Electronics overview

As mentioned in the 'since money is an object' post here is an overview of the dream house electronics vision. Here we go.

• Wired Network: One of the standard features of Charis Homes is phone lines to almost every room. Since we no longer have a landline we've changed that from standard phone lines to CAT6 ethernet cable. This means hard-wired Gigabit speeds in most rooms. All these cables will come together in 2 main switches (supporting power-over-ethernet) in the basement.
• Wireless Network: We're using a 3-pack of Wireless Access Points, one on each floor connected through the before mentioned ethernet using the same cable for power as well (power-over-ethernet). This will give a generous wireless coverage throughout the house on every floor. 
• Internet: Not sure yet if we'll stay with TimeWarnerCable or if we'll switch to AT&T U-Verse. In any case the signal will be routed to a hardware firewall before being distributed to the two switches.
• TV signal: More than likely we'll retain DirecTV. My wife is an avid Football fan from Minnesota so that kind of settles that part. We'll use their Whole-House DVR function (wired) and their Nomad device for wireless signal distribution. Using the Nomad allowed us to save some money on not cabling the 2nd floor. 
• Digital Storage: With our digital camera being one of the heaviest used devices in our household we have to make sure we got some good storage and retrieval for those digital photo albums. We'll be using a Home Server approach with Network-accessible storage. Add some (non-cloud) backup goodies due to the shear amount of pictures we take to keep the FUBARs away.
• Home Automation: See first line... 'money is an object'... so, integrated home automation is out.
• Alarm system: Yup... that definitely IS in the budget... ;-)

Since money is an object...

The previous post was a bit of nice to have wishlist when money would be a plenty. Reality is that the opposite is true. In order to get a couple of things we really want, we opted for a couple of 'downgrades' from what you normally see in new construction. Here is our 'downgrade' list...

• Half-wall for the staircase instead of balusters: with my wife's head injury the balusters can be a visual distraction, especially with a low winter sun hitting the staircase. In order to counter-act the loss of light on the staircase we added two step cans. It also gives us a nice big wooden finishing to tie it in with the kitchen cabinet color. Plus, a half-wall is cheaper than balusters, hence it landing on the downgrade list.
• Bathroom / shower style: We opted against the full tiling in the bathrooms and chose inserts. Besides the cost savings it also greatly eases the maintenance by not having to clean grout. 
• Laundry room counter top: We have been fortunate that we've been able to use remnants  for a lot of the other non-kitchen counters. This really allowed us to enhance the visual impact of all the bathrooms without the large extra cost. However the extra cost for the larger laundry room made us decide to use a more cost-effective laminate. 
• Flooring: While we stayed with the US Floors cork in the kitchen, dinette and pantry, we downgraded to carpet for the bedrooms, hallway, stairs and office. Originally, we looked at some no-VOC carpet made from corn, but we ended up finding a really good deal on some carpet that will work pretty well. Since we know that we want to change out carpet as we go along, and since we will very likely be adding a new puppy to our family, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to spend  more for the upgraded carpet. For our wet areas, we have been drooling over the Emser Strand 12"x24" tiles for months. We were not as excited about the price. It was easy to downgrade to the 12"x12" which are more economical, but we saved a lot more money by switching to a generic version that still has the same pattern without the through-body color. In the laundry room and D's bathroom, we downgraded further from porcelain tile to an LVT, Luxury Vinyl Tile. Very cost-effective and looks a lot like regular tile. The style we selected looks just like bamboo.
• Master Bedoom: We are a family of three and we use our bedrooms to sleep. Not to lounge, not for an 'escape' from the family we worked so hard at getting. Hence the size of our Master Bathroom is definitely is size down from the average McMansion size. Still, a 15x15 bedroom is a space that VERY comfortably holds a king size bed, with plenty of room for side tables, a chaise and some wall cabinets.
• Master Bathroom: Not too many concessions here but we did take out the door between the Master Bath and the Master Closet. It allowed us to put up a full-length mirror in the door-opening to visually enlarge the space and to finally have a full-length mirror in our bedroom closet... 
• No crown molding: We like more of the contemporary-to-modern style so crown molding was an easy scratch of the list for us.
• Basement unfinished: Easiest 10% cut of the budget we could find. It also allows our son to have a nice large play area and give us a lower tax rate for the first couple years. Plus, this is something we can easily finish later. 
• Exterior stone: We cut out a good amount of exterior stone from the initial draft. That draft had a 'grand entrance' look versus the current 'contemporary craftsman' look with front porch. We still have stone all around the bottom of the house, the lower 2/3 of the front and the 2-car part of the garage. 
• Lights: We have a number of fixtures from local lighting stores but the vast majority of our lights we got from clearance sales at TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Tuesday Morning, Lowes and Home Depot. It really stretched our lighting budget. 
• TV and Phone cables: We use the upstairs floor as a sleeping floor and therefore opted to only have TV outlets in the basement and main floor. We also have no phone cables since we no longer use a home-phone. We actually replaced all phone cables in the original specs with Ethernet (Internet) cable for basically no extra cost. This allows hardwired Internet into every room. More on this topic in an upcoming post on electronics. 

