Building Green in Vermont

Happy chickens

2011-08-16T20:16:00.019-04:00

So the coop is complete and the girls are moved in. Thanks again to The Garden Coop. The plans were fantastic, easy to follow (even for us novices), and we are so thrilled with the final product. It took us way longer than expected--about 7 full weekends of work. But that had more to do with the challenges of juggling a hammer, plywood, and a feisty toddler than the complexity of the plans. Milo adores the chickens and likes the coop, too...although he was more enamored with it when he thought it was a playhouse for him. Now that the chickens are in residence, he is slightly less enthused.

Here are some pics. of the finished product as well as the ladies' first night out on the lawn (free ranging). It was really cute--they didn't stray far from Ryan the whole time. It's become our new evening ritual, after putting Milo down, to spend some quality time with the flock. As many people have commented, they really are more entertaining than tv. I shouldn't laugh at their distress, but watching them try and scoot under Ryan's chair and shout alarms to each other when planes fly overhead (which I assume they believe are the biggest hawks ever?) makes me giggle. It's really unfortunate that we are in the Burlington airport flight path...hopefully they'll get used to it over time.

You can see our little raised beds in some shots. We purchased them from Keith at Cedar Goods in Montpelier and love them; they're really well made and very affordable. Would highly recommend them if you're looking for raised beds in this area. So the garden is doing okay but not great...it is our first year planting a garden so I'm trying to cut ourselves a little slack. We've harvested lots of zucchini (Milo loves to peek under the leaves to see if he can spot them and gestures wildly if he finds one), a few green tomatoes (compliments of the babe who doesn't understand the concept of harvesting when ripe), some tasty basil, Swiss chard, and lettuce. All in all, not a bad crop. Oh, and we planted sunflowers around the corner of the coop in the hopes that they'll provide the chicks with some shade...but no blooms yet.

Front door color

2011-06-25T20:22:00.015-04:00

Yes, it's been 1.5 years since we moved in and both the front and side door are still a dull white. Approaching yellow at this point. We desperately need to paint them...but that would require deciding on a color. We think we've narrowed it down to two contenders: a funky lime green or robins egg blue. Your vote?

(Credits in order of appearance: Remodelista, TarPaperCrane, Coastal Living, ??, Martha Stewart, Etsy, Styleredux, Istockphoto, SusanCohanGardens)

Progress on the coop...

2011-06-25T19:56:00.011-04:00

We (and by we, I mean Ryan) are making progress on the coop...which is a good thing because the chickens are getting huge!! We've been letting them spend more and more time outside (in one of the dog's old pens) which they seem to love. A bumblebee buzzed around the pen the other day and by their excited shrieking and carrying on, you would have thought they were 13-year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. I can't wait for them to catch their first bug. Milo is also greatly enjoying all of the time we have been spending outside lately. He dotes on the chickens and sticks his chubby little hands through the bars of the pen to feed them grass and clover. Why they are jazzed to take it from him when they have the exact same grass inside the pen is beyond me. Guess the adoration is mutual! Notice Ryan's shirt in the last photo--this was taken on Father's Day and Milo's daycare made all the dads cute tees.

P.S. Hardware cloth sucks. If/when you're working with it, wear gloves. Thick gloves.

The nursery is occupied: Redux!

2011-05-29T14:40:00.009-04:00

So when Milo made his big debut in February of 2010, we blogged about how the nursery was finally occupied. Well Milo has some new neighbors upstairs and we have a new birth to announce--our baby chickens!!! I traveled to Williamstown, VT on Friday to pick up our little ladies...persevering in the face of intense rains, high winds, and flooding (was actually detoured at one point because of a fallen tree and water over the road). We have had record rainfall here in Burlington and I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to pick them up on time--but I made it and there they were in their little carrying box, all cute and fuzzy and LOUD. They peeped and cheeped the whole way home. On the one hand, it was reassuring. I figured if they had the energy to belt it out, they were in pretty good shape. On the other hand, it was incredibly distracting and disconcerting to have a live box of really noisy animals next to you in the front seat while driving 65 mph on I-89. (Okay, so I was really going 75 because I was so worried one was going to die in transit and wanted to get home before the fateful moment.)

So far (knock on wood), they have proven much more resilient than I expected. I was convinced they were all going to keel over one after the other, like sad, slow bowling pins being knocked over by a Coccidiosis bowling ball. (One of my weaker--yet most dramatic!--metaphors) But they survived the trip home, eventful as it was, and have made it through the first 48 hours.

We've had three cases of pasty butt but nothing a Q-tip soaked in warm water and some Vaseline couldn't fix. They seem to like their brooder and are especially fond of kicking fresh litter into their water dish. I'm offering positive reinforcement...complimenting them on every few minutes that pass without the offending litter making its way into the water...but my approach doesn't seem to be working. I might have to implement the time-out rule soon. They also like preening themselves, pecking at the spots of color in the newspaper under their litter, and sleeping in positions that make me think they're dead. Think face down, arms/wings flat out, shallow hard-to-detect breathing. They do this a lot. I think they may actually be hot. The brooder is a steady 95 degrees which the books say is the right temperature for chicks this age but their body language seems to suggest otherwise. So we might raise the heat lamp a bit. Also, for those of you out there with partners who spend an inordinate amount of money on drum equipment that doesn't possibly look like it's worth the amount that shows up on your credit card bill, take heart. A drum boom makes a lovely heat lamp holder. Yay for making me feel better about the original cost of said drum boom.

Here are some pics. of our babes. Oh, and I almost forgot the most important detail--their names! The three Buff Orps are named Sophia, Rose, and Dot. Get it? Hint: The chicks are golden. Our four light Brahmas are named Billie, Ella, Nina, and Carmen. Any guesses as to the back story there? Feel free to post in the Comments section with your best guesses.

Shelburne Farms chicken workshop!

2011-05-21T14:06:00.001-04:00

Ryan and I had the best day today. Shelburne Farms offers a "backyard layers" workshop for folks interested in raising chickens and it was a blast. Sam Smith, a super engaging and knowledgeable farmer, lead the session and had us laughing the entire time. His impression of a chicken finding a worm and trying desperately to simultaneously show it off and protect it from flock mates was one of the funnier things I have seen in awhile. Anyway, we learned a lot (did you know both kelp and oyster shells are great for chickens?), met some other cool self-professed "chicken people," and were even introduced to the ladies of the Shelburne Farms production flock (read: designed to lay lots of eggs) and education flock (read: a ragtag bunch of hens of various shapes, sizes, ages, and breeds). One of the best parts was that the production flock was almost 100% Buff Orps. After reading about them for so long, being able to pet one was lovely. They really enjoyed pecking at Ryan's shoelaces so we made a note to buy some rubber gardening boots ASAP.

Some additional (random) chicken facts: The more an egg "stands up" when you crack it, the better the quality. Hens are better behaved when there is a rooster in the mix. Hens do their best laying when they're between 6 months-2 years but some can live as long as 10+ years. Molting (when they lose their feathers) looks gross but is perfectly normal; a hen generally stops laying after she molts. [Correction: Hens decrease their laying rate after molting...but don't stop completely--woohoo!]

Here are some pics. of our day!

Chickens

2011-05-21T13:03:00.026-04:00

So as alluded to in a previous post, we are in fact entering the exciting yet somewhat daunting world of backyard chicken raising. Ryan has *always* wanted chickens. I have an unnatural fear of their little feet as well as a complete inability to handle death. For those two reasons, I have stemmed the tide that is Ryan's begging...until this year. No more excuses. We have the land, we have the right (we're zoned agricultural/rural so no codes or laws to worry about), we have the time (sort of), and now we have what I see as a good enough reason to overcome my two fears...Milo. Ryan feels strongly (and has convinced me) that it is a great thing to raise a kiddo around animals. We have the dogs but it's not really the same thing. Ryan's dad's family has been in the dairy business for many years. In fact, his uncle Pat currently runs the family's organic dairy farm in Enosburg Falls on--wait for it--Hayes Farm Rd. Ryan spent many a day at the family farm growing up and even lived there for a short period of time when he was in elementary school. (See picture below; compliments of www.251club.org)

He has fond memories of visiting the dairy barn and talking to the cows. He has helped in the "processing" of turkeys. He has seen both the beginning and end of life of many an animal and, as a result, has a much deeper understanding of where our food comes from than many people do. (Perhaps that explains why he is a vegetarian and has been for many years.)

Anyway, after our 1000th conversation about this and his desire to give Milo a sense of where our food comes from (or at least our eggs) and the responsibility of farm-like chores, I acquiesced. And I have to say that I'm glad I did. We eat a lot of eggs. Lately, that is one of the only foods Milo eats consistently. And I love the idea of our little homestead being somewhat self-sustaining...producing veggies (post on our raised beds to come!), fruit (our cherry tree and apple trees are blossoming and our raspberry bushes are kicking butt!), and now eggs. And you know how I adore a good research project. The house is finished, the kid was birthed, so now onto something new...chickens.

I have spent a lot of time (okay, way too much time) scouring the forums at backyardchickens.com. It's a fantastic resource for anyone interested in chicken raising. I also spent a lot of time (okay, way too much time) researching coop designs. After extensive reading and deliberating, we decided on the Garden Coop, an awesome design created by a super cool guy out in Portland, Oregon. In addition to the affordable plans (only $20), you receive online support...from him! I have emailed him twice now with questions and he has responded within 24 hours. Talk about customer service. Plus, the blog he has created is chock full of helpful hints and tips. I could not be more happy with our purchase and have been prosthelytizing about it ever since I hit the "buy" button on his website. Check out this awesomeness. (Photos from the Garden Coop website)

We purchased all of our materials over the past two weekends and Ryan has been busy in the basement putting the thing together. We are sanding and staining (using an eco-friendly product, Vermont Natural Coatings, so as to avoid putting anything toxic near the chickens) this weekend and will hopefully site the thing next week so we can start wrapping it in hardware cloth. We have our little brooder all ready upstairs because our baby chicks arrive next Friday, May 27th!!!

As for our chicks, we ordered them from Farm N' Country store in Williamstown, VT. They, in turn, order from Ideal Hatcheries. We picked three Buff Orpingtons and four Light Brahmas. According to everything we have read, both breeds are supposed to be incredibly docile and good with kids. One book called the Brahmas the Buddhist monks and the Buff Orps the golden retrievers of chickens. Monks and golden retrievers sound about right to us. And they're both large breeds so they do well in cold weather and produce eggs at a good clip. Here is a pic. of the two breeds, Buff Orp first and then Brahma.

Our coop can hold up to eight and we were hoping for more like six...so the store said to order seven. (Working hard to suppress my fear-of-death anxiety.) Ryan promised he would deal with any chicken losses and agreed that we would give them a proper burial if it was to come to pass...rather than cut their head off and throw the body in the compost pile as at least one website suggested. Ryan also assured me, quite matter of factly, that if/when chickens are attacked by predators, there is rarely any evidence left behind. Goodness I hope I'm ready for this.

Backyard fun

2011-04-24T20:04:00.019-04:00

What, you say? Two blog posts in one day? The world has gone mad.

I just couldn't help myself! I wanted to share some pictures of the fun we had this afternoon working on our yard. We figure we've lived here over a year...it's about time we give as much lovin' to the outside of our house as we have to the inside. Plus, our little apple trees are getting lonely.

So first up, we transplanted some young maples from the woods around Ryan's parents' house to our yard. We then put together our new composter and deposited the inaugural batch of kitchen scraps (plus some leaves). Very exciting! If you are local, the Chittenden Solid Waste District offers a cool incentive to compost...a reduced price compost bin. For the mere price of $48.50, you can have your very own SoilSaver bin! They retail for $74.45 on Amazon so it's a decent savings. CSWD also offers free plans so you can build your own composting bin.

I love that our local solid waste district encourages composting. According to the CSWD website, food scraps make up one-third of people's trash so it really can help reduce waste. (Stepping off soap box now...)

Here are some pics. of our backyard adventures today. Milo was a real help...or something like that. He made the day at lot more humorous than it would have been otherwise. My favorite Milo moment? Him trying to crawl into the hole Ryan just dug for one of the maples. Too funny. He had a blast. The sign of a good day for Milo? Two baths. One to get all the mud and dirt off of him and the second because we had to drain the first tub because the water was brown. Today was definitely a two-bath kind of day.

Apartment Therapy House Tour

2011-04-24T10:12:00.010-04:00

So sorry for the long lag in blog posts. Truly don't know where my time goes these days. But it's time to get started again, documenting the crazy, hectic, but fun-filled days that make up our life in the country of Vermont!

First up, a much belated post about the tour of our house posted on Apartment Therapy last fall! We were so stoked when we heard that AT was interested in our place--I leaned on AT heavily for ideas during the design and build phase. Many elements of our home including the chalkboard wall, the apple crates as side tables, black and white hexagon bathroom tiles, mason jars instead of glasses (pictures to come!), etc. all made their way into my head compliments of some AT post. So it was super cool to see OUR house on their site! So without further ado, click here to see the house tour. And here are some of the awesome photos they took for us.

(Also, please ignore the baby-on-the-counter drama. Totally predicted the backlash and am still kicking myself for allowing that picture to be posted--I was really right there. The kiddo was never in danger.)

Upcoming posts to include our backyard composting system (should really have started it a long time ago) and our most recent project--chickens!!! Ryan is starting the coop next weekend and our chicks arrive on May 27th. What is it about us and putting off building projects until the last possible minute? We moved into the house December 2009 and Milo was born February 2010. We build the chicken coop in May and the babies are due the same month. I see a pattern developing here...

More to come!

[Edit: Just realized that my last post was almost a year to the day ago...ridiculous! Promise to be better!]

Upstairs pics

2010-04-27T07:53:00.018-04:00

Hello everyone! Sorry for the extreme lack of posts lately! We've had our hands full these past few months :) I promised to post some photos of our second floor so here they are!

We love our guest bedroom because it has amazing views of the surrounding countryside, especially to the east. It's essentially three stories up! Too bad we haven't put shades in the windows yet and the morning sunlight awakens our guests very, very early. They've all been accommodating, though, and are too nice to tell us they don't appreciate waking up at 6:00am. I hope opening their eyes to lovely views appeases them. And we really are going to put shades up soon!

