Green in Medusa

The MoMA PreFab Show

The Cellophane House

I just got back from the Museum of Modern Art's - Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. They are having their member's preview today and the show opens on Sun. July 20th. The exhibition features five contemporary prefabricated houses constructed in the outdoor space to the west of the main Museum building, continuing MoMA's rich history of presenting full-scale architectural projects. Five individuals and architecture firms have been given the opportunity to deploy both commercially viable domestic creations and entirely new, speculative prototypes. Also in the exhibit on the 6th floor of the main building is what I found to be the more interesting part of the show. It is a concise history of prefabricated housing since its origins in 1833. As always the museum had some fascinating original art, sketches and plans by the likes of Frank LLoyd Wright, Marcel Breuer, and even Thomas Edison, who had developed and built prefabricated concrete houses. There are also some very interesting films and archival footage on Prefabrication. Whether you like these architects and the concept of Pre-Fab or not, the show is worth visiting. For me it was a really cool way to spend a hot day with my son.

more after the jump...

House Appraisal...its ugly!

We received our appraisal and it was not so good. We were hoping to be able to get an appraisal that would cover the construction of the house, the site work, septic, foundation, renewable power, appliances, cabinets, and some miscellaneous items and the balance of what is owed on the land. Unfortunately the appraisal came back about $80,000 under what we had hoped for. The appraiser and bank do not take into account the fact that the house will be sustainable/green, they mainly go off of previous home sales in the area and existing listings. We are in rural New York, we're not a in a posh county with big fancy houses so this is the main reason our appraisal came back so low. This is not great news, we wanted to not have to use any of our savings to use as down payment. The bank will only lend us a maximum of 80% of the appraised value. So that leaves us a bit short. So at the moment we are going through our plans and doing a little bit of "value engineering", we may hold off on a couple of pieces of the project and possibly tackle the project in a few stages instead of all at once. Much to our disappointment one of the main things we can do to save money is to postpone the purchase and installation of renewable power systems. As disappointing as all this is we have to believe there is a reason for all this. The upside of all this is that our mortgage payments will be lower and maybe after some time has passed technology will have gotten better for our Wind and Solar systems. We're going for our bank loan soon so more news on this to come.

Change of Plan...The New Final Design

Its a good thing we didn't rush into the ground this past fall, we have had to change our plans slightly. We have been having problems getting a septic design approved by the county that we were comfortable with. We wanted a septic system that would be gravity fed so that it would be simpler and require less maintenance. The alternative recommended by the civil engineer required a pump and dosing chamber. In order to achieve our goals and those of the health department we had to compromise and move the location of the house. Lynn Gaffney our architect came up with a wonderful solution by moving the house about ten+ yards uphill onto a high flat spot in the trees. In the end we prefer the new design and location. It provides a sense of coziness as its nestled partly among the evergreens. However this new design will require more site work than before and we will need to move trees. Transplnting the trees was something we were going to do in the future anyway to give us more privacy between us and our neighbor. So it looks like a win win. Now we just need to find a tree service with a tree spade big enough to move our trees.

Fiber Cement Board - Simple Sustainable Siding Saves Cents

Fiber Cement Board treatments by Viroc.

There are several options for house siding that are economical and sustainable. Right now the two options we're considering  are Reclaimed Wood and Fiber Cement Board (FCB).

The nice thing about FCB is that its usually made with recycled content, has a long life span and requires little maintenance and is economical. The down side is the embodied energy in its creation, however much of the downside is equaled out by the great deal of waste that is recycled and does not end up in landfills. A great comparison of cladding materials can be found at the Minnesota Affordable Green Housing Guide.

Part of the house would be clad in FCB and the two sections that jut out (entrance and den) would be clad in reclaimed barn siding. Luckily we have a local source for that.

Designing a Septic System? Hold your breath...

We have our septic system design into the Albany County Health Department. We have gone through a couple of designs. There are several factors that had to be considered with our design. The soil on our property did not pass the percollation test. The soil is basically clay and does not drain well and we have a slope. Not good news for our budget. This means that we have to have a 5800+SF raised bed leach field, which also means we need to bring in top soil or fill and we also need a dosing chamber and pump. That probably equals an extra $20K

more after the jump...

Cool Green Building Projects We're Following

Since we started this process we have been following some really cool green building projects and it seems there are more everyday. The more we look the more we find...the web is a big place.