Not sure about the overall cost savings, but including the basement I think we are looking at over $50,000. It would have been nice to not have to cut anything, but reality is that you easily makes some cheaper choices without loosing a lot of 'value', yet still easily upgradable when we want to. 

If money were no object...

Today I had an hour of babysitting in the car watching our son sleep while my wife was running a couple errands. I put together some thoughts on what decisions we did not make simply because of the cost associated with them, projected pay-back period or not a real priority for us. I'll wrap up the post with some of decisions we did make and we will never regret.

Items that didn't make it, here we go...

• Geo-thermal: the extra cost after rebate was still almost $8000. With an Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) structure you get a very high air-tightness (not a lot of heat loss) dropping our projected gas usage to under $400/yr, meaning you end up with a 20+ year pay-back period.
• Under-slab foam: Simply didn't know about that. Not sure about the extra price but it sure sounds nice...
• Mineral foam insulation for the attic: Spray-foam application in the US Mid-West is still a niche market and so are the prices, then you add the mineral foam to it and the price goes up even more.
• ICF flooring and roof structure: ICF-like concrete flooring and roof panels are VERY expensive and add almost $10k to $15k per floor and no one local had any experience with it.   Was on my wishlist as in my home country basically every floor is concrete and makes for a very silent house. 
• (Hydronic) Radiant heat flooring: When the Geo was ruled out we also eliminated the hydronic radiant heat option. We can still do electric for specific pieces of the house later. 
• Radiant Barrier on the roof: Mainly useful for cooling dominated climates. Ohio only qualifies 2 months out of the year.
• Metal roof lined with solar panels: The price difference of the metal roof over a good 30yr shingle is already significant. Just imagine adding the solar panels... 
• Sound-barrier/dampening in between floors: When ICF flooring went out we looked at other sound-deadening products but with carpet upstairs and sound-absorbing cork flooring and carpet on a majority of the main floor we decided it wasn't a wise investment.
• 10" Concrete for the ICF walls: We have 6" already but its nice to kind of feel you live in a VERY solid house. Debated using it for the basement, but our GC (who built 75+ ICF houses already) convinced us it was overkill.
• > 2 1/4" EPS foam for the ICF walls: The thicker the EPS foam encapsulating the ICF, the higher the R-value of the wall. The law deminished return applies here. Yes, it's better but more expensive than the extra value.
• Room-by-Room zoning: We settled for a 4 zone setup. More than adequate.
• HEPA filter: Very good system, but with mechanical ventilation the cost of the filters will be significant. Since we refresh the air in the house a lot more than normal (due to the forced, mechanical ventilation) the HEPA filtered air is less of a requirement. We also don't have a medical need for it (yet)...
• Grey-water system: Simply won't pass code around here. 
• Excavate under the porches and garage: Was cost-prohibitive...
• 10' ceilings (after finishing) on all levels: Would have added a lot of cost for trim, doors and kitchen (venthood extensions required). We settled for 9' on all levels. 
• Triple-pane / dual-gas filled windows for the north-side: Best possible insulation windows are VERY expensive. We settled for dual-pane with an EnergyStar rating and Low-E 366 glass instead.
• High Solar Gain windows for the south-side: To let in the sun (in the winter) to assist with heating the house. Didn't have the time to fully investigate. We used the same windows throughout the house (see previous point).
• Trellises over the south windows to block the summer sun but allow the winter sun: Goes together with the high solar gain windows. We might get this in a few years after seeing how the current setup behaves.
• Sun Tubes for all rooms without windows: Natural light is always a positive, but the extra thermal breaks in our structure and the cost (incl. installation) versus a good 6500K artificial lighting solution nixes that idea.
• Remote (roof-top) blower and make-up-air system for kitchen vent hood: We want a vent hood that is as silent as possible. The best way to achieve that is by relocating the blower motor away from the hood. We were too far into the building process for that to be a good solution for us. 
• Cork flooring throughout the house (for dry areas), ceramic tile (for the wet areas): This will remain the goal for us. The wet areas are pretty much there already and we are only 3 areas away on the main level from achieving that goal for the dry areas. A little further away from that goal on the upper level... ;-)

