made me realize how challenging just one step can be.  And I plan on dying in this house ... so now changes in elevation at all.  That's a really challenging requirement, if you don't know your flooring when the founding is being dug (literally) - everyone needs to get on the same page, because it is something they are just not used to thinking about.

Second, since we had radiant floor heating, we didn't want anything to insulate the heat - so wall-to-wall carpets were out, and wood wasn't a very good option either.

Third, we needed something durable ... we have dogs ... with claws ... so a soft wood would look like crap in a few years - you should see my old house.

Fourth, we wanted something cool ... ever fearful the timber beams would make the house look like a cabin in the woods, we needed something a little more modern - not cold, but modern.

So what did we end up with?

Well, with the exception of a cool tile in the shower, the entire first floor is concrete.  We were initially hesitant ... Patrick wanted a wood flooring, but we just kept asking ourselves, would the covering really be worth the extra $10K ... so let me deal with the reservations, since I had all of them.

CONCRETE IS TOO HARD

    Yes, concrete is hard ... I prefer solid, but I get your point.  I can certainly go barefoot in the house, but if I'm walking around for 4+ hours, I'll feel it in my heels.  And probably when I'm 70, I'll feel it in my knees and hips.  

   Solution: Use rugs and slippers.  I only have one large 12' X 15' rug in the open plan house, but it's enough of an island to take out the concrete hardness.  The slippers also soften anything better than the top of the line carpet pad - so if I do start feeling it - rarely now, it just reminds me to put on slippers.

   But here's the dirty little secret ... most people in the US who don't have a basement are essentially living on a concrete slab anyway.  Most starter and track homes that are not on a basement don't have a carpet pad at all (the carpet is actually glued down), and the few that do are of such a low quality that there is no shock absorbing power - a pair of socks would do a better job.  Yes, you might have a quality pad, and it's probably doing the job, but if you are on a slab and you didn't put in your carpet, you might be shocked to pull it up.

CONCRETE IS TOO COLD

   It is, when left to its own devices, which is a great thing in the summer, when a cold floor actually feels good.  But in winter it would suck - unless of course you have radiant floor heating, which we do.  Again, can't go back to forced air.  If you are thinking of concrete and not radiant floor heating ... it'll still work, just try real hard to insulate the slab underneath if all possible with several inches of rigid foam.  Might not be possible, but you want to avoid those finished breezeways between a garage and main house that is essentially uninsulated concrete slab - yikes.

CONCRETE IS TOO MODERN

   Which most people associated with 'cold'.  It can also be warm with the right stain and treatment.  Suffice it to say you can make concrete floors look like ANYTHING ... wood, tile, marble, sand, whatever ... it's all in the stain and artist.

   In our case we just went with a nice soy-based concrete stain ... do NOT pay anyone to do this for you, since it is way too much fun to do on your own for $30 per 1000 sqft.  Since you're looking for an interesting texture and uneven appearance, you just need to basically apply it to the floor like a 5 year old would ... the more uneven splotches, pools, and drips the better.  If you have this urge to roll straight lines like you would when painting a wall - call in your dog and 5 year old to get the job done - I'm serious.

CONCRETE IS TOO UNFINISHED

   Uh, stain is a beautiful thing ... go find real life examples (not just pictures), and you'll be surprised.

   We did make the mistake of not putting on a heavy gloss sealer, and now it's extra work to move furniture around, but that totally glosses up the finished look.

CONCRETE WILL CRACK

   Yup ... part of the charm, and get used to it ... again, if you're going for pristine, then get rid of the kids, the dogs, the cats, any plans to eat or cook in your house, and wear sterile lab jumpsuits with fluffy slippers.

   I'm not saying this is 10 year old sidewalk cracking with chunks ... I'm talking about a fine line of cracking is likely in one or two places.  In our case the guys who did the concrete for mudroom is perfect with no cracks.  The main house has two cracks, but I think the guy kind of sucked and didn't put in the stress lines like he should have.  No one notices them.

That's all the negatives I could think of ... here are the positives.

THERMAL BATTERY

    It is by far the best material for the regulation of temperature (both hot and cold in your house).  Next to our air tightness, it is probably the #1 reason why our house can stay warm without a furnace during the coldest winter days (-25F) as long as the sun is shining.  And it is also the #1 reason why in summer, we don't need air conditioning.

    Again, if your house leaks like a sieve, then this is probably less of a bonus - but it's worth something.

AESTHETIC

   It is a very cool look ... not cold modern, but very simple, clean, and warm (our color is a brownish orange adobe).  Since it's all one solid pour, it just brings the whole house together.

ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND

   The stain itself can be very earth friendly ... I used a soy-based one, and it was very easy to work with ... like water.  Some of the muratic acid stains basically make you throw away your clothes once you're done, but this was very nice.  Can't speak to the high gloss finish - although a soy-based one exists, it didn't get the job done.  So I'm on this new one, that I don't wanna do until I can open the windows ... it melted the plastic container already.

   Although concrete is not the most sustainable material, it is recyclable, it doesn't require an additional floor covering, and it lasts long enough to pay back it's environmental costs (that floor ain't going anywhere).

CLEAN

   Quick cleaning is dumb easy with just a broom - since the surface is so smooth, it's faster than pulling out a vacuum and plugging it in.

   Super cleaning a concrete floor is dumb easy ... throw some hot soapy water down, scrub, and then suck it up.  Yes, you need to avoid the couch, but still.  But let me tell you, once you clean a concrete floor, you'll never have wall-to-wall carpet, because you just wonder at what must still be left in the carpet.  Granted we have two dogs, that have outside access on demand, so they bring in some dirt during certain times of the year.  But I'm still amazed at the dirt I pull up each week on a floor that looks pretty clean.  This isn't an exact science, but I'm talking dark brown to black water from a 200 square foot area that didn't look that dirty to begin with (and we don't wear shoes in the house at all).  

   The key with concrete is that once you clean it, you know it's clean (if I were to go back over it, the water would be crystal clear) - whereas carpet has just too many places for dirt to clean to despite the best carpet cleaning commercials.

COST

   Again, I'm cheap, but this is a big deal.  Since flooring comes in at the end of your project, and it's something that you could skimp on - most people forgo that $20/sqft Brazilian exotic wood and go for something simpler ... and they probably should.

   This is where you get into a little game of the chicken or the egg ... do we have concrete because we wanted passive solar and radiant flooring heating, or do we have concrete because we liked the look or it made it easier to do one level on the first floor?  Who knows, all I know is that I don't have a significant expense of floor covering ... we're talking anywhere from $6-$20/sqft for a decent floor covering (we couldn't do $1.20 IKEA laminate on our first floor - it just wouldn't make sense).

   Bottom line: Although you can always do a laminate and that would probably win for most affordable floor covering.  If you want something more substantial, then concrete with a DIY stain finish is perhaps the most cost effective floor finishing available to a home owner.  You figure a cubic yard of concrete costs about $300 around here, and it'll cover 108 square feet 3" thick ... that's pretty cheap compared to some crazy Brazilian exotic wood.

