Our Green Home (135 Beech Grove Trail)

Appalachian Sustainable Hardwoods

2011-02-18T18:45:00.001-08:00

Deciding on the flooring choices was one of the more daunting tasks we've had. We, of course, wanted it to be natural and beautiful. Still, within that qualification there are a range of choices.

We looked at reclaimed heart pine; beautiful, green, but VERY pricy. We considered tile and polished concrete; logical choices when working with passive solar designs due to their thermal mass. Since the main living space will be on a second floor, however, we decided not to put all that mass (thermal and otherwise) up in the air. Typical big box store hardwoods are pretty, inexpensive and natural feeling, but we couldn't satisfy ourselves that any of them were a responsible choice when considering forestry stewardship and the embodied energy of manufacturing and shipping from somewhere halfway around the world. Knowing of our green leanings, Beth Eason told us about Appalachian Sustainable Development and their hardwood products, so we checked them out. http://www.asdevelop.org/Sustainable%20Forestry.html

Although not the cheapest flooring material we could find, this stuff was among the most beautiful so we decided to bite the bullet and go with it. The down side of working with Sustainable Woods like this is you can't go feel and see the wood till you've fully committed. So... we went all in. We've settled on 1100 sq. ft. of Red Oak.

According the Kevin Rowe who runs the forest products program for ASD, random width, 3", 4", 5" #2 common is the "gold standard" for sustainability! That's because you get to use more of the tree (waste less) and the trees don't need to be so selectively harvested as to get "select" grade or #1 common with less "character" (knotts and checks and burls). The wood was harvested in Northwestern North Carolina, milled in Southwest Virgina (Abingdon) and made ready for us to pick up ourselves. These boards are about as local (regional) as you can get here in East Tennessee.

The picture above is of Dave, our installer as he sorts through the bundles and lays the random widths out in a consistent 3, 4, 5 pattern. He's a very experienced local tile and hardwood installer who came highly recommended. As the work progressed, Dave repeatedly said "this is really nice to work with" or "this is nice stuff" and "wow, this is beautiful wood". We were growing more comfortable with our decision. We selected "Early American" Min-wax stain and Dave went to work. By the time he had finished the second coat of varnish, we were clear. This was one of our best decisions in the project so far. The floors are beautiful!

Energy Star

2010-12-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

The first priority for anyone building a green home is energy efficiency! Almost anything else you do to "green" your home pales by comparison to the impact you can have with energy efficiency. One of the measures of how we're doing with our energy design is our HERS rating. The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) is a numerical reference number that compares a home's energy design to a "reference" home that rates 100. To gain an "Energy Star" certification, a home must beat the reference standard by at least 15%. That is, when our home's design is audited, we've got to score an 85 or less.

We hired Bruce Glanville of the Knox Housing Partnership to rate our home. The image here is Bruce conducting a "Duct blaster" test to determine how well our HV/AC duct system is sealed. It's a measure of how much of the air conditioning and/or heat leaks out into the unconditioned attic. The HERS rating also looks at the insulation system, the heating system selection, the amout of glass and its emissivity (E-factor), the solar gain, and the efficiency of appliances. At the preliminary rating estimate in November we scored a 62. That's a darn efficient design! Sweet! This preliminary rating was also very timely.
We've agonized a bit lately over the insulation system to choose. Our spec has called for open cell foam insulation throughout, but that is a very expensive choice. Our builder has proposed a hybrid "flash and batt" system where we use a thin layer of foam to seal the entire building envelope and provide a bit of insulation (R= 7), but then fill the rest of the wall cavity and attic with conventional fiberglas batts and blown cellulose. The flash and batt proposal will save us over 60% of the insulation cost. It turns out... the full foam system, while exotic and fun to talk about, doesn't really gain us any energy efficiency to speak of. Our projected HERS rating doesn't change at all with the more expensive insulation! Well... suddenly, the decision was made easy. Flash and batt started the next day at a savings of almost $14,000!

Once I find my camera, I'll post a few images of the insulation system being installed. It's pretty cool.