The above list is a bit fluid on which items would land on it but I guess it's a good sampling. The total extra cost for the dream house would be easily somewhere over $100,000. 

However, we also made a couple of important design decisions - some of which are hard and/or expensive to make afterwards or were simply on our must-have list - that we will never regret. They include:

• Full ICF with 6 1/4" concrete plus 2 1/4" EPS foam
• Heat-pump with dual-stage 96% furnace
• Low or No-VOC paint
• Dual Master suite design to assist with Age-in-Place and Universal Design
• Design the main floor full bath with a 5' turning-radius for a wheelchair
• Easy access into and out of the house
• Open-to-Great-room staircase with half wall instead of balusters
• Amish-built kitchen with quartz countertop vs store-bought with granite
• Large, walk-in pantry
• Cork for the dining area, kitchen and pantry
• All WaterSense fixtures
• All EnergyStar appliances
• All rockers instead of switches
• Building it in a neighborhood we truly like with sidewalks, friendly neighbors and a quiet street

Overall, we probably spent a larger percentage on some of the invisible things such as the ICF than the expensive tile / hardwood floor and commercial-grade appliances. Function-over-form where required, but definitely both where possible... ;-)

Build - Day 50 - September 2, 2011

Yesterday we had a great turn-out for our Dusty Shoe Open House. Between 5:45pm and 8pm we had a steady stream of guests. We handed out little cards with our builders info as well as the URL to this building blog so anyone who wants to can continue following the progress and read-up on our decision-making processes. Thanks to those who took the time to visit our dream house!

Today they are pouring the concrete floors. We have a number of them: the front porch, back porch, garage and basement floor. Keeping with our Universal Design principles, the front porch will be made accessible for a wheelchair. Our original idea was to use the back porch into the inlaw suite as an accessible entry, but then we thought of our lovely North-East Ohio winters...

The covered front porch is much easier to clear than a whole exposed walk-way to the back. Don't really want to tell our wheelchair guests to sit out in the car for 15-20 minutes while we shovel/plow that entire walk-way. Also, if something happens to one of us--especially if Jen hits her head again and has mobility issues--redoing the walk is one less thing we have to think of during that stressful time. Some people might think it looks a bit odd, but anyone having difficulty with steps (e.g. bad knees, arthritis, hip-issues and of couse, wheelchair-bound) will find this quite welcome and sometimes even required.

Today they just did the basement, front porch and the garage. The steps/ramp/driveway will come later in the build when no more heavy trucks need to pull up anymore... ;-) The back porch will be stamped concrete. Jen picked out the pattern and color yesterday. That will be done at a later date since we need to keep at least one entrance to the house available while the rest of the cement dries.

Big cement truck, we had 3 today.

The concrete starts to flow

Basement poured.

The fans help with the drying and moisture levels

On to the garage...

Smoothing out the garage floor

Garage floor finished

We had to wake him up on his 1st potty training day, but it was worth it. We've dedicated the house. Welcome to the 'Daniel'!

Kitchen decision... made

Remember that little post saying we were going to announce the winner of our 'kitchen cabinet contest' the next day. Well, we kind of forgot to put that post up... And the winner is...:

Yoder Cabinets out of Fredricksburg, OH.

Yep, we went local and we went Amish. In the end it came down to two suppliers. The shop that already was awared the countertop job and our Amish supplier. The countertop supplier was literally $3 lower than our Amish supplier on the kitchen pricing. Not 3%, no, $3... okay, and 32 cents.