•Sycamore House
•PreFab Project
•Luminhaus
•The Longhouse
•Austin Mod House
•Sjodin Dream Home
•Maine Solar House
•Earthaven

SIP'S vs. Modular - Insulation and the Building Envelope

The title of this post is me showing off some of the terms I've learned since starting this project. Matthew Radune at Lynn Gaffney Architect has been awesome at giving me lots of undiluted information.

In comparing both SIP's and Modular construction, insulation is a big actor. One of the points on our original brief to architects was that we wanted a well insulated house that would be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. This requires a well insulated and tight building envelope that would limit the amount of air moving through the walls thereby affecting the indoor temperature.

Here is a basic comparison using the materials we are currently looking at working with.

Pre Fab - SIP's vs. Modular

This project is a constant balancing act. Every decision has to be weighed against several other factors that are often in direct opposition to each other, how does it fit within our budget, how green is it, how much embodied energy is attached, how will it wear, how will it look, how much does it cost, how much will it cost "installed" , and then in the end again its how much is it going to cost? There is never a real answer and probably won't be until you pay the final bill. Estimates are just that, estimates. One of the main reasons for wanting to build this house out of SIP's or Modular prefab is that much of the variables of building are taken out because you know that those specific elements will be done hopefully to spec. in the factory at a pre-determined cost. Luckily we have a great architect that designed a house that would be flexible in the future and could be built in a variety of ways including modular.

The idea of Traditional or OVE (Optimum Value Engineered ) stick building, built by hand on site no longer has the appeal it once did. There is a tremendous amount of waste involved when building on site, even with a well intentioned and experienced builder who is committed to building "green". In addition there is the potential nightmare of cost overruns. Steph and I both work in a production environment where there is always a budget to adhere to and nothing makes us more upset than going over-budget, we both pride ourselves for coming in "on budget".

Heating and Cooling - Geothermal

We are not talking about that kind geothermal, the image is a bit deceiving. Residential geothermal is a highly efficient and renewable way to both heat and cool your home.Basically you run a set of pipes in what is called a loop, underground  where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees. In the winter the water and environmentally safe antifreeze solution is run through pipes and into a heat pump that extracts the heat and transfers it to a blower or radiant source to heat your home. In the summer the process is reversed and the house is cooled. It can also be hooked up to a hot water tank so that on warm days the heat can be extracted and used to warm household water. It explained really well at The Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium.

final design

Ok…ok...it’s been two weeks since my last post on 9/14 where I shared our 3 schematic designs. The project as shown on the following images and plans has little obvious resemblance to those schematic designs but the overall ideas are still intact. The design grew from about 1,250 SF to 1,600 SF but that’s still a fairly small scale and at most about ¼ the size of your nearby McMansion. While the house will feel expansive because of its open Living/Dining/Kitchen zone (31’0”x12’6”), there is no wasted space. The individual rooms are comfortable in size (some would say cozy) except for the 2^nd floor bath (8’7”x10’0”), which is a bit large. You’ll understand why when you see the beautiful concrete soaking tub that b+sF found at the “graveyard” of Get Real Surfaces in Poughkeepsie, NY get real surfaces. In between, this exposed concrete foundation wall will act as additional thermal mass for the living and dining areas – catching winter sun.

Currently we have the project out to bid. We’re exploring many construction options since we have such high “green” goals as well as a strict budget to meet. I won’t use any company names unless we end up working with them (this only seems fair as construction bids in the private realm are usually private). We’re reaching out to two teams of excavators and concrete guys to possibly obtain separate contracts for the site work including septic and the concrete foundation/retaining walls. We have a SIPs company bidding the structure above the foundation (SIPs= structurally insulated panels; general info on Structural Insulated Panel Association)... as well as an ICF panel company (ICF= insulated concrete forms; general info on green building talk). As an alternate, we are also speaking to a module house consultant (prefab), which may be the way to go for cost and scheduling but only if we don’t customize too much. The two GC’s we bid out to have both spoken to b+sF about the project and they’re 100% committed to environmentally responsible residential construction. Lastly a separate alternative power design/build team is reviewing the project for their associated costs (photovoltaic cells, solar thermal, etc.). Many parties are involved in trying to price out Medusa - all with the greatest intentions …… hopefully we come close to our goal.