Again, none of this is going to mean anything unless you like the look, and you really can't tell what it'll look like unless you see real life examples.  The online resources are OK, but many remind me of that textured wall painting that was big in the late 80's ... go see examples, order some samples, and take your time.

House: The Kitchen

Back in a previous life I was a caterer, so in addition to being able to make a nice lunch for 100 of my closest friends, I also ended up seeing a ton of kitchens ... mostly in 10,000 square foot abominations on the north side of Indy.

   Some of them were really funny (or sad depending on your perspective) ... one kitchen had an island the size of a small room, so that most of the space was unreachable ... the cleaning woman needed to actually climb up on the counter and clean it like a floor.  Another had huge Viking commercial appliances, which wasn't so bad until you realized she hired a caterer like me to cook her weekly meals every night.  Another kitchen was in a huge 1000 square foot open space, but the usable counter space to actually prep meals on was about 2 linear feet.  Finally ... the best ... one house had actually two kitchens - one bare bones, austere thing where real cooking took place, and then an entire show kitchen that no cooking was actually done in, so when people come over for parties, the "kitchen" was NEVER a mess ... bizarre.

   Not to say I haven't seen my fair share of poorly design kitchens on the more modest budgets.  Most of my friends track home kitchens lack a drawer big enough for silverware.  There is a love affair with Lazy Susan's, which might as well be called black holes.  And the use of granite ... people, it's not the only stone in the World ... and quite frankly, it's not even close to the most interesting.  In general there's a theme where they look big, but the actual work space is either limited or the work triangle is too inefficient.

So what were our requirements in the kitchen?

   I don't think they were significantly different than what other people want, but here are some of odd ones.

   We like the idea of people being able to talk to me when I cook (and see them), but I don't like the idea of them actually being in the kitchen while I cook.  Not only are they usually in the way, but I don't like people seeing my dirty dishes.

   Space needed to be very efficient - usually for one person cooking, but easily expandable if I was doing canning or group cooking things.  Since the entire first floor is only 1200 and had to accommodate a master bedroom, space was tight.

   Since it was an open house concept, I didn't want the kitchen to be so dominant that I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, and I'm thinking - ugh, there's that huge kitchen over there.

   For the cabinets I didn't want any Lazy Susans (which meant no corners), little to no overhead cupboards (they are just wood boxes shoved on a wall), and all solid drawers (no pull out shelves).  Cabinets needed to be solid and last.  Any loss in cabinet space would be made up from a walk pantry nearby.

  Since there was no gas coming into the house, the appliances needed to be all electric, but I really didn't care for electric stoves.  There were other little requirements on appliances, but that's mostly personal preference.

So what did we end up with.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but essentially the house is a long galley kitchen in the middle of house.  The kitchen is basically divided into two areas ... dirty and clean.

   The dirty area is only about 7 linear feet and consists of a big farm sink flanked by two dishwashers, and the other side has the double ovens, frig, and a bit of long shelving.  It is all concealed from the open concept of the house by the staircase to the second floor that forms sort of a roof, and a half wall and hanging ceiling cabinets that provide a small bar area on the other side.  The design was actually kind of inspired by Panera ... where they have the kitchen and a half wall hiding all the activity and mess.

   The clean area is right next to the dirty area and consists of the induction cooktop and open countertop island and back countertop - total square footage of this countertop area is about 50 square feet - so there's a lot of work area.  There are no overhead cabinets ... everything is just big drawers.

   The end result is a very efficient kitchen - it's only 4' X 15' of actual floor space (the area that gets mopped), so very easy to move from one side to another.  Since it's hard to see typical kitchen equipment (the induction cooktop is all flat and blends with the countertop), it's easy to make the kitchen blend in even when it's essentially right in the middle of the house.

So what were some of the lessons learned?

  - GET TWO DISHWASHERS

      Best idea ever !

      This sounds crazy, but think about it for 2 seconds.  Not only is it usually cheaper to put in a $300 dishwasher, than another 2 linear feet of cabinets.  The best part is that you never need to empty a dishwasher ... once the dishes are cleaned, you just pull out the dishes as you need them.  By the time the other dishwasher is ready to be washed, you've unloaded 80% of the clean dishwasher over the last several days.  As far as storage ... the extra dishwasher is essentially storing dishes for you anyway, so you don't lose anything - you actually gain quite a bit actually.  Added bonus when you are having a big party ... make sure both dishwashers are empty, and you have a super easy cleanup after the party.

   - GET HEAVY DUTY DRAWER HARDWARE

      Drawers are all about the hardware (on the inside of the drawer) ... if you're planning on putting heavy pots and pans like we did, make sure the drawers are rated for that weight.  It's usually only about $20 for the weakest to the strongest, so you're not talking a huge additional expense to put it in a bunch of drawers.

   - SHOP AROUND FOR CABINETS

      We ended up going with some Amish cabinetmakers - but we looked all over including the big box stores.  I'd give you the name, but so much of a quote depends on how badly they want or need the work, it's too variable.  Suffice it to say I got high quality (3/4" plywood) hickory front cabinets for way less than a big box store (they were pricey).  The price ranges for essentially the same plywood box was kind of astounding.

    - GO WITH SIMPLE AND BASIC CABINETS

     The simpler and more basic means that you won't tire of these cabinets and want to remodel in 10 years.  Ironically the cabinet that looks worse in the store is probably the best from a cleaning and "I won't get tired of it" stage.  We just went with very simple hickory and straight lines.  If you're doing a lot of rope work trim and filligree doodads, you're going to find it dated and need a redo too soon.  Nothing wrong if you want that look, just put that in your financial calculation that you'll remodel sooner.

    - GO WITH A PANTRY

     Basic quality cabinets can easily run $250 a linear foot - that adds up REALLY fast.  Throw in some cool doodads and before you know it, you've spent more on this kitchen furniture than all your other furniture in your house combined - and the kitchen furniture is just storing cans of tomatoes and pasta.

     A cheap alternative is to make sure a nice pantry is next to the kitchen.  A run to IKEA for some shelving, and you've got a place to store food like a Mormon household for pennies on the dollar to the full on cabinet solution.

     - TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT LIKE SOAPSTONE

      Granite is actually common now, but there are a ton of cool solid surfaces you can try.  We ended up getting slabs of soapstone and cutting them on site to fit (they are soft enough to cut, but I would still keep the cuts to a minimum).  Looking back I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, because it was a lot of work and risk (esp to my back) - but we did pay $40/sqft as opposed to $130/sqft.

       The look works better for our style house, since it's more modern rustic - whereas the high hard gloss of granite might be a bit too formal for us. Quite frankly, I found granite to be too hard in our old house - and I didn't like it that much.  Bottom line: there are options.

      - THINK THROUGH HOW YOU COOK

       I know books have been written on kitchen designs, nor is there a lack of people willing to design a kitchen for you.  But for me, cooking and living is an extremely personal thing, and I don't think a stranger can really compensate for an hour of thoughtful reflection on how you cook.