The supplier out of Medina was more than 100% over the median price so that was elimination 1, the supplier out of Akron pretty much doubled their quote over the initial estimate so they got booted after that, the supplier out of Copley was in the ballpark price-wise and had a good quality product but we simply didn't connect so they came in 3rd.

In the end, the final decision was fairly easy; for the same price as a semi-stock cabinet ordered out of North Carolina we could get a local, full custom, Amish-made kitchen. Both suppliers had a great product and were the only two that understand what we wanted, took the time to listen to us and connected on a level we needed to feeel comfortable with for the items which will be the focal point and most used in the whole house.

Our Amish supplier recently started his own company after learning the trade for 15+ years at a fellow Amish cabinet maker. He doesn't yet have a showroom so he invited us into his home. It's a rare and very much appreciated gesture to get invited into an Amish house with the family at home going about their business. From the outside it appears completely modern and at first glance, the inside also looks just like an 'English' house. Until you see that the lights are gas-powered and a solar panel is powering the few electrical tools they can have.

His family was so welcoming to us and he connected with us on a personal level it made us decide he would get the job even if he would be a bit more expensive. When his price came in dead even with our 2nd place finisher it took all but 1 second to make the final decision.

In return for his business and hospitality we are also very happy to offer him a showroom for about 6 months when our dreamhouse will be used as the model home by our builder. This way both parties come out ahead and -- rant alert: unfortunately we don't see too much of that shared effort in our country lately -- end of rant alert.

Cabinet decision made...

Tomorrow we'll reveal the winner of our little cabinet competition. Stay tuned for the results (will be posted on this post around 1pm EDT  8/12/2011). In the meantime, here's a bit of insight to the decision-making process.

Stairs

Update 8/1: Issue resolved. Beam and post will be gone. Structure was tied into the far wall already. We'll have a staircase that is open to the great room as envisioned. Regardless, the story below outlines the process behind it all...

For the most part, Niels and I have been on the same page when it comes to making decisions about our house. He got veto power on structural and technical choices because he likes to research that stuff and it makes my head spin. Easy decision. I got veto power in the kitchen because it's my "office" and I do the cooking. For the most part, with the other rooms, we'd bring up ideas and quickly come to a agreeable decision.

The only area where we had a bit more discussion was with the ceiling height of the great room. In my previous home, I had a two story cathedral ceiling, which I loved for many reasons, not the least of which is that it saved my life (long story short: brain injury + forgetting to turn off the gas stove = thank God for all the gas going up to the ceiling). Since I still have a brain injury, I have quite a strong affinity to tall ceilings. Niels, on the other hand, tends to shy away from things that are blatant money wasters, like heating high ceilings. Months ago, we came to a compromise. We would have higher ceilings (14'), but not two-story ceilings. I still get the high ceilings, the ability to look out over open stairway to the great room while climbing the stairs (but not over the whole room from the second floor), and Niels gets better efficiency. Everyone is happy. We tell the designer. All is well. 

Til we visit the site on Friday and see this:

Stairs are going up, but...

It's not open!

This is not what I envisioned at all. I was picturing a staircase that was open from the floor to the ceiling, so I could look down into the great room as I'm going up. I want to have my row of anniversary frames going up the steps and visible from the great room. We were planning on a pony wall, originally, since we didn't find a railing we liked. But now it looks like it will be a hallway up, or at the very least, only a small triangle will be open. That's not the look I'm going for, and the frustration of not having clearly articulated what I do want is not good for my brain. I don't do stress well and when I most need my words to articulate what I'm thinking or feeling, my aphasia kicks in and I can't get the jumbled thoughts from my brain to my mouth. I've spent most of the weekend in bed, and because I know this is a first world "problem," I feel guilty for even stressing about it. But, when you want to build the house of your dreams, it's still frustrating when reality looks different than the dream. We realize that it's our own fault for not catching it sooner, which is more frustration for me, because I couldn't visualize what the plans would look like in real life.

So, Niels is going to talk to our GC tomorrow to see what we might be able to do. In the meantime, I scoured Houzz and Pinterest for pictures of the stairs in my head. I like the stairs in these pictures for the way they don't have a beam at the bottom, and are open to the great rooms they ascend.

This is closest to what we have in mind.

And, since it's me, I should probably have steps like this: