the commons

caitlin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:10:46 +0000

Today the city electrical inspector visited for the third time. The wiring in the shop is finally up to par with city standards after the many alterations made on the behalf of the inspectors’ recommendations. The difficulty meeting the standards were exacerbated by the fact that the city kept sending different inspectors to the shop, with each individual finding various faults in the system.

Yesterday, Bob and Dustin fashioned a face of plywood for the circuit board located in the art-studio space of the shop. The walls within this room are completely layered with recycled plywood in order to cover the blue-jean insulation, and subsequently aid in dulling any noise emerging from the shop.

There are going to be two separate power meters at the front of the house–one will calculate the energy consumption of the house, and another will calculate that used by the shop. The shop is the only part of the house that will not be certified by the livingbuilding challenge because the energy input of the machinery will not meet with the net-zero-energy conditions of the project. In this instance, “net-zero-energy” implies that a building must produce as much energy as consumed over the course of one year.

This spring brings with it the first bounties of our roof top garden! Our friend Vassar planted varieties ranging from nitrogen-fixing Austrian Winter Peas to the sinus-clearing Mustard Greens. Everything is flourishing and ready to eat. In fact, the zucchinis are turning out to be quite large, which means that there will be no shortage of zucchini bread in this household. The success of this season sings to our future gardening experiences atop the roof with its two feet of now nutrient rich soil.

Tomorrow Creative Gate Works is expected to arrive and begin discussing the building of railings above the shop. Dustin and Garrett have agreed to provide the materials needed for this job, while the company will provide the labor. Garrett and Dustin very pleased with this opportunity and look forward to meeting with Kade from Creative Gate Works.

This coming Monday, Will of Reserve Steel will be coming by the building site to work with Dustin on steel stud schematics in preparation for the construction of the walls to the home! Once the walls are in place, the house will seem ever more complete, with the added bonus of ample shade for Dustin and co.’s summer toils.

Sunday! Sunday! Sundaaaayyy! Actually, Friday.

garrett — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:38:06 +0000

As mentioned previously, we’re going to be on TV! And Soon! The show will be airing this Friday July 24th at 9:00 PM on the Discovery Channel (find out what channel it’s on). Here’s what they say about it:

Portland, OR: Salvage Brothers

Steve helps the Moon brothers build what they hope to be one of the greenest homes in the country. Steve will help install steel walls, reclaimed wood from shipping pallets and even check out a composting toilet.

We’re really excited to get some publicity so that more people can learn about the project (one of our biggest goals). Anyway, tune in to the show and tell us what you think, we may not get to see it for a while (we don’t have a TV so we’re going to try to find some friends that do).

a long time coming

dustin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:44:00 +0000

so the blog has been quiet for a good while… it’s time for some updates:

we were visited by steve thomas from the discovery channel’s renovation nation the show should air soon - we’ll post an update when we find out the date.

we put up some of the exterior stud walls for the camera:

we’ll probably need to take them down in order to get the interior walls in. during the show we also took delivery of our composting toilet.

we also finished the steps into the shop:

and put a recycled pallet wall in the shop (picture forthcoming).

vassar and tomás have begun transforming the muddy ground that was the top of the shop into a burgeoning garden - the sad part being that vassar will be leaving portland before he even gets to see the fruits (& vegetables) of his labor.

we’ve hooked up the city water into the mechanical room - we’re using it during construction and will need it to fill the cistern keeping it as a backup in case of emergency.

we finally backfilled the hole around the mechanical room and gave our awesome and understanding neighbors back their driveway (well sort of - it’s only crushed rock - it’s not yet in its finished state - thanks namita & scott!).

nearly all the concrete work has been done - just need to pour a small curb, retaining wall and footings and a few pan decks. it’s been a lot of concrete (which has an environmental cost for sure, but it’ll contribute to the house’s overall durability - a large component of sustainability.

i’ve submitted, what i hope is the final round of engineering to the city, we’re waiting to hear back from them and then we’ll be start putting up some walls… that will be some dramatic change.

don’t mark my words, but i’m going to try and be a bit more regular about updating the blog. check back often.

first snow and now sprain.

dustin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:00:20 +0000

so i’v sprained my MCL (medial collateral ligament) pretty well, or is that badly? either way, i’ve been on crutches and mostly out of commission since last monday night.

the foundation walls for the mechanical room were scheduled to be poured tomorrow, but nick, a great guy and the concrete sub, has decided we should postpone due to the incoming cold weather. the cold can hamper the concrete’s structural integrity.
while we wait for the weather to warm (and my knee to heal) nick will begin placing the forms for the first floor walls. we have one more wave of concrete to get done - the first floor walls - and then we’re on to the stud wall framing!

with our best foot(ing) forward

dustin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:30:06 +0000

The house has begun!