       Yes, they will help you make your kitchen triangle small (ours is the smallest possible, I think, at 4' X 4' X 4', but you need to do a lot of thinking on your own too to stay away from trends and things you don't need.

        For example, everyone seems to like stations ... some are great, some are not so great - depending on your needs.  If you are a master pastry chef and regularly use specific tools for that work different from other cooking, then by all means setup a pastry station.  But in reality, I cook in the same 3' wide area most nights - with the exception if there's a big party, and I need to spread out a lot of different dishes.  Since the entire kitchen is small to begin with, it's not big deal to reach for what I need.

        Another example ... the trash can ... where is it going to go, where does it need to go?  Most commercial restaurants have it VERY close to prep work.  It would be a shame to plan this beautiful kitchen, and you end up with a plastic bin sitting in the middle of those $250/lf cabinets.  But then on the other hand, do you want to spend $500 for a cabinet to store trash?

       In our case we took a high but narrow (8") restaurant trash can and made a gap between the dishwasher and cabinet.  It's totally hidden, holds a large amount of trash, and basically didn't cost us a thing.  I'm amazed when kitchen designers don't suggest even this most basic option.

       - CHECK OUT RETURNED APPLIANCES ON EBAY OR SEARS OUTLET

        I saved a fortune by buying my appliances on EBay.

        Even with the shipping, I was able to get "unsuccessfully delivered" appliances that had a minor scratch or dent for huge discounts.  How much?  Let's just say retail, I would have paid $15K (they were mostly Bosch), and I ended up paying about $3K.  Yep, they usually had a dent in the front (sometimes in the back where you'd never see it), but I told myself I would first pull out the dent with a special tool I got online, and if it still bothered me, I'd buy the replacement panel.  I haven't even bothered to pull out the dent yet, since it's not a concern.  For the dent on the fridge, I just covered it with a $1 magnet.

        I did have to setup searches for what I wanted, so it took a couple of months, but it's not like I needed them right away anyway.

        There's another trick for induction cooktops (which deserve their own post for how well they work) ... the model I got is about $2000 retail, but I ended up paying $800, and a tank of gas.  Why?  Basically people don't understand induction cooktops, so they buy them without knowing they won't work with some pans (e.g. copper, cheap pans) - so they return them.  Since our country has no patience for an open box - they have to discount heavily in order to resell it.  Considering you can always buy or extend the warranty - this was a no brainer for us.  Just look on various outlet sites, and you'll eventually find what you need if you patient.
 

House: How do you ventilate a balloon?

WHOLE HOUSE VENTILATION VS BATHROOM FANS ...

   Let me start of this post by saying that I am not a licensed HVAC professional, I'm just a homeowner that wants to build a house that doesn't make me sick and is as easy on the pocketbook as possible long-term.  I've found with building this house that you just ask a whole bunch of questions to a whole bunch of people, and eventually you end up with a consensus that you feel good about - no where is this more true than in the World of "not yet conventional" HVAC design.  So disclaimer: this information is distilled from a lot of very knowledgeable and talented HVAC professionals, but be sure to use it as a guide and not a bible.

   Since our house was built with SIPs (structured insulated panels or really thick walls of rigid foam) instead of traditional 2X4 building, it is extremely air tight.  Specifically, a blower door test that was conducted before hanging drywall came back at 1.8 air exchanges at 60 psi, which means that if we could take all the leaks in the house and consolidate them into one opening, it would equate to a 10" X 10" opening - that's really good.  In comparison, my blower door technician says if you really focus on air leakage on a new home with stick framing you might be able to hit 5 air exchanges per hour, but typically it is 6-8 - until us he had never seen a structure under 3.  The worst house he tested was an old Victorian fixer upper in Bloomington that scored 23.  Although we have not retested since drywall went up, we think we're under 1 air exchanges now - which is about a 50 square inch hole - since we were able to identify the existing leaks with an infrared camera (totally cool, eye opening, and total different post) and drywall helps tighten up the house somewhat.

   So what does this have to do with ventilation and bathroom fans?  Quite a bit.  Although you often hear, "You can build a house too tight" and a better statement would be "Build tight, ventilate right."  Usually you are building tight, because you are trying to control energy costs - remember, you might have the most insulated walls in the country, but they aren't going to keep you warm if the window is wide open in the middle of winter.  Even though an open window would provide most of the ventilation, it defeats the purpose of the original investment if it's too hot or cold outside, and you still haven't solved the higher ventilation needs of bathrooms.

  The solution devised by those anally-retentive Germans and adopted in the US for tight homes was to install an HRV, or Heat Recovery Ventilator, that will exchange the heat (but not the pollutants) of the stale interior air with fresh exterior incoming air, while also warming or cooling the air as needed as they pass (but not mix) with each other.  Typical systems are 80% efficient, meaning they recover 80% of the heat or coolness of the outgoing air ... the HRV we used is 95% efficient.  They are definitely an 'extra' expense in home building, but I'd rather go with cheaper tile and faucets in exchange for a house that won't make me sick (google 'Sick House Syndrome').

   So how do I install them?  Not too hard, although there are some things you need to make sure your installer does right.  Obviously plan this out on paper first, and if you're worried (and have a little extra cash) get a mechanical engineer to make sure your runs will balance out - you want to make sure your diameters and run of ductwork are such that the system will balance out (more on that later).

   First, make sure the intake of fresh air and the outtake of stale air is at least 10' apart.  Really no point ventilating your house with the crappy air you just vented out.  In our case we made sure our intake was pulling in the freshest air (would not be close to a gas grill, the dog bathroom, etc.) 

   Second, place the supply and exhaust in strategic locations.  Just like you don't want the vents outside to be next to each other, you don't want the interior supply and intake of stale air to be next to each other - you want the whole house ventilated, so spread them out.  Start with placing the intake for stale air in the bathrooms - they have the worst air in both moisture, microbes, and let's just say 'unwanted smells'.  Once you have those set, put the fresh air supply on the other side of the house where it makes sense - just think how the air is going to flow from the supply to the intake across the house and see if it makes sense.  Don't try to pull air directly from the kitchen ... too much grease to clog everything up.  Again, your ventilating the whole house, so that salmon dinner you just cooked is going to be gone in minutes anyway with the HRV chugging away.

   Third, don't use bathroom fans - seriously.  Took me a while to realize this one, but basically you are trying to exchange air in a balloon, which means you need to balance the incoming air with the outgoing air - I think installers have the house SLIGHTLY pressurized.  Too much coming in the balloon pops, too little the balloon deflates.  You add a bathroom fan, then you are randomly increasing the pressure in the exhaust and throwing the whole system out of whack.  Remember, you are still meeting the code requirements of venting the stale air out of a bathroom to prevent mold growth etc (you're actually doing a way better job than any small bathroom fan) - you are just letting the HRV do its job the way it's suppose to be done.  Some installers will setup a switch in the bathroom to turn on the HRV remotely after the bathroom is used, but that's probably a hold over from the bathroom fan only ventilation design ... HRV's work best with their little touch screen programmable system is left to work its magic - operating at a low constant flow rate to clear the air and maintain the heat recovery process.  Yes, the touch screen is not free, but I'd rather pay $300 for that than $300+ in fancy wiring across the house.

