What once was green, is now blue.

Blue foam panel insulation on the outside of the basement.  Just like a baby boy's blanket.

Blue is a good Earth related color.  View the Earth from space and it isn't green.  It's blue.  And now we have a blue house.  The green eco-friendly waterproofing rubber is now covered with blue foam insulation panels.  And yes, we do know the difference between inside and outside.  The blue panels are the FIRST level of insulation.  As we progress there will be spray foam insulation and blown-in cellulose insulation on the inside of the walls.  All of this insulating material should give us an effective R-value (insulation level) of 30-35 which is really good.  Then the soil is backfilled against the blue panels and will itself act as an insulating material.  So the temperature in the lower level (that's basement to all of you non-designers) should be constant and in the range of 65-70 without any heating or cooling for much of the year.

Beneath the bottom edge of the blue panels are three layers.  The lowest layer is small stones, then comes a layer where there is a filter covered drain pipe all around the house that empties into a sump pump (a requirement of the building code) and then the last layer upon which the blue panel rests is another layer of small stones.  All of this layering is meant to allow water to run into the drain pipe and away from the house or under the house into the groundwater reservoir.  This should make for a lower level that is dry even in a season with lots of rain like we've been having.

Since we will eventually finish off the lower level (that's why it's not properly called a basement) we have also decided to install radiant floor heat (which is on the other 2 floors as well) and air conditioning in this area.  The air conditioning is true to that term.  We don't just mean it's cooling the space, it's really conditioning the air by also controlling the humidity and by filtering it.  More to come on the HVAC system in future postings.

Onward and Upward,

Mark, Mark & Isabel