The Masonry Heater Comes to Life

A lot of things have happened since my last entry and I hope to post some updates in the next few weeks. The year is drawing to a close and we are definitely in mid winter here in Carlisle, PA. While I do appreciate all four seasons, I must admit that winter is not my favorite season. Having said that, I have been looking forward to this winter more than any other because we would finally get a chance to try out the masonry heater. If you've been reading this blog from the beginning you'll recall that the masonry heater was something we decided to splurge on without ever having experienced what it would be like. Well, the winter weather meant it was finally time to experience what a masonry heater has to offer. We've been thinking about it for more than a year now. Would it live up to our potentially inflated expectations?

All dressed up for Xmas (Click image for more photos.)

VIrginia's 40th Birthday

I finally found some time to organize the pictures from Virginia's surprise party, so this post comes a few months after the actual event. The party was difficult to plan because I really wanted it to take place in the new house but I wasn't sure if the house would be finished. Plus, I needed to give people as much advance notice as possible. Even still, a good number of people were not able to attend. As it turns out, the house wasn't quite done but it was close enough to have a party in. Of course, it was still a construction zone so a little cleanup was in order (okay, a LOT of cleanup was in order).

Robin prepares for the party (Click image for more photos.)

Solar Panel Saga Ends

It's been over a month since my last post and I finally have something significant to report.  After all kinds of paperwork problems and a 5-month delay, the photovoltaic (PV) system was finally installed!  Although we are heading into the shortest days of the year, the weather was spectacular for the installation.  After two days of work, the system went live and we were generating electricity!

Solar panels being installed (Click image for more photos.)

Solar Panel Saga

Now that we've been in the house for a while and life is getting somewhat back to normal, I thought I'd fill you in on our solar panel saga. In the beginning it all seemed so simple. Build a super efficient house, add solar panels on the roof, and then watch the meter to see how close we are to net zero energy. And with all the federal and state incentives for solar panels right now, it seemed like there would be a good number of companies to choose from. I'm still not exactly sure why this process turned out to be so darn difficult.

We Moved In!!

Well, it's been quite a while since the last post, but I'm happy to report that after about two years of planning and designing and approximately 9 months of construction, we finally moved into our new house!  The last two or three weeks have been an absolute whirlwind as the builders tried to finish up everything on the interior and get a Certificate of Occupancy (CO), plus the move itself threw our lives into absolute chaos.  There was no driveway or sidewalk and there's definitely some exterior work to be finished, but we're all moved in (though far from being settled) and it feels absolutely amazing!

1004 Hillside Drive! (Click image for more photos.)

Above and Beyond

Virginia here, once again, with the softer side of things. I wanted to write a little tribute to Terry & Robin, husband and wife team who make up Bridlewood Builders. They have been a JOY to work with throughout this process—going above and beyond over and over again.

Not for the Faint-of-Heart

As we approach our moving-in date, it has become clear that Virginia and I are officially overwhelmed. The list of tasks to take care of in the next few weeks is paralyzing and I'm not quite sure how we're going to manage. It's funny, at the beginning of the house project the decisions were "big" in the sense that the actual structure of the house was involved. Now, the decisions have become "small" and it seems like they shouldn't matter too much. But it turns out that they do matter because these are the things that everyone will see.  Plus, there are a lot of them and they're coming a mile a minute.

Floors, Counters, and Cabinets

Wow! A lot has happened this past week. Bamboo flooring, carpet, kitchen countertops, the rest of the kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, some sinks, faucets, toilets, hot water heater, and more. It's been a busy week. All of a sudden, the house seems completely done on the inside. Well, maybe not completely done, but the end is clearly in sight.

More finish work and the DWHR unit

Although there have been a lot of delays recently (and I'll have more to say about that in a future post) some of the finishing work has been progressing quite nicely. I mentioned the masonry heater in my last entry, but in addition, tile and vinyl flooring has been installed and wood ceilings and walls have gone up as well.  Although it still looks like a construction zone, there are glimpses of the house coming closer and closer to completion.

Slowly Nearing Completion (Click image for more photos.)

