Nothing's Free

We finally received the LEED plaque. I thought it was complimentary, but it's not. Most LEED projects qualify for a LEED plaque, but not LEED for Homes.

Notice, though, that it's not mounted to the wall. Although it was supposed to come with mounting studs, it didn't, so we had to send it back to get the studs fitted. At first I thought it was my mistake, but it wasn't. Greenplaque also offers mounting hardware separately, but it's amazingly pricey. Their hardware starts at $125.00! They are made from 50% post-consumer recycled aluminum and extruded prior to machining to reduce waste according to the web site, but they're $125.00! That's nuts.

And here's what we hope to be doing this summer. We were so busy with the house last year that the kayaks never touched the water.

We bought a rack and wanted to see how ridiculous they look. It's kind of like kayaks with attached car. I wouldn't want to go cross country, but we don't have to go far. This Barnstable Ways to Water map shows all the places we can go without leaving town.

Paying Attention to the Details

It seems that people do a lot of walking in this area of Centerville.  One day, when we were outside, somone stopped and marvelled about how the house actually looks like the rendering.  Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?  Unfortunately, often it's not so.  With computers, CAD and 3d modelling, I would think it's easier to get it right, but that's not always the case.

I started the 3D design in SketchUp.  It's a great computer modelling program.  It's quite helpful to look at a building beforehand in true 3D, and is invaluable in helping a client visualize their project.  This was my final 3D rendering.

I sent this file to Rosanne Minerva, who created this beautiful watercolor rendering for me.

Then I created CAD drawings showing exactly what the house was going to look like, along with details showing how it goes together.  This is one of them.

I like using CAD because, if I show a piece of trim and it's 7 1/4" wide, it's drawn exactly that width.  If I then decide that, proportionately, it should be larger or smaller, it's an easy change.  I place everything where I want it to be visually, then I deduct the thickness of the underlying materials and create a drawing with exact dimensions for the framer.  If everything goes right, the trim fits into place exactly where I wanted it.  At least that's the way it's supposed to work.  And this is how it all turned out.

If you look at the original 3D rendering, you'll notice that the background trees look suspiciously like the background in the real deal.  I was able to take a photo of these trees and stand it up behind the computer model.  Since I was the architect, the contractor and the owner, I could make sure most everything went in as planned.  The rendering shows a gnarly apple tree at the lower left that was unfortunately removed by the site contractor.  That I couldn't fix.

It doesn't always work quite this way.  This is Breezy Gardens, a farm stand/garden center that I designed.

I put some thought in trying to get the details and proportions right.  It was built mostly to plan, and the average person would see it as a nice barn-like building, but I can't help but see how it should have been.  Starting with the cupola, the windows were shrunk and some of the details modified.  The alpaca (they raise alpacas) weathervane may come at a later point.  Then, the front gable and trim was changed.  The angular projection is fine, but rather than having some thoughtful details, there's a stock rectangular louver.  There should have been a large window in the center, flanked by two smaller windows, but now they're all the same size.  And I've come to dislike pork chops and avoid them whenever I can.  I don't mean 'the other white meat', it's the porkchop shaped eave returns that I try to avoid.  It's a 20th century detail that has become nearly ubiquitous.

Finally, the entrance roof wasn't built with the open sloped ceiling.  This would have made the entrance just a little more dramatic, but the flat ceiling must have been easier to build.

LEED Gold

It's official.  We received notification last week that we've achieved LEED Gold certification from the USGBC. 

Next Tuesday (I'm not sure why we have to wait until Tuesday, but that's what the email says) I can order the complimentary plaque

from http://www.greenplaque.com/.  There's no such thing as a free lunch, though.

It was a long and rather arduous task.  Part of it was the learning curve, since it was my first LEED project.  The LEED for Homes Rating System handbook and errata are rather lengthy.  We nicknamed the handbook the LEED for Homes bible and read it often.  Passages like "A project receiving points for EA 1 is not eligible for this credit, and vice versa. A project pursuing this credit must follow the prescriptive pathway and all of the associated prerequisites in EA 2-10. Prerequisite EA 1.1 should be skipped. See the pathway schematic at the beginning of the EA section." and errata like "Clarification: If a project earns points in SS 2.5, additional points for irrigation system improvements may only be earned in WE 2.3. No points may be earned in WE 2.1 or WE 2.2." meant that we had to go back to the handbook often.  We even printed out Table 24

extra large, had it laminated and carried it with us since so much hinges on this list.  8 1/2" x 11" just isn't big enough for this much info.

Here's a brief overview of the LEED for Homes rating system from earlier in the blog.