The hole for the footing has been dug and nick and crew are beginning to construct the forms for the footing.

I ordered the heat mirror windows, made by Alpen. A big thanks to Dave Maier and Robert Clarke for making it happen, helping us with the order, the generous contribution and believing in our project.

The windows don’t come cheap - high performance things rarely do - the bill was nearly $40k including a special discount and we’ve still got a few more windows to order. It’s by far the biggest single expenditure of the project (I think only solar panels, before rebates/tax credits, will surpass it), but windows are such an integral part of the house’s envelope and overall design - especially in a passive solar heated design.

I started this post last week, prior to the snow, which has foiled any forward progress on the house footings and dashed our hopes of pouring concrete this week. Pouring concrete in freezing conditions poses structural risks to the concrete, although it is possible, but it requires chemical additives, which add to the cost. Waiting for the weather to pass seems the most prudent (and cheapest) option.

So as the cold weather and snow continue our only option is to work on finishing the interior of the shop and of course the unending job of project management (read: boring administrative type work).

slow on updates due to computer issues (it’s being replaced - under warranty) - posting this from my phone.

dustin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:22:18 +0000

we’ve waterproofed the shop and are now preparing to pour the footing for the retaining wall, which will hold the soil that will allow us to make a garden on top. once the retaining wall is done we will be able to start digging the house foundation!

the forms have been stripped

dustin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:49:08 +0000

so finally all the forms have been stripped from the shop walls and we’re starting to layout the electrical and plumbing that will traverse underneath the concrete slab within the shop. we still need to break off all of the snap ties:

which will require us finding a bar that is just bigger than the head of the snap tie to fit over it and bend them back and forth and then rotate them till they break off - it takes about 10-15 seconds per snap tie and there are around 1600 of them… so hopefully only around 4.5-5 hours of work.

under the stars

dustin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:04:49 +0000

upon recommendation/suggestion i spent the night in the shop, sans roof, under the stars - the big locust(?) trees in the neighbor’s yard behind swayed and moved their thousand fingered-leaves in the whispering air as i fell into a lull and sleep consumed me.

the concrete process moves like “mud” or learning to wait

dustin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:27:09 +0000

(note: concrete is referred to as “mud” in the trade)

so we (meaning ron, kim and gary) finally poured the walls of the shop yesterday - it’s been a long time coming (we first thought we’d be pouring the week of the 11th) - things kept getting pushed back, which has been frustrating to say the least. people keep reminding me of the adage that things in construction always get delayed or take twice…

i guess the ultimate frustration comes from the fact that we really want to get the roof of the house on as soon as possible, before it gets too wet…and waiting for someone else to work as we sit idly by is difficult at best…

i suppose there exists a cliche lesson in here - a lesson to be patient and allow for what is, rather than fretting what isn’t. but at the same time i’d like to be proactive and prevent further delays and foster better communication between the subcontractors and us. maybe with clear communication and an initial understanding of timeline, there can be fewer delays.

coming up next, we have to run plumbing, electrical and vacuum pipe in the shop floors before we can pour them - we hope to be pouring the floors in mid september, after our hopeful attendance at a vipassana meditation retreat.

an overview of equitable and efficient spaces

garrett — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:05:59 +0000

I thought it might be interesting to you all to see some of the process that went into creating The Commons. With that in mind I am publishing here the paper I wrote while finishing school and working on The Commons project with Dustin.

The document is half a survey of sustainability and its applications to architecture, and half a case study of the house we are building today. You may notice that there have been several design changes since this paper was written, evidencing the learning process. I’d like to make some caveats about typos, grammar errors, etc. but hopefully you all will send me emails and maybe this document can improve.

So without further ado: Sustainable Architecture: an overview of equitable and efficient spaces