the Vermont Street Project

a recent advertorial

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:50:00 +0000

So we recently decided to break a few rules of advertising in a timber porn magazine. It came from how I've been feeling recently as the industry struggles with the balance between craft and what it takes to make a living.

"It's Not About the Marketing
"For most of our 25 years as a timber frame company, New Energy Works has been blessed with a talented marketing staff. The job of sharing just who we are can be challenging, and these folks help us express this with fine graphics, a strong presence on the Internet, and even a hip logo. It’s all good stuff.

"But at a recent home show, a timber frame company owner was telling me that he had fired most of his staff, and was pretty happy just having all his timber framing sourced, cut, and raised by subcontractors. “After all,” he reasoned, “it’s really just about the marketing.”

"His words stunned me.

"By expressing structure as craft and combining that with extraordinary energy efficiency and a caring business environment, timber framing has rocketed to the forefront of residential construction. This couldn’t have happened without sawdust in our blood and dirt under our fingernails.

"When a New Energy Works frame goes up, it does so by the same joiners who worked on it in the shop, with the support of their coworkers who have helped design and engineer it, and often in conjunction with other coworkers who will enclose it, even be responsible for the home’s completion.

"There are questions you can ask your timber framer to gain a thorough understanding of the timber framing process. Although there are no completely right or wrong answers, a picture will evolve that will help you find a timber frame company for your needs.

• Do you do your own timber framing (e.g. engineering, cutting, finishing, raising)? If not, why not?
• Do you use the most modern and safe equipment, as well as employ fine handwork, when needed?
• Do you offer dry and stable timbers (both reclaimed and properly dried) so the joinery stays tight?
• What are your sanding and finishing options?
• Do your own crews raise the frame, no matter where it is?
• What about specialty enclosure options and installation?
• How long have your key people been with you? Are they involved in the timber frame community, including the guild and business council, continually learning as well as serving?

"Our homes represent an extraordinary effort among a complex and experienced team to deliver an expression of our life’s work. Our clients often come to know us as individuals, and appreciate the effort we’ve made on their behalf. While there may not be perfectly correct answers to all your questions, one thing is absolute:

"Timber framing is not about the marketing."

The image above is from our handraising of Chris and Susi Carlberg's new wine tasting room at Christopher Bridge Winery in Oregon City. A favorite photo.

springing back

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:30:00 +0000

We just had our one year anniversary of the timber frame raising here at the Vermont Street Project. Started digging in March, raised the frame in May, worked through the summer of 106 degree days and a fall of finishing details, moved in the week before Christmas... then slept. For the last 4 months we've slept, at least in this journaling world.

But last week we opened our eyes to find the ecoroof ready to be installed on the studio, and knew it was time to stand up, arch the back in a slow, body-yawn type of motion like the cat-post-nap, and git back at 'er. Thanks for checking back once in a while. Thank you Silke, Jennifer, even you Josh for the gentle reminders. Thanks for the kind interest. Perhaps I'm back. I do, not surprisingly, have a great deal to say.The studio isn't complete, except for the exterior, but when it is it will be my Portland work place and a one bedroom apartment you could stay at... for a short time! Unlike the main house, which has a metal roof and is designed to catch rainwater in a sistern for drinking, bathing et al, the studio has a pretty flat pitch. We wanted to play a bit with timbers and post modernism. This gave us the opportunity to place dirt and plants up there. Ecoroof, green roof, living roof. All the same thing and there's ecological benefit. Not a ton, but some.

In a heavy urban setting, plants on top can help mitigate the heat-island created by too much concrete, asphalt and rubber in one place. Chicago comes to mind as a city that has embraced this effort. I don't live in a heavy urban setting. Here's my list of value for this roof:
1) Initial storm surges from hard rains tend to overload the storm water runoff in our city. The soils and plantings can be one small part of lessening this by holdng on to some of this water for a bit. 2) Of lesser value, the plantings will actually help the roof lengthen its life, thereby requiring less material overtime. This is done simply by blocking the ultraviolet and harsh sun.And we enjoyed the process. here's Maxine painting with sedums. We used five varieties of sedum cuttings, which I will be happy to supply you upon request. They were distributed in a lightweight soil mixture of basalt, compost and humus. All I had for structure was about 15lbs/sq.ft available for the saturated soil weight, so we went pretty shallow, just under 3 inches deep. This made us put in a simple irrigation system with a moisture sensor, for those few times in summer when even sedum would die.

holiday

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:47:00 +0000

It's quiet here in my common room on Vermont Street, the living room part of our new home that is open to kitchen and eating areas. Jake is off playing at Devon's, who has digital games. (Jake recently informed Maxine and me with great frustration that he is the last child in America without any digital games or direct TV. He'll live.) The rain on our metal roof is the steady and quiet white noise of today's background, adding to an atmosphere of rest. The wood stove pops and sends out a warm embrace.Maxine says I sprained my back on Mt. Hood yesterday in part because it was so clear that I could use a day or two just being. Just being on the couch. Ice has become my good friend all day. I realize it's been 3 weeks from my last post, and the "remember me" function on the host page doesn't remember me. I'm thinking it is just being snarfy. Now would be a good time for catching up a tad.A great nagging concern during the construction of this home was that when completed, it would not meet my standards. In our career at New Energy Works Timber Frame Homes, we've done fine work. We've been blessed with great clients, and they've expressed their thanks and their enjoyment of the home. But I simply did not know what to expect upon moving into one of our works, deep inside.

I am blown away by what we have created, of what we do as a company.

My irrationally high bar has been reached. Maxine agrees. ( Jake too, although he wishes it was closer to Devon.) Maxine has been saying that she feels like she is house sitting for someone very special, and that soon they are coming home, and we will be asked to leave. In late evening I sit and gaze at the sculpture in which we live and watch shadows, space and tone.

The house welcomed us and our family for our Christmas gathering. Sure there were packing boxes about, and we certainly didn't know how to work everything. People cut you a lot of slack in moments like this. The new space shone through the chaos.Now the holiday season ends. We're back to work finishing a thousand details and the studio next door. Maxine cooks fresh pirogies for the gang and Val sees his chance to deconstruct the ginger bread house, leaving only teeth marks.

move in

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:19:00 +0000

I had said for many months that we would be in for the holidays. By golly we made it, with help from a shoe horn and some olive oil. Activity and its buddy exhaustion reached a peak. Noel the clay plasterer scrubbed walls one last time, Maxine scrubbed shower tile for the first time, we vacuumed until late each night and fought for a temporary certificate of occupancy.
The plastic foams we'd been saving got loaded in Michael's van. We were able to recycle the expanded polystyrene (think coffee cup stuff,) that is too often used for packaging. Various hard plastics for strapping etc. also got recycled.
I was surprised that we couldn't recycle the #7 polyisocyanurate (above) that Hubbardton Forge uses for its packaging, unless we wanted to transport it to Hayword, California. REALLY disappointed, and am writing them a letter. I understand their need to protect the glass shades. How about this wild serrated corrogated cardboard that came with the stove from Scandanavia? Michael came to a great solution, though: he'll going to break it up into small pieces and throw it into his attic for additional r-value.
Friday was moving day. We lifted and carried and loaded and drove. Three trips for the 24' U-Haul, plus our vehicles. My calves are still burning. A bunch of boxes that hadn't been opened in 18 months.
It's very hard to describe the feeling I have occupying this home. As things get put away and we can find our wallets, our socks and our senses, drawer pulls get installed, the lighting gets programmed... I accept it all with wonder. Perhaps with the most excitement, we get a tree and light the stove.
...and pose for a group picture with the crew. From left is Hobart, Michael, Jake River, Maxine, me, David and Val. Quite an effort, quite a team.
Dexter and Annie Brown express their own levels of comfort.

There's still much to do, and we'll push on both with our hammers and this journal. Next up is a breakdown of the home systems and methods, furniture design, the completion of the studio, and my own once-again changing role.

For this weekend, we'll rest (and ski!) Maxine's mom Irene is here helping, Dean and brother Paul are on their way. Sierra and Sheila (who ALMOST didn't get through O'Hare last night) are coming, some friends and neighbors are stopping by. There's a gingerbread house to bake. From all of us here at The Vermont Street Project, from New Energy Works Timber Frame Homes and Pioneer Millworks, Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukah, and a Great New Year.

2009, a house odyssey

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:20:00 +0000

It's 10pm, and I'm getting in from the site a bit late again. Dragging less than I would have thought. We're into the last few days before move-in, and this is about fun and spark. Val and Michael stayed on until past 7, and we had some burritos and beer, chatted through the world's problems, but mostly just wound down. Then I got some private time to just doodle in the quiet space. This is that magical time when so little, relatively, is left to do and the house is about to be launched from project status on toward becoming a home. Our home.

Do you remember the Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams? A stuffed rabbit has to be loved to become real. (Really, you've got to read this.) Gets tattered and worn along the way, but eventually becomes real, because it is truly loved. The Vermont Street Project is stepping into its own velveteen journey now. Time to become a home, old friend. Plan to get worn along the way.

Tonight I dallied a bit in the dusky empty spaces... doing stuff. You know, good and necessary stuff, like some more cleaning, and putting second coats of oil on a couple of floors, and painting the pipes of the Rais wood stove a proper gray, and finishing installing Hal. Hal is the refrigerator. He doesn't move around much without help, but he's quite a bit smarter than me, and there's a lot to him. There's so much to him that Val suggested that we might want to get him his own Facebook page. No I mean it. Last night Val and I and Justin the plumber spent hours with Hal. (I should note that earlier, a good many of us had about broken our backs getting Hal off my old Ford '78 pick up, up the walk and in through the front door. To give you an idea how heavy he is, 3 people spontaneously burst out laughing at the appliance place when they set in into my truck bed and the springs shot from smile to frown in excited immediacy.) Once in place, we had to give him water, electricity, hook up his hard drive with antenna so he could... I dunno what, communicate? It took a few minutes but when we found the hidden "On" button the insides look like a well-lit runway and the LED controls were clearly calling out to us.Then we wiggled this and adjusted that. And then we wiggled this some more and adjusted that QUITE a bit more. This dance went on for a while, but with both satisfaction and growing anticipation we could tell the battle was going our way. He's tight into his niche now, comfortable and secured. I just need to figure out what he's trying to say to me.

Hal is a Miele 36" single door with bottom freezer. model #KF1901SF. This is an amazingly well made appliance; German company, made in Turkey. Almost all of our appliances are Miele, and most made in Germany. BASCO, our supplier in Portland, has been extraordinary to work with, and has a showroom that will make you weep.

is it too much?

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:14:00 +0000

I look at the health care debate from a practical angle, as a business owner. In doing so, I can skip past the part where the conversation would lead me to ask, incredulously, "Why would anyone not want others to have this?" I have numerous friends and acquaintances I respect with whom I would differ on this topic, philosophically. We are wired differently.

What I simply don't get is why the entire business community, other than the medical insurance lobby, obviously, isn't DEMANDING a rational argument and a national health plan. One that would offer an option for a public policy that would be a viable and regulated alternative to the system right now.

The medical industry represents 15% of our GNP. The next nearest industrialized country spends about 6%. How can I compete with that? If it is simply logical that my co-workers and staff need to be healthy, and that therefore I need to supply them with the funds to buy health insurance, and this insurance is rising by many multiples of the cost of living, then it would seem the system is broken, and by looking at systems that aren't (the German, the Swedish, even the French, for God's sake,) we could possible learn something.

I've been blessed with some great staff and subcontractors at the Vermont Street Project. I'm dismayed by how many are not covered by health insurance. It's a bad way to run a country. And now it looks like the public option, first weakened to a level of insipidness, is now off the table entirely. Score another for big insurance.

hardscape

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:30:00 +0000

The temperature has just dropped to well under freezing here in the pacific northwest. It's possible that my luck has run out in my effort to get the majority of concrete placed before spring. That said, we've had a great last two weeks of reasonable weather, and we've poured:

100ft of 4' tall retaining wall, which is most of it

The front stoop
The studio porch floor
The grilling and dining patios
A small section of parking area

The above were given a slight broom finish, but basically smooth.
We also poured the entire length of center spine squares of exposed aggregate-finished concrete squares, about 150' long statement that unites fron to back, and defines the space between the main home and studio/garage.
Very psyched. I'm also a bit surprised by my reaction to getting these exterior hardscape elements completed. exterior site finishing and landscape architecture are perhaps my weakest area, in terms of hands-on experience and design confidence. Now that we've added this skillset to New Energy Works Timber Frame Homes with the addition of Don Naetzker, who brings a wealth of planning and landscape design experience into our community, it's a new set of opportunities and interest.

I'm not sure I was ready for how this work has suddenly defined our home as both welcoming and livable. We have a sidewalk sort of thing now, not mud and gravel. It brings me to my home. It says we are almost there.

on my knees

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:32:00 +0000

With some of our floors, there's nothing like a penetrating oil like Land Ark to bring out the depth of color, grain and ultimate character. two examples are our Settler's Plank, which is a recycled hardwood from the jackets, or outsides, of industrial or agricultural timbers, or weathered boards. the uneven and patina'd nature of this material really calls for a vigorous rubbing in of oil.