   OK, that's about it for my diatribe for HRVs ... if it inspires one person to put in an HRV, the purpose is served.

House: The Water

Crazy House Idea #3324

Hey, I know ... instead of using well water, why don't we collect the rainwater from the roof and use that instead.

Actually, it's not as crazy as it sounds - civilizations have done it for millennia, it's about half the cost of digging a well, and the quality of the water is much higher.  Not to mention you don't have to have a water softener, lug bags of salt down into the basement, or even have spots on your dishes.

So why doesn't everyone do it ... not sure.

But let me back up ...

First, I hate well water ... it's fine for plants (or maybe not, who knows), but I really don't want to have to deal with the monthly maintenance of softening the water or fighting a losing battle with rust.  Our property actually has a well on the property - which is good, it's close to the future orchard - but that's not something I want to drink.  Also we're right next door to a farm and other houses in the area ... no telling what they have dumped in the Earth and eventually found into our well water.

   City water really isn't much better, since you also have no idea what is in it, and you're trusting someone else to tell you that it's safe.  Let's just say there are a whole lot of chemicals that the Europeans have outright banned that are free game here.

Second, water is the next oil.  Talk to people in the West or get a couple more droughts like we had this summer, and you can see why that securing your own water supply is pretty important.  I'm totally OK with sharing a resource, I'm just not sure other people are too good at it.  There are just more and more stories of someone not sharing too well with a common resource ... see what Nestle did to a Michigan town with their water bottling plant, or what Coke did to a local Indian community.  The laws are just not there for someone to come in and over-consume.  We haven't had a civilization fall due to lack of oil, but we've had tons that have failed due to lack of water.

Third, I just think water cachement is just way cooler and healthier - given the proper precautions.

So how do you do it?

Step 0 (As in before you buy, dig, or move anything): Plan it out.

     Every site is different, from where you can put a tank, how much rain you get, how much water your family needs, and how much water are you going to be able to store. One of (if not the) biggest cost in any sort of water cachement system is the tank.  It needs to hold potable water, and the ones that are strong enough to be buried are expensive (to buy and ship).  And you want to go big ... to not have us worry about running out of water in Indiana, we need a 5000 gallon tank (that's for just 2 people who are really good with laundry and dishwashers) - hence why those 50 gallon rain barrels just aren't going to cut it long term.

    Our solution was to buy an above ground tank and put it in the basement before the first floor was put in.  I know, not an option for an existing house, but you might have a garage or barn that might protect the tank from the sun (and avoid algae) - or you could just paint it black.  Freezing might also be an issue in your area too, but American ingenuity should solve that one pretty easily.  You'd be amazed how well burying a tank by a couple feet with a little insulation on the bottom will protect you from freezing.  Sounds like a hassle - but that above ground 2500 gallon tank was $1K vs a below ground of the same size of $5K.  And when you get much past 2500 gallons, the size becomes extremely expensive to transport.

   A decent filtration system isn't cheap either (I think we paid $2K), but that easily was offset by the savings of no water bill.  Again, your budget will dictate what you can do realisitically.  Sorry if I don't apologize for the costs ... for me, it's really just about priorities, and fresh, clean, safe drinking water is a higher priority than pretty much anything else I can think of economically.

Step 1:  Get the right roof ... in our case, a metal galvalume one ... there are probably cheaper materials, but what you're looking for is an inert material - and asphalt ain't one of them.  Related to the roof ... you will want to minimize the leaves from nearby trees getting into your water, so gutter guards might be necessary.  This wasn't a big deal cost-wise, since we had already decided that we want a metal roof to keep the roof cool when we were building a new house.

     If you have limited options due to cost or where your existing house already is, you should try to think of just putting some metal roofing on an existing structure (e.g. utility shed, garage, barn, or stand alone shelter).  Even if you need to use your house roof, put some metal sheets on a hidden side of the house.  The bigger the roof area the better, but you'll see from the rain calculators out there - roof area is only one part of the equation (albeit a big part).  I know it might not be aesthetically pleasing, but you won't care if it's the only safe water supply you can control.

Step 2: Pre-filter ... before the water is stored in your tank, you need to run it through a pre-filter - it just saves you on the filters later down the road.  Lots of people have come up with different mousetraps for this - but you're basically looking for something that'll keep the leaves and big crap out of your tank (ours stopped a toad once).  You could go with a roof washer that basically collects the first several gallons of water before collecting the water that goes in your tank.  We just went with a German model from Graf that basically run the water over a self-cleaning fine mesh screen ... lower maintenance and you collect more water that way.

    Again, if you're trying to do this on the cheap, there are quite a few options with PVC pipes that take the first few gallons of water and are very easy to fill up.  Again, a lot will depend on your area - if you get a ton of water and no drought during the year, you won't miss the first couple of gallons.

Step 3:  Pump the water out.  Notice I didn't say pump the water and the inevitable sediment despite a pre-filtering step.  Our system has the pump extract water from the middle of the tank with a floating mesh screen.  Sediment has a tendency of either floating on top or settling on the bottom - especially if you add water via a calming inlet that prevents the water from being churned up every time it rains.  Pulling it from the middle is perhaps the best way to get 95% clean water.

    Even in the event of a total failure of your filtration system, the fact that you pulled the clean water from the middle of the tank will make a huge difference.

  It's good to note at this point that we also have a water pressure tank that connects from the pump in the tank to the filtration.  You basically don't want your $500 pump kicking on every time you wash your hands.
 Step 4: Seriously filter it.  At this stage the water is probably good enough to shower and bathe with, but no sense taking chances ... we'll run the water through a series of micron filters until particles are less than 1 micron and then an ultraviolet light that'll kill any bacteria or virus.

Sounds terribly complicated and a maintenance nightmare, but short of changing some filters and UV lightbulbs every year or so - it's pretty much maintenance free (paying a water bill takes longer).  And it's pretty much free - once you invest in the startup costs.  That's becoming a bigger and bigger deal.  When I moved into my first house 12 years ago, my water & sewer bill was $10, now it's $50 - I suspect because it was $10 for too long, and they didn't maintain the pipe network - but hey, that's just a guess.  So not having a $50 water bill every month - that's huge ... it would cost me $15K in solar panels to reduce my electric bill by that much.

I know that's all very high level - so if you need/want/ready for the technical stuff - here's the gist.