Speaking of other things on our "to do" list...install the medicine cabinet /mirror above the sink. Another annoyance our guests have to endure...sitting on the floor to look in the mirror (which is currently propped up on the floor of the nursery) to do their hair/apply makeup. Again, our apologies. We're getting there.

And on to the most important room in the house...Milo's nursery! Granted, he hasn't spent much time there lately because he's still sleeping with us downstairs. But we venture upstairs at least once a day to talk to the monkeys on his mobile above the changing table and do "tummy time" in his crib. I choose to believe he likes his room a lot (although he squints almost every time we enter it because the eastern and southern light is so bright...another room that needs shades). I've been thinking about buying a vinyl graphic to put on the wall above his crib since the expanse of drywall is so vast. If I do, I'll post some pics.

The style is a little mid-century modern, a bit traditional, and a tad home-made loveliness (Sara's quilt draped over the crib...can you believe she made that? Milo has a talented aunt).

And since we're sharing pictures of his nursery, I thought I'd post some new ones of the man himself--little Milo James. He'll be 3 months next week. It's incredible how quickly time passes...

The nursery is occupied!

2010-02-21T09:21:00.008-05:00

We apologize for the lack of posts recently...but we've had our hands full :) Milo James Hayes was born on Monday, February 8th (his due date!) at 9:31pm. He weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs. 6 ozs. which was a total surprise...our midwives estimated him at something around 7-7.5 lbs. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't know how big he was! Pushing would have been a lot more terrifying. He is a happy, healthy boy and we are so in love. It's amazing how your life can change so totally and completely in one tiny second. Milo has dark hair like his papa as well as dad's beautiful blue eyes. We've decided that his nose and mouth come from me.

Sleeping at night has been a challenge and Ryan and I are both exhausted. But he's totally worth it and we're slowly learning strategies to help us all rest better. Who knew that a Fischer Price singing seahorse could be so relaxing for both babes and adults?

Milo is currently sleeping (or not sleeping) in our bedroom but we hope to transition him to his new nursery in the coming months. I promise to take some pictures of his room soon. We take him up there once a day to get him used to the space. It's the smallest room in the house but the large windows on the east and southern side bathe it in light most of the day. It really is an inspiring place to be.

Until I take pictures of the nursery, here are some shots of its newest occupant...

Changes during process

2010-01-29T11:44:00.043-05:00

We've gotten a few questions about some of the changes we made to our plans throughout the construction process. For example, we mentioned our love of slate floors but didn't use them in the house at all. We apologize if some of our older posts are inconsistent with the current reality of the house; I can see how it could be confusing! Let me try to set the record straight and explain our decisions.

Slate floors
We were initially very excited about either stone or concrete floors because we thought they would provide great thermal mass for our radiant heat system. Slate can also be sourced locally from southern Vermont. When I began calling around for prices, I found that 12x12 slate tiles were affordable. However, we really liked the modern look and feel of rectangular tiles (more like 12x18 or 12x24). Those were VERY expensive and way out of our price range. So we abandoned the idea. We also toyed with a lightweight concrete finish for the first floor but it became too complicated to pour concrete on suspended floors and bolster the subfloor with the additional structural supports required. So after a lot of thought and deliberation, we returned to wood floors. We've always loved the warmth of wood but were concerned about their durability since we co-habit with two large labs. Yet they fit our budget and we liked that we could support a local green business, Planet Hardwood, which guaranteed that the particular floors we chose had been sustainably harvested from a regional forest. So the look, price, and environmental impact were all attractive. The dogs have made their mark on them but it's nothing we can't live with. Overall, we've very happy. We should also say that we originally purchased a nice birch option (from the same mill) and then decided we liked the maple better. Planet Hardwood was wonderful about letting us change our mind!

Radiant heat system
Our original plan was to install an open-direct radiant heat system from Radiantec powered by a high-efficiency water heater rather than a boiler. This set-up seemed practical and more affordable than traditional radiant systems. I actually published a pretty snarky (dare I say cocky?!) post about how plumbers weren't aware of the benefits of such systems and how they often poo-pooed them without really understanding them. I spoke a bit too soon. The more phone calls we made, the more we realized that plumbers didn't just dislike or misunderstand such systems...they categorically refused to install them. We literally contacted every plumber suggested to us by friends and family (more than 7 in all) and NO ONE was willing to work with us. And we did not feel we had the expertise or the time to do the work ourselves. So we began to re-think our decision. Another factor was that we ended our working relationship with our building consultant, Al Rossetto, to work exclusively with Bill Litchfield. Al had been a major proponent of the open-direct system and without him in the picture, we lost some of our confidence in the approach. The plumber we liked best (Mike Lavoie) was someone who had worked with Bill extensively and we ultimately decided that it was more important to hire a plumber we trusted than to continue our advocacy of the open-direct system. Mike had installed many traditional radiant heat systems (with a high-efficiency, 98%, Well-McLain boiler) and we purchased a similar set-up. We are very happy with Mike's work and our radiant floors. We might have saved money with an open-direct system but would still have struggled to find someone willing to do the installation.

Corrugated metal ceiling
Our post about possibly lining our interior ceilings with corrugated metal garnered a lot of attention. We still like the idea a lot but when we changed house plans, we lost the large, two-story great room. It was this room (and the large expanse of drywall it would require) that worried me aesthetically and was the reason I went in search of alternative ceiling materials. But our new plans did not include soaring open space like the original plans. All of our ceilings are painted the same white as the walls and I think it lends coherence to the feel of the house. But thanks for all of your reactions and feedback to the idea! I'm still playing around with possibly using corrugated metal as wainscotting...perhaps in our entry way.

Our builder
We initially worked with a green building consultant, Al Rossetto, and acted as our own general contractors. But in the spring/summer of 2009, we made the difficult decision to cease working with Al and to hire local builder Bill Litchfield of Speciality Design to oversee the construction of our house. Bill essentially stepped into the GC role at that point, agreeing to coordinate and supervise the building process as well as to communicate with our subs. (We had interviewed and chosen all of our subs ourselves prior to that point.) It was a major decision for us but since Ryan and I were both so incredibly busy at work and could not afford the time to be on site ourselves, it made sense to hand the reins over to Bill. We should say, though, that we learned a great deal from Al and many of his ideas are reflected in our final design.

ADDED 1/31/10
Staircase design
Thanks to Bob for pointing out this big change I forgot to mention. We initially purchased a rockin' industrial-style stair design from an incredibly talented Vermont architect, Bob Swinburne. His aesthetic is so similar to ours and we loved the balance of natural wood and metal in his stairs (see here). However, when we changed house plans, we went from a straight stair to a stair with a sharp turn and a landing so the original design no longer worked. We considered asking him to design another set of stairs to match our new plans but two things held us back...one, time. We changed plans at literally the last minute (about a month before breaking ground) and had so many other issues to attend to (new SIP layout, new window order, etc.) that the stairs sort of took a back seat. And two, we decided we needed a closed stair because we found out we were pregnant and that this house would soon be home to not only two uncoordinated labs but a little baby. So the stairs of our dreams with the open risers did not seem as practical as a traditional closed design. I still lament our decision in a way...we talk frequently about how much we love Bob's stairs and I find myself returning to pictures of them on our blog from time to time, just to dream. We might add a more industrial looking handrail to our stairs in the future and/or cover the risers with metal (like this house). We do adore our newel post, though...a gorgeous walnut piece our builder pulled from a 150+ year old farmhouse in Cambridge, Vermont. Pretty cool.

Whew. I hope that clears up some of the confusion and responds to some of your questions! Please let me know if you have any more!

And P.S. Thanks for all the great suggestions on our front door color...keep 'em coming! We're going to do some experimenting with Photoshop soon so I'll post pictures when they're ready!

Our little farmhouse

2010-01-25T21:16:00.007-05:00

A few folks have asked for more exterior photos. These aren't the greatest but they'll have to do! Please excuse the left over Hardiebacker on the porch, the garish trash cans that have yet to find a permanent home (it's hard to figure out where to put stuff like that when you don't have a garage!) and the lack of color contrast between the white house and the white snow. We are looking forward to taking some more pictures in the summer when everything is green and lovely.

We are also fiercely debating what color to paint our front door. Ryan, a graphic designer by trade, is going to Photoshop in some different options. I'm leaning towards bright yellow and Ryan is partial to red. What do you think? Or should we leave it white? (It just looks so washed out against the wintery backdrop...)

Master bedroom and bath

2010-01-21T06:30:00.005-05:00

Here are some more interior shots! We tried to bring the same feel to our master bedroom and bath that we did to the living/dining/cooking areas...clean lines (lots o' white), rustic elements, and modern touches. Oh, and splashes of metal. We like our new bed a lot--great find on craigslist. It's a bit high so the dogs tend to put their noses on the edge and whine instead of jumping right on up like with our old bed. But I think their more limited access to our sleeping area isn't a bad thing. Also, speaking of dogs, our master is on the first floor because of them. After reading "Marley and Me," I decided I didn't want our pups to have to venture up/down the stairs to be with us. They struggle as it is just getting down to the basement in one piece. If our bedroom (where they have always slept) was two floors up, I think they'd eventually break something. They're not particularly well coordinated or constructed...labs really aren't known for their stellar joints. So a first-floor master became a must in our design scheme.

Also, I have to point out our uber nifty apple-crates-turned-bedside-stands. The same day I saw a picture of something similar on apartmenttherapy.com (I think that's where I saw it), I found two old boxes from a Vermont apple orchard in someone's front yard with a "free" sign attached to them. It was fate. I'm still debating whether they need something in them or if bare is best. Thoughts?

Living/dining room and kitchen

2010-01-18T12:17:00.011-05:00

I'm going to try to document each room as it nears completion...so pictures will be coming over the next few days/weeks in chunks. Sorry for the wait. We're having the house appraised today (I'm so curious to find out the results!) so several of the rooms are clean enough to photograph :) Enjoy! And if you have any questions, please let me know!

Photos!

2010-01-12T19:19:00.015-05:00

So as promised, here are some preliminary interior photos. We still have lots of details to work out and not all rooms are in their final state. But at least it's a start! I'll work on getting some more pictures of the rooms not included here (the kitchen, nursery, guest bedroom and bath, and basement) as well as some exterior shots.

Dining room
-Chalkboard paint on the walls (complete with Scrabble scores from a rousing New Year's eve match with Ryan's little bro)
-Antique farmhouse table and chairs from Five Corners Antiques in Essex Junction
-Light fixture from IKEA

Living room
-Plycraft lounge chair purchased on eBay and reproduction Eames molded plywood lounge chair purchased from online furniture store InMod
-MCM couch from Burlington Furniture that looks like it just walked off the set of Mad Men--love it!
-Rustic wooden trunk bought from a neighbor in Winooski for $5 last year
-Metal tins that hold our collection of Dwell magazines (purchased from Lowe's)
-Sisal rug from Home Depot
-Metal lamp from IKEA

Master bedroom (sorry picture is so dark)
-Iron bed purchased from Craigslist
-Bedside stands are old apple crates found on the side of the road with stacks of books on top
-Bedside lamps from IKEA
-Fan from Lowe's
-Dresser from Slate Barn Antiques (will get a better picture soon)

Master bathroom
-SInks from Architectural Salvage (old Middlebury College dorm sinks from the 1950s)
-Sink fixtures from Home Depot
-Medicine cabinets from Lowe's
-Sign from Homestead General in Fairhope, AL
-Black and white hex tile is American Olean purchased from Best Tile in Williston

And the reason we spend so much time outside our house...a snowy scene on our dirt road.

More pictures to come soon!

We're in!

2010-01-07T20:35:00.010-05:00

So yes, the rumor is true....we are moved in. Our Christmas present this year was a new house. We literally moved in Christmas eve (okay, so Ryan and his entire family moved us in--I sat in the living room shouting directions about where to place things. There are some definite bonuses to being preggo!) I feel guilty for having been here for two weeks without taking pictures and posting them but here is my litany of what I consider to be rather reasonable and understandable excuses...in no particular order:

1. I'm pregnant and tend to fall asleep at random times during the day and always before 9pm in the evenings. Late evening was my blogging witching hour before the aforementioned pregnancy...so my new need for slumber has definitely impinged upon blog time.

2. We did not have internet access at the house until yesterday. (See? That's a really good excuse.)

3. Not all aspects of the house are finished and I don't want to capture them for posterity until they are looking their best.

4. I'm pregnant.

Okay, so maybe I'm overplaying the pregnancy card a bit. But it's true. We've spent so much time getting moved in and situating things that I really haven't found the time or energy to photograph them. But some rooms are nearing completion and I promise to take pictures of them soon! A new post....with photos...by the end of the weekend. That's my goal.

What I will say now is that...we love the house, it's incredibly tight and efficient, the light bouncing off the all-white kitchen and living room in the mornings makes me smile, radiant heat is an amazingly luxurious indulgence of which I will never tire, the dogs have already destroyed our gorgeous maple floors (had to throw in a bad to balance the good), I love subway tile, a chalkboard wall is an excellent way to keep track of Scrabble scores, I have a crush on our black Paperstone countertops, the sound of our industrial ceiling fans reminds me of jet fighters taking off, having three floors is exhilarating but exhausting, and we love living in the country and talking long walks in the snowy woods.

Two other quick funny stories about the house...

Now that Ryan has his own drum studio in the basement, I've found that he cannot descend downstairs for any reason without getting distracted by the presence of his drums and playing them for anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours. Every time I consider asking him to run down there for something (e.g. to change over the laundry or track down a screwdriver), I have to factor in the possibility that the task will take all afternoon. But the sound of him playing (which is not too loud on the first floor, I must say) brings me great joy. It's always a happy time when his two great loves--his family and his drums--occupy the same space.