After adjustment for our house size, 50 points were required for LEED Certified, 65 points for Silver, 80 points for Gold and 95 points for Platinum.  We earned 84.5 points, which puts the house well into the Gold category.  We could only build a two bedroom house on this site due to zoning constraints, yet we wanted to have a house large enough to accommodate guests when needed.  If we were able to build three bedrooms, we would have gained about 9 points.  With just a little more work, Platinum would have been achievable.

The LEED process was difficult but beneficial in many ways.  Although I would have built an energy efficient house no matter what, the LEED process did encourage things like the use of local materials, renewable resources and drought tolerant landscaping.  For instance, I bought my interior trim from a local mill, made from local trees, and my custom woodwork cost less than stock mouldings at the local lumberyard.  We have a small yard and hardier plants, which mean less water use and less maintenance.  Most of the provisions make ultimate sense.

The process does have its share of provisions which sometimes left me scratching my head, though.  For instance, there's a complex calculation for irrigation demand reduction.

Although it's rather involved, I figured that I could just set up a spreadsheet and calculate things.  I never could find out where to get some of the factors used in the calculation, though.  After asking my LEED provider, it turns out that virtually no one uses this calculation.  It's so complicated that, in their experience, everyone uses an alternate path for this credit.  And when I was figuring out how to document the Framing Waste Order Factor, I found this article titled Green Building Programs Got Some 'Splainin to Do, Why do most programs have to be so complicated?  It's good that green homes programs are increasing awareness and raising the bar but, after going through the process, I can understand how the complexities can be a little daunting.

"Security" Cameras

They're really more of an amusement device - although it's nice to keep an eye on things too.  We caught the turkeys at the back door just before Thanksgiving, and now we've had another feathered visitor.

This guy was down on the ground and just flew right up to the camera.  Here's the first video.

We thought it was a one time deal until he came back about a week later.  This last video is almost like the first.  He was down on the ground and suddenly decided to go back up and check things out.

We had been waiting for the Conservation Commission agent to come back out for the final inspection.  This, of course, was caught on camera too.  About 30 minutes after he left, the snow on the PV solar panels let loose all at once.

Then last Saturday night there was a big procession out front.  Just after dark, there were three police cars with their lights flashing but no sirens, followed by a black sedan, a black van and then a bus, followed by another police car.  It turns out it was Sargent Shriver's burial procession.  His funeral was in Maryland earlier in the day and he's buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, which is just up the street.  Here's the link.

Added 1/26/2011:
I believe that our mystery bird is a black capped chickadee.  However, we've had a new visitor.

This one has talons.

We'll need to see a little more of him to figure out what he is.

White Christmas

It seems that the rest of the world has been inundated by snow, but not us.  Sunday night that changed.

A storm largely out at sea gave Cape Cod eight to twelve inches of white stuff.

The light strings were even, but the weight of the snow stretched them out.

It all looked very picturesque - until I had to shovel the stuff.  Shell driveways are a pain.  There's no way to scrape them without depositing the shells elsewhere.

I wish the snow had come a week earlier.  For two years in a row it rained at the annual Christmas Stroll.  This year, though, it was cancelled due to high winds and heavy rain.

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LED Christmas

From the start I had decided to have the house wired for Christmas window candles.  Although I wanted to be able to flip one switch and have them all come on, some of them are in bathrooms and are on a GFI circuit so it takes two switches.  I bought the LED bulbs last year but things weren't far enough along to use them until this year.

I am surprised that C6 LED bulbs aren't more available.  They are readily available online, but I have not yet found them locally.  The LED's don't put out quite as much light, but they run much cooler and use maybe 1/10 of the electricity.  They didn't even measure 1 watt each on my Kill A Watt.  You certainly don't need to worry about singeing the window shades.

This year I ran the LED light strings around the porch and deck, but next year I'll probably get more energetic and run them up the gables and across the front of the house.

Our tree is from Balsam Hill.  Although artificial, it's quite realistic.

The LED lights look just like the incandescent mini Christmas lights.  The outer branches are moulded to resemble an actual tree and the inside of the tree is the cheaper twisted plastic strip branches.  If you look closely at the enlarged photo you can see them, but they're not very apparent.

Lights

When we built our first house many years ago, I chose most of the the lights in one afternoon.  Cost was a primary concern and, as it turns out, we've slowly replaced those fixtures over the years.  This time these are carefully chosen and permanent.

I have to note that most people will look at the photos - and there are a lot of them - in this blog entry but only scan the words.

