Green in Medusa

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.

The Pallet Chair - Modern and Green!

We saw this super cool design that designer Nina Tolstrup - Studiomama came up with. Its a simple and elegant and sustainable design for chairs made out of wood pallets. She won Best Contribution to 100% Design for the most creative impact at 100% Design. I went to her site paid 10 Quid (approx $20) and was emailed plans by Nina for the chair. In short all you need is a wood pallet and a handful of screws and nuts. Walking the streets of New York I see discarded pallets all the time and I always think its such a waste. We've often imagined whole neighborhoods built out of the discarded waste from construction projects. Well now to the dismay of my wife I can start bringing home wood pallets! I can't wait to build some of these. They are reminiscent of Adirondack Chairs which are ubiquitous upstate. Will post some pics when I get around to making a few.

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.

Cool Lamps we like...The Coral Pendant

We happened to walk by the Design Within Reach shop the other day and saw these lamps which are part of their eco friendly line. We fell in love right away.The Coral Pendant echo patterns found in nature, these pendants are created using the minimum amount of materials for maximum effect. David Trubridge the designer wants his footprint on earth to be like a sailboat that slips through the water but leaves no trace after it has gone. The analogy is fitting for a designer who holds a degree in naval architecture and lived on a boat for four years, sailing from Britain to New Zealand, which is now his home.  The Coral Pendant arrives unassembled to make shipping more efficient and to reduce the amount of packing materials. Instructions for simple assembly are included and no tools are required. The artist won the Green Leaf Award for his Coral  Pendant lamp, The Green Leaf Award celebrates an artist's ability to inspire and engage the public in environmental awareness and action.

If we're lucky we'll have enough money at the end of our projet to buy one.

Net Zero Energy House

Among many of the lofty goals we have set for ourselves is for our house to be Net Zero or at least Near Net Zero. We would like to produce as much energy as we use . We may not achieve this on a daily basis but through out the course of a year instead. At the moment we have received bids that range between $30,000 and $50,000 for a 3-5 KW system. This is before rebates and tax incentives from the state which could pay for up to 50% of the cost. In order to take advantage of those incentives we need to tie into the grid. This would also help us achieve our net zero goal as we will be able to buy electricity when needed an sell it when we have excess. Our goal is to achieve a balanced system that is Solar Photo Voltaic powered and Wind powered. We have looked at a few systems for wind and have some issues with local ordinances as far as structures over 35' are concerned. Most wind turbines have to be on towers that are at least 35'. Add to that the fact that we would need a special variance to set one up. Matthew at LGA forwarded me a couple of interesting house mounted vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) one by Wind Terra and the other by Pac Wind. In theory we would not need a variance for this type of wind turbine as it would be well under the 35' restriction and is virtually silent.

Building our Eco Nest, whats next...

View of proposed septic area.

Originally we were trying to break ground before winter so we could get a shell of a house up and it could be finished through the winter and into the spring and summer. It was defenitely a rush for us and all involved to get it done by then. However once we decided to build the home in the factory the pressure to be in the ground before winter was less. We can have the house built in factory with a minimal amount of finishing to be done on site. Hopefully we will be in our living room drinking lemonade with Joaquin in the summer. We are trying to shore up some issues at the moment the main one being our Septic system. We have spoken about some of these issues before but new ones keep coming up. Mainly getting the septic design approved. Most of the delays now are coming from technicalities associated in the permitting and local government approval. We are confident that they'll all be resolved soon. We are not on a deadline now so it should be OK. This gives us some extra time to research other technologies and products for our home. It also gives us time to come up with some new projects to tackle....

SIPS Vs. Modular: Tradeoffs

As their architects and friends we want to congratulate Stephenie and Baldomero and welcome Joaquin to this crazy world of ours. He’s one lucky kid.

Regarding Joaquin’s new house, we’re getting close to reaching a firm number although this pricing process has been especially challenging because for all the reasons B+S have written about to date. This post - long overdue - is to further define consequences of the team’s choice to work with module over SIPs. B+S explained the reasons we all selected modular – no matter how we ran the numbers a modular house is less expensive and has a smaller potential for cost overruns than SIPs. The variations in sustainable considerations – R-value, material content, construction waste – are impressive on both counts and therefore didn’t factor into the decision as much as the cost.

Most of the revisions that came out of our module decision are site and foundation based such as slab-on-grade versus Superiorwall foundation

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...

The Kaufmann House - Love at First Site

photo:Julius Shulman

Stephenie and I first met in 2000 on a job out in California, it was a wonderful job because unbeknown to us we would get to spend our time getting to know each other at one of the most famous mid-century houses in the United States, the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs. We were working on location shooting fashion photos for a commercial client and we fell in love with each other at that house while we worked side by side, we still work that way often. So it was sad when we saw the article in the NY Times about the Kaufman House being up for auction because its owners are getting a divorce. Hopefully its new owners will show the same love for Neutra's masterpiece that its current owners have.