   - EQUIPMENT - Save for our tank and little things like PEX stuff, we bought all our supplies from rainharvest.com.  They've been around for a long time, their prices were reasonable, and they basically did the technical engineering - what size filters, pumps, etc.  This is not an endorsement, nor do I get anything from them - hey, they may suck now (we did it in 2012) - so buyer beware.  I'm just saying they worked for us and were honest - and we came across quite a few hucksters in this process.  The technical engineering was pretty important, since there was one guy who wanted to charge us $5K for just some design (that probably wouldn't have worked anyway for our specific situation)

   - PICTURE - I had a great Prezi demo of our system that might give you a better visual - but I'm not 100% sure it's working.  I'll work on it.

        http://prezi.com/cgwlg9uomron/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

SO DID YOU RUN OUT OF WATER?

No.

After this summer in Indiana, the first question you are probably asking yourself is what about a drought - long answer on that one ...

First, you can do a calculation that determines how big of a tank you need to get your family through the unpredictability of mother nature - droughts included.  By taking your average rainfall each month, how big your collection roof is, daily usage, drought periods, etc ... make it a worst case scenario by a factor of two or three ... and you get to a pretty safe number.  In our case, it was a 5000 gallon tank - that's big.

    As I mentioned above, we ended up with a 2500 gallon tank in the basement - it takes up enough space as it is.  After 6 months, we added another two 1000 gallon tanks in the barn that we can transfer into the house if needed (we've had to do it 4X in 2 years).  We also added a 6000 gallon tank, but it's not hooked up to the gutter yet.  Bottom line, once we have the 6000 gallon tank online, we'll have over 10K gallons of water, which is a 6 month supply based on our usage.  Dude, if it doesn't rain in Indiana for 6 months, we have other issues.

Second, although we are certainly not depriving ourselves of water ... when the tanks are full, I have the longest guilt free showers you have ever seen.  But it does make us more aware of where our water is actually coming from.  When the tank inside gets below 600 gallons, and I'm not seeing any rain in the forecast - I'm delaying the laundry and stop watering the garden.  Even though I have the water in the barn, it's just a lot easier to not have to mess with transferring it with a hose (maybe someday I'll automate it more).

   So it's a great experiment.  Our grandparents used to do it in Indianapolis, before we started to get city water, and they didn't have the benefit of micron filters and UV lights.

First month update: For the month of October, we've had few if any issues as we work out the kinks of the system.  Our pre-filter is OK, but it's not 100% self-cleaning (some sort of white stuff seems to come in a lot, so it might just be a seasonal pollen), so we might want to think of a roof washer at some point, which just takes out the first couple of gallons.

       The water collection is perfect - we had two big rains in the first week, and pretty much filled up the tank - since then it's fluctuated between the 1300-2300 gallon range, which we think is about perfect.  It'll be interesting to see how we manage through winter, but once we get our savings account setup in the Spring with the extra tanks, I think we'll have no issues in having enough water.

       The water quality is absolutely amazing - not only does the water taste great (no metal taste at all), but it also doesn't leave any spots on dishes ... no need for JetDry in the dishwasher.  I think it also cleans our clothes way better, but that might just be that we had a crappy washer before.  It completely changes your water usage habits ... we know that come drought, we'll have to conserve, but when the tank is >60% we have no qualms about taking a super long shower.  I think we're saving a bit on heating water, since the water is inside and starts at 70 degrees instead of 40 or 50.

       So yes, it took a bit of work to work out the details and set it up, but I wouldn't say it was dramatically more than putting in a well and having someone hook it up - we just had to hook it up ourselves.

       The water testing results (still not done) will have to be another post entirely, since it's not a simple case of "is your water tested?" - probably a better question is "What is your water tested for?"  Yes, we can test the water for e. coli, but are we going to test it for every single bacteria and virus that is known to exist?  Probably not.  I haven't found a test that says, "So how many live microbes made it past your filters?"  Apparently tests for pesticide residue are huge right now, but it's more of a curiosity thing to test now in winter and then again in spring or summer.  The residue would have come from what landed on the roof essentially.  So I need an expert.

House: The Windows

Here's a phrase you will hear often from me now ... the industry is corrupt.

So let's start off with the window industry ... the window industry is corrupt.

But first some background ...

Obviously if we're spending some extra cash on some insulated walls, the idea of buying windows with a single pane of glass and no insulating value doesn't make much sense. Since windows have a totally different function than walls - one you can actually open, close, and see through - I'm not expecting the equivalent of the R40 walls - but you want something decent.

Really tight homes seem to be gravitating towards fiberglass windows ... they don't lose as much heat, and they have less air infiltration over time because the window and fiberglass (being made of essentially the same material ... ummm, glass) is expanding and contracting at the same rate. Well, at least that's what the experts are telling us. Their energy performance is also generally better, and they'll even put a sticker on your windows that shows how good the window is at insulating and allowing solar gain into the house.

So why do I think this industry is corrupt?

Well first, like most products that consumers buy only once or twice in their lifetime (as opposed to something like toothpaste or gasoline) - the price range on similar products is huge. Four quotes on the same windows ranged from $16K to $28K (that's a 75% spread) - and not surprisingly, the $28K didn't itemize. And the quality was extremely similar. Where I think you have quality issues in windows is when you try to buy a common brand (think Pella, Anderson, Marvin), because you have to pay for their marketing budgets. And when you try to buy from a big box store like Lowe's - the price might cheap, but the quality is so low, you won't be happy with the windows. Remember, a lot of the things that are important on windows are kind of invisible to you and may not be obvious initially - like how much will the window deforms over time and leak air into your house.

This is also a favorite area for general contractors to recoup some of their margins. The name brand manufacturers have builder quality lines that are just barely above code - so the GC can say you are getting, say, Pella, windows, but they aren't very good quality.

So who did we go with - well, no one in the US - the few manufacturers in the US either had crappy quality or were out of sight price wise - and we just couldn't justify it. Keep in mind, the highest performing windows are at an equivalent of, say, R6 - where the next step down which is half the price is going to be R4 or R5. And they are all using the same glass, and they are all using the same fiberglass frames.

So we went with a Canadian fiberglass manufacturer.  There was definitely drama, so I'll just give you the high points ... we got quote from all 4 Canadian fiberglass window manufacturers, picked the cheapest, spent (I shit you not) 3 months trying to finalize an order (we didn't change ANYTHING on our side), and finally looked at the other 3 ... one had a fire at their plant, but didn't tell us that for 3 months, one was super expensive, and the last was just right ... took 48 hours to finalize the order and 6 weeks to ship.  Yes, there was some frustration with them actually shipping the windows after the 5 month ordeal - but they were solid windows.

Bottom line:  Order as early as you can to avoid this crap - and give them a couple weeks to put it together otherwise move on.

Oh, other design issues on windows ...

We didn't go with the traditional double hung windows - instead we went with casement and awning windows - they are the norm in Europe, and we always preferred them to the leaky double hung windows. I mean, if I was living in the old part of Boston, Massachusetts, I could see using traditional double hung windows - but there's no need for today's houses to be like that. I'm not opposed to a traditional design choice, it's just that sometimes it's good to think why you are making that decision.