We also like to use oils on Douglas-fir, as in this vertical grain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified floor in the tower. The early and late woods in the grain jump right out. Since the wood is quite soft anyway, it would imply that this room is a shoes-off area. It would also imply that we need to be ready to renew the oiled finish perhaps twice a year. With oil, this simply means rubbing in more. No sanding. etc, as long as you're not trying to make the natural dents and surface mars from your 8 year old Jedi warrior go away, and good luck with that!

a bar too high?

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:30:00 +0000

For my entire life I have been plagued by the haunting notion that I should be doing a better job. Certainly I'm not alone in this, as without it, we'd lack a great majority of the forward push that so describes the human condition. And CERTAINLY I have NO interest in trying to delve into figuring out why: at least not here, in front of YOU, for gosh sakes! (Many years ago at a particularly low life-spot, at my one and only effort to get professional counseling, the guy with the degree was really bummed when I said, Sure, we can talk about anything, except... well...and by the end of that list of we're-not-going-there's he was looking pretty forlorn. Hey, let it lie, wouldja, there are homes to build!)

We're human, and we're often driven. I'm okay with that. Some of that drive makes us work harder to do better things. Progress, and evolution. The downside for some of us is that there is little peace, not much real deep level rest.

Val and I are already writing a list of things here at The Vermont Street Project we could do better... next time. Thankfully, these seem to be mostly procedural. I'm praying hard that few of these gotchas get translated in finished product. Some things would be easy to fix, like the wrong mirror in the bathroom or the door swing in the library. The other end of the spectrum holds nightmares like bad bathroom usage/design (see comment at end of post*) or the wrong cross-linked polyethelene pipe in the radiant slab (see#3) below.) So far so good, and relief that it is coming together so well is morphing into a sense of awe at our new home.We've been told by a bunch of clients over the years that after living in the finished house for a while they can't really find anything they'd change, or that it "fits us like a glove and how did you do that?" The tough side of me has wanted to discount the compliment, thinking that they're just not trying hard enough or perhaps have rationalized their way into this love-trance. The angel on the other shoulder whispers softly to let it all come in, baby, because that's how it's SUPPOSED to feel after all this work.

While I'll let you know if it fits us like a glove in a year or so, I do know that I screwed up on:

1) Financing. Next time I would be more arduous and act more quickly in setting up a permanent solution. While resolved, the extra time and headaches caused other problems.
2) Decisions. A few more would have been tackled earlier, even if I don't think it humanly possible at the time. Some of these include: outside hardscapes and final grading; exactly what interior wall section will be eventually covered by tile, panelling, built-ins, etc., so we're not scraping off expensive and thoughtfully applied clay plaster; and who would fill some of the subcontractor roles sooner than the day before they are needed.
3) Heating contractor. Just because the heating system is mostly piping (boiler, radiators, etc.) doesn't mean the otherwise very good plumbing company should do this scope.
4) Get the heating system installed and functional much earlier... see #s 1) and 3) above. We're now bringing the interior temperature up to normal, and seeing some movement in the wood floor that will cause some extra work.Oh there will be others, and this is, in retrospect, a rather sissy list. Here's what I wouldn't pretend that I could have done differently: Be set with a vast percentage more of decisions at the outset. Yup, would have been easier to build. Yet it would not have been the dynamic, knowledge based opportunistic and cohesive result. Design is a process, not a product, remember?

And we're only human, remember?

* Postcript on our bathroom. The main house has a powder room, a lower level full bath, for guests, mostly, and one main bath. Our son may have a killer bedroom occupying the full tower level with the best view of all, but Maxine and I are pretty convinced that making it easy for our paths to cross as a family, in the bathroom, is okay. With a nod toward some privacy, we've sectioned off the toilet and shower from the vanity and soaking tub. So Jake will have to traipse downstairs and join his family in his adolescent years, by design. Ask me in a year about this particular glove.

what is going on.here

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:49:00 +0000

I didn't envision this journal to be a well-organized day by day accounting. I'm not a well organized guy. But to be fair to you, here's what is going on with just 4... er, i mean 3... weeks to move in. Yikes.

On Monday Sam of Evolution Floors starts sanding the elm, by next Saturday we'll have all the finishes on. Dan of West Side Electric is working hard with help from Gary the lighting designer on the install of the crazy electric program. Justin of MP Plumbing has just about got the boiler system complete, and still has a little hair left after a fair amount of head scratching. He'll move onto the finish plumbing fixtures next week. Greg from Imagine Energy installed the solar hot water panels, storage tank, pumps and controls, and now Jonathan Cohen will come and commision the system. I'm not thinking we'll be totally ducky first try. I AM thinking this is the coolest mechanical system I know.As soon as the floors are done Alex and Jesus return to finish off the tile, including the main shower, the bathroom counter, the woodstove platform, the entry slate from Sheldon Slate and an astounding amount of glass tile from Oceanside on a variety of backsplashes. Their product is very pricey and hard to install, but used thoughtfully, its impact has the reach and economy as the shaft from a laser beam. Our Rais woodstove is in at Ecohaus and will be installed as soon as the grout dries.

David and Michael have been finishing the tower floor install (FSC douglas-fir) and various main floor trim details prior to cleaning out in time for the finishers. They start on the studio exterior next week, as there can be almost no one inside the main house while the floor finishes are applied. Hobart is at his home shop building medicine cabinets, mudroom cubbies, pantry shelving and counters, and the dining room banquette. We've just picked our fabric colors for Corby at Hexafoo to order for the bench upholstery and new seats for some Salvation Army-found chairs that we're stripping and staining. (Our table gets shipped from NEWwoodworks next week. Makes me want to shout!)
Outside we've just poured the footers for 100' of retaining wall and the front stoop, and start forming the walls themselves on Monday. While we won't get the complete driveway in this year, we're aiming for as many of the exteriors stoops, steps, and slabs as possible. The mud is relentless and it's not like we're going to see it dry out until June. The flat torch-down roof on the studio is just about done, and we'll even look to apply the root barrier and get some medium up there for the sedum. The Jeldwen windows are being delivered on Tuesday.On Maxine's and my dance card is the many last details of fit and finish, plus moving hard into furniture sourcing, and in some cases, design and fabrication. Maybe we'll do the rent-a-couch for holidays? We're also the designated cleaners, sweepers, oilers, painters and go-fers. Today Maxine painted more radiators; I built a walkway across the compost/mulch/straw/mud yard, using old pallettes and wood scraps, and spent two hours flattening cardboard boxes and seperating packaging foams into recyclable plastic sorts. It's work I enjoy.The last week or so will be packing up our rental home, punchlisting all we can, including a big showing by Noel and Josh to touch up the American Clay, and negotiating with The City That Works, to get us a temporary certificate of occupancy. Work will continue after occupancy, our lives will be different.

coloring in the picture

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:41:00 +0000

We can see Mt. Hood from our rental house here in the valley on a sunny day. But as it hasn't been sunny lately it has been hidden. If it's chilly and raining in Portland, it's likely to be snowing on the mountain. With the ski blogs buzzing, it didn't take much more than Val's text yesterday afternoon, "Hot damn, some fluffy powder and not many people. Epic comes to mind," for Jake and me to gain altitude and break into another season. 54 inches deep at mid mountain, and a moist but pleasant texture boosted our early confidence. Our friends Chris and Heather gave Jake some really nice outgrown skis and I finally bought myself a helmet. A good day of turns, and I'm sore now. We dragged ourselves home and snuggled onto the sectional in front of a kid's movie. The day off was great, thanks, and needed.

Recently Maxine and I were mourning the simple truth that we didn't have the luxury to immerse in and dwell on and celebrate the process of building our dream home. There are still and always so many choices and decisions pending. The banks and these challenging economic times have made finances tense. Our lease is running out and perhaps more importantly our desire to stay any longer in this rental house. To move in as planned just prior to Christmas means the concrete guy and site guy and about 14 other players and stars have to line up just the way they...will, by golly. We know we won't be complete, but will we be far enough along for our needed certificate of occupancy?

All of this will simply make us better at what we do as builders and as designers. I also believe that to a large extent, it shouldn't be too easy, because we are making huge decisions that utilize resources, affect our families and communities, and as designers and builders and yes owners we should be challenging ourselves with each project to do better not only than the drivel that generally passes for today's new homes but better than whatever we did on our last project, in our last month, in our latest thinking.

Perhaps like birthing, where I've heard more than one woman talk about how a combination of faded memory and the grace of parenthood are important antidotes to the reality of just how dang hard giving birth really is, we're at the building stage that could make me forget just how hard and long the road has been. Maxine calls it "coloring in the picture." We are now seeing rooms whose naked volumes once offered great promise begin to deliver on that very promise. The hues of slate and clay plaster bounce off of the stainless sink and land firmly and well-balanced on the oak island top. Rich walnut cabinetry dances with the elm floor first with a lively gait as the south windows pull in full light, and then more slowly, but with feeling, as that light wanes into the west.

It's also a time of large and small battles. Our bath counter broke, and as is too common in these cases, both the fabricator and the manufacturer point at the other. Do we do this at Pioneer Millworks? Lord I hope not. The counter would have been a good-looking new product called Trinity, made from recycled glass and concrete. We're not going to buy another slab, though, so a good solution is to use the same porcelain tile as the floor. It'll be fine, frankly, though I put this in the "not a win, really" category.In the "we'll definitely take this as a little win" group was finding out that in some circumstances we can drill more holes in porcelain sinks that get delivered with the wrong number of holes. This is David using a diamond-abrasive hole saw":
A home like this is made up of thousands of these skirmishes. They work out. This is the guest bath, in the basement near the ping pong table, with the new sink and its correct number of holes.

rains have come

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:38:00 +0000

It is starting to rain. We are about seven weeks from move in. Completion will come a bit after that.
Maxine and I oiled trim over the weekend. We're using Landark, a very natural tongue and linseed oil based concoction made in Philomath, Oregon by Autumn and Aaron. Some woods don't look as good oiled, but when they do, I like this stuff. It takes longer to dry because there are no heavy metal drying agents to speed it up or make you die.

We're also using Osmo's One Coat for most of our exterior, and loved it. It's German, and while they're not about to tell me what's in it, which is annoying, I have a lot of confidence in ecohaus, the pretty cool green super store in Portland (and Seattle,) to not import junk or poison. It also fits the very high German Toy Use standards.

For our floors we're using Osmo's Polyx Oil on our Settler's Plank Oak and vertical grain Douglas-fir that went down in Maxine's office and Jake's tower, respectively, as both of those just glow with an oil finish. I particularly like that you can replenish the oil finish so easily, which both of these floors will want. However our American Gothic Grey Elm, which covers the bulk of the main floor, is getting Vermont Natural Coating's clear satin interior polyurethane. I'm sorry, but that elm's pale soft color and texture just goes darker and more amber than we like with oil.

Hey you might be interested in joining a professional training on the polyx oil application on December 2nd as we do the tower floor. Email marcs@ecohaus.com.

There'll be barely any regular paint, as the interior wall finish is American Clay, but here's a lovely shot of Maxine brushing one of our European-style wall radiators.
And here's an even lovelier photo of a Clone Trooper who has invaded our lives and is busy practicing his Trick or Treat moves.

A birthday card

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:21:00 +0000

Today is my wife Maxine's birthday. I'm not on the same coast, although we've been steadily together for the last five weeks and I took this picture over the weekend at Nick and Becky's fun wedding.

I had flowers delivered. And a note that said, among other things, that I loved her more than ever, (this is true,) that I couldn't have built this house without her, (this is true,) and that "I wouldn't want to live my life without you and, quite simply, I won't."

This last is just a statement. We both know it. We both know that we'll be together for the balance. That's what I meant. Turns out, the flower lady wasn't sure exactly what I meant. It was all a bit intense for her. She did a partcularly beautiful job of the arrangement, and so Maxine couldn't help but call her to say so. I had specified a warm, controlled palette of reds, and purples, maybe a bit of blue. No yellow and no daisies. (I like these fine, but wasn't looking for the contrasts and informality today.)

When Maxine called, she about broke down with relief. "I'm SO glad you called", she exclaimed. "I barely slept, not knowing what your husband was really saying. My husband told me not to worry, that it was all okay, but we could call tomorrow, perhaps, to be sure. I picked the hydrangia right out of my own garden, as I wanted everything to be just right." Maxine went on to explain the amazing journey of the last 2 years in our life, and that yes, everything was great, really. I like a good story, but am kinda sorry I caused this nice lady some concern.

The flooring is going in. Grey elm recycled from barn timbers. Each board is laid out ahead, to be sure that it will go well with its neighbors. I say a floor is not its pieces, but a resulting mosaic.
Val and Dave discuss a placement.

studio rising

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:11:00 +0000

As we have time, we've been building the studio. which is a detached garage with one bedroom space above. My clients Jan and Ken have something similar, and turned me on to the wonderful phrase "Garage-mahal." Perfect. Here's what it's about: below is room enough for two cars end to end, which won't happen because the far end is meant to be a little wood shop. Maybe I'll finally start re-canvassing my canoe collection, or build that triple-seat sea kayak I've long so wanted. (Mmmm...don't think for a minute I can't hear those guffaws.) Maxine and I have worked out the one car garage use: she gets that space in the winter, cause she hates cold and wet/snowy cars, and I get it in the summer, so I NEVER have to put the top up on the convertible. That's a happy couple.

Upstairs is 700 sq ft with a guest bedroom, an extra sleeping nook, a little kitchen and gathering area and work space for me and one other. While we also have room for guests in the main house, this will be perfect for overflow or clients from out of town, etc. Jon and Bee are coming next year to tour the Willamette Valley wine country. I'll be ready.

We reached into less familiar territory in the design and structure. Mid century modern meets industrial loft, or thereabouts. Exposed steel sub-structure, found timbers that we wire-brushed to clean, the lime white wash left on the roof boards, and more recycled funk before we're through. The outside will sport a living roof, if we can keep the sedum alive.
I could live there. You'd almost think I'm planning for that inevitable and probably repeatable banishment to the dog house by the wife. Me? Nice doghouse. I told a co-worker recently that there's a special place in heaven for those who have to work with me. There must be a palace for Maxine.

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Returning from a week in New York to the further progress at the site is always thrilling. I tell Val Darrah, our site foreman, that it is a big compliment to him that when I'm on the road I rarely check in. New York is very consuming now that I'm there just once a month. I don't call back too often because I don't micro-manage... unless it is needed. Few calls were made.

We mentioned in a previous post about the American Clay interiors. As with all our efforts, we look for low embodied energy in product manufacturing, an honest visual presentation upon completion, a sense of craft and reasonable value-cost ratios. We're pretty psyched about how this is working, and this is in part due to the new sprayable base coat called enjarre. It doesn't eliminate the use of hawk and trowel, but it gets a bunch of plaster on the wall quickly, to be hand floated and burnished after. Labor seems to be about cut in half, at least. On the Faswall blocks in the lower level, it might well be that this is one of the more cost-effective finishes available, for the reasons mentioned above.

There's a large disagreement between building scientists, code officials and... me, among others about the value of the vapor barrier on the inside face of the envelope. I agree that understanding the dewpoint, or the surface where condensation can occur, is critical to the life and health of the home, and to its inhabitants. My contention, particularly in this somewhat mild Portland climate, is that if vapor drive is limited by a combination of physical barrier and interior control of humidity and balanced inside-outside pressure, and there are minimal thermal bridges in the envelope system, then a wall that breathes, that is, that can take up and then give back normal variations in indoor humidity is the best approach. Cellulose insulation, protected from the outside by a continuous thermal break of rigid insulation (r-10), and allowed to breathe through to the interior, in our case using American Clay, works great.The finished walls tend to have a mottled color and texture. for some this might not be the goal. We're feeling like it works in this setting.
This is Noel from Traditional Natural Plaster Company, with his hawk and trowel, hand applying the final coat to the tower.
This is young Jedi warrior Jake Skyskipper, protecting his tower room from all picture takers with his light saber.

lessons on selling

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:32:00 +0000

There is much to learn as a builder and designer when building your own house. One good lesson is about being a consumer; being on the buying end of the transaction; wanting and needing various products and services.

I'm used to the role of provider. I and my co-workers provide a wide variety of services, like design, engineering, building and installing, for a myriad of products like timber frames, flooring, fine woodworking, even screen porches and wine cellars. 25 or so years of so many items, linked by their connection to shelter and to craft.

Now I'm the buyer, and the view from this side is fascinating. So far I know that 1) I am glad when sales people call me back. I'm even more so when they call me back again, and ask for the order. I need to work with people who have confidence and desire. 2) Sales people who aren't very bright, or who don't REALLY know their trade annoy the heck out of me. Last week I asked a foam insulation guy what the permeability rating on his product was, per inch installed and cured. He looked blank, thumbed through his literature, and said no one had asked him that before. To put this into perspective, it would be like your car mechanic not knowing how many cylinders your engine had. Or your hair dresser not caring whether your hair was full bodied or not.

3) It surprises me when a salesperson, or anyone, from the supplying company tries to put me on the defensive when asked questions of performance or quality.

4) And I like it a lot if the sales guy stays in touch after the project has started. This isn't easy, as there is typically a project manager now rocking with it. But he didin't make the deal. I hired the most expensive electrical contractors because Aaron the sales guy was good, thorough and yes, he's stayed right with it. Noel and Josh, the plasterers, certainly aren't inexpensive, and frankly, I didn't even bid them out, as I knew right away they were who I wanted to work with, and have not been disappointed. I actually paid Jonathan Cohen, the heating and solar guy as a consultant prior to them awarding him a large percentage of the work. Same with Gary Douglas, the lighting consultant. Both knew their trades, and I was willing to hire them by the hour first, to test my instincts and to feel like I wasn't taking unfair advantage.

Here's the confession: I have been guilty of not meeting my own standards on all of the above. at various times over the last 25 years. In particularly brutal exchanges with my mirror, I think that it's a wonder we're still in business. I have a twist on that old saying "the trouble with labor is management." I take it another important step: "...and the trouble with management is ownership." And one even further: "I have to own the place, otherwise I'd have gotten fired long ago!" No doubt, though, that this exercise has taught me much about sales and service.

The siding continues, with its mix of clear redwood reclaimed from wine vats and resawn barn boards in a reverse board and batten.

weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:09:00 +0000

Young Cameron from the McMinnville shop recently looked at me with a bright smile face when I answered question about my weekend and said, "Hey, last year was my first Portland summer. What I learned was, they go quick. Better stop and enjoy it now!" Lordy, why is it that so much of the best advice I get is from the mouths of ... younger people?

No question about the potential for burnout in this year-of-building-and-little-else. Even my cell phone was laughing at me on Friday when the appointment bell went off and I looked down to see "Seattle to Vancouver", the 200 mile bike ride that as of March I had still planned on doing. THERE'S BEEN NO TIME OR ENERGY FOR TRAINING, I yell at the darn overrated little iphone. Doesn't it know how hard it is to build a home and help run a business in a recession? Isn't it supposed to be Apple Corporation sensitive, maybe offering condolensces, even a massage, rather than this naked unemotional pre=progammed reminder?

But... all is not lost and by golly we live by the Willamette River, near the confluence of the Columbia. We've taken to heading toward Astoria at the Pacific, never getting there, but instead pulling over at one or more forever stretches of soft sand to pick berries, swim, watch the boats.. er, ships, go by.
I love that Portland is a working port. My understanding is that much of the wheat in the west goes through here, coming down the Columbia on barges and trains. Don't think that these bad boy ship captains will yield, or that they are going slow. They won't and they aren't.

Went tubing with Brian and Penny of Cedar CreekTimber last week. His boat is very fast. We had fun, although we flipped once and poor Maxine bruised a rib. 35mph makes the water surface seem hard indeed. Ah, the risk of the wild side. She'll be moving slow for a bit, with a game face and a painful grimace.
The flip was about ten seconds after this clip. I asked for a re-take.

Monday we're spraying the Enjarre clay plaster wall coating. There's been a pleasant response to blog announcements and eblasts. It's exciting, honestly, to be the first project in Oregon with this new application method of a great and natural wall coating, and the first we know of the whole house, ceilings and all, finished in American Clay. We''ll be continuing the spray and then the hand work for the next two weeks, if you want to stop in. These shots are from Friday, when Josh and Noel from The Traditional Natural Plaster Company, with help from our own Michael, all got into the rhythm of the first day of the project.

talking trash

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:41:00 +0000

I've been a bit obsessed by the construction waste from this project. The LEED for Homes criteria and the city of Portland both require careful monitoring and full recycling. But unlike the build-and-get-it-inspected documentation of most of what happens, there isn't any teeth to this mandate, as it would be easy to fake it, or at least underestimate your junk quotient. Yet most people are sincere, I think. I've been fascinated to see just how much C&D (construction and demolition) waste we'd make, and have taken pictures of everything that has left the site and where it went. So far it breaks down into a few manageable categories: dirt, wood, drywall scraps, household-style recyclable materials, and landfill-bound.

Each weekend I load up the trash and recycling and bring it back to our rental home and put it on the curb. It has pretty much not even been more than an average household makes anyway, with cardboard from packaging and plastic and cans from drinking taking up most of the additional recycling. (Yes I admit it, I pull out the refundables and turn them in for my nickel... curse you Mother!) Plastic wrapping from construction products and simple trash make up the consistently small amount of landfill trash I bring.

The wood scraps have been a personal hurdle, as I had toyed too long with the idea of eventually burning them in our sealed-combustion Rais wood stove after we move in. We' re discussing small, more unusable pieces than you'd guess here: scraps of dirty sheathing, 8" trimmed ends of sidng, over-nailed window corner packaging. But I've broken down and yesterday the little nuclear and I began the first of multiple pick-up trips to the grinder place, where they'll charge me a scant ten spot and make mulch. The visuals were getting too much.

Drywall scraps go back to the supplier (they, too, charging to take them) where they'll end up supplying needed lime to farmers' fields. Boy was I tempted to turn them over in the back yard.

The details count, too. Jake River gets two cents for every nail or screw he finds, and we use a magnet to comb through saw dust prior to throwing it out the window. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The nails, along with hard plastic items that won't go into the household recycling, paint cans and other trickier stuff go to one of a variety of recycling places that can be found through the amazing services and staff at Metro, if you're here in Portland.
Of course, if you're still smoking plastic filter cigarettes, there's no good place for those filters. Try googling cigarette filters in the ocean. My suggestion is this: you're gonna die sooner anyway, so at least roll your own non-filters or smoke a good cigar with me, I'm always game!

the right stuff

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:09:00 +0000

The new cellulose gang finished, and the drywallers are hanging 'rock. It's dusty.

I love cellulose. Our installer, JW Geothermal, did a decent job, and used quality product. I say that there is a reasonable pallet of insulations that can do a good job, but none of them can come to the table of low embodied energy, breathability, and cost the way that chewed up recycled newspaper can. Add a bit of wheat starch and some misting water, and it's paper mache' fun.
We got carried away and did quite a bit of sound deadening in the interior walls and floor joists. The sound transmittance between rooms can be lessenned tremendously, and the time to do it seems like now.
The outside of the stud walls is covered with an unbroken layer of 1 1/2" polyisocyanurate rigid insulation, to break the thermal bridge created by the wall studs. This is covered by a house wrap and vertical strapping to create a rain screen and let the siding dry from both sides.

We call this our "matrix wall" because there are a variety of integrated systems and materials coalescing to do the thing an enclosure is supposed to do: keep out the elements, minimize the need for additional heating or cooling, allow a building to stand a very long time.

Color Crazy (Maxine)

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:10:00 +0000

Color and texture really affects me; simply walking down the street or through the woods often feels like listening to a symphony. I know it sounds kind of crazy but hey, I have a rich and satisfying inner life and it probably explains a lot about my quiet nature.

When choosing colors for interiors it's not hard to pick a color that's discordant with the rest of the scene inside. Color changes from the cool early light to the warm afternoon glow and all over again as we enter the world of artificial light. I typically look at many hundreds of colors before I approach clients with a select and controlled palette. Of the thousands of colors offered it's not unusual for me to further tweak a color to adjust its nuance. Sometimes it has a balancing effect - you don't really notice the change until it's pointed out. In our Rochester house there were 23 different colors in 2000 square feet and you'd be hard pressed to find them all.

I'd always assumed we'd paint at Vermont Street and was pretty excited that Benjamin Moore had launched a new no VOC line that was still loved by painters and available in every single wonderful color. I'd hoped it would wear as well as the matte and pearl sheens I'd become such a devout fan of - talk about paint you can scrub!.

A funny thing happened though as we became more and more committed to creating a greener home - we decided to not paint and instead use an earth plaster from American Clay. Walls that breathe, that maintain a constant humidity level by absorbing excesses and releasing it back when dry (important attributes in a home with such a tight building envelope). Walls that lessen the heating and cooling loads, walls that emit negative ions thereby cancelling out the positive ions created by electronics etc and best of all, wall that aren't a monochromatic mass because its a living finish with subtle texture and color variation. We initially thought earth plaster was out of our reach until the rather recent launch of Enjarre. I won't go into the application differences here but basically it can become its own primer and finish in one or become a primer for the other finishes offered like Loma, Porcelina and Marittimo. It's all good news that makes both processes more affordable. Suddenly we were able to use Enjarre as the lower level finish and able to use some of the other finishes for the more special spaces on the main floor. Downsides? It's a solid body product being applied in the not too distant future so decision time is now on color.

We picked up samples at Portland's Ecohaus, an amazing store every city should have because it's Home Depot(ette) for the conscientious. I knew my choices would be limited and I was right - 42 stock colors. 42 quickly distilled down to 16 and then to 12. Only one matched up to the colors I'd been imagining for months. You know, expectation and preconceived notions are dangerous things and can easily leave you clinging to the one speck of disappointment set adrift in an ocean of opportunity. I admit I needed some adjustment time. Part of me was afraid it would look and feel boring. Every room in our current rental home is the same off white and it's become painful to look at the walls after 10 months. I'm afraid of making an error in judgment and then being stuck with it - after all, I can't just paint over it. This is a side of sustainability I'd never considered on such a large scale before. Everything takes the long view, not just the structural and mechanical. I passionately believe in this but it's daunting to be accountable for such lasting decisions.

We met with Noah of Traditional Natural Plaster Co recently to talk about colors and I was comforted to know that they can do custom coloring though it does take some extra time. He's working on a custom blend for the common space and I'm excited about color again. We start in two weeks.

Appraisor my appraisor

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:56:00 +0000

Not surprisingly, I'll take out some construction financing that will later become a mortgage. In a bit, a third-party-assigned fellow with a rigid set of guidelines will show up at the project and tell me, the bank, and all who want to know just what the place will be worth. It's a sad and yet intriguing prospect. The game is clear, and the rules set in place to minimize the fraud and greed too often running rampant when we are left to our own devices. These rules are even more stringent with the backlash against the blather of the recent mortgage system meltdown. Bad extra bureaucracy to solve the problems of bad unregulated business. ouch

We are told that our home will be worth what other homes within a half mile circumference or less that have sold within 6 months or less that have about the same square footage... or less?

cha cha cha.

I'm thankful that for years Maxine and I have built up the sweat equity to be asking only for a fraction of this probable low appraisal. Our loan-to-value ratio should set the bank at ease. cha cha cha...

I struggle for the occasional client of ours, though, who is told by the bank that the appraisal doesn't pan out, sometimes with some banker-nobody who doesn't know or wouldn't understand what we do suggesting that perhaps... the price is too high...according to this appraisal...which uses the comps of bloated starter castles of plastic siding and granite flash.

Well, 25 years later, we're still bucking the odds and enjoying the ride.

Sent the gang home today at noon. Yesterday the air was 103, today it was to be 104, tomorrow we're told 105. Our rental house is so hot we can't leave the basement.

How to lose a client...

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Here's a letter just sent to a very nice lady for whom we probably won't work. She's too far away. She also mentioned that although she wants to be green, the local building costs were.... an amount that won't get a truly green home, I fear. Did give me a chance to think out loud, though...

"Dear _____________,

"Thanks for the time on the phone today, and for your interest. I loved the floor plan you sent: concise, personal and yet welcoming and friendly. As much as most of us need.

"If you visit our website, timberframe-postandbeamhomes.com, or peruse our brochures, you’ll see our homes tend toward the woody and natural. While many of our homes are often large, we are known for what is called green, or sustainable, building. I define sustainability with four major points: 1) advanced thermal and mechanical systems; 2) thoughtful and renewable sourcing of materials; 3) longevity in structural enclosure systems, and; 4) high levels of design and craft. I'll break them down a bit more.

"It's no longer a dream to build homes that take little to heat and cool, use water efficiently, and provide fresh air to the inhabitants. Honestly, we've known how to do this since the early 80's, but recently it really feels like people are taking the information more seriously. This includes better levels of insulation, (and no fiberglas!), modulating furnace and air conditioning units that can self-regulate down to very low levels of demand, home-sourced alternative energy like photovoltaics for electricity and solar hot water, heat recovering ventilators, water-efficient plumbing fixtures (dual-flush toilets have been used in Europe for fifty years, for gosh sakes,) and rain-water harvesting systems. All of these items can be considered on their individual merit and project applicability, but frankly, most should be non-optional.

"The embodied energy that goes into each of our building products is now being considered more carefully. Natural and renewable resources like lightly processed stone and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood lead the list, of course. Major manufacturers are “green washing” us all the time as they try to convince us that their own highly processed polymer products are the new answer. Sometimes the old ways are the best ways. Locally sourced products, while not the most important issue, should always be considered first.

"Oregon and New York alike have seen their share of building system failures due to poor detailing of rain planes and resultant moisture problems. Again, we've known many of the correct methods since the early 80's, but have failed to act on them. This is partly due to laziness in most builders, and the fact that the market (our clients) push for cheaper houses that go up faster. Greed is a major factor for both provider and end user, though I have to give the former the larger share of the blame. For some reason we don't give the builder (or for that matter the residential architect/designer,) the professional status that perhaps we do for lawyers and doctors, in spite of the equally important role these professionals play. We rely on regulatory agencies, and they have caved to special interests. No surprise there.

"Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I believe true sustainability to be closely linked to the timelessness of great design, and the beauty of fine craft. Both inspire us to love and maintain a building, create meaningful work, establish a "high bar" for every one involved on the project, and better use the resources at hand. I fear that part of the reason the "energy efficiency" movement of the early 80's died was that most of those homes were ugly, and poorly made.

"As a side note, I don't link timber framing, which is gorgeous, and what we're best known for, is directly and solely tied with great green building. It can be an important asset in of all of the 4 tenants as described, but they can all be done without a timber to be seen."

And on to the end. Made me think. You? Does this jibe? Here's a picture of Maxine talking to a group of designers and builders at the house this past Saturday from the local Earth Advantage Institute. We've gotten a warm reception in this incredible city.

fired

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:44:00 +0000

Fired the insulation company today. Up and kicked them off the site, before they could get started. A truck full of the wrong stuff...

I felt bad for the installer, for as usual, the trouble with labor is management, and as I am want to add, the trouble with management is ownership. In this case, the poor guy looked on helplessly, trying to find a pleasant word, something reassurring, in spite of the sad clarity of the moment.

I'm a cellulose guy. It's chewed up newspaper that insulates, and therefore has very low embodied energy in its life cycle, breathes well, minds its own business. I ask for only a few details: that the additive used for vermin and fire retardation be boric acid, an easily achieved derivative of the naturally occurring mineral borate, and that the sidewalls be wet sprayed, using only water to bond with the starches in the formula. The former because it's effective and inoculous compared to aluminum sulfite, the cheaper alternative; the latter because in vertical applications cellulose can settle (gravity wins again,) except that in my 25 damn years of experience with the stuff, in a proper wet spray application that cannot possibly happen.

So what do you think management of this particular company was thinking when they sent out the truck with an installer who looked visibly uncomfortable, and a truck full of insulation with aluminum sulfite-processed cellulose. Here's a close up of the warning on the packaging:
In case you can't see it, let me read the inscription: "NOT FOR USE IN SPRAY-APPLIED WALL APPLICATION." The reason for this is that aluminum sulfite, when mixed with water, can do some nasty outgassing at about the same time that it is turning very mean and corrosive. Add to that my own decision simply not to want aluminum sulfite in my home, nor to support its resource-intensive manufacture.

My not-so-complex question algorythm is 1) are they crooks, or 2) are they stupid, or 3) which would you like to entrust with the thermal performance of your home?

On the bright side, here's a pic of Scott and Val finishing up installation (correctly) of the clerestory windows.

I liked Maxine adding her touch in the previous post, even if it sounded a bit cheerleader-y for the home team. I think she has even more to say. I'll ask her about the color struggle she's having with natural clay plasters...

Maxine Speaks Up (at last.)

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:17:00 +0000

Some of you blog readers have been wondering just when I (Maxine) might be offering up a view on this house building process. I've been composing vignettes in my mind for a long time and the other day one too fitting bubbled out.

It was a beautiful day and Jake and I had been motoring around town and on the way home we were quiet for a long while just taking it all in (we're both incorrigible daydreamers). Jake finally broke the silence with this question: "Who knows more, you or Daddy?" "Well," I started out out tentatively "probably Daddy, he's a really smart guy..." "Like he knows more about building than you do, right?" "Yes," I replied, "he absolutely knows more about that than I do." We continued the discussion in this vein for a bit then I broadened the topic and reminded him that it can be hard to quantify "who knows more" for each of us naturally gravitates toward what is of personal interest. Seeming like the perfect teaching moment, I went on to explain that one of the greatest benefits of community is the collective knowledge that's gained and shared. There's an almost magical interdependence that makes the whole so much stronger, smarter and more interesting than just the sum of its parts. There was another long stretch of silence as we both pondered that.

I can't speak for what was going through Jake's mind then but I know it didn't take long for me to start thinking about all that's right about Timber Frame Homes by New Energy Works and our quirky little community. Jonathan and I had been talking not too long ago about a recently completed project a NY mag was interested in covering. The owners wanted to maintain their anonymity and Jonathan was worried that it may not be as interesting to readers without that sense of personal connection. As the reader of way too many articles on houses and house design I pointed out that this is common practice and that it just doesn't get much more personal than the process of design and build that happens at New Energy Works. In a design/build project the 5 working groups (design, timberframing/engineering, construction, fine woodworking and our sister company Pioneer Millworks) are right there in the process with the client and with one another basically from day one. Working together makes us better at designing spaces, at building shelter, at leaving a legacy of craftsmanship. The disconnect that can happen doesn't. It's amazing to be able to walk over to the folks in design (or fine woodworking, or Pioneer etc) and say "Hey, I was thinking it might be interesting to..." or "wouldn't it be great to..." and we figure it out together. I love that. Reinventing the wheel each time isn't the easiest way to build or design but the challenge seems a little less daunting when surrounded by the community of knowledge. I personally have always loved going on site and talking with the guys, trying to get some basic understanding of what makes it harder or easier.

The interiors phase of Vermont Street is ramping up so I've been busy detailing things, which always leads to more questions than answers. I've tried to make time the past couple of months to bake more. It's not for us but for "the guys"at the future home. You see, being new to me they don't really realize the pot of trouble I'm cooking up in my mind when it comes to finish work so I'm trying to sweeten it up at least literally. I get ideas that I don't have execution plans for - I'm smart enough to know that these patient and talented guys will know how to build it better than me.

Editor's note: That article Maxine mentions is just on the newstands this week in Rochester Magazine. Don't ask me what newstands, though.

a breath of fresh air

noreply@blogger.com (jonathan orpin) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:43:00 +0000

There are times when I'm very detail oriented, and, well, there are other times. I know a good deal about the mechanical systems of homes, and am learning more now. The main thing I have learned in the last 6 weeks is that I know significantly less than I thought, and less than I want.

We're using a heat recovering ventilator (HRV), in our case by Fantech. Unlike other mechanical systems, we've spec'd and installed it ourselves. (Or just about, as we've just a couple of more ducts to run before insulation plugs up our wall cavities on Wednesday.) The idea is that homes that are well built don't have enough natural air changes to dissuade indoor air pollution and built-up moisture caused by offgassing surfaces, cooking, showering, and living our dang modern life.

An HRV takes air from the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen and sends it outside through a central ventilator that at the same time is bringing fresh air in and supplying it to living and sleeping areas. The cold, dry, fresh outside air is pre-warmed by the stale but warm indoor air with the use of air-to-air heat exchange. They claim about 65% efficiency, which I guess means that about about 2/3rds of the latent btu's in the outgoing air are recovered in the pre-warming.

Maybe. This air can feel cold to me. One mistake I made years ago was to bring it into a closet. Wasn't long before I got a call wondering why there was mildew on the clothes. Turned out that the cooler air in the volume of the smaller space couldn't hold moisture suspended, so the dew point was being reached, causing condensation which in turned caused fungal growth.

Still, you have to have fresh air, bathroom fans are wasteful, in most climates keeping the windows open enough isn't practical, and 65% isn't all that bad, really. I figure almost all homes built today are too tight to assume enough natural ventilation, so as long as you have to buy the equipment anyway, it may as well REALLY have a job to do! For years we have tested for envelope leakage using blower doors to put the home under a vacuum and found that our homes hover around one tenth of an air change (.1 ACH) per hour in natural pressure. This is extraordinarily low, and can account for some tremendous energy savings. ASHRAE standards suggest that this be boosted to a controlled ACH between .25 and .35.

In a home with air ducts for heating and cooling, we have tapped directly into those for distributing the fresh air. The Vermont Street Project is foregoing air conditionong and is heating with a combination of radiant tubes in the basement slab and European-style wall hung radiators in the main two floors. With no ducts already there, we've run our own 4 and 5" rigid pipe, winding around the plumbing (oh why didn't we beat them to that joist space?), always counting our static pressure (SP) losses, and adding a Panasonic low sone booster fan in the main bath, which is also the farthest spot with the highest SP, or resistance to the airflow.

The unit runs all the time, at a low rate of 60 cubic feet per minute (CFM). When you step into the bath room, you hit a remote timer which kicks the unit up to 150 CFM for either 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Neither 60 or even 150 CFM is much when spread throughout an average house volume, yet the job will get done, noise is all but eliminated, and fresh air is inexpensively introduced.

Like all high performance operations, this house will require tuning. We're sure to experience some unbalanced airflow, and I'm undecided whether to run the unit in good weather, when windows really will be open. We'll watch this system and make our call as we live the home.