Delays and the Masonry Heater Phase II

The past few weeks have seen a lot of progress and a lot of delays. It's been frustrating because so many things are co-dependent at this point, a delay in one item causes a delay in another. For example, the bamboo floors were supposed to be installed last week. This can only take place once the bamboo has been acclimated to the proper humidity level in the house. But the humidity level in the house is not well controlled until the ground source heat pump is actually running. Unfortunately, although the drilling has been completed, the geothermal system has yet to be "plugged in and turned on." Thus, a delay in the completion of the heating/cooling system has delayed the bamboo floor installation, which delays the installation of the kitchen appliances and pushes off the carpet installation. We've had other delays as well which result in their own domino effect of delays.  Sometimes it seems like we'll never move into this house.  Sigh...

Exterior, Drilling, and Interior Doors

It's been a few weeks since my last post and visually, the house looks completely different. After waiting nearly two months for the delivery, the exterior siding finally arrived and was installed. Now the house finally looks like a house on the outside. In addition, the masonry heater entered its second phase (stay tuned for a separate blog entry), they completed the drilling for the geothermal system, and the interior doors arrived.

Finishing Phase Underway

Now that the drywall is in place, it's time to begin painting, installing kitchen cabinets, putting in lights, and other things of that nature.  Very little of this involves energy efficiency or any kind of innovation so this blog entry will be relatively short.  I did want to at least keep people up-to-date on what is happening with the house.  In some ways, this is a very exciting phase for us because things are starting to look like we might actually move into this house in the near future.  What a concept!

Dry Wall, Water/Sewer, and Some Local Publicity

Two big things happened on the house front over the past week or so. The most visible is that the drywall is now up. This completely changed the look and feel of the interior. The least visible, but most problematic (because of rock), is that the sewer and water lines are now connected to the house. In addition, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the past week was the publicity we received from the local papers and television news.

Follow-up on Locks

Virginia here.

I know you're all on the edge of your seats about the bedroom locks issue.  (Okay, I'll take Mildly Curious).  If you're just tuning in, a previous post polled readers about whether or not locks should be put on the kids' bedroom doors.  I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's input and stories.  Some left comments and some emailed me personally.

The Masonry Heater - Part I

Ever since I started this blog, I've been excited about making this entry. Unless you're from a very cold climate (Russia, Finland, etc.), most people have never heard of a masonry heater. Indeed, I had never heard of a masonry heater until poking around on the web one day. It all started with our very strong desire to have a fireplace in our new house.  The warmth and ambiance is something we just adore, and it tends to bring the entire family together in a non-electronic, peaceful setting.  Unfortunately, we knew that traditional fireplaces weren't terribly efficient ways of heating a home. In fact, they typically increase your heating load.  Plus, a little research shows that wood burning fires are notorious for emitting particulate pollution, which is terrible for the environment. Alas, in The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the authors strongly advocate against putting in a conventional fireplace in a new house.  Sadly, it appeared as though our dream of having a fireplace was toast.  Or was it?

Trenching, Closing up, and a Blower Door Test

After Virginia's last blog entry, I realize just how technical this blog has been. For those of you that enjoyed Virginia's post (and based on all the comments and emails, there are a lot of you), I must warn you that this post returns us to some of the more technical aspects of the house. But what can I say, I actually find the technical stuff fascinating! Oh well, hopefully Virginia will chime in now and again to provide a broader perspective on this whole project. Anyway, there's a lot new to report and I digress...

The State of the Marriage

Even though this blog has been by “David & Virginia”, it’s really been all David.  I (Virginia) thought I would jump in here, take us a step away from all the technical stuff, and warm up this blog with some stories about the effect of this process on our marriage!

DIY - Wiring and Staining

As mentioned in my last post, things have slowed a bit on the construction front lately.  This gave Virginia and me an opportunity to work on some do-it-yourself house projects. To try to save some money, one of the jobs we decided we could handle without too much difficulty was to stain the wood trim and beams in the house. We know this is going to be a big job and as we got started--well, as Virginia got started really--we began to see what a big job it really is. The other thing we decided to do ourselves is to add extra wire to the house while the walls were easily accessible. The driving force here was that it would never be so easy to run wires through the walls as now, before the walls are covered with drywall.

Concrete Slab and Spray-Foam Insulation

For the past few weeks, a lot of little things have been going on that aren't worth blogging about.  This includes more electrical work, installation of fans, and some additional ducting.  Even though a lot of necessary things are happening, it seems like things have slowed down quite a bit.  Fortunately, a few major events have taken place as well.   One is that the concrete slab was poured for the thermal mass in the house (and also in the garage).  Another is the addition of spray-foam insulation wherever there are no pre-insulated SIPs walls or ceiling.

