Second floor goes up

By the end of last week the second floor was in place.  The interior is also framed out.  You will notice that the upper windows have a curve cut in them and the lower ones do not.  This is the only error made in the whole process and it is easily corrected.  At some point in the future, the first floor windows will also have a curve to them.  It's essential because of the general look of the front facade and because we ordered the windows with a curved top.  And they are fracking expensive.  I mean really expensive.  If you add the cost of all the windows together, we could easily afford a very nice BMW.  As they get installed I'll talk about the design and functioning of the windows.

View of second floor almost completed.

View of second floor from next door roof.  The interior walls aren't quite 

finished in this picture and the Zip system green walls still need the black tape to seal the seams.

Other exciting news is that we've been shopping for interior fixtures and have made a few decisions.  It really is like pulling teeth.  Even in the eco-friendly world there are many choices as well as items that distract you with not-quite-true claims of greenness.  This is known as greenwashing (as in brainwashing) and it will make you crazy.  We also purchased a couch, chair and ottoman (how did Turkish people have their name associated with a piece of furniture?).  We purchased these living room items at Crate & Barrel. Now before you say, "oh look, another two Gay guys buying furniture at C & B", let me tell you that we got them on sale and they are eco-friendly furniture.  The wood frames are made from wood gathered from sustainably grown forests and the padding is made from soybeans and corn (don't know how, but it feels great).

Next step in the building process is to put up the roof.  The trusses are due to arrive on Wednesday this week, so look for us to be under roof soon.

Onward and upward,
Mark, Mark & Isabel

I can't keep up!

I promised to post a picture every so often to show the progress of the framing crew from Gerard Branson, Jr. Construction.  Well, I can't keep up with them.  They're out in 100 degree weather and I can't keep up with posting pictures fast enough from my air conditioned office.  The work is high quality and surprisingly fast.  I would say they're working like a dog, but from what we see in our household, a dog's "work" amounts to 30 seconds of barking at the mail deliverer from the back of the couch in an air conditioned room!  So I've decided to post a series of pictures every few days.  Here's the first batch:

Installation of the band board prior to putting up the first floor walls.

First floor walls being placed.

Completed first floor walls.

Installation of band board for second floor walls.

Laying down of the second floor (really the subfloor).

All of the work seen in the pictures above took place in only FIVE working days.  Today is the 6th working day and they should have most of the second floor walls up.  Tomorrow will then have them putting up the interior walls on the second floor (the first floor interior is already done though not obvious from the pictures).  More pictures to come.

You will notice that again our house is very literally green.  The walls are still an oriented strand board (OSB) like the floors, but they are also coated with a water resistant barrier.  The black lines on the green boards are tape that seal the seams between boards giving us enhanced wind protection.  This product is part of the energy efficiency barrier we're trying to create around the house and is recommended by the EnergyStar program.  Other ideas yet to come include thicker walls, spray foam insulation and blown-in cellulose insulation.  You won't see the Tyvek house wrap that normally goes around new homes because this product eliminates the need for it.  If you want to know more, check out this website:  Zip System wall panels  They have a pretty good, though slightly cheesy video.

The other interesting thing that happened today was that a reporter came to interview us about the project.  She's from an internet-based local news site.  So even our interview will be environmentally friendly since it won't be printed!  Janette's news site is called Your Local Messenger and their website is: Your Local Messenger

Onward and upward,

Mark, Mark & Isabel

The first floor is down!

We've been to lots of places in Europe, the United States and China, but no monument was as gratifying and wholly beautiful as this:

Construction of the first floor showing the floor joists in place.

The first floor completely lain down.  Beautiful.

It looks small, doesn't it?  One of our goals was to make a house that was not too large for two people and whatever menagerie of animals we end up with.  We actually started this project shooting for a 1600-1800 square foot house.  However, many factors, such as the 2-story requirement in this neighborhood and the fact that we wanted to have larger doorways and hallways to make the house more accessible as we age, forced us to build a larger house.  We are coming in at 2300 square feet which should be enough space to keep peace and harmony in our lives.

The other green aspect of framing the house concerns the materials.  The wood itself is a product called AdvanTech which is oriented strand board (OSB).  This literally means it is made of strands or small pieces of scrap wood that are oriented in the same direction.  These strands are adhered together with adhesives in a process similar to how plywood is made.  After years of use OSB has proven to be as durable as plywood.  The wood used to make OSB is scrap or low value species of trees.  It is considered to be an excellent wood product to use in green building.  The AdvanTech product was awarded the National Association of Home Builders Research Center Green Approved rating for subflooring.  It is thus eligible to earn points that contribute toward the NAHB Green Building Standard certification.

Here's an article in EcoHome magazine on wood flooring products:
EcoHome article on wood flooring products

The next step is the framing of the walls which should start soon.  We plan to take a picture daily from the same location to show the progress of the framing.

Jason has chosen to use Gerard Branson Jr Construction Company to do the rough wood framing work and so far they have worked in driving rain and blazing heat.  If it should snow I'm sure their dedication will have them out their in parkas framing up our house.  Thanks to J.R. and his crew from Gerard Branson Jr Construction Company.

Onward and upward,
Mark, Mark & Isabael

The Spine

Spine.  Small word for such an important structure.  The spinal column of vertebrate animals (like humans and dogs) encloses and protects the spinal cord.  As a bundle of nerve fibers, the spinal cord is the master of communication between the brain and the rest of the body and thus needs the protection of the spine.  It holds us up for goodness sake and except for after a day of heavy gardening, I actually enjoy standing.  Even books have spines, otherwise they'd be magazines!

Houses need a spine as well.  Here's the placement of ours:

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it was raining like crazy and yet the crew went ahead and placed the steel beam anyway.  Thus our house now has its spine.

Having a spine also means having strength of character, courage or willpower.  To get through all of the delays, mis-managed building companies and bureaucratic silliness I think we showed that along with our house, we too have strong spines.

Onward and upward,

Mark, Mark and Isabel

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck. . . .

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!

I don't think woodchucks actually like wood.  And since I'm a biologist, I have to point out that this animal is really a groundhog.  As in Punxsutawney Phil, the famous weather predicting animal for which Groundhog's Day is named.  The name woodchuck has nothing to do with wood, but instead comes from the word “wuchak”, an Algonquian name for groundhog.  Chucking is the act of throwing something down, especially something you don't want or care about.  Groundhogs are almost complete vegetarians and don't have the digestive system to eat wood.  So if they encounter wood, I guess they really would just chuck it aside.


Here's another tongue twister that also applies to our furry friend:
How much ground would a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground?
A groundhog could hog as much ground as a groundhog could if a groundhog could hog ground.


ANYWAY, we had some wood chucked onto our lot the other day.  Except in our case we really do want to keep it.  The long awaited-for engineered floor joists arrived and will be put into place in a couple of days!  The rest of the wood is due by then also.

The floor joists have arrived!

We're on our way to a new house!


Onward and upward,
Mark, Mark and Isabel

"Will you have a finished basement?"

By far the most common question we're asked is if we'll have a finished basement.  Well right now that's the ONLY thing "finished"!  Progress has been slow for two reasons.  Whenever it rains we actually lose the rain day and a couple of days after since it's too muddy to work.  The ground is not densely packed immediately around the house since it was backfilled.  This makes it unsafe for scaffolding and walking around.  The good thing is that the rain is helping to compact this area of soil.  The second issue is availability of the wood floor trusses (I think that's the right term).  Here's the thing:  they are locally sourced from a mill in central Missouri and while they aren't FSC certified, they are nonetheless from a managed forest.  Plus they are specially designed to accommodate the high velocity, insulated, flexible duct work we're using.  So with all of that going on, it's no wonder the trusses are taking longer to get here than we would like.

Jason is anxious to get going (though I bet we're more anxious) and we're hoping the wood will arrive in time to start framing next week.  The framing should only take a couple of weeks, weather permitting.  That's fast in my mind since it can take me days to put together a bird house.  Such rapid visible progress should be very pleasing to watch over that short space of time.  We'll start to see the 3-D shape after living with drawings for almost two years.

And what about that basement?  Does anyone like this? . . . . . . .

It fits with our indoor/outdoor concept for the house, but where will Mom stay?  Honestly, we have a plan for the finished basement, but will probably wait to implement it.  As we age we're actually learning how true it is that you can't do everything all at once.