Most of the lights are from Hubbardton Forge.  You can see our road trip to their factory in Vermont, along with our visit to Handmade in Vermont, where we bought most of our fixtures.  Like most of our lights, the front porch light is simple with a few subtle flourishes.

It has the opaque mahogany finish which matches the finish on this one (below), which was a returned item from Handmade in Vermont that we bought for 75% off of list price.

All of the interior lights from Hubbardton Forge have kind of a similar theme, although there are several different styles.  It was a splurge, but they look great.  Most of them have compact fluorescent bulbs.  A few of them, like the Powder Room fixture in the background here, are too small for a CF bulb and have halogen bulbs instead.

The Dining Room light is a Mackintosh style fixture.  The Kitchen downlights are compact fluorescent, although I have mixed feelings about recessed downlights.  They're unobtrusive, but the light is fairly directional and they are relatively inefficient fixtures, but at least they have the efficient CF bulbs.  Sometimes, though, downlights are just the right thing because they are so unobtrusive.  The under cabinet lights are LED.  They're very efficient, long lasting and run cool so that the bottom shelf in the cabinets doesn't heat up.  The pendant lights have kind of a funny story behind them.  We looked at so many pendant lights and wanted to get just the right thing.  The really nice ones have imported hand-blown glass, but can be a little expensive and we couldn't find just the right color.  Then I found McDermott Glass Studio in Sandwich.  We could buy a cheap generic pendant from Lowes, minus the shade, and McDermott can make a custom glass shade for about the price of some of the imported ones.  We haven't gotten around to doing that yet, but we found some really cheap discontinued orange shades at Lowes and put those in for now.  They actually look pretty decent.

The Hall fixture is similar to the main Living Room fixture and the Foyer light.

The one in the corner of the Living Room is one of the new designs from Hubbardton Forge and looks pretty cool at night.  It's kind of a glowing column of light.

These are not my first choice for spotlights, but the price was right.  They're a little too close to the ceiling so they do project light onto the beam.

I really liked the Tech Lighting Sprocket fixture, but they are surprisingly pricey for such a simple little fixture, especially when three are needed.  They also have a neat little heat resistant flight paper shade available.  The cheapies do the job, though.

This is the CF fixture from Home Depot that we used in a number of places like Closets, the Laundry Room and at the back door.

We had a hard time finding energy star ceiling fans that don't look like they're from the Victorian era.  This one is from the Period Arts Fan Company which is an offshoot of The Modern Fan Company.  The wall sconces are dimmable, although my wife has a compact fluorescent bulb on the left and I have an incandescent bulb on the right.  Even with dimmable CF bulbs, they get down to about 50% and then shut down.  The IKEA furniture works pretty well in the room.  For some reason they've discontinued the Tingvoll bed frame.  Some of IKEA's styles can be a little strange, but this one's a classic.

And here's our Master Bath vanity.  The pendant shades are just cheapies from Lowes, but they work.  I like pendants because they cast light in all directions.  The vanity and medicine cabinet arrangement works quite well.  We each have a medicine cabinet for personal stuff and then have drawers in the middle for the common things.  The hard-wired hair dryer is quite convenient too.  I was looking for something a little more modern, but this is about all there is for hard-wired dryers.

The bath fan/lights are also energy star rated.  This one is from Panasonic.  The more common NuTone and Broan fans just don't last so long.  The walls are Benjamin Grey Limestone, which has neat little fossils in it.  The roll-in shower was a bit of a challenge, but I build the receptor myself.  This type of thing is usually done with a thick mud job shower pan, but I didn't have enough height.  The floor joist are recessed 1" and I built this out of wood and cement board and used a Kerdi drain and membrane system.

The fixture over the stairs is another one that was a Hand Made in Vermont return that they sold for 75% off.  It actually went from Vermont to Anchorage and back.

The pendant in the background is another returned fixture, but I had to have the stem cut down.  The alcove at the dormer is a nice little space.

These are the most efficient ceiling fans I've ever seen.  They are Emerson Midway Eco fans and can put out 289 CFM per watt, which is a big difference.  They have aerodynamic airfoil blades and a big efficient motor.

This is not a Hubbardton Forge light, but I thought I'd show our towel hook arrangement in the Guest Bathroom.  We have nine hooks and nine towel/washcloth sets, each in a different color.  This may be a few more than we need, but it works well.

And finally this is the fan/light from Minka Aire in the guest Bedroom.  This room is a big one and is set up with a queen size bed and a trundle bed which can be made into two single beds or popped up to make a king size bed.

We still have little decorating to do, but that will come in due time.