Cold Day, Warm House

Know what makes me happy about this picture?

In addition to being a sweet moment with my boy, this picture makes me happy because we are sitting in the HUGE window sill of our dinette. Outside this morning, the temperature was 12 degrees. The temperature on the window sill? About as warm and toasty as the rest of the house. Generally, big windows mean big heat loss. Niels and I marveled at how warm it was there. We actually were sitting there awhile before it occurred to us that we should be freezing our bottoms off! I am tickled pink by how tight and toasty the insulated concrete forms make our home. If you need more proof, check out our first utility bill.

Since receiving the first bills for our almost-done home, we have had a little bit more sealing. For example, here is the heavy duty insulating...tape. It's a nice upgrade from the open hole we had before, and cuts down on the draftiness in the foyer. We look forward to our permanent lock going in soon! :-)

Another outward sign of the inner difference of our full ICF home is that the snow on our room is still on our roof. This means that we aren't losing a ton of heat through our room. The part of the roofline, as seen through D's room, is above the dining room which has that huge window, a sliding door and a large transom window. In theory, if any room in the house lost heat, it would be that one. We are pleased.

One last just-for-fun shot. One of things that first caught our eye about four years ago in a Charis home was the deep window sills. At the time, I knew nothing about construction. I just thought they looked pretty and it would be fun someday for the baby in my belly to crawl on them. Today I got to see my three-year-old "baby" play on the ICF sill on the coldest day of the season, and he was perfectly warm. I am so happy to move HOME!

It's beginning to look a lot like home! Painting continues

When I drove up to the house around noon today, I didn't see any cars and was bummed thinking the crew had the day off. I popped in anyway to check and was so happy to see that they have made create progress upstairs!

Fourth Bedroom, aka the Paris Room. 

This will likely be our TV room until the basement is finished. In our previous house, we had a China room with souvenirs from my trip to China, just before we got engaged. Since then, Paris has become a special place to us, since that is where Niels proposed to me. So now we have a place to put our Paris photos. 

The shade is Sherwin-Williams Dovetail (7018).

View from the door. 

View from the window. On my monitor, this looks more like the true color.

The Laundry Room:

This is Sherwin-Williams Oyster Bay (6206).

View from the door.

View from the window.

Contrast with natural maple cabinets. This is the closest to true color. 

D's Bath:

I saw this beacon of yellow from the stairs and knew that painting was getting done. It looks really bright in over the tub, but it's not this bright in real life. But even if it was, it's D's favorite color. I'm sure that will change at some point in the next fifteen years, and we'll do something different.

The color is Sherwin Williams Solaria (6688).

View from the door

View from the tub. This is a better representation. It looks a little bumblebee-ish with the espresso cabinents, but we have some cool bamboo flooring going in, so that, along with the granite should help it out.

D's Bedroom:

This was started last week, but now the second coat of blue (Scanda 6529). You can also get a peek into his Solaria yellow closet. Since D is three, we didn't limit him to our muted grays!

Master Bathroom:

I thought I understood that the master bedroom was next after D's room was started last week. Instead, it's the only room upstairs untouched (other than the hallway). However, the crew started on the master bath before taking their lunch break. This will be Dovetail, the same gray as the Paris room. The water closet, which you can see in the back, will be done in Sensuous Gray (7081), which is a grayish-plum, as will our master bedroom. The closet, which is off the left, will be Mindful Gray (7016), which is a lighter gray.

The upstairs should be finished this afternoon, and then the crew starts on the main level. So exciting!

I saw Todd driving by on my way out and we talked a bit about what's coming up. The painters should be done early next week. The flooring will start late this week. We are going to have appliances delivered into the great room next Wednesday. Joe is coming with the last of his trim pieces, and to raise the command center this Thursday. Over the weekend, Niels and I will move all the light fixtures to the rooms where they should be hung. This means our main goal for the week is to pick out the last couple ceiling fans! We're also ordering the in-law sink now that we know where we should have it delivered, and next week we'll meet with Todd to talk about what we have going where for those. So happy to see the end is near!

Kitchen progress

Today we had the rare opportunity to see our kitchen cabinets taking shape. This is one of the advantages of doing a custom kitchen. After our sons nap we loaded up the car and headed south deep into Amish country. True Ohio splendor and gives our son the ability to know what a hay-stack actually looks like and let him appreciate the simpler life that can be equally fulfilling. The trip takes all but an hour and - when not raining - makes for a very pretty drive.