Concrete Slab (Click image for more photos.)

Air Exchange - ERVs and HRVs

If you've been reading the comments, you'll see that my last posting brought an excellent question from reader Terry Smiley.  She asked whether we were going to use an air-to-air heat exchanger in our house as they had done in their SIPs house in Montana.  The short answer is yes, but it was not easy to decide exactly what to use.  Building a very tight house is great for energy efficiency.  Unfortunately, it also introduces some potential problems that need to be dealt with.  Probably the most important of these issues is making sure you have enough fresh air in the house.

HVAC and Plumbing

In addition to the electrical and roofing, the past few weeks have seen quite a bit of work done on plumbing and HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning). Apart from deciding on what kind of heating and cooling system to use (we are going with geo-thermal), we also had to determine where all the vents are going to go. The HVAC company basically figured out where they wanted to put everything but then wanted to do a walk-through with us to find out where we will be putting furniture (you don't want a couch right on top of a heating vent). The only room that gave us trouble was our office/guest room. Since this space is designed for dual use, we aren't exactly sure where all the furniture will go in this room.

Roofing and Electrical

Well there's been a whirlwind of activity on the house lately. Basically, the house is getting it's circulation, respiratory, and nervous systems put in (that's plumbing, cooling and heating, and electrical). Thus, the bare walls are no longer so bare. There's now a whole ton of pipes and tubes and wires running all over the place. If that wasn't enough, they finished the roof in the middle of all this as well.  I decided to break all this down into two posts. The first will focus on roofing and electrical.

Finished Roof (Click image for more photos.)

Windows and Passive Solar

Well it's been one month since my last entry and I must say I'm feeling a bit guilty.  Things slowed down a bit during the Pennsylvania Home Show (Bridlewood has a booth there every year) and we've been dealing with a whole lot of decisions.  But basically I've just been a bit lazy about posting updates.  Anyway, a whole lot has happened since my last entry so let's get started with the update.

Under Roof - Finally!

At the end of my last post, the SIPs roof was just getting finished and snow was beginning to fall.  This time around, the house had been weatherized as much as possible.  The first floor was pretty well protected but the second floor was still wide open.  As predicted, the snowfall was fairly significant - bringing another foot of snow.  We're definitely getting tired of the snow.

More snow (Click image for more photos.)

2nd Floor SIPs and snow

After the first floor SIPs were up, it looked like things were really starting to come together. The interior walls on the first floor were framed out so we started to get a sense of how the floor plan was going to feel. After that, the second floor was framed and completed, giving us a chance to walk around upstairs.

Upstairs (Click image for more photos.)

First Floor Walls

Well it's been a few weeks since my last entry. A lot has happened since then but much of it was not terribly exciting.  Necessary, but not worth writing home (blogging) about.  Immediately after the foundation was complete, the first floor was constructed. Next, the basement was completed, holes were drilled in the basement walls for the geothermal system, drainage pipes were put in by the basement windows, and underground conduit was put in for electrical cables. After that, a whole lot of back-filling around the walls made the site look much more "presentable."

Basement covered (Click image for more photos.)

Foundation

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2009, the foundation went in.  This was really quite something to see.  Bridlewood (our builder) opted to go with a Superior Walls foundation.  These are pre-fabricated insulated concrete panels that are engineered specifically for each foundation plan.  Thus, they arrive ready to be pieced together, a little like Lincoln logs.  Of course, they are big and heavy which requires the use of a crane.  Did I say that the whole process was quite something to see?  Wow!  This was the most exciting day so far!

A panel gets moved (Click image for more photos.)

Excavation

On Monday, January 4, excavation began.  We opted for a partial basement to save a little money and because rock is known to be a problem in Carlisle.  While full basements are common in this area, we figured the less digging we do, the better our chances of not running into a significant rock problem.  The plan was to dig down about nine feet for the basement area and about three feet along the perimeter of the garage and the rest of the house.  The basement/foundation walls were due to arrive on Friday, January 8 so the excavation needed to be finished by then.

House Plans

Earlier, I posted two entries on the design process we went through for this house, but I never included any house plans, nor did I discuss any of the basic principles that went into the design.  So, here is a post that discusses what we were after, the constraints we faced, and provides a few pictures of the finished plans.  There's probably more detail than necessary in this post, but once I got writing, it was hard to stop (I'm pretty excited about this house).