Lily and Gus (pups) are not allowed upstairs because a) that's where the nursery is and b) I'd like to preserve at least some of the floors in their original state. But Lily managed to evade the clever cardboard blocker I erected the other day and scamper up to the second floor. So I hoofed it up the stairs and proceeded to look for her. Now mind you, the second floor is approximately 650 square feet so the search should not have been difficult. But she was nowhere to be found. I finally noticed that the bathroom door was shut, opened it, and found her stuck in the bathtub looking very concerned. It's a deep tub and I guess she couldn't figure out how to get traction to jump out after she jumped in. I still don't know how she shut the door behind herself in the first place. Guess she wanted some privacy. Anyway, it was a very funny moment...wish I had thought to take a picture.

Speaking of pictures...some will be coming soon. Seriously!

Down South

2009-12-10T11:31:00.011-05:00

I promise more interior shots of the house are coming soon. Until then, I thought these photos of our Thanksgiving trip to Alabama would tide everyone over. It's funny how different southern architecture is from what you see up here in Vermont. Yet as we drove around my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama, I realized I actually drew from some of the houses I saw every day as a kid in designing our own...particularly the scale. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for small, cozy cottages and now, looking across all these photos of homes in Fairhope, I think I know why! I also feel like the wraparound front porch on our new house channels a southern aesthetic. (Granted we'll be drinking hot chocolate on ours rather than sweet tea most of the year but still.)

So which one of these cuties is your favorite?

Now if only the shores of Lake Champlain looked like this...

More progress pics!

2009-11-23T21:06:00.019-05:00

Little details are coming together. Here is our lovely porch light from Conant Metal and Light in Burlington. It's a great shop that carries a fantastic line of lights and interior details including some really dynamite original pieces. Thanks to a generous gift certificate for Christmas last year from Ryan's parents, we were able to purchase two of these beauties--one for each porch entrance.

Since we're showing off porch details, I'll point out one of my favorite...the basket weave of our ceiling, which you can somewhat see in the picture above. It's more visible in this second shot, looking north (and you can see the other porch light!) The neat thing is that the design of the ceiling matches the interlocking pattern of the floor boards, as well. Bill and his crew are truly masters when it comes to touches like this. I'm proud to say that my dad helped out with this little project, too.

Now for some fun interior shots. Ryan did a wonderful job painting our entire dining room wall with chalkboard paint. We also hung the barn-inspired light fixture above what will be our dining room table (currently a stack of hardwood flooring and a random assortment of tools).

And speaking of floors, Bill laid them like a mad man last weekend finishing the nursery and starting on the guest bedroom. I think the lightness of the maple will help these small rooms feel more spacious. In addition to looking nice, we're happy with our flooring because it was milled from a sustainably harvested forest just over the border in Canada so it didn't have to travel far. Planet Hardwood in St. George is the place to go if you're looking for locally, sustainably harvested floor products.

Finally, progress on the bathrooms. Tony has done a tremendous job laying tile and we're really excited with the way the flooring and the subway tile around the tubs turned out.

Army chic

2009-11-19T09:10:00.012-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. Now that we're actually doing a lot of work on the house I find that I'm doing less writing about it. Most of the work at this point is of the grunt-variety...lots of painting and staining. I've had white streaks in my hair (from the paint, not stress...although maybe there is a mixture of both at this point) for the past four weeks. It's sort of becoming my new look, I guess. But we're making progress. Accomplishments of this past week include: finishing priming the basement including the drum studio, the largest room in the house (go figure), transforming one wall of our dining room into a large chalkboard with chalkboard paint (love it!), painting almost all of our interior doors, and putting a final coat of stain on the stair treads. Our builders are hard at work laying down the maple floors, installing the kitchen cabinets, and tiling the bathrooms. Our electrician also began putting in fixtures. I will take pictures soon.

Another small triumph of the week was my discovery of our local Army/Navy surplus store in Barre, Vermont. I have been coveting a nice wool army blanket for our new bed for months now. Army chic is definitely on the rise. (Photo credits, in order of apperance: Ace Hotel, House Beautiful, Plastolux, and Apartment Therapy).

I particularly liked the reproduction Swiss army blanket with the red stripe and little white cross. Turns out you can buy one from the dreamy Sundance Catalog...if you want to part with $300. Yes, $300 for a wool blanket.

Lucky for me that the Barre Army/Navy Store sells them for the slightly less shocking price of $19.95. The folks at the store looked at me like I was crazy when I told them how much people were willing to spend for this item. I actually don't think they believed me. But you might want to put your order in for one now as they could raise their prices soon! As of yesterday afternoon, I am a proud owner of one of these beauties. I think it will look stunning on our new iron bed with all white sheets and pillows.

ERV or HRV?

2009-11-03T18:04:00.015-05:00

We debated this question for months. Efficiency Vermont advised us to go with an ERV (energy recovery ventilator) but many homes in this region use an HRV (heat recovery ventilator). We did a lot of reading to make up our mind and spoke with a variety of folks including our electrician, Larry Wyckoff, who installed the system for us. Eventually we, in consultation with Larry, decided to go with an HRV.

What is an HRV? A heat recovery ventilator (or any sort of air exchanger) is critical for a house like ours that is super insulated. Because of the tightness of our walls, windows, and doors, our house will not "breathe" on its own. An HRV provides mechanical lungs for the house by constantly exchanging indoor air with air from outside. This helps maintain a high quality indoor air environment. A "heat" recovery ventilator also ensures that the fresh air coming in from outside is warmed up before entry. Here is a summary of how an HRV works from Popular Mechanics:

A heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) is similar to a balanced ventilation system, except it uses the heat in the outgoing stale air to warm up the fresh air. A typical unit features two fans-one to take out household air and the other to bring in fresh air. What makes an HRV unique is the heat-exchange core. The core transfers heat from the outgoing stream to the incoming stream in the same way that the radiator in your car transfers heat from the engine's coolant to the outside air. It's composed of a series of narrow alternating passages through which incoming and outgoing airstreams flow. As the streams move through, heat is transferred from the warm side of each passage to the cold, while the airstreams never mix.

What is the difference between an HRV and an ERV? According to the experts, HRVs make sense in climates that do more heating than cooling (e.g. northern Vermont). Again, Popular Mechanics:

Although an HRV can be effective in the summer months, when it will take heat from incoming fresh air and transfer it to stale air-conditioned exhaust air, it's most popular in colder climates during the winter. HRVs are ideal for tight, moisture-prone homes because they replace the humid air with dry, fresh air. In climates with excessive outdoor humidity, an energy-recovery ventilator is more suitable. This device is similar to an HRV, but dehumidifies the incoming fresh airstream.

You can read the article from Popular Mechanics here. Another good resource is this article from Eco Home Magazine.

For those of you building super-insulated homes, are you going with an ERV or HRV?

Show me the money!

2009-11-03T18:00:00.004-05:00

[UPDATED]:

The bill passed! Woohoo! The deadline for the first-time home buyer tax credit has been extended to April 30th, 2010 and eligibility has been expanded (both in terms of income limits and to non-first-time home buyers). We are *so* thrilled. And congratulations to all of you out there trying to finish up your houses. We can breathe a little easier now!

A colleague told me yesterday that it looks promising that the $8000 federal new home buyer tax credit will be extended until April 30th. Read the story here. That would be a *dream come true* for us. If it is not extended, we'll need to move in by Nov. 30th to qualify. If the credit is extended, however, we pick up a few extra weeks in December since we don't need to move out of our apartment until the end of the month. Here's hoping...

More siding progress

2009-11-03T17:34:00.014-05:00

The guys have been working like crazy to get the siding finished and it's looking great. Ryan and I are spending our weekends at the house painting walls and staining the tongue and groove porch ceiling (pictures to follow in a later post) and the stair treads. We are running very low on money even though we promised ourselves we wouldn't be like every other construction project we've heard of and go over budget. I don't know how it always happens but we are one of the sad statistics. To help cut costs, we're trying to pick up as much work ourselves as possible and our personal hero, my dad, drove all the way up from Alabama to help the guys finish the siding. Amazing. I think, as someone who has always loved working with wood, he is enjoying himself although the cold is a bit much for a southerner. Every time I talk to him during the day, his teeth are chattering. I don't have the heart to tell him that it's only going to get worse...much worse.

So here are some progress pics. Enjoy!

Some close-ups of the brackets.

Here is the product of Ryan's hard work...our newly stained maple stair treads. The wood leaning up against the stack of stair treads is a piece of our maple floor. I think they match pretty well!

And here's my dad!

Steve's apple orchard!

2009-10-15T20:34:00.008-04:00

So another big accomplishment to note was the planting of our very own apple orchard! Ryan has always had a thing for apple trees and we love the idea of edible landscaping. We got a great deal on three different varieties of apple trees, Macintosh, Liberty, and Sweet Sixteen, from Gardeners' Supply in Burlington (a fantastic gardening supply store, by the way) and put them in the ground last weekend. The feat would not have been possible without the help of my sister, Sara, and father-in-law, Steve. He is a gardener extraordinaire and in honor of the hard work he put into the project, we have officially dubbed it Steve's Apple Orchard. The folks at Gardeners' said to expect fruit in about three years. I love thinking about picking apples from our own backyard and making lots of apple pies in our new kitchen...with our little guy :)

Metal roof, siding, and drywall

2009-10-15T14:22:00.015-04:00

There has been a lot of work done on the house since I last posted--very exciting! The silver standing seam metal roof is now on and Scott, Tony, and Nick are beginning to install the Hardiplank siding.

Check out the lap siding. I think it achieves the old school farmhouse feel we were shooting for. Our fabulous builder, Bill, also crafted those great brackets (visible in the third picture) for us. They give the roof line such an authentic look. I'll get more pictures of them once the back wall siding is done. Scott is the master of the scaffolding (although it's a little freaky to see him three stories up...)

In other news, the radiant heat system is totally done and the house is a toasty 67 degrees. Good thing, too, because it was spitting snow yesterday. Who knew that it would get this cold this quickly? Ike (pictured below) from Howard Irish Drywall in St. Albans is doing a masterful job. The walls are so incredibly smooth. After they've sanded them down, we'll be ready for paint!

A couple of interior shots. In order of appearance...the dining room/kitchen area, master bedroom, master bedroom closets, nursery, home office, upstairs guest room, den/tv area in basement, drum studio.

Porch progress

2009-09-28T19:07:00.007-04:00

So here are some photos from this weekend of our porch. I am in love. I never thought I could adore a physical structure so much but I do. It really gives us another whole room to the house. Granted, we will only be able to use it for a portion of the year (!) but it will still be lovely for those months. I envision having my morning coffee on it, looking out over the hills...or having a glass of wine after a stressful day. Okay, so now I'm just thinking about drinking coffee and wine. Soon enough, I suppose.

Porch work

2009-09-26T09:22:00.013-04:00

These great photos were taken by our builder, Bill Litchfield. The porch is going on! Scott is hard at work on the roof of it. Soon enough, I'm going to get a shot of the whole crew...Bill, Tony, Scott, and Nick. Also, some of our Marvin Integrity windows are in! Woohoo!

Another major accomplishment this week is that our fantastic plumber, Mike Lavoie, installed all the PEX tubing for our radiant heat floors. Ryan and I are proud of the fact that we placed and drilled all the black clasps that hold the tubing...

And finally, to clear up any confusion, the mastermind behind our project is Bill Litchfield of Speciality Design. I know I featured a picture of the Fine Homes trailer awhile back. That was Craig, the dynamite that came in and installed our SIPs. But Bill is top dog. So here is the requisite shot of his ride.

Next up: more photos of the porch once it gets its roof. Also siding and metal roofing.

Interior framing

2009-09-18T08:06:00.015-04:00

So two exciting new accomplishments as of last weekend. One, some of the interior framing has begun. It's incredibly exciting to walk around what will be distinct rooms! Two, Moe and his crew have almost finished the exterior grading work. The stone retaining wall looks so nice and has a really natural feel to it. We're really happy with how it turned out. Next up: putting on the porch, the metal roof, the siding, and installing windows and doors. More progress photos to come soon!

Our living/dining room with side door that will lead out onto porch and backyard

Kitchen

Awesome walk-in pantry!

Master bedroom; bed will be placed between these two windows

Looking into master bathroom from bedroom

Our bathtub!

Top of the stairs, site of our home office

The nursery!

Second floor bathroom (with guest bedroom visible through the wall behind it)

Looking down the stairs

Stone retaining wall around the walk-out basement

Green baby furniture

2009-09-11T17:56:00.001-04:00

The first place I started when planning our green nursery? Furniture. I was initially stunned by the prices of eco-cribs although I love the way some of them look. For example, I adore the Sparrow crib from Oeuf.

It's modern, sleek, and totally eco-friendly. It's also $690. The adorable matching dresser will set you back $740. Too rich for our blood.

So I was really excited to find this moderately priced, green, modern option from Baby Miro ($379).

According to Dax, the crib is "made from pine harvested from sustainably managed forests in New Zealand" and "finished only with certified non-toxic finishes and paints." Love it. I also like the matching dresser ($439).

Both items can be purchased on the website Baby Earth. While the site has some of the standard baby fare like strollers and pack'n'plays, it also has a great selection of eco-friendly furniture, bedding, clothing, and toys. There are not a lot of brick and mortar baby stores in northern Vermont so we've decided we will set up our registry online.

Roofed in!

2009-09-08T21:49:00.007-04:00

It's amazing how much work the crew has accomplished in a short period of time. Ryan and I visited family in D.C. and Philly over the long weekend...and as we flew out of the Burlington airport, our flight path took us directly over the site! We could see the guys working on the roof! Imagine our surprise when we got back and saw that it had been completely sheathed and the second floor deck installed. It's an incredible feeling to walk up our stairs and around the second floor. It was particularly special to explore what will become the nursery.

In other news, our wonderful excavator, Moe DuBois, made us an offer we couldn't refuse-in trade for our excess topsoil, we received those gorgeous rocks you see in the last picture. They're going to make for a very natural looking stone retaining wall around the basement walkout.

The walls are going up!

2009-09-07T20:52:00.009-04:00

Surprise!

2009-08-28T16:48:00.007-04:00

Cost of building this new house? $260,000.
Cost of hiring a lawyer and hydrogeologist to help convince the town to let us build it? $10,000
Knowing that the smaller guest bedroom will now become a nursery? Priceless.

Okay, so I've used the Mastercard commercial format before in an earlier post. Lame, I know. It was just too perfect a way to announce our news! Not that I would advise this to anyone else...but we are definitely building a house and building a baby at the same time :) We decided to start trying (or stop paying attention...or trying to not try...or something like that) when the town finally gave us the go-ahead back at the end of April. By the end of May, I was preggo. Crazy. We still can't believe how quickly it happened. We are eternally grateful that things went so smoothly because infertility runs in my family and we have many friends who have struggled to conceive. So while the timeline isn't ideal, we are definitely not complaining.

Bill and his crew are doing an amazing job. I am literally stunned every day I drive by the site to see the progress they have made. I *think* we are on track to finish by Dec. 1st (yay federal tax credit) which means we'll have exactly two months to nest before Baby Hayes makes his/her arrival. Our official due date is Feb. 8th. I'm intrigued by the romantic notion of having a Valentine's Day baby but, as Ryan pointed out, that would mean I was almost a week overdue. So the 8th is fine by me.

We are going to make the smaller of the two upstairs guest rooms (the one over the kitchen/dining/living room area) the nursery. In some ways, starting from scratch is sort of exciting! So is letting Ryan and his brother level off the gravel last weekend because I couldn't do it "in my condition." I also can avoid most of the back-breaking work of packing and moving. Woohoo! Then again, I suppose I'll be doing some serious manual labor come February...

So while I've always contended that this is a house-only blog and that I wouldn't deviate into other subjects, I lied. This will evolve slightly to include some baby-related posts and items. Since we're building a green house, you know we're going to create a green nursery!

Thanks to all our family and friends for their support and excitement. We said we'd start a family once the house was finished...who knew we were being so literal?!?

Bathroom tile

2009-08-23T18:51:00.011-04:00

Another exciting thing we did this weekend was pick out our bathroom tile. The folks at Best Tile in Williston were fantastic and made the experience really fun. We chose a black and white hexagon pattern for the floors and white subway tile for the tub surround. We're going for a classic, black and white, bungalow style with a modern twist. Our salvaged sinks from Mason Brothers will give the room(s) an old-fashioned feel while the squared off edges of the tub will hopefully keep it current. We'll see if/how it all comes together.

A sink similar to ours from Mason Brothers. Ours are less round, more square.

Here is the flooring we selected. It's American Olean tile.

But we're going to use a dark gray grout rather than white to really make the shapes pop. Here's what it will look like.

Here are some inspiration shots that semi-capture the look we're trying to achieve. The first two are from Apartment Therapy, the second from Subway Tile, the third from Remodelista, the fourth from the Vintage Seattle blog, and the final from a house listing I found online awhile back.

More progress

2009-08-23T18:34:00.007-04:00

I stopped by the site to check on the guys earlier this week and they were hard at work finishing up the foundation. They also installed the first floor decking this weekend in preparation for the delivery of our panelized walls next week. Here is the magic behind the project: Speciality Design, Bill's construction firm.

And Billy hard at work.

Here's the rest of the crew: Scott (left) and Tony (right). They're both great guys and we're super happy they're working on our project.

Ryan and I got our hands dirty for the first time this weekend helping to level the gravel in the basement. Lucky for us that Sean, Ryan's brother, was willing to lend a hand, too. Ryan and I are now dead tired, nursing blistered hands and sore shoulders. But it's somehow really satisfying to feel like we actually did something to move the house forward (a very, very small something). Ryan was particularly happy to be working in his drum studio! The walk-out portion of the basement is going to be his music-making paradise.

Excavation week 2

2009-08-16T10:37:00.006-04:00

So here are some more progress pics. Bill and his crew are doing an amazing job. I have to say that it feels so incredibly good to be working with folks that you trust. Bill calls me every morning and evening to give me an update on the day's activities and I have no question in my mind that they are working as hard and fast as they can. For that reason, I don't feel obligated to stop by every second of every day to check in. It also helps that all of our major subs have worked with Bill before so I know that they respect him and vice versa. My advice to other folks GCing their project: find a team of people who you truly trust. It makes all the difference in the world.

So the form-a-drain is in place and the first round of Amvic ICF blocks installed. We hope to pour the concrete early next week. We also ran our electrical connection under the road and hitched it up to a neighbor's pole (with their permission, of course) so we should have electricity on site shortly. The floor and roof trusses have been delivered and look great (I love a 12x12 roof pitch). And the town assigned us our new address: 275 Butternut Road. We like that it's a nice, round number. And they add up to my birthday, 9/5. Thanks to my mom, the math teacher, for making me obsessed with finding random patterns in numbers.

The panels will be delivered the week after next. Watch for some great progress photos then!

The dogs were interested in the large dirt pile so Ryan took them up to see the view. We think Lily and Gus liked their new home. Certainly lots of good smells...

A gratuitous shot of our site. I just love it in the evening. I can't wait to look out our master bedroom window at this every day.

Let the mayhem begin...

2009-08-04T16:12:00.009-04:00

So yesterday was E-day. Excavation is officially underway. We had beautiful weather (which is a surprise after almost constant rain this summer) and Moe DuBois and his crew blazed through the first stages of the job. For anyone looking for an excavator in this area, Moe is your man. I don't know what was more exciting...the brand new hole in the ground that will become our house or the awesome toys Moe brought to the site. It was a little boy's (or an adult woman's who has been waiting to build her house for two years) dream. Dump trucks and bulldozers galore. I could have watched the action all day. Alas, work beckoned. But I did get some shots early in the morning as the gang was just starting our driveway and then again at the end of the day once the hole had been dug. Next up: placing the footings.

The trucks cometh...

Starting the foundation hole...

Our new driveway...

Putting in the daylight drain...

The hole and the step-down for the walk-out basement...

Can you believe this is really happening? I still have to pinch myself...

Progress!

2009-07-17T07:04:00.008-04:00

We have some to report! Not only is the land staked, the well has been drilled (yeah 6 gpm!), and we have our building permit! We have to post the land for 15 days before we can start excavating...but now we at least have a start date! Our little Z-sign meant a great deal to us. So much, in fact, that the whole family had to come out for a photo op. (Pictured from left to right: Kitty, my lovely mother-in-law, Mom, Dad, Ry, Jav, Sara's partner, and Sara, my little sis) Not able to make the event but bound to be featured in future posts: Steve, Ryan's dad, and Sean, Ryan's little bro.

More wallpaper

2009-07-12T07:17:00.015-04:00

So I posted awhile back about how much I adore Cole and Sons "Woods" wallpaper. It's just stunning. But when I was perusing the Door Sixteen blog this morning, I fell in love with another design, "Berry Black," from Danish company Ferm Living.

Check out Anna's gorgeous dressing room decked out in the stuff. The company's website has some other great finds. They're all just so rich and intricate. I really don't think of myself as a wallpaper person and I definitely don't have plans to use a lot of it in the house (not a fan of each room having its own texture and color scheme...am going for coherence and simplicity). But browsing is fun.

And how cute are these kids' rooms?

Who's the greenest of them all?

2009-07-08T17:45:00.017-04:00

I've been waiting for the responses, the letters to the editor at Seven Days, the expressions of dismay and frustration with the piece Ryan and I wrote the other week on our green home. Because what I've learned is that regardless of how "green" you are trying to go....it's never green enough. Someone is going to find the chinks in your armor, the flaws in your plan. It's really a glorified pissing contest. As soon as you mention that you're considering bamboo floors, a little voice chimes in with "But they have to be shipped from China! Think about the carbon footprint!" (Okay, so that was me trying to convince a friend to invest in locally harvested hardwoods...but you get my point.) Somebody will always know more than you and be convinced that their shade of green is truer than whatever hue you're purporting to build. It's not that we're not open to new suggestions or feedback...we are...but I'm also tired of the knee-jerk reaction some people have--that instant, uncontrollable urge to tell where you've gone wrong and tout their own, green-er cred.

Case in point. I open Seven Days today to read the letters to the editor. And there it was, in black and white--a journalistic Mannequin Pis. For your reading pleasure:

‘GREEN’ GRIPES
I hope your insurance is paid up, since you are giving professional advice that is likely to make the occupants ill [“The Green Standard,” June 24]. There are numerous definitions of green for a very good reason: It is a complex issue. Your twofold is not good enough since you recommend sealing the building as tight as possible to save energy and do not mention indoor air quality. What you have done is essentially placed a plastic bag over your head and tied it off. In a sealed building, in the middle of the winter, particulates build up along with water vapor, CO2, and combustion gasses from the furnace, fireplace and stove. It’s like closing your garage and keeping the motor running. One of the professional challenges we have is providing filtered and tempered fresh air after the building is tight. The challenge is to use as little fossil-fuel-derived heating or cooling to do the tempering. My current professional challenge is to use natural ventilation all year round without resorting to a fan. Oh, and, by the way, opening and closing your windows and doors do not provide enough air changes to keep you healthy. And when it’s 20 below out, you do not want to sacrifice the heat.

There was another inconsistency ... in one paragraph you tout Styrofoam ICFs and SIPs while in the next paragraph you rightfully pillory oil-based products. Styrofoam is a petroleum-based product.

As much as I like Marvin Windows (and have met and spoken with Susan Marvin), don’t you think you might promote a Vermont-based window manufacturer?

The current green lighting technology is heavy towards daylighting design combined with LED lighting on sensors and controls. CFLs have mercury that can be dangerous when broken.

Now, there are a few green building experts in Vermont. How about doing an exposé on all of us?
Jonathan Miller, FCSI, AIA
MIDDLEBURY
Miller is a Construction Specifications Institute fellow.

Jonathan actually makes some good points...but points that we have already considered. While it was not included in our article (perhaps it should have been), we are installing an Energy Recovery Ventilator (or ERV) to help the house breathe. It is essentially a set of lungs for the house. It will replace indoor air with outdoor air (taking air from the bathrooms and pumping fresh air in through various closets), continuously, through all seasons. When a house is built as tightly as ours is, monitoring indoor air quality is critical, as Jonathan describes. But we got that one covered.

He is also right that ICFs and SIPs are petroleum-based. But what's the alternative? Build a traditionally framed house that leaks energy like a sieve? Such a house will require additional energy for heating/cooling...which means the emission of more greenhouse gasses. I would love to know Jonathan's strategy for creating a super-insulated building envelope that does not use petroleum-based products or excess wood. Maybe there is one that we don't know about. In my mind, the best way to reduce the use of fossil fuels is to ensure that your house is energy efficient. Insulating the heck out of the envelope is an effective way to achieve that objective. Some trade-offs have to be made (see previous dilemma about bamboo).

I'd also love to know what Vermont-based window manufacturer creates windows comparable to Marvin's Integrity line (fiberglass) that are both energy efficient and affordable. I couldn't find any. There is a nice wood option from Green Mountain Window Company but I don't think they make a fiberglass frame. From everything we read and have heard, fiberglass really is the frame material of the future. If there is a VT company that makes cost-effective, fiberglass windows, I truly would be interested.

Finally, I agree that LED is the way to go with lighting. We looked into it. But, in the end, it was too expensive a proposition for us. CFLs are better than regular incandescent bulbs and fit our budget. If we were trust fund babies (subtle reference to BFP article; see June 1 post) we would be on the LED bandwagon.

While I appreciate Jonathan's feedback, I am generally fatigued by the incessant need of those of us who are building green to "one-up" each other. Yes, offer suggestions and reactions. But don't cop an attitude or talk down to us from your green mount. Let's support each other, congratulate each other for trying to take what small steps we can to make our domiciles more earth friendly. Can we call a truce to the pissing contest? As a chick, I've always been at a disadvantage...less accurate aim. Thanks.

(Photo by Markus Koljonen)

It's not easy...being your own GC...

2009-06-30T15:37:00.034-04:00

(Sung in a sad little Kermit the Frog voice.) So I've wanted to blog about this for awhile but kept putting it off...thinking things might get better or that my feelings would change. Maybe it's because I'm tired today or because I'm frustrated that our well still hasn't been dug. Whatever the reason, today is the day that I will spill the beans about how tough it has been to act as our own general contractors. Here is my list of things those annoying "It's Easy Being Your Own GC: Anybody Can Do It! Really!" books won't tell you...

1. Acting as your own GC is like trying to cook a highly complex 10-course meal for 1000 people with ingredients and recipes you have never used before. I remember my mom being a wiz in the kitchen when I was a kid. She knew just when to pop the chicken in the oven and whip the mashed potatoes so that everything was hot and ready at the exact right moment. It was a perfectly choreographed dance, a masterful exhibition of skill and timing. Not only am I completely unable to emulate her abilities in the kitchen, apparently I am equally challenged when it comes to applying similar skills to building a house. Every single step of this process is reliant on a tangled web of related baby steps. And they all have to work in concert in order for things to come together at the right time. Let me just provide one example. When are we breaking ground, you ask? Well, we cannot begin excavation until we have a building permit. The town won't grant us our building permit until we prove to them that our well draws the requisite yield. We cannot dig the well until the land has been staked out by our civil engineer. Furthermore, we cannot put the well in until testing equipment is installed on the neighbors' wells (long story). We can't install the testing equipment at the neighbors until they have signed off on the process. And so on and so forth. Each of the above steps required separate phone calls and emails...and follow-up phone calls and emails. So when someone asks when we are starting construction, perhaps now they will understand why I sink to my knees with my head in my hands. I don't know, I tell them. I don't know.

2. Acting as your own GC is very difficult if you have no building experience whatsoever. The books tell you that you don't have to lift a hammer as a GC. True, perhaps, but it is helpful if you know what a hammer is, what it is typically used for, and who, ideally, will be wielding one. (Okay, I know the answers to those questions but you get my drift.) In order to solicit solid bids from sub-contractors, you need to know some basic information about the job you are asking them to do. How else can you explain the project on which they are bidding? When electrical subs ask me whether we're mounting the meter on the house or a pedestal, it's helpful for me to know what the *&$# they're talking about. While I don't think it's necessary to have a lot of building experience, per se, don't expect that you can get through the process without a lot of reading and researching. You will know more than you ever wanted to about conduits and GFI plugs by the end of it. And, in my experience, the learning curve is pretty steep. (Oh, and if you were wondering, we're putting the meter on the house, thank you very much.)

3. Acting as your own GC is a full-time job. Too bad I already have one. When I leave Montpelier every day, I know I have my hour-long commute to relax. Because as soon as I walk in the door, I settle into my second desk job of the day at my home computer. I prefer to communicate via email rather than phone and, so far, that has worked out reasonably well with most subs. And it means I can sometimes reply to folks during the day from work. But, for the most part, I try to keep my two work lives separate...which means "working from home" in the evenings on the house. I have no idea what it will be like when we're actually in the construction phase. I have a feeling it's not going to get any easier.

*I should add, though, that all of our subs have been wonderful to work with and I am grateful for each and every one of them. This post has nothing to do with them but with the overall experience coordinating the project ourselves.*

Okay, so there's my vent. I already feel better. Ultimately, I am confident that acting as our own GCs has saved us money. What we've saved in costs, though, we've lost in sleepless nights and stress headaches. So be aware of the trade-off. It's not that I wouldn't suggest that people take the route we've taken. But I wish I had a more accurate picture in my head of the reality of the process before we started. I'm pretty much convinced that the folks writing those annoying, aforementioned GC-guide books are either a) independently wealthy without 9-5 jobs, b) former builders/contractors who just didn't feel like doing all the work themselves this time around, c) flaming $%#holes who think it's funny to convince idiots like me that I can build my own house, or d) all of the above.

And who knows--maybe it will get easier and I'll post a glorious tribute to owner-building six months from now reveling in our decision. Don't hold your breath, though.

Ryan is famous!

2009-06-26T15:09:00.008-04:00

So check this out. Every week, Seven Days airs a piece on RETN local television about its current issue. Ryan had the chance to talk about our article for this week's segment! I think he did a terrific job. He said he was super nervous (thanks for going easy on him, Cathy!)

In print!

2009-06-25T11:16:00.012-04:00

We are so excited about this! Ryan works as a graphic designer for Seven Days, an alternative weekly newspaper based in Burlington. When they found out about our building project, they asked if they could include it in their annual "Green Issue." Of course we said yes. So Ryan and I spent the weekend working on our center spread. It was a perfect division of labor. I wrote the copy and he created the beautiful (and informative) visuals and layout. It's such a nice combination of our strengths! We really are proud :) And it was super fun to partner on a project...I hope we work as well together on the actual construction.

Speaking of construction...countdown to excavation: 3 weeks. The well goes in this Friday. Assuming we draw the requisite yield (which we expect we will), we can apply for our administrative permit next week. We then have to post the land for two weeks before breaking ground. I'll try to get out there and take some pictures of the staked property. It's amazing to finally see where our front door will be.

Anyway, here is a link to the story on the Seven Days website. And here's a shot of what it looks like in print (if you click on the image, it will open in a larger window). Thanks to SD for including us!

100k house

2009-06-20T19:30:00.000-04:00

This post is super late in coming. I went down to visit my sister in Philly in January and stopped by the 100k house. It was so cool to see it in person! Chad even offered to meet me and give me a tour but I didn't want to put him out. But I took some great pictures from the outside. They've made so much progress since I took these photos...

My sister and her boyfriend peeking in...

Inspiration from Ace Hotel

2009-06-17T19:31:00.000-04:00

Ace Hotel has been featured on a lot of other blogs lately and I figured it was about time to play copycat and post about it here, too. My trip to Homestead General got me in the rustic industrial mood :) I love the vibe of these hotels...part industrial, part army base, part vintage. It's all glorious. I think I want our house to be a tad warmer than this (maybe not the intense concentration on grays and browns) but I really like the juxtaposition of metal, wood, and white/cream. Enjoy.

Fairhope Green Home

2009-06-15T16:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry this took me so long to post! A week ago when I was down in Fairhope I had the privilege of meeting the builder of this beautiful new green home. I'm really happy that green is catching on in my hometown. The home is stick-framed but jam packed with cellulose insulation. The windows are high efficiency and the fixtures low-flow. They did a great job incorporating local, environmentally friendly products as well including salvaged wood beams from the site for trim work and wood floors native to the area. The doors throughout the house were stunning (and made from locally available woods). Here are some pics...

Homestead General

2009-06-08T17:00:00.001-04:00

So I have lots to post from my weeked jaunt to my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. Sometimes it takes a bit of time away from a place to make you realize how beautiful and special it is. Fairhope is literally awash in blooms. The city has its own nursery and greenhouses and it plants gorgeous flowers on every street corner downtown. There are even flowers planted on the top of trash cans--no lie! In addition to the physical beauty of the town, I am happy to say that they are catching on to the green building movement (post to follow on my tour of the Fairhope Green Home) and to the localvore movement. They host a farmers market downtown every Thursday and several restaurants are serving locally raised grass-fed beef. It all makes me very happy...and very proud of the town I called home as a kid.

But one of the most exciting discoveries of the trip was a new store on Fairhope Ave. called Homestead General. My parents and I drove past it Saturday evening and I fell in love as soon as I saw the window diplay--a large set of wire baskets with weathered picture frames on top. Ahh, industrial rustic. Love it. So with less than 30 minutes until I had to leave for the airport on Sunday afternoon, my mom indulged me and we dashed downtown for a quick look. The window display was only a teaser. The entire store was filled with gems--rustic tables and vintage signs, metal wire baskets and tubs, organic canvas bedding, iron beds, rustic/modern furniture. It actually had a vibe similar to the White Flower Farmhouse. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I spent more money per minute than I ever have in my life (although the pieces were very reasonably priced). Below are some shots of my purchases. This woman blogged about her trip to Homestead General and took some great interior shots of the shop. (I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera!)

The last one has an interesting story. A woman in the area collected wood scraps after Hurricane Katrina and turned them into unique decoration pieces. I think I'm going to hang this in the master bathroom to hold wet towels.

South Farm Homes tour

2009-06-04T18:44:00.008-04:00

So as promised, here are some shots of the South Farm Homes development we toured last weekend. They really are beautiful (and smart!) homes. Which color scheme is your favorite? I'm partial to the red one myself...

We were able to see the inside of this last house. With its abundance of locally sourced woods (floors, trim, and cabinets), slate tile, and wood stove, it has a very cozy, warm feel to it. The house has already been purchased but the owner doesn't move in until later this year. So cool that she let folks tour her home! Apparently she even offered it up to a series of journalists (from magazines including Martha Stewart and O) who were interested in experiencing green living. So look for features of this house in upcoming issues!

Clearing up confusion...

2009-06-01T09:29:00.008-04:00

So I wanted to clear up some confusion that arose from a newspaper article this weekend. The Free Press published a piece on Sunday about the South Farm Homes development. We happened to be at the open house at the same time as the reporter and enjoyed talking with him. But he misunderstood a comment I made and misquoted me in the paper. I addressed this in the comments section of my last post so I'll just paste that comment here:

A reporter from the Burlington Free Press was on site when we toured the South Farm Homes development this weekend. We had a lovely conversation with him but he, unfortunately, misquoted me in an article he wrote in this Sunday's paper (to which, I assume, Ellis Wyatt--a commenter--is referring). In talking with the reporter, I explained that Ryan and I are trying to prove that you can build green on a budget--we are estimating that construction costs for our house will total $200,000-$225,000 (excluding land). I was NOT referring to the South Farm Homes development as being affordable. While the houses are beautiful and incredibly green, they are not in our price range. The houses have both solar hot water and PVs...and geothermal. Those renewables alone put them in another price bracket. So please know that I was misquoted in the article--I do not consider South Farm Homes to be an affordable green development...although I respect anyone building green, regardless of price point. Homes across the cost spectrum need to be built green. The purpose behing OUR project is to illustrate that it is possible to build green on a budget. So I hope that addresses your concerns, Ellis. I want to clear up any confusion about the BFP article. Thanks.

I'll be posting pictures soon of the open house--the development really is beautiful and while not in our price range, a great example of green building.

South Farm Homes in Hinesburg, VT

2009-05-29T11:42:00.017-04:00

I am really excited to check out this new green development in the neighboring town of Hinesburg, Vermont. The houses are beautifully designed and will be part of a fantastic green community. The developer's website explains that 14 acres of the land were set aside for agricultural use (including a community garden) while the remaining contains a small cluster of active/passive solar homes. The development is within walking distance of the bustling metropolis of Hinesburg--i.e. the local school and grocery stores. Residents also have access to public hiking trails on the neighbor's family farm.

Some more green features of the project include:

Conservation of prime agricultural land
Cluster homes to minimize land impact
Location within three miles of school and grocery store
Homes built into hillside and with southern orientation
Passive and active solar
Geothermal heating
High performance windows
Cellulose insulation
Composite siding
Certified wood

Here is a great Seven Days article about the development and other green projects in the area. Ryan and I are headed to the South Farm Homes open house tomorrow from 12-4pm. I hope to take pictures to post...

School Outfitters

2009-05-27T19:42:00.001-04:00

This Apartment Therapy post on using a science lab table as a kitchen island got me interested in School Outfitters. Look at the great industrial-looking items you can nab on their website!

Stainless steel tub cart: $209.99

Diesel Series Industrial Stool: $86.99

Heavy-Duty Ventilated Lockers: $254.99 (assembled)

Transport Series Mobile Cabinet: $234.99

Lab Table: $349.99

Green paint

2009-05-21T19:51:00.000-04:00

Well, not green as in color...as in not stinky, not bad for the planet, and not bad for humans. We're going to exclusively use AFM Safecoat in our house. It seems to have the best reputation among the "green" paints and Planet Hardwood, less than 2 miles from our building site, is a distributor. Works out well.

AFM Safecoat is not low-VOC...it is Zero VOC. Check out this review of it from inhabitat. Peter from Green Home Guide says, "In the current world of paints, Safecoat stands above most others." Here's another review of several green paints where Safecoat comes out on top.

Building green in Fairhope

2009-05-17T20:02:00.002-04:00

I was really excited to hear that green building is taking off in my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama! [Yes, I'm originally from Alabama. People are always surprised by that primarily because I don't have a southern accent. For those of you who haven't heard my voice, perhaps it's not as shocking. But there it is. I am a G.R.I.T. (girl raised in the south).]

My parents (who know I'm a sucker for green building info.) went to check out this new green home last weekend.

I'm headed down to visit them in June and want to contact the builder to see if I can arrange for a tour so I can get the scoop on all its green features. Here's the info. I was able to find on the web.

"The Fairhope Green Home Project is the first house in the state to receive Gold Certification from the National Association of Home Builders Green Building Program which requires standards for water conservation, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and the use of sustainable and recycled materials. Due to all the energy efficient techniques used in the home, the power bill is expected to average only a bit over $70 a month."

Green checklist:

Recycled Materials
Environmentally Friendly Sheathing
Geothermal Heat Pump
Icynene Foam Insulation
Reducing Building Waste
Green Landscaping
Water Conservation
Eco-Friendly Furnishings

This website has a lot more information about the details of those features. There's a short video available from the local tv station too that includes more interior shots. And here's the full listing with the floor plans.

I am so excited that Fairhope is getting in on the green movement. Go Bama!

More gray kitchens...

2009-05-16T15:48:00.004-04:00

So I'm sort of into this gray kitchen thing.

This remodel from Urban Grace Interiors is gorgeous.

Not thrilled about drawing inspiration from good ol' Martha Stewart but apparently she outfitted her new kitchen in gray. Come to think of it, there is a pretty good chance the kitchen in the prison was a nice steely gray...but there were no pictures of that in her mag.

Here's one from blogger Cote de Texas.

IKEA run

2009-05-11T19:04:00.000-04:00

Sara and I had a blast at IKEA in Montreal. Who doesn't? I'm happy with our purchases...

Amherst St. in Montreal

2009-05-10T10:53:00.021-04:00

Sara and I had a wonderful day in Montreal on Friday. I forget how close it is to Burlington. It's less than an hour to the border and then about another hour and change to downtown Montreal. Border crossing was super easy. The immigration agent made fun of Sara for coming up to Vermont to go to IKEA and pointed out that there was one in Philly...how he knew that, I have no idea.

Sara, having spent a semester in Paris, speaks French and seemed to really enjoy correcting my attempts to translate the billboards along the way. The subjunctive tense gets me every time. Most of the actual road/directional signage is provided in English which helped immensely. Our favorite translation was an electronic sign above one of the major highways in downtown Montreal. In French it read, "Covoiturage est économique certaine." (Or something like that...remember, Sara is the one who speaks French.) It was basically reminding commuters that carpooling makes economic sense. We commented on how nice it was that the Canadian government encourages practices that are environmentally (as well as wallet) friendly. Then the English translation popped up--we had time to read all of this because we were stuck in traffic...apparently folks in Montreal are not reading these announcements because there were many, many cars on the road--and it said, "Carpooling: an interesting choice!" We thought this was hilariously funny. I don't know how "certain" became "interesting" but I liked how the English version sort of gently nudged while the French version was like, "Carpool, damnit. It makes sense."

Anyway, we found Amherst St. in downtown Montreal with no problem, save for the traffic. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. We spent the first part of the afternoon ducking in and out of all the little shops, giggling like children over all the MCM finds. It truly was incredible. We stopped at a cute corner cafe for lunch and devoured the most fantastic paninis and salads. Shopping makes one hungry. We ate and talked for more than an hour and a half. I am so used to grabbing lunch on the go but when in Rome...

We then did some more walking and oohing and ahhing. Here are a couple of pics. from the stores we visited. I was tempted to buy a few things but they would have constituted major purchases and as I said in a previous post, Ry-guy likes input. So we just decided we'd have to go back...