At the cabinet maker's wood shop we saw our kitchen dreams become reality for the 1st time. We were both in awe of the craftsmanship before us even without the final treatments of the beautiful natural maple. The fit-and-finish is unparalleled and the construction is rock-solid. The prep island already has the Blum Servo-drive installed for the recycling center and all the other Blum BlueMotion hardware had arrived a day before. The whole kitchen will be soft-close (both the drawers and the doors), full extension and full overlay with no particle board insight. After seeing them look this good in their current state we feel 110% certain we made the right decision for the kitchen which is the focal point of the dream house.

The finished cabinets were also undergoing some rigorous Quality Assurance test by 3 boys (aged 2 through 6) climbing through them, playing on them and running around them. Didn't even hear a squeak...

In about 3 weeks the cabinets should be all done but before mid-December we might get another sneak-peek when they are about to be stained. Can't wait for them to be delivered and ready for us to use.

Our recycle center with...

... a little trick, the Servo-drive release and close (by Blum)

The Master Carpenter, Joe Yoder, and his craft. (Photo taken with permission for the blog)

Dovetail construction, in pieces.

Dovetail, finished. For the record, completely sanded smooth...

Bottle cubbies.

No particle board... all plywood and solid maple.

Blum Bluemotion soft-close hinges.

Blum Tandem Bluemotion soft-close drawer slides.

Build - Day ### - October 15, 2011

We haven't posted a lot recently mainly due to a lack of time in decision making processes, travel and health issues, but the progress on the house has not slowed down.

Since our last post the walls have been dry-walled and primed, the ceilings have been finished and all the electrical and plumbing is in as well. Next week we'll have regular power in the house as well and can say goodbye to the temporary pole in the front yard. Oh yeah, the drive way has also been poured, the furnace installed and with the installation of the glass block windows in the basement the building envelop is now sealed.

The items that haven't progressed much have been around cabinets and flooring. The quotes we've gotten were close to double the allowances so some soul searching and cost cutting methods had to be applied. We are very close in finalizing all of those items now though. We'll meet one last time with our kitchen cabinet supplier on Monday so he can get started and we'll meet with the supplier of the rest of the cabinets early next week.
Next Thursday morning we'll also meet with our 'trim guy', the master carpenter who will put the finishing touches on  the walls, windows and door openings.

So, here are a couple of pictures of the build as it stands this week.

Back-porch with the stone columns

Basement window, our manor stone and the back-filled electrical connector.

The walk way to the front door is elevated to one step only. A simple, removable one-step high ramp will be created  later to give us wheelchair access.

Good shot of the front of the house with more of the manor stone and the driveway.

Back-porch with the beautiful fall colors in the background.

Rainy day, but good shot of the house.

Close-up of our manor stone selection.

From the kitchen into the great room. More indoor pics to follow.

Siding and Soffit

I've been a bit under the weather this week and not getting to the house every day. We did manage to drive by on Friday and I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that the crew was almost done with the siding!

The view as I pulled in.

The view from the back.

The shot of the house that is almost all siding. (There will be a little strip of stone along the bottom).

When we came back later, we saw that they had most of the shakes up, too. The garage and bottom half of the front porch will be stone.

The back porch with stamped concrete, soffit and siding. Almost ready for the grill!

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'!

Dusty Shoe Open House

When we first started dreaming about building, we spend many hours touring houses: the Parade of Homes, open houses and model homes. If it was anywhere near us, we were there. As we started to picture what kind of home we'd like to build, we started looking behind all the typical bells and whistles, upgrades and fancy finishes. We starting thinking about what elements would really make our house a dream.

The American housing market is overrun with McMansions that aren't selling because home owners are now looking for quality over quantity, and efficiency over extravagance. Even if a buyer finds a big house bargain, can they afford the taxes and utilities of such a home???

Don't get us wrong, Niels and I both appreciate the nice things in life just as much as the next person, but for us, the question always comes down to practicality. Are we going to spend more on cork floors? Yes, because they are sound insulating, which decreases the frequency and/or severity of my headaches, which gives me a greater quality of life. Easy. Are we going to spend more for a high-end custom tile shower? Nope, because we can get just as clean in a fiberglass insert shower and don't have to worry about cleaning all that grout!

When it came time to choose a builder, the structure of our new home was as important as the finished product. Anything can look high-end for a few months waiting for a sale. We wanted to know that the home we built would be a solid home for years to come. We actually walked into one model, maybe 6 months old, and there was already a HUGE crack along the ceiling. Didn't take long to cross them off our list. Realizing each house 'settles' we thought, if this is how they treat their models, what does the house without all the scrutiny look like?