The other design decision that went into windows was basically turning our windows into sails ... Since we were mostly using casement windows that would swing out ... we placed them and hinged them in such a way that they could capture as much air flow as possible.  So basically if the cooling winds are coming from the northwest, we have windows on the north and west side of the house that tries to capture the wind.  Sounds like it wouldn't make a huge difference, but let me tell you ... you would be amazed at how well it works.

On the solar gain thing, the US is a bit behind on that one than the rest of the World. Basically windows are measured by how much solar heat makes it through the glass - and in order to be considered an energy efficient window in the US, it has to be very low - as in only 20% of the solar heat can actually enter the house. But sometimes you want a window with a high solar gain - especially on the south side of the house. Considering it's easy to block the sun in the summer from the outside with an awning (we used to do that a lot 100 years ago) or some plants, having the heat stream in in winter is a pretty good idea - it's called free heat. So the windows on our house are kind of a mixture ... windows on the north and second floor try to block as much sun as possible, windows on the south side try to bring in as much heat as possible. There's still a debate on what to do with east and west windows, but I think if you have a plan where you can reliable block the solar gain from the outside, then I would sign up for the free heating in winter.
Windows turned out to be one of the top three most frustrating areas of the house for us ... from starting the final order process to having them installed took 6 months ... and again, the window requirements from our side NEVER changed.  Ahhhh !!!  Still brings a little chill to me months later.

House: The Walls

I know, not the most exciting subject - probably only interesting to people building an energy efficient house. But hey, a lot of thought went into this one.

Most US houses are built with stick framing - think 2X4's with fiberglass insulation between. Research indicated that the insulation value is about R9. It also suffers from not being the most solid construction relative to other methods.

Another option was an enhanced stick framing - basically make the walls thicker (like 12 inches) and then throw in a bunch more insulation. It's the cheapest way to make an insulated wall, but we weren't fans.

Since we were already doing a timber frame house - a structural insulated panel (SIP) seemed to be the most logical option. It's basically some type of rigid foam insulation sandwiched between two pressed particle boards of OSB. You basically have two choices in the insulation material - EPS (think cheap styrofoam cooler you buy in the grocery store) and polyurethane (think the yellow insulation you find in your refrigerator. The latter allows for higher insulation values with the same thickness. The other advantage with the company we went with (Thermocore) was that they'll take you building plans, have their computer cut the panels precisely (including window openings), and also run the electrical conduits on the exterior walls at no additional cost.

The guys at Thermocore love their 4" product, since that is the standard wall thickness and makes installing doors and windows easier. But we went with the thicker walls - 6.5" - it was only a little more cash and the r-value was 40 - (I'll skip the debate I had with my HVAC guy on the degradation of polyiso over its lifetime)

A note on cost ... with the budget and design pretty much set, I can now speak with some authority on the topic of whether SIPs (specifically polyurethane) is more expensive than stick framing. If I'm comparing the simple cost of materials - then stick framing is cheaper - no doubt. SIPs cost us $46K, whereas we'd probably get by with $28K on materials for exterior framing - $18K difference. SIP labor is probably half at $5K vs $10K because the SIP factory has done all the cutting and the structure goes up in a week - the difference is now down to $13K. The walls are R40 instead of R9, and the house is much tighter, which means you save on the size of a traditional HVAC system - we didn't go traditional HVAC, but I'd guess we'd save about $5K with a smaller HVAC system - so we're down to $8K difference. So for a 2400 sqft house, I'm paying an extra $3/sqft for R40 walls as opposed to R9 - depending on heating and cooling costs in your area, you can get that money back pretty quickly. So if you're planning on building a house that is going to be around longer than you are - I'd say it's worth it.

At the very least when you're at this stage of building a house, and you hear the "Oh, SIPs cost more than traditional framing" - make sure you ask them "How much?" and "Do I save in other places in the house that help make up for the premium?"

House: The Timber Frame

Yes, the house is a timber frame - basically really big pieces of exposed post and beams timbers with mortise and tenon joinery.  If you ever saw the movie 'Witness' with Harrison Ford or lived in Alsace of merry ole England, you know what I'm talking about. 

I probably heard of the concept of a timber framed house when I was in my teens, and I was watching 'This Old House'.  And I had followed the blog of a US builder of new timber frames for years - who was promoting them for their sustainability features (it's a flexible structure that can be repurposed over the centuries).  It seems Patrick had similar experiences, and he brought up the idea of building a timber frame house about 2 years ago - thinking I would poo-pooh it, he was surprised that I actually knew what it was and wanted to do it.

There are basically four variations of a theme if you want to do something with timber frames.

1.  BUY EXISTING AND RENOVATE ON SITE

You can buy a piece of land that already has an old (and probably falling down) timber frame barn on the property already, and then restore it.

   Sounds crazy, but these barns are more common than you think.  At one time they were across the midwest every 40 acres.  Most have been lost (once the roof goes, it's pretty much downhill), but if you drive around the countryside and look for them, you'll still see them.

   We actually thought about buying a piece of property that had a barn on it - for about 5 minutes - but it's pretty hard to find the right size land, right barn, and right price.

2.  MAKE NEW

You can have someone build you a barn to your own specifications out of new timbers (usually Douglas Fir), and they'll even put it up for you.

   We thought about that for about a month, until we realized how incredibly expensive it can be (~$100K for a 30'X40' structure ... I'm talking just the frame ... you still need to put up walls, HVAC, windows, etc.).  Keep in mind, we're talking about something that is strictly aesthetic ... like choosing marble tile over ceramic tile, or putting a painting on your wall ... so $100K is a big chunk of change.

3.  FAKE IT

You could get the timber frame look by buying some timbers from an old barn and then attach them to the walls somehow.

   I've actually seen this done in production homes to make them feel homey.  I personally hate the look, it just looks fake (like the plastic window shutters that are too small for the windows).  And, of course, they aren't structural. 

4.  MOVE ONE

The last option I can think of is to find someone who already has a barn (and doesn't know what to do with it), dismantle it, and then move it to your location.

But be warned, it's not as easy as it sounds - since construction is all about the details and fantasy hitting reality like a hard brick wall.

We actually did option #4 ... despite the risks, we would rather save a barn than have something new - and saving some cash didn't hurt either.  Once we got into it, we realized that these barns are really about our history, and they are rapidly disappearing.  The issue is that their original purpose (raising animals on a small farm) is now essentially gone - so unless we give them a new purpose (in this case, a house), then they will eventually all be gone - those roofs don't last forever.

We originally were thinking of moving a barn of one of our friends, but unfortunately, it didn't work out.  Even if you get the frame itself for free, there are still some significant costs in just dismantling.  And although many have tried to just pull it down with a chain and a truck - they just roll over.

So advice on timber framing ... find one that's already been taken down ... and for that, just do a quick google search.  You'd be amazed at the number of people who have frames sitting in another barn somewhere.

Although an already dismantled barn has distinct advantages over other options - you are also introducing an awful lot of risk - which I look back now on and think what was I thinking.  The main risk is that you have to trust the current owner that the dimensions are correct and that it can be put back together in one piece.  Usually those barns are taken down for a reason - like a rotten timber - so make sure part of the deal is that the guy you're buying from has to put it back up.

We did end up making some alterations to the barn ... we had to increase the slope of the roof in order to make the second floor more liveable ... so that required extra timbers.  One timber in particular that I had to find was a 40' long ridgebeam - not very easy to find, let me tell you.

But all in all, it went very smoothly.  Just be well aware of the risks involved and some of the hidden costs (transportation, crane rental, etc).

So here's the barn in its original location, which was actually the NE corner of Ohio.

Turns out the barn was built sometime between 1840 to 1850, so it was the first in the area.  The timbers are hand hewn and they are significantly larger than barns built just a few decades later when the saw mills were cutting standard sizes - so some beams are 14" square instead of a more typical 8".

We kept the original footprint of the main part of the house ... so that's roughly 30' X 40' ... we had ended up changing the roofline in order to make the second floor more useable.  And we bagged the side section (we need to replace some of the rotten timbers).

So here's the barn up in our property in Indiana.  The 2X4's are just for safety, and temporary stability.  But it also gives you an idea of how big the actual timbers are.

What about the walls?  That's the next post on structural insulated panels ...

1 Year Update:  It was a crazy idea and it could have gone horribly horribly wrong at a couple of key moments, but honestly - the consensus is that it totally makes the house - and it was totally worth it.  It's a good feeling when you're lying on the couch and you look up at a beam that took you a year to find, and realize it would still be rotting in a field somewhere, if you didn't find a use for it.

House: The Power

One of the first lessons in buying a house is figuring out how you're going to power it ... lots of people fall in love with a piece of land, and odds are, if you fell in love with it, it's probably in the boonies with few, if any, utilities.  So you're usually talking propane (which, right now, is super pricey and is only looking to keep being pricey).

Fortunately we are out in the middle of nowhere, but we did have natural gas at the street - and right now the monthly costs are extremely cheap (thanks to fracking that's messing up our ground water - but I digress) - but that would be a short-term perspective.  First, the installation of a pipe was going to be about $1000 (in all fairness, the house is 800' from the street), so that was going to take awhile to recoup.  Second, once prices on natural gas go back up (and they will), we will be at the mercy of those rate increases.  Third, I just don't like the idea of getting something from fracking - whether you're a "drill baby drill" sort of guy or a birkenstock wearing flower child, the idea of pumping chemicals into the ground intentionally next to water wells we drink out of just sounds incredibly stupid, and really no study or industry 'expert' is going to convince me otherwise.  Finally, the only reason we'd want gas over anything else was originally because of the ability to cook with natural gas was so much faster than electric - but we solved that issue ... I'm getting there ...

So we ended up with a 100% electric house.  Yes, we're in Indiana, which means 99.9% of electricity comes from coal - not good for climate change.  We're in the boonies, so electricity ain't cheap (~8 cents a kilowatt).  And electricity is not the most efficient way to heat a house, and cooking is a lot slower (well, no, it's not, but I'm still getting to that) .  So, we still went with electricity.

First, a little design moment ... we buried the electrical line (instead of having them on poles) ... pay the extra cash to get that done - it was like $300 more for a 400' stretch.  I know we never notice lines anymore, but once they took the old lines down (there was already power to the property - just not the new house site), it just opened up the whole property.  Plus, we NEVER have to worry about the lines being blown down (at least on our property, the street is a totally different issue).

Second, we did not go with solar PV panels.  I know we're totally eco-green-ness house, but it still makes no financial sense for us yet (and I wonder if it ever will).  So we might be green, but we're not stupid.  Rough numbers ... assuming an average electric bill of $100, we'd need to invest $15K to cut our bill in half per a couple of solar calculators we found online.  It would make more sense for us to spend another $2K in super efficient appliances, or $2K in LED lightbulbs before we did the solar PV thing.  Another big reason we didn't do solar PV right away is because we don't really know how much power we'll need ... we've learned this is not an average house, so average usage wouldn't really make any sense.  So we'll probably see PV panels in our future, but they have to do better than a 19 year payback period.

Third, our house doesn't really use a lot of energy (relative to others).  The house needs 55K Btu's/Hr in order to heat it in the dead of winter (typical house of the same size is 220K+) ... that works out to be smaller than the smallest wood stoves, hence why we couldn't do a wood stove (we'd overheat the house).  So using a (tiny) electric boiler is not hurting our electric bill too much.  If it did start to get out of control, we'd probably do a passive solar hot water system for the radiant floor - but that'll have to wait.

Fourth, we solved the gas vs electric cooktop issue - specifically, gas heats up so much faster than electric and is so much more responsive.  That is if you're not talking about induction electric cooktops ... LOVE them ... one more thing that's big in Europe, but few know about here in the US.  Basically instead of using electricity to heat up a heating coil, an induction cooktop powers a magnet, that then heats up cooking pan by exciting the molecules in the pan directly.

   I really can't write about this accurately - instead you really need to see it for yourself ... oooh, future YouTube video ... but I'll try.  Basically, I can put a pot of water on the stove, turn on the cooktop, and the water will boil at least 2 times faster than my gas cooktop from my old house (and it's a nice KitchenAid).  It's amazing.  And it's incredibly responsive, there are 20 heating levels on the cooktop, and I can take a pot of super boiling water at work down each level and instantly see a change in the boil and it stabilize in literally two seconds.  And since the magnet inside the cooktop is actually agitating the pot itself (not the surface of the cooktop that then transfers to the pot), the cooktop is not burning hot when the pan is removed (it's still hot to the touch, but not even close to what a turned off gas or traditional cooktop would be.  I just saw a video where someone fries bacon on the stove and puts a towel between the cooktop and the pan to ease grease cleanup - it takes a second to realize that it's not a fire hazard.  And they are also energy efficient ... since they're heating the pan directly, the energy consumption is significantly less than a traditional electric stove or the energy requires for a gas burner.

   Of course, it's not all honey and roses.  These bad boys aren't cheap - I spent $800 for a Bosch top of the line, but retail is $2500 (it was a return (most people buy them in error) and I had to drive to Illinois to pick it up.  It also requires a specific pan - namely one that has enough metal content to be 'turned on' - fortunately, most high end pans (e.g. All-Clad) are induction capable (you just never cared before) and the trusty old iron skillet is perfect for this.  Unfortunately, the beloved french copper pans are a no go - so my Mom made out like a bandit last week.

So that's about it on the power side - a lot of decisions and options that you might not have thought about.  Hopefully if you follow this blog, you'll start to realize that a simple decision can have ripple effects downstream - like, I bought a house 800' from the street, so I need an induction cooktop.

