Roofed in!

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!

SIPs it is

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.

Article about our builder

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.

ICFs

We are anxiously awaiting March 11th. That is the date when the Williston Development Review Board will decide whether we can proceed with our plans to build this summer. We are nervous because only a finite number of projects are approved each year. If we had purchased land outright, we would not have to go through this approval process; this is the result of the fact that Ryan's parents are technically 'subdividing' their land in order to gift us a small part (**THANK YOU!!!**). Thus, we are pushed into the same approval process required of developers. But we're keeping our fingers crossed and trying to stay optimistic. We'd really like to build our new house this summer!

One important looming decision is our wall system. We were initially planning on an ICF basement and SIP walls. But the more we've learned about ICFs and their incredible energy saving properties, the more we've found ourselves leaning towards building a full ICF house. The only stumbling block will be cost. As soon as we learn when we can break ground, we'll finalize the blueprints and get quotes on both ICFs and SIPs to see how well they compare.

Here are some interesting links to other people's blogs where they discuss their decision to go with ICFs. Modern in MN's blog explains their decision to go the ICF route. (Scroll down to the January 11, 2005 post). This Custom Home blog also does a great job of detailing all of the benefits to ICFs.

Threads on the Green Building Talk forum constantly revisit the ICFs vs. SIPs debate and there are ardent supporters in both camps. I have learned a lot from this site.

We'll keep our own blog updated on the events of March 11th as well as our thoughts on ICFs vs. SIPs.

Green is our goal!

So our goal with this house is to build as green a structure as possible. That means everything from using environmentally friendly materials to employing construction strategies that reduce energy loss (and therefore energy consumption) in the home. Why is building green our priority?

"In the United States, there are 100 million homes and 5 million commercial buildings that collectively use about 40% of the nation’s total energy (source: Pew Center on Global Climate Change). To a building owner, energy represents the single largest controllable operating expense. (source: Building Owners and Managers Association)."

Some of the things we're currently exploring include...

SIPS
SIPS (structural insulated panels) fit really well with our plans to build a post and beam home. SIPs are incredibly energy efficient and provide much better insulation than your standard frame. SIP Panel buildings are "66% more energy efficient than standard frame construction, 2-1/2 times stronger than standard building materials and cut framing time by 2/3rds. Panels are made from a thick layer of foam (polystyrene or polyurethane) sandwiched between two layers of Oriented Strand Board (OSB), plywood or fiber-cement. The result is an engineered panel that provides structural framing, insulation, and exterior sheathing in a solid, one-piece component."


ICF
We're totally jazzed about this particular green building strategy. "Insulating concrete forms (ICFs) are rigid plastic foam forms that hold concrete in place during curing and remain in place afterwards to serve as thermal insulation for concrete walls. The foam sections are lightweight and result in energy-efficient, durable construction. ICF walls provide higher R-values (between R-17 and R-26) and lower air infiltration rates than typical wood frame construction (typically R-12 to R-20)." People have built entire ICF homes (walls and all). At this point, we're thinking of using ICFs for our foundation at a minimum and perhaps the entire house.

Radiant Heat Floors
"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. The hydronic systems can also be heated with a wide variety of energy sources, including standard gas- or oil-fired boilers, wood-fired boilers, solar water heaters, or some combination of these heat sources."

We're also trying to minimize the use of wood that does not come from sustainable sources. It would also be great if the wood is harvested locally to reduce the carbon footprint of its transport. For our flooring, we're considering polished concrete for the first level (especially good for those with allergies and for dogs-no scratches!)and either wood or bamboo for upstairs (a renewable resource and recognized as a green material under LEED).

We also plan to buy Energy Star appliances and low-flow or dual flush toilets.

We're really hoping to receive the EPA's top Energy Star rating for our home.

Vermont has a phenomenal green building resource in Efficiency Vermont:
"Efficiency Vermont is the nation's first statewide provider of energy efficiency services. Efficiency Vermont provides technical assistance and financial incentives to Vermont households and businesses, to help them reduce their energy costs with energy-efficient equipment and lighting and with energy-efficient approaches to construction and renovation." Everyone in VT pays for the service via a small fee on our electric bills. Gotta' love this state.

We're also considering applying for LEED certification (more stringent and comprehensive building standards than the Energy Star program).

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More building green resources:

http://www.buildinggreen.com/

http://www.greenbuilding.com/