One of many reasons we chose Charis Homes is that they have "dusty shoe" open houses. It's an opportunity to see the bones of a building before all the sheet rocking goes up and it looks like any other house. It was at a Charis dusty shoe that I saw my first ICF form and finally understood why Niels was so adamant that we needed to use it for our home.

We've been to maybe ten dusty shoes with Charis and we continue to be impressed with the quality of construction. We think it says a lot of a builder if they invite potential home owners to visit their work "behind the scenes." Of course, we also appreciate that we are welcome, as the home owner now, on the job site at any time. Our builder assures us that he rather hears about our concerns or mid-course changes sooner rather than later (since no matter how final you think your plans are, they really aren't. Some things can really only be seen in real life).

So tomorrow, we get to pay it forward to any local potential home owners. We're have a dusty shoe open house for our new house, tomorrow, September 1. (If you're local, and want to check it out, send us an email and we'll give you the address).

I put on my old marketing pants and we came up with this description:

Nestled in the back of the quiet and kid friendly KR development in G..., this four bedroom, 3.5 bath home has ample adjacent green space and stunning sky views. The design of this house was a result of diligent home-owner research combined with Charis Homes’ expertise in energy efficiency.

The two story, full ICF home has upper and lower master bedrooms, two additional bedrooms, a large dual-island kitchen designed for baking, entertaining and easy green living. The entire first floor was built with universal design principles including wide hallways, easy-to-use pulls and rockers, lowered baking center and kitchen drawers to make this house a forever home. Thoughtful consideration was given to practical living and ample storage with features like mudroom lockers, first (and second) floor laundry, and a generous 9’ x9’10” walk-in pantry. The beautiful 13′x28′ covered outdoor living space features fans and wheelchair access.

In a future post, we'll make a full laundry list of all the energy efficient and universal design elements we've incorporated, but here are a few to get started:

• HERS (Home Energy Rating) Score (est.): 42, or 58% more efficient than standard home construction. Projected annual gas bill: $300.
• High efficiency heat pump
• High efficiency furnace
• Extremely tight thermal envelope
• Low-e 366 Jeld-wen Energy Star windows
• ICF basement, unfinished
• ICF walls on the 1st and 2nd floor
• Shingles with reflective technology
• All Energy Star appliances
• Cork and recycled carpet fiber floors
• No VOC paint and cabinets
• Heat Recovery Ventilator for fresh air
• WaterSense low-flow faucets
• WaterSense low-flow and/or dual-flush toilets
• Compact yard for low maintenance

Build - Day 42 - August 24, 2011

We're baaaacccckkk! ;-) Not a lot of visual progress this week. The crews have been busy on the inside of the house and the plumbing and HVAC lines are mostly done. The biggest visual impacts are in the basement, bathrooms and attic space.

The other things happening are outside of the new house and relate to flooring choices. We've settled on our tile (Emser Strands for floor tile, Solistone Carrellton for the kitchen backsplash) and know we will be doing cork in our kitchen and dinette. We're not sure yet on the type of carpet but are leaning towards either EverStrand (Mohawk) / Green Smart (Bliss) fibers which are both made out of recycled PET bottles or the SmartStrand (Mohawk) that is made from corn in a methane-powered factory which a near unbeatable stain resistance.

The other item that rocked our world this week was the 5.9 earthquake in Virginia. That is about 8 hours from here but was strong enough to give you some weary sea legs similar to your first voyage at sea. I wish we would be in our new house which is basically earthquake proof with 6.25" of concrete for all exterior walls from the basement to the attic. To be honest, the 5.9 quake was the largest in 150 years but it is still nice to know that mother nature would need to bring her A-game.

Also, when looking at our toilets our GC realized that in one of the bathrooms our toilet was directly over a floor support. This would have mend a switch to a single-flush so we're switching the vanity and toilet location so we can keep our dual-flush toilets.

On the back patio we've added two gas lines; one for the grill and one for some overhead terrace heaters you'd normally see at restaurant patios. This will extend the usability time of our back patio far into the fall and winter. We're looking forward to a nice grilling session outside watching the snow fall outside from our heated patio.

Alright, off to load some pictures so y'all can see the progress too... and here they are:

Electrical boxes for switches and outlets. We're using the rocker style switches instead  of the regular switches.

Plumbing for the main-level laundry.

The product box...

The product used (with insulation surrounding it)

2nd story laundry room plumbing

Basement plumbing (left side is the rough-in for a future planned bathroom)

Return-air roster

The flooring choices: espresso shaker cabinets, white quartz counters, kitchen back splash, Emser floor tile, cork sample and carpet sample all in our colors. We think it looks pretty good... ;-)