So funniest story of the whole trip? Remember, I didn't want to make any major purchases because Ryan wasn't there to weigh in. But at this one shop, I noticed an adorable old-fashioned sign that said "Ouvert" (open, in French). It had a great patina on it and I loved its charm. Not really MCM at all but I thought it would be cute to put in the kitchen or something...just a little, random detail. Anyway, Sara liked it, too, so I asked her to hold it while we finished exploring the store. As we're approaching the counter to make our purchase, the owner, in a deliciously French accent and with a quizzical look on his face asks Sara, "Are you walking around with my sign?" Turns out that it was actually the sign he uses to announce that the store is open. If I had been by myself, I would have died of embarrassment. But since Sara and I had been laughing all day (we still hadn't gotten over carpooling being "interesting"), we both just cracked up. I don't think he thought it was particularly funny. In fact, he marched right over to the front of the store and plopped the sign in the front window as if to confirm its actual function. Ahh, making a fool of oneself in a foreign country. It's bound to happen, right?

Next up: our IKEA booty...

Salvage=green

2009-05-07T18:58:00.016-04:00

I've been remiss in not mentioning one of my favorite stores in all of Vermont...Mason Brothers Salvage in Essex Junction. I can spend hours strolling through their collections of architecturally salvaged doors, sinks, light fixtures, etc. It's a treasure trove of goodness. Plus, using salvaged products is green because it doesn't require the production of new materials or the transportation of goods from far off places. Here's a short article about the green properties of salvaged materials that includes a list of salvage spots around the country.

Since Vermont has one of the oldest housing stocks in the country, salvage shops in this area are overflowing with excellent, one-of-a-kind pieces. And the guys at Mason Bros. are great. They always know the history of the items they sell and are really committed to protecting them by giving them a new home. We've actually purchased several things from them already, mainly two matching wall-mounted sinks for our master bathroom (I'll take and post a pic soon--they're in storage right now.) Both were made in the 1950s and were salvaged from dormitories at Middlebury College! So cool.

So my sis (who is the awesomest shopper ever--I love picking out home stuff with her) and I went to Mason Brothers this week and took lots of pictures to give you a sense of what's available. We didn't make any purchases because I've found that the hubby likes input. But we might go back on Saturday and choose a pedestal sink for the guest bathroom. I also adore their glass door knobs and am thinking about using those throughout the house.

Gray kitchens

2009-05-07T11:43:00.001-04:00

So I thought I wanted a super mod white kitchen but I've really warmed up to gray cabinets. Check out these gorgeous ones from Swedish company Kvänum.

By the way, my little sis is in town this week and we're headed up to Montreal tomorrow to make an IKEA run and to explore the famed Amherst St., source of many mid-century modern antique stores. My friend Teal first told me about this find in Montreal and I'm so excited to go! Check out this Flikr set from someone's trip. And here's a fellow blogger's recommendations for the best stores.

Beautiful home

2009-04-30T19:39:00.005-04:00

I fell in love with this house tour featured on apartmenttherapy. It's definitely more traditional than we will probably go but has such a nice, crisp look to it. And I adore all the white walls. I think it captures a refined farmhouse (cottage?) feel...and check out that bathroom!

See the full photo tour here.

Change of plans (literally)

2009-04-30T14:05:00.019-04:00

So this is the new information I referenced in my last post. Did you like the tease? And no, mom, I'm not pregnant. Sorry :)

So after a lot of thought and deliberation, Ryan and I have made the radical decision to ditch our original house plans. It was hard because we spent the better part of last year developing them (with the incredibly talented Lori Buxton, a local draftsperson). Lori did a great job and produced exactly what we requested. But we've come to realize that the house is too big and too expensive.

We originally developed the plans when the economy wasn't in the toilet and when we were living large. (Well, not really. We've never lived large. But we certainly had more job security.) In addition, over the past few months, we have spent an unfortunate amount of money on trying to meet the requirments of the DRB including hiring a civil engineer, a hydrogeologist, and an attorney. Let's just say that the process has not been cheap. And the bids we received for materials like siding, roofing, windows, etc. were higher than we could really afford. It became clear that the best thing to do was reduce the size of the house.

The more we thought about the prospect, the more excited we got. We are all about going green and yet we missed the most obvious strategy of all...reduce the building's footprint. In addition to cutting the materials needed for construction and thus saving resources, a smaller house means lower energy usage. It also means disrupting a smaller part of the site.

So we are excited to share our new house plans. We think they retain the farmhouse aesthetic we like but in a smaller package (1568 sq. feet). This represents a 27 percent reduction from our original house plans (2160 sq. feet)and is 40 percent smaller than the average house size in the Northeast (2601 sq. feet). Not bad, eh?

And the plans still meet our primary design objective: open, communal living/dining/kitchen area with smaller private spaces. The addition of the wraparound front porch is lovely. It will be like a second living room in the summer months. As for exterior colors, they will remain the same: white Hardieplank siding with a silver standing seam metal roof.

And the best part about these new plans? By dropping our window count from 30 to 20, we think we will be able to afford the Marvin Integrity fiberglass windows we so desperately wanted.

Let us know what you think...

Good news!!!

2009-04-29T10:03:00.006-04:00

I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to write this blog post...we were *finally* approved by the Review Board at last night's meeting. WOOHOO! We're so happy. The unfortunate news is that they have asked us to address several more conditions and meet with them one more time. But I don't think this final meeting will be anything like previous meetings; it should be pretty cut and dry. Because of that requirement, though, our timeline has been pushed back. We anticipate breaking ground in mid-July. This is much later than we had hoped because we really want to take advantage of the $8000 new homebuyer tax credit (which requires you to occupy new construction by Dec. 1, 2009). I don't think we'll make it. But we can try. That money was going to help tremendously with our solar hot water. Oh, well! The most important thing is that we're building at all!

And thanks to everyone for their love and support! It felt good to go into last night's meeting knowing that there were at least a handful of people outside our close friends and family who cared about the outcome!

And I will be updating the blog soon with some surprising new information...stay tuned...

Update

2009-04-26T12:45:00.003-04:00

I've been feeling bad about ignoring our blog. On the other hand, I have been doing my best to not think about anything house-related because everything has been thrown into doubt by our last meeting with the Williston Development Review Board. This last month has been like torture for us. We were going 100 mph on house work...picking out wallpaper, soliciting bids from subcontractors, talking snow guards with our roof installer, deliberating natural or painted sashes for the windows, explaining our heating system to plumbers....only to have everything come to a screeching halt on March 24th. It has been very difficult to adjust to this new reality of not knowing whether our project will move forward.

But a lot has happened since March 24th. We have had a professional hydrogeologist conduct an analysis of the well yields in our area and he concluded that we will have no problem getting the water we need without adversely affecting our neighbors. Whew. We also had a local landscape artist develop a landscaping plan for the site, which the town required. And we asked water quality experts at the state to weigh in on the appropriateness (and environmental impact) of our proposed septic system design. (If you can tell, these were the major issues the board raised at the meeting.) We feel confident that, on all fronts, we have addressed the board's concerns. We even wrote an impassioned letter to the board explaining how incredibly conscious we are of the ecological footprint our house...and how hard we've worked from day one to mitigate its impact--both to the land and to our future neighbors. We sincerely hope that this letter coupled with the professional opinions of a slew of experts will convince the board to give us the green light.

So for the first three weeks post-board meeting, I actually did a pretty good job of pretending like we weren't building a house. Driving past Home Depot and not stopping in to price out door handles? No problem. Avoiding the architectural salvage shop even though I know they recently merged with another store and have a deliciously large amount of new inventory? Didn't faze me. Getting repeated calls from subcontractors wondering what the $%jf*@ happened to me? Difficult, but manageable.

What made me fall off the wagon, you say? Hearing about a new store in Utah that sells fabulous MCM-inspired couches that are super eco-friendly. Green furniture...gets me every time.

So we meet with the board again this Tuesday (April 28th) and we're feeling *cautiously* optimistic. To celebrate our (measured) optimism, I've decided to get back into the swing of things and research this new couch find.

If you've been following this blog, you know that we've been searching for the perfect modern, green, affordable couch...for awhile. We first made a purchase from greensofas.com only to have the company return our money several months later because of production problems. D'oh! Then we thought we found it with the Giselle from Boston Interiors....only to learn out that their delivery charges to northern Vermont ran almost as much as the couch itself. Grr. We strongly considered some of the options from Crate and Barrel since many of their sofas are certified sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council and their cushions use soy-based foam. But few of them (except maybe the "Petrie") really had that mid-century modern look we covet. Then I read about Lofgren's, a furniture store based in Salt Lake City, Utah that makes great looking pieces that are environmentally friendly as well. Delivery charges aren't exorbitant. And their entire upholstery line is green. Here is a run-down of their eco-friendly features:

Certified sustainable kiln-dried hardwood frame
Soy or plant-based foam
Padding materials: 100% recycled polyester fibers
Waterbased finishes and glues
95% recycled metal springs and components

Oh, and they're not terribly expensive...well, they're expensive. But for a green, stylish sofa, I don't think they're that bad. The last one is probably out of our price range but I like it anyway.

Here are the four we like. I have my favorite (which, of course, is not Ryan's favorite) but I'm curious to hear what others think. Which would get your vote? Maybe the blogosphere can help us decide...

Option 1: "The Tate" ($1349)
86"

Option 2: "The Aero" ($1499)
86"

Option 3: "The Dakota" ($1399)
81"

Option 4: "The Copenhagen" ($1999)
91"

Running into a stiff head wind....

2009-04-01T18:50:00.004-04:00

Those were the words the chair of our town's Development Review Board uttered at our discretionary permit review meeting last week about the fate of our project. We were shocked. We were under the impression that we had everything in order to be approved to move forward and hoped (planned!) to break ground in May. But our meeting with the DRB last week revealed that there are several unresolved issues that must be addressed before they will grant us a permit. We are working feverishly to resolve those before our next meeting at the end of this month. So I apologize if there are no new posts between now and then. The worry with which we're now consumed about making sure we can build at all has taken all the fun out of deliberating over wallpaper...

I'll keep everyone posted on how things go at the next meeting. Here's hoping...

Cole & Son woods wallpaper

2009-03-13T21:35:00.007-04:00

So I think you all have sufficiently talked me out of corrugated metal for the great room ceiling. I'm still enamored of it but see the drawbacks. I'm not giving up on using it somewhere in the house, though. I love it too much. Any good ideas for placement? Maybe as wainscoting in the guest bathroom?

Speaking of interior materials, I wanted to share another recent obsession of mine...Cole & Son's woods wallpaper. This stuff is popping up all over the place (design mags, blogs, etc.) but I never seem to get sick of seeing it. It is so serene and hauntingly beautiful. I feel calmer every time I look at it. I think I want to put this on the north wall of our master bedroom, behind our bed. The window centered on that wall will look across the field to the woods so it seems like an appropriate spot for it. I'll probably buy it from the Anthropolgie website.

Corrugated metal ceiling?

2009-03-09T20:05:00.017-04:00

I have been trying to visualize our great room for awhile now. Most nights before I fall asleep, I pretend that I'm walking into the house. I normally make it through the mudroom into the dining area before conking out. Sad, I know. Therefore, the ceiling in the great room has never revealed itself to me. What do you see when you look up? Is it a great expanse of drywall? (The good: reflects light nicely, quite modern and minimalist; The bad: could be a LOT of white, very bland) Well, luckily for our new house, I wasn't all that tired last night when I climbed into bed and managed to actually make it through the snooze-inducing entrance and into the great room. Whew. And when I looked up, I was surprised to see corrugated metal! It's probably due to my near obsession with Blake Dollahite's house.

So here are some inspiration shots. You tell me. Am I nuts or should our great room ceiling be corrugated metal?

Blake Dollahite House

Dorval-Hall House (Keith Moskow, architect)

Lami Design Colorado Plat House

SIPs it is

2009-03-01T11:24:00.012-05:00

The purpose of this post is to correct a huge oversight on my part and I want to thank poster "Mario in VT" for bringing it to our attention....we never shared our decision re: SIPs vs. ICFs! Oops. It's a minor decision, really. It's only our entire wall system (!) So sorry for that omission. Apparently I've been much more worried about critical issues like whether to purchase a refrigerator with a top or bottom freezer.

Anyway, we have decided to go with SIPs. We actually really wanted a full ICF house. There has been some debate about whether ICFs truly offer a tighter envelope over SIPs. I think what attracted us to ICFs is that in addition to the (potentially slight) advantage in terms of insulating power over SIPs, we also liked the idea of not using any wood. Over time, that wood will begin to decay and concrete is here to stay. It also seemed like a good way to avoid using any more natural resources. Then again, producing concrete is very taxing to the environment. So we explored using a large percentage of fly ash, a waste product that is harmful when released into the atmosphere. Using fly ash also decreases the amount of damaging-to-produce concrete. Anyway, we were leaning towards ICFs although it certainly wasn't an emotionally wrenching decision to choose SIPs instead. We basically want the tightest building envelope that our budget will buy. And once we received the bids back (two from ICF companies and two from SIP companies), it became obvious that SIPs were more budget friendly. I will say that there wasn't a huge difference. But the difference was big enough that we couldn't justify choosing ICFs over SIPs. However, we will be using ICFs from Vermont ICF for our basement.

We are buying our SIPs from Panel Pros out of Keene, New Hampshire. These will be 6.5" Insulspan panels, R-26. So far, Panel Pros has been great to work with. Our total panel package came to around $27,000 without installation. This price includes structural design and delivery. With Al's help, we are going to install them ourselves. Panel Pros also quoted us on a SIP roof but because of cost constraints, we are going to go with a traditional truss roof and blown-in insulation.

Here is a link to Insulspan's website that has some great, basic information on SIPs. Fine Homebuilding has a nice overview article, too. This is the most basic diagram I could find of a SIP. Also, check out this ridiculous YouTube video (the music is classic) of the guys at Insulspan putting up a SIP building. Okay, and this one is just weird. It's called: Insulspan SIPs & ICFs used to build "The Moon." I don't get it. And yet I watched it. I really have too much time on my hands.

Appliances

2009-02-15T11:15:00.012-05:00

So Kyle at Allen Lumber (our new favorite hang-out; more posts to follow on them soon) suggested that we check out Cocoplum Appliances in Essex Junction. I am so glad we did. Norm was possibly the nicest and most helpful salesperson I have ever encountered. He spent over an hour explaining all of the options and showing me various products, even after hearing our budget. After getting familiar with our project and our desired price point, Norm steered us to the Whirlpool Gold series. He really likes and trusts Whirlpool products. So here's what we ended up purchasing. Norm got us a good deal and we did not pay the suggested MSRP on these (although I provided them for reference).

