More progress pics!

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.

Bathroom tile

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.

Radiant heat

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.

Decision on floors

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.

Industrial floor coating

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!

First home purchases!

So a quick update on our construction timeline...it isn't official yet but a wonderful builder has agreed to trade phasing allocations with us so that we can begin construction this fiscal year instead of next. While we were initially thrilled about the prospect of initiating construction this summer (we can technically begin July 1, 2008 now!), we have decided to delay ground-breaking until early next spring. We feel like we have a lot more research to do and a lot more decisions to make before we begin building. We also want more time with our draftsperson to ensure that our plans are spot-on. Avoiding changes in the future means saving money. But knowing that we can begin construction a bit earlier than before has given us the confidence to go ahead and start making purchases when we find things we like at a good deal. We also figure that buying things slowly, over a period of months, will mean not having to plop down a lot of cash all at once next summer. So our recent purchases include...


We got gorgeous mixed yellow and red birch floors at a good deal ($4.69/ft) from our new favorite store, Planet Hardwood, in Hinesburg, VT, less than 5 miles from our building site. We first met these guys at the Green Expo in Burlington two weeks ago. They have an amazing showroom in Hinesburg, full of fantastic wood floor options as well as AFM Safecoat Paint and Marmoleum options. They are 100% committed to environmentally friendly building practices and only stock wood that they know has been sustainably harvested. Our particular wood (a mix of yellow and red birch) comes from a mill just over the border in Canada, less than 100 miles away. The guys at Planet Hardwood know the mill and the family that runs in personally, one of the many benefits of buying locally!

As for the wood, we love the birch texture and warmth. Yet it's light and airy enough to help us achieve the modern feel we're striving for. We also learned something new...that yellow and red birch actually come from the same tree. The darker coloring (red) is wood closer to the core of the tree whereas the lighter (yellow) is from the outer layers. We will be using this flooring for the entire second floor (loft area/offices, two bedrooms) as well as for the bed platform area in our master bedroom. We got this idea from a beautiful home built in Texas (inspiration photo below). More pictures are available on the Wilde Haire Ranch link to the right under "Modern Farmhouse: Our Aesthetic." We will post our floor plans soon.