1 Year Update: Electrical power in the country is EXPENSIVE.  Holy crap !  I was paying 4 cents a KwH in the city, it's more like 12 cents in the country.  Since our major electrical expense is heating water in the winter, it's a no brainer to have some solar panels do it.  Still don't think solar PVs make sense yet, but it's closer at 12 cents than 4 cents.  After the solar hot water panels, I'll probably replace all lightbulbs to LED - there are a couple of pretty good ones out now.  And then I'll see if PV makes sense.

House: The Foundation

So how's this for progress ...

We started looking for land in October of 2009, bought land in December of 2010, spent almost a year in designing and bidding the project, and now we're in November of 2011 with the start of a foundation.

Seems that building a foundation is a bit of a slog, and it probably doesn't help that my sub had 3 other jobs going, and a whole lot of rain to deal with.  But as you can see, we have the start.

We originally were going back and forth on having a basement, but when Patrick's Mom looked to the open field to the West and asked, "Sooo ... what are you going to do in the event of a tornado?" We decided that we were having a basement.

Yes, they're a pain with the sump pump ... yes, they add expense ... but the tornadoes.

We looked into a lot of foundation options that were atypical ... just looking for something that was air tight and a good insulator (concrete by itself just doesn't cut it) ... I know, people say the basement stays a nice 55 degrees all year round, but I have yet to meet anyone who heats their house to only 55 in winter, nor cool it to that in summer.

   We looked at a product called Thermomass, basically a poured wall with insulation on the inside ... super crazy insane expensive - and marginal performance despite what the lab reports would tell you.

   We looked at a product that was essentially pre-formed concrete that was lifted into place and sat on a gravel bed ... more air leakage than my 1920's house and probably less stable.

    We looked into doing simple foundation on our own - have a sub pour a typical foundation, and then we could attach rigid foam on the outside or inside for better insulation.
  
We actually went with ICFs (Insulated concrete forms) for the basement - which is basically two inches of styrofoam with 6-8" of concrete in between.  We had originally dismissed the idea, because they had a couple of disadvantages and the insulation wasn't amazing (just R20) ... like, we would have to finish the basement walls since the styrofoam is not fire rated.  But they ended up not costing a whole lot more than a traditional foundation (actually, I don't think they cost anything extra, now that I think about it), and they were tighter in the air leakage department.  But the main reason is that we wanted to use our neighbor to the north on the project, and this is the only way he built foundations.

We also put insulation down in the floor ... code says you only need 1/2" (and I don't think they even really check to see if you do that), we did 6" (recycled, which is a story in and of itself).  Since we were doing radiant floor heating in the basement, we really didn't want to pay for heating up Mother Earth any more than we already are.

All in all, it's a solid foundation ... which is what you want, right?  Just be prepared for it to take awhile, and then be surprised if it's quick.

1 Year Update: LOVE the ICFs ... it was a good move.  The basement doesn't have that musty moldy feeling, and it's really quite comfortable down there in summer.  I probably could have gotten away with not framing the walls, and instead just putting up the drywall directly, but no one's perfect.

House: The Bidding Process

So the final design is done, and now it's time to figure out how much this house is going to cost us.

As you know by now, we're the general contractors for this project, so we have little knowledge of the good or bad subs ... hence why we hired our building consultant.  Before we brought the plans in (15 copies of 10 pages each), we had already done a lot of pricing and research on various elements on the house.  We essentially did not want to make integrated design decisions only to find out that those sized windows are twice as expensive, for example.

And we also put our energies in the big tickets items that we know could swing in prices one way or the other ... windows, SIP panels, timber frame costs, etc.  We also had the advantage of doing a pre-budget of sorts based on a friends house.  The houses were different in size and scope, but at least you're able to get an idea that lumber costs X% of the total cost of the house or you have to allow for things like trash removal or towel bars.

So after about 45 days, our consultant came back with the final quotes and bottom line price of the house.  Like most people at this stage, I did a little freak fest, since it was about 35% higher than our budget.  Remember, I already knew which items we had to account for, and I had already found the best prices for probably the top 5 items ... still, 35% higher.

Keep in mind, our building consultant really didn't have an incentive to get the price down low - he was pretty much taking what the subs were giving him.  And in a few cases he only got one bid from a subcontractor.

As my Daddy always says, "Never accept the first offer", I went to work to figure out which things needed to be rebid.  Here was the strategy ...

1.  Find more subs.

   Quoting is free, and it never hurts to ask another sub or two for another quote.  This is where I think general contractors really get lazy ... they stick with people they know and trust, but after a year the sub you thought was cheap is no longer competitive.  Since a GC really isn't paying the bill at the end of the day, they just pass the costs on to you.

   Also remember, most subs seem to bid on the moment and based on their current schedule.  If they don't need work, they'll bid high.  If they need a little more, they'll bid low.  If they need a lot more work, then they'll bid outrageously high. Sure, some subs bid like machines based on very clear calculations - but a lot of subs don't do that.

2.  Change your design

   Obviously if you did a good job on the conceptual design and you sized the house correctly.  You shouldn't have to go back and chop off a bedroom now that you realize that bedroom costs you $20K or whatever.  But there are sometimes where you can adopt your plan to save some money relatively painlessly.  The list goes on forever, but maybe that $3K door isn't worth it, and a $500 is almost as good.  Maybe you don't need $50K in marble tile, and the ceramic stuff looks just as good.  Those are the obvious ones.

   What might not be so obvious would be things like not asking for a specific brand of material.  If it's important to you, then spec it out; but usually suppliers have material that they either like to work with or can get at a cheaper price.

3.  Look for things that are totally out of whack, and get creative.

   The HVAC on the house initially came back at $45K for a house that has R values of 42 and super-insulated windows.  The whole point of us having a super-insulated house was so we didn't need to have a complicated and expensive heating system.  Part of the issue was that our mechanical engineer spec'ed out a very specific house setup, and it scared the shit out of the local HVAC suppliers.  He also spec'ed out a HVAC model that wasn't really used in our area - add more money.

   Other reasons why that quote was so high was just plain greed.  We wanted to do a radiant floor heating system, and apparently that is a total luxury item in Indiana.  So the local HVAC guys charge a fortune for it.  Turns out when you're your own General Contractor you have a lot more flexibility.  So a little research and talking to the right people (finally), you learn that you can have the radiant floor company design the system for you - including material list and tube layout plan and boiler size based on the insulation in your house.  The laying of the tubing is a $10/hour job that takes about 100 hours.  And then you just need a plumber to hook up the hoses ... done.  So an HVAC system didn't need to cost $45K, but a fifth of that.

So what was the end story ... I probably rebid about 7 items, and I got the budget back down to my number (we're roughly talking $100K) ... this was with NO design changes ... just rebidding that took 30 days ... so unless you make $1.2M a year in salary or just don't care how much you pay for a house.

I realize a lot of people will hire a general contractor, so they might tell themselves that they don't care about the itemized budget ... but you should ... the inflated sub costs are being ultimately passed onto you.  If a general constrictor is giving you allowances (and they will), then you need to be prepared to shop around.