Whirlpool 24.8 cu. ft. French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator (Energy Star) [$1899]

Whirlpool Built-In Super Capacity Tall Tub Dishwasher (Energy Star) [$849]

30" Self-Cleaning Freestanding Gas Range [$899]

30" Canopy Range Hood [$899]

Radiant heat

2009-02-15T09:31:00.026-05:00

We are going to heat our house via hydronic radiant floors. Unlike baseboard heat that provides warmth by heating the air, PEX tubes carrying heated water will snake underneath the floorboards and generate warmth from the ground up. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, "Radiant heating has a number of advantages: it is more efficient than baseboard heating and usually more efficient than forced-air heating because no energy is lost through ducts. The lack of moving air can also be advantageous to people with severe allergies. Hydronic (liquid-based) systems use little electricity, a benefit for homes off the power grid or in areas with high electricity prices."

While hydronic radiant floor systems have become an accepted home-heating method and don't raise as many eyebrows anymore, the particular way we are configuring ours is considered quite unconventional for two primary reasons:

1) Our house will not have a boiler. The system will be powered by a high efficiency Polaris water heater.
2) The same water running under our floorboards to heat the house will be used for domestic hot water (showering, washing dishes, etc.)

The system described above is referred to as an "open direct system." The brainchild behind it are the geniuses at Radiantec, a Vermont-based radiant heat floor company. We're so proud. Here's what it looks like in action.

And here's why the open direct system is the best, according to the Radiantec website:

1 . The open direct system is a combination system getting two uses out of one unit. Stand-by losses of two units are avoided.
2. The money saved from not buying a boiler can be used to acquire a high-quality condensing water like the Polaris.
3. The overall low temperature of the unit improves efficiency.
4. Radiant heating is the most efficient heat delivery system.
5. The overall simplicity of the unit means that parasitic electrical pumping cost is minimal.
6. The flow of cold make-up water through the floor reduces the cooling load in the summer.
7. This nuisance heat is delivered to the domestic water heater where it becomes an energy saving benefit.
8. The open direct system is appropriate for solar energy assistance. (*We are installing two solar hot water collectors.)

While the system makes a great deal of sense to us, it freaks many plumbers out. Like really freaks them out. One, they believe that a radiant heat flooring system without a boiler is blasphemous. What kept running through my head when talking to plumbers about this yesterday (in the process of requesting bids) were the "inconceivable" scenes from The Princess Bride.

[Addition 3/1: I wasted a good 15 minutes of my life watching clips from this movie on YouTube today. Here's a montage of all of Vizzini's "inconceivable" lines. Love it.]

Secondly, they think that anyone with an open direct system will quickly contract Legionnaire's disease. Seriously. I had a plumber tell me yesterday that he was okay with putting in this system if I was okay with Legionnaire's disease. Radiantec has weighed in on this one: "It is our opinion that the risk of Legionnaire's disease in domestic hot water systems is "an emperor with no clothes" that is largely created by special interests groups in the heating industry. Legionnaire's disease is a reportable disease according to law and public health authorities make every effort to determine the cause when it appears. We are not aware of even a single case of Legionnaire's disease that was caused by a domestic hot water based heating system. If it were a real issue, there should be many."

I have to say that my conversations with plumbers yesterday were almost enjoyable. It is exciting to know that we are going to be putting in such an efficient, effective system...and it was fun to convince these folks of our choice...and to have a ready, researched response to their arguments.

Plumber: What type of system are you using?
Me: We're using an open direct hydronic radiant system from Radiantec.
Plumber: With what type of boiler?
Me: No boiler.
Plumber: (Insert some patronizing platitude here). You have to have a boiler.
Me: Actually, you don't. The system is heated solely via a Polaris hot water heater.
Plumber: (Blink, blink) But where's the boiler?
Me: Let's move on. I want to explain to you that all the water for our home will run through this water heater. There will be no separation between the hot water for the floors and the domestic hot water source. Have you ever installed such a system before?
Plumber: Well, that's illegal. You and your family will quickly be stricken with Legionnaire's disease and die.
Me: That's sweet of you to worry but the Radiantec system has been reviewed and approved by the International Code Council, which has been adopted in full by the state of Vermont. In addition, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there has never been a case of Legionnaire's disease in open direct systems. So I think we'll take our chances.
Plumber: (Blink, blink) What type of boiler are you going to use?

Our super efficient, intelligent, innovative heating system: $10,000.
Proving plumbers that a chick like me might know a little more than they think I do about radiant heat and international plumbing codes: priceless.

Revised house plans

2009-02-08T11:36:00.013-05:00

We've made a few updates to the plans in the last couple of weeks so I wanted to post the most current version. We upped the pitch on the mudroom roof from 8:12 to 10:12. We also changed the configuration of the windows on the south elevation. I think the new design looks a bit more modern. We also eliminated two awning windows on the north face (in the kitchen and master bedroom) in favor of more affordable 3'x3' casements.

Window shopping

2009-02-08T11:07:00.005-05:00

So I know we've been promising this post for awhile...and, finally, here it is. I've been deliberating the best way to share the information we gathered on window prices and performance. The problem with posting the complete quotes we received from various manufacturers is that you would not be comparing apples to apples. Some quotes included shipping, others did not. In addition, we re-configured some of the windows in our plans in the middle of requesting bids (I know, bad idea) so the window sizes and quantities are not exactly the same from quote to quote. What I ended up doing so that we could keep track of it ourselves was create a spreadsheet in Excel that listed the price from each manufacturer for each window size we requested. That enabled a side-by-side comparison. For the purposes of sharing this information via the blog, we've decided to list the prices we were quoted for the window most used in our design--the 3'x3' casement. Sizing differs a bit from manufacturer to manufacturer but all were able to give us a window that roughly meets these dimensions.

The other reason comparing prices across manufacturers is problematic is that the product from each is not the same in terms of quality, performance, construction, exterior material, etc. It seems too labor intensive for me to track down all of the performance specs for each of the windows we priced out (you'll understand when you see all of the quotes we requested) so just know that fiberglass outperforms aluminum-clad each and every time. Also, casements are more efficient than double-hungs. This is the main reason we have so many casements in our design. If you're interested in the exact u-values for each of the windows listed below, all are available on the companies' websites.

You'll notice that we did not request bids for any vinyl windows. We would like to avoid vinyl if we can.

So here goes. Below are the prices we were quoted for 3'x3' casements. They'll give you a general sense of how the companies compared to one another.

Accurate Dorwin (fiberglass): $434
Fibertec (fiberglass): $466
Inline (fiberglass): $392
Marvin Integrity (fiberglass): $302
Marvin (aluminum-clad): $373
Eagle (aluminum-clad): $310
Pella Pro-Line (aluminum-clad): $241
Jeld-wen Builder-clad (aluminum-clad): $230
Loewen (aluminum-clad): $544
LePage (aluminum-clad): $401

Now the tough part. What to choose. We really, really want fiberglass windows. The Canadian manufacturers (first three listed) are too expensive for our budget. Although we requested one, we never received a quote from Thermotech...but I'm assuming their prices will be similar to the other Canadian brands. We have heard wonderful things about Marvin's Integrity line from a variety of builders. They also speak highly of the company--very responsive customer service, honoring of warranties, etc. Plus, the windows are beautiful. They offer the efficient properties of fiberglass, relatively low u-values (although nothing beats the Canadian companies), and rich wood interiors. They are a bit more than we wanted to spend, however. We are not particularly excited by the most affordable options (Pella and Jeld-wen aluminum clad). But we can't pretend that we have money we don't. We tend to choose the more expensive option when faced with tough decisions (e.g. standing-seam metal roof over asphalt shingles) and need to get real at some point with our budget. Then again, windows are part of the building envelope and that is what we are choosing to prioritize with this build. I have been losing sleep over this. Truly.

Another intriguing option is that Pella's fiberglass Impervia line will supposedly be available in casements starting in March. We met with the Pella rep yesterday and were able to see an Impervia double-hung. Very nice and decent u-values. Perhaps most importantly, the Impervia double-hung and fixed came in at the exact same price as the aluminum-clad. So we know it fits the budget. The downside is that they are fiberglass inside and out. None of that nice, warm wood interior that we've grown to like. But performance comes before aesthetic. So if we can't afford the Integrity, Impervia might be a good second choice.

We've requested one more quote for the Integrity line from another lumber yard. We'll see if they can beat our first quote. We're also going to do some reading on the Pella Impervia to see what the reaction has been to the line.

Best of luck to anyone selecting windows. This has definitely been the most trying and difficult of decisions we have made to date on this house. Please feel free to comment or email me if you have any more specific questions on the quotes we received. Hope this post was helpful to anyone else in our same position.

Article about our builder

2009-01-28T15:20:00.012-05:00

We love working with our primary building consultant, Al Rossetto. We feel really lucky to have found someone as philosophically committed to green building and as willing to work with owner-builders as he is. An article was recently published on the Green Building Advisor website profiling an incredibly energy efficient house he built in Waitsfield, Vermont several years back. The article is available here.

Christian Brown Design

2009-01-25T12:11:00.012-05:00

I am in the mood to highlight some more local wonders today. Christian Brown, a Vermont artisan, builds beautiful and sustainable furniture. His Echo Series and Prana tables are made from materials such as salvaged wood, eco-resin, agricultural fibers, and sunflower seeds. I don't know yet if they're affordable (I'm guessing not!) but we would love to have a Christian Brown Design in our new home.

LEED platinum modern farmhouse

2009-01-25T11:59:00.013-05:00

I have always loved this Charlotte, VT farmhouse.

I first heard about it this time last year when it won an award at Efficiency Vermont's annual green building conference. Designed by Pill-Maharam architects, it is a stunning example of reinterpreting the vernacular through a modern lens. In addition to its beauty, this house is smart. According to the architects' website...

"By using state of the art design strategies for the ground source heat pump, in conjunction with high efficiency lighting and appliances, the house has been designed to have a net zero energy use and emit zero carbon emissions. It uses electricity generated on site with its 10KW net-metered wind turbine for all heating, hot water, lighting and appliances. The house maximizes energy efficiency by its orientation and simple massing. It is a super insulated passive solar house with an open plan that allows southern daylight to enter all living spaces. In addition to being 5+ star Energy Star rated and Vermont Builds Greener certified, the house has also received the US Green Building Council’s highest LEED rating of platinum, thefirst one in Vermont."

Read and see more in this December 2008 article in Design New England magazine.

Bright Built Barn

2009-01-13T14:20:00.004-05:00

I first saw this on materialicious and had to add it to our blog because it is so beautiful and so green (on track to receive LEED platinum designation). It has almost made me question our decision to put white siding on our barn-house and go dark instead. Almost.

The Bright Built project is pre-fab and net zero with a continous R-40 envelope. It also features "a large energy meter on the front façade will simultaneously show current levels of energy use and consumption." Read more on the project's blog. There you can see more pictures, too.

Kohler's Archer tub

2009-01-11T11:52:00.010-05:00

The highest form of flattery is imitation, right? Let's hope Chad over at 100k house is flattered and not annoyed that I macked his idea for bathtubs. He posted awhile ago about Kohler's rectangular Archer tub. The lines strike me as quite modern. It's probably the squared corners instead of the typical rounded edges. Anyway, had it not been for reading his blog, I would never have heard of the Archer series. Our Home Depot certainly doesn't carry it in stock and I would not have known to look for it in their special order catalog. But thanks to Chad I did and we ordered two of them last weekend for a decent price of $360 each. The drains were an additional $70 each. They were delivered to the Home Depot a week later and Ryan and I picked them up yesterday. We drive a Toyota Matrix whose backseat storage area (when the middle seat is folded down) is approximately 40"x60". The tub, in its box, was 35"x60". We were able to put it in and tie the back hatch down about one-third of the way...and then drive very carefully over to our storage unit (luckily less than a mile from Home Depot). We did this twice. I had horrible images running through my head of the tub sliding out the back and crashing into a million pieces on the pavement. But we (and the tubs) survived. It was an exhausting and nerve-wracking afternoon that saved us the $65 delivery charge! Totally worth it.

Decision on floors

2009-01-11T11:21:00.018-05:00

Sorry for the lack of new material. The holidays were, well, the holidays.

So back to business. If you've read any of our previous posts, you've noticed that we've been deliberating about floors for the first floor of our house for awhile now. We initially wanted polished concrete but since we have a full basement, it seemed unnecessarily complicated and expensive to pour concrete over a suspended floor (extra supports needed to hold the weight, etc.) We then looked into various tiles but had a hard time finding any that met our aesthetic (rustic modern) and our price range. We stumbled across a poured product made by Ecoprocote (see post here) but 100% weren't sure it would give us the look we wanted and no one in this area sold it or had worked with it before. And we wouldn't have a chance to see it in person before making the purchase, which we didn't like. So back to square one.

Then I saw a picture in a magazine of a beautiful home with dark gray slate floors. Perfect! Slate had never occurred to me before but Vermont is famous for it so it would be a locally sourced product...and it's surprisingly affordable. Slate imported from China or Africa at Home Depot runs about $1.87/square foot. Beautiful Vermont slate, in a variety of colors, is available from Poultney Vermont's own Vermont Slate Depot for $2.40/square foot. Our birch floors for the upstairs cost us $4.59/square foot. So slate is decidedly a steal. We ordered a few samples from the Depot (which has been a great company to deal with so far) and fell in love with a richly textured dark gray slate. We think it will hit the rustic modern note we want and to make it even more sleek and streamlined, we plan to buy rectangular tiles (12x18 or 12x24) and lay them in a brick pattern with small grout lines.

Slate will also pair well with our radiant floor heating system. Warm stone floors in the winter...divine. Here are some pictures to illustrate the look we hope to achieve. All pictures are from Beltrami.

Bob Swinburne

2008-12-06T23:05:00.007-05:00

Check out these incredible stair designs by Vermont architect Bob Swinburne. They're sleek, modern, industrial-feeling, and affordable. Could we ask for anything more? I am in love. Luckily for us, Bob has agreed to come on board for our project and design our stairs and second floor railing. Very exciting. Besides using birch stair treads, I'm assuming ours will look very similar to these two.

I should also mention that Bob is in the proces of building a project similar to ours, Perry Road, a green, modern farmhouse.

His blog is also a wonderful read and has a lot more information about the Perry Road project. He also discusses topics like composting toilets, SIPs, and good fiberglass windows.

Let's talk toilets (part 2)

2008-11-28T14:07:00.007-05:00

So we've made the plunge (get it?) and bought our toilets. In an earlier post, we described why we were excited about the Toto brand. In continuing to research, it seems that Toto really is the way to go. We wish we could afford their dual flush line but decided on the affordable Eco Drake. It gets rave reviews from Terry Love's website and at 1.28 gpf is a good environmentally friendly option. With the soft close toilet seat (which must be purchased separately), the price per toilet came to right at $250. We purchased the toilets on homeclick.com and they are currently running a free-shipping promotion. Sweet deal!

Eames plywood lounge chair

2008-11-22T19:43:00.007-05:00

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we bought one of these online this weekend, too. We've always loved the look of them. I bought an Eames-reproduction (Plycraft) black leather lounge chair on Ebay this summer (pictured below) and this is Ryan's little matching Eames item. They will look adorable together.

My eBay beauty...

Costco?!?

2008-11-22T17:25:00.014-05:00

So Ryan and I made two purchases this weekend: industrial-looking stools for the kitchen island and a vessel sink for the master bathroom. The sink will sit atop a fantastic old cupboard that we found at a local antique shop a few weekends ago. The combination of the modern sink and the rustic base should be fab. And you won't believe where we purchased both the sink and the bar stools...COSTCO. The online prices are unbelievable and shipping is included.

Costco garage stool: $49.99

Costco square vessel sink: $89.99 (pop-up drain included!)

We also bid on Ebay for a wall-mounted faucet for the vessel sink that looks like this:

Here's the base for the vessel sink.

Lily, our yellow lab, had to check it out...

And then she posed with it...

And then her brother Gus wanted in on the action...

I guess it's about time the other half of our family made their appearance on the blog!

Found a couch!

2008-11-22T17:19:00.007-05:00

So after recovering from the disappointment over our doomed greensofas.com order (and a lot more researching), we think we've finally found a modern, eco-friendly, affordable couch for our new home. Introducing the the Giselle from Boston Interiors!

It's currently on sale for $799 (normally $899) and the website says they deliver nationwide (although you can't purchase furniture online). And here's the great part. It seems to be eco-friendly. "All wood is renewable and harvested from American sources. Cores are 10-15% soy based chemicals. All non-toxic water based glue used in frames and cushions. Foam is free of CFC." Woohoo!

Window selection

2008-11-15T10:20:00.019-05:00

Although I have been researching windows for awhile, I am just now beginning the process of eliciting quotes from manufacturers. We want the most energy efficient window possible...but are looking for something that's cost efficient, as well. After doing some reading, we've ruled out vinyl and wood. It seems like fiberglass is the best product on the market. There are a number of manufacturers of fiberglass windows. The most readily available in this area is Marvin's Integrity All-Ultrex line. We initially assumed this would be our choice. The price is reasonable and there is a Marvin showroom and distributor less than 5 miles from our building site in Williston. However, the Integrity line does not yet include casements and awnings (of which we have quite a few in our plans). I talked to a rep. from the company two weeks ago and he said he thought it was unlikely that those options would be available by next summer when we build. Frustrating. Marvin's Infinity All-Ultrex has the options we want but it is a more expensive line.

On the up side, this little snag has given me time to reflect on our original decision to go with Marvin and to investigate whether there are other comparable options within our budget. In reading wonderfully helpful posts from fellow bloggers on their window decisions, I have learned of other companies that produce excellent fiberglass windows. I can't express how helpful and educational following the building experiences of other bloggers has been. Read these couple of posts to gain an even richer understanding of the differences between the various fiberglass options available.

The guys building the 100k house in Philly are debating between Marvin and Accurate Dorwin. Jason Hammond (From the Ground Up blog) chose Accurate Dorwin. The folks over at EcoDeep Haus went with Inline.

I sent off emails to all of the following this morning to begin the quoting process:

Accurate Dorwin (Winnipeg, Canada)
Inline (Toronto, Canada)
Fibertec (Toronto, Canada)
Thermotech (Ottawa, Canada)
Marvin Integrity (can be purchased locally)

I'll keep the blog updated with quotes as we receive them.

Industrial floor coating

2008-11-01T16:36:00.022-04:00

In reading the 100k house blog (fantastic blog based in my old stomping ground, Philly), I came across a mention of Eco Tuff Industrial Floor Coating. I did some research and found this information from the product's website:

"Eco-Tuff is a single component, zero VOC, high build, high flex ultra tough waterproof coating material. There are no hazardous ingredients, is non-flammable and virtually odorless. It is engineered for the most extreme environments from freezing cold temperatures to the hottest climates around the world. It is capable of withstanding abrasion, UV, chemicals, hot tire pick-up, and submersible applications. May be used on concrete, wood, fiberglass, and metal surfaces."

It looks like an interesting product. It's very green: non-hazardous, zero VOC, LEED compliant, and includes recycled content. Plus, it is waterproof, abrasion resistant, stain resistant, UV resistant, and does not chip, flake or peel. It is a self-leveling material that rolls or sprays on like an epoxy floor and can be applied directly over a plywood subfloor. Assuming competency on the part of the flooring subcontractor, it can give you a smooth finish very similar to that you'd see on factory floors or in industrial warehouses. It comes in a variety colors and several shades of grey, the color we would probably pursue.

This might be the perfect fit for our first-floor needs. We have been looking for something industrial and modern, not too hard (got to watch out for the pups' joints), and eco-conscious. Oh, and did I mention it's relatively affordable? Here is a picture of it applied.

Also, the company provides top-notch customer service. I emailed them yesterday to find out whether the product is compatible with radiant heating systems. They said it would be fine and the heat would pass through the flooring material without a problem. Sounds too good to be true!

Farmhouse table purchased!

2008-10-25T17:16:00.006-04:00

So Ryan and I had a very productive day today. We stopped by Five Corners Antiques in Essex Junction...and lucked out. Sitting in the middle of the room when we walked up the stairs was a perfect farmhouse table (7 ft.) with mismatched chairs. We loved its rustic feel. And the juxtaposition of the primitive nature of this piece and our modern kitchen should be great. This is a wonderful store with a fantastic selection of antiques. David, the owner, was kind and gracious, even helping us arrange and re-arrange the chairs until we found the right level of mis-matchedness. We could not have been more pleased with the selection or the service.

Here is a recent article in the Free Press written about David and his shop.

I'll also make a plug for buying used furniture as way of going green. Any day a tree remains standing in the forest instead of being cut to make new furniture is a good day.

Here are some pictures of our beauty from the shop (compliments of David--thanks again!)

More scandinavian inspiration

2008-10-24T20:17:00.004-04:00

Skona Hem might be one of my favorite magazines even though I can't read a word of it. Here are some photos of a beautiful apartment they profiled on their website. I heart the combo of rustic, modern and industrial.

ICF home in New Hampshire

2008-10-19T16:11:00.009-04:00

So have we mentioned lately that we lucked out with our builder, Al Rossetto? Technically, he's not our builder. We're acting as our own general contractors and Al has been gracious enough to serve as a consultant on the project as well as the primary sub for elements including foundation, wall system, HVAC and central vac. He's incredibly knowledgeable about green/energy efficient building practices, committed to keeping us on budget and honest as the day is long. And I haven't even begun to describe the kindness he and his wife, Gail, have shown us over the past year. Case in point: we spent the weekend with them in their brand spankin' new SIP home in Lancaster, New Hampshire. They invited us over to see the house and to take a trip down to the southern part of the state to tour the finished product of one of Al's clients, Rouleen, a fellow owner-builder. We spent Saturday and Sunday eating great food, drinking good drinks, talking about green construction, laughing and telling jokes. We felt like part of the family. How many people can say this about their builder? All in all, we feel blessed to have found Al and to be under his care.

Anyway, as mentioned above, part of the purpose of the weekend was to check out Rouleen's recently completed home. She built a full-ICF home meaning both the basement and the first floor are constructed of ICF blocks (Logix, I believe). She put on a traditional truss roof with blown-in insulation.

When we tell folks that we're considering an ICF home, the response we receive is often some version of, "Why would you build a house out of concrete? Won't that be like living in a bunker?" These pictures of Rouleen's home illustrate that ICF homes, just like any other type of home, can be stunningly beautiful. The wall system doesn't dictate the feel and ambiance of the house...the owner/decorator does. You can have a colonial ICF home (like Al and Gail's), a craftsman style ICF home (like Rouleen's) or a million other options. ICF can fit any aesthetic. I didn't once think "bunker" when I was in Rouleen's home. She's done a beautiful job and was such a joy to meet. She was wonderfully helpful with little tips and hints. And she gave us confidence that we, too, could act as owner-builders and could come in on-budget.

The weekend was a blast, Rouleen and her gorgeous home rocked our worlds (as did her pork stew and homemade coleslaw--mmm, mmm good!), and Al and Gail were tremendous hosts, as usual. Our sentiments might change over the course of the next few months....but right now, this home building thing is super fun. Here are some pictures of Rouleen's beauty:

Modern barn interpretation

2008-10-13T19:28:00.012-04:00

So we're obviously not building a barn. But we are trying to channel a strong agrarian aesthetic and the shape of our home is quite reminiscent of a barn. So why not glean some inspiration from them? Especially modern ones. I have always been drawn to this particular barn home in New York state. Dwell featured it a few months back and I've been meaning to blog about it but keep forgetting. Enjoy the photos.

Indoor fireflies

2008-10-11T11:15:00.019-04:00

I can't help but adore these mason jar pendants. They remind me of the fireflies my sister and I used to catch when we were little. This DIY fixture allows you to hold onto a bit of summer in your home year-round. Lovely. DIY directions at Design Sponge Online.

Swedish inspiration

2008-09-27T11:52:00.019-04:00

So as I've perused various magazines and websites over the summer, I've found myself more and more attracted to simple, Scandinavian styles. I love massive amounts of white...on the walls, the floor, the ceiling. I love natural wood, the more rustic the better. And I love spicing up the two materials with a splash of color (red, yellow and blue being particular faves). Oh, and throwing in a couple of raw industrial elements doesn't hurt. In short, I think I am falling in love with Swedish interiors. Here are some inspiration shots that I find myself drooling over...can we bring a Swedish touch to our Vermont farmhouse?

From Desire to Inspire

From Cookie Mag

From Skona Hem

From Materialicious

Updates

2008-09-27T11:48:00.002-04:00

So it has been awhile since we've posted, we know. But it's been a busy summer. I was out of town most of July for work (and visiting my folks in Bama) and Ryan and I spent half of August in Costa Rica with Sara and Jav. Trip of a lifetime. Anyway, we're back in the game now and buckling down to make some important house decisions. We plan to meet with our primary sub, Al Rossetto, later in the month to review the four quotes we've received from SIP and ICF companies (two from each). We're leaning heavily towards going with ICFs but want to ensure that it makes sense cost-wise.

We also received word yesterday that the sofa we were so excited about from www.greensofas.com is not coming. It turns out the company is having trouble with its suppliers and is refunding our money. We are disappointed to not have our sofa but appreciate the company's professionalism in the matter. I suppose it's back to square one for our green, affordable sofa hunt. Any ideas?

Help us pick a sofa...(UPDATED)

2008-06-30T19:29:00.027-04:00

UPDATE: Upon reading all of the research on the harmful effects of materials and chemicals commonly found in most sofas on the market today, we have decided to forgo the options we listed below (although we still really like the styles). In our search for eco-friendly furniture options, we quickly learned how incredibly expensive they can be. Imagine my delight to stumble across GreenSofas.com, a California-based company that, according to their website, strives "to positively impact the world by making safe, eco friendly furniture affordable to everyone." They are the first eco-friendly company to offer sofas for under $1500. A variety of sofa styles (including some great modern designs) and configurations are available but all are guaranteed to be made with sustainable, non-toxic, environmentally friendly materials. Here is some more information from their website...

"Did you know that over 90% of furniture is made with materials known to cause global warming, respiratory problems, breast cancer, and even leukemia over extended periods of time? As if that weren’t bad enough, the furniture industry is devastating the world’s forests with their careless harvesting practices. Eco friendly furniture offers a solution to these problems by using non-toxic glues, cushions made from natural materials (soy and latex), and hardwood frames from responsibly managed forests. Good eco furniture also replaces chemically derived fabrics (polyester, nylon, and viscose) with natural fabrics (cotton, hemp, and linen). These simple changes are vital to preserving the planet, and the health of our families. The problem is that most companies who offer eco friendly furniture are price gouging their customers. The average price for an eco sofa is now over $4,300. GreenSofas.com is not interested in these schemes. Our mission is to positively impact the world by making safe, eco friendly furniture affordable to everyone. In fact, we are the first company to offer genuine eco sofas for under $1,500. We allow you to feel good knowing that your family and the planet are protected at a fair price."

We are placing an order tonight (to take advantage of a 10% off and cushion upgrade sale) for the "Jodie" sofa in "Putty" colored natural hemp fabric. We're so psyched. Granted we'll be spending a bit more than we had planned but we know it's the safest and most responsible choice. An extra $200 or $300 seems like a small price to pay for peace of mind and for maintaining our commitment to going green.

(Original post below)

So as we continue to tackle huge things like what type of wall system to use (we're back to the SIP/ICF debate and are waiting to hear from four companies with bids), I'm keeping myself busy with smaller tasks like picking out cool furniture for our new abode. Today's quest...the perfect sofa for $1000 or less. Here are the top contenders. What's your fave?

Room and Board "Westwood" ($999)

Room and Board "Brooks" ($799)

Pottery Barn Teen Convertible Couch ($799 although not currently in stock, according to PBTeen)

Exclusively Home "Plaza Tufted Sofa" ($685 + free shipping!)

Ikea "Sater" ($399)