Structural Insulated Sheathing (SIS)

2010-10-26T10:26:00.001-07:00

Once I learned that Dow Chemical (my old stomping ground for a few years) had last year reformulated Styrofoam to reduce the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of its blowing agent, my appreciation for the newer building products from Dow really came around. One other recent decision that was made easy has to do with the Sheathing we used.
Traditional construction around East TN uses OSB (Oriented Strand Boasd - basically, particle board) sheathing and an overlay vapor barrier of Tyvek house wrap. You've all seen these houses. They look like a house wrapped in white paper until the outside siding is later added. (One house being built near our rental still has only the Tyvek house wrap after over a year... I'm guessing they ran out of money when the wheels came of our economy). Tyvek makes a good vapor barrier and has been a staple of the building industry for years. Our specification for this house even calls for a conventional house wrap. Rick Hessick of BR2, our builder, suggested we look at SIS and with my new-found appreciation for styrofoam, we looked closely. It's a great idea! SIS replaces the OSB, and the tyvek. PLUS, it's got a better vapor barrier performance
because it can be sealed better AND it's got the insulating properties of 1/2" of styrofoam. Since we already planned to use foam for our insulation system, this product just adds to the R-value in our wall system. To top it off.... it's a real pretty blue :)

Waste Management Plan

2010-08-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago, while we were in the very early stages of planning, I ran across a great, easy read called Your Green Home, A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly New Home. The author is Alex Wilson, a pioneer and leader in the green building movement. It has influenced many aspects of our plan, probably more than any other resource. Chapter 11, Dealing With Construction Waste presents several opportunities for our builder to learn new tricks.

Typical practice in East Tennessee involves growing a huge pile of all manner of construction site waste which is then burned on site. Too often, construction rubble is just pushed into a big hole on site, covered with soil and left to rot and/or poison groundwater. We had such a bury hole in the back yard of our last house; a Shore built house on Southcliff Drive. I worked for years to remove junk and fill the hole as it rotted and sunk into the yard. It really pissed me off and I vowed to never have another house that that builder or his sub's were involved in.

Among the new tricks we are executing on this build: A Waste Management Plan is required by the contract. The point of it is to be sure the builder looks for every opportunity to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. Our plan includes things like; On site segregation and use of recycle bins for plastics, metal wastes and paper/cardboard. Removal of nails and stacking of lumber scrap. We'll encourage reuse of usable timbers that way. Untreated scrap that's too short, split or odd shaped to reuse will be stacked for our use as kindling. (We also plan a few bonfires as cool weather rolls in. I understand Krispy Kims are yummy off the camp fire). Scrap wallboard is usually a landfill filler around here. Not on our job! We'll collect it, pulverize it with a brush chipper and use it as a soil amendment in the garden. After all, it's just gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) pressed between two layers of biodegradable paper. Gypsum is a prised soil amendment in Tennessee Red Clay soil. I think we'll even want more than we can make from the waste drywall.

I've already taken one load of recyclables the the recycling center. BR2 now has built these nice big bins and begun to use them. It's clear we've still got some educating to do, but its a good start. This treehugger is happy!

Oooooops....

2010-08-07T04:41:00.000-07:00

Where, exactly, is that greywater collection system?

There is value in being able to stop by the build site almost every day. The plan for this week was to finish the underslab rough-in plumbing and be ready to pour the slab on Monday. Not so fast my friend!

The plumber did his thing and was awaiting a building inspector when I stopped by Wednesday evening. Upon my review, I noticed that there was only one drain system, just like a conventional home. As the most causal reader of this blog knows, however, we aren't building a conventional home. OUR plan calls for segregation of "black" water from "grey' water (i.e. toilets, kitchen sink, dishwasher etc. separate from showers, tubs and laundry) so that in drought-like times we can treat the greywater and keep landscaping, garden and orchard alive. This water conservation technique hasn't been considered much in East TN because of the amount of rain we get in normal times. Have you noticed...these are not normal times! Although we do not plan to install a greywater treatment system now (due to budgetary constraints), we DO plan to have the segregated piping installed in the floor and walls to make future treatment easily available. When/if climate change driven prolonged drought comes to Tennessee, we'll be ready.

Our builder is now in contact with the County inspector to get them on-board with our plans. The inspector has NEVER encountered greywater collection so we'll have a few days delay while he figures out what to be alert to and/or concerned about. This is but one example of the type delays we expect. This is why, when the builder says 6 or 7 months to build, we've assumed 9 or 10. We don't want to rush past the opportunities to build it right! Remember the old addage; "GOOD, FAST, or CHEAP; pick any two"! We'll go with Good and Cheap, not fast. Sooooo... we take a few days delay; let the plumber rework the drain lines and the County get comfortable with it all. We can wait.

There are lots of resources on the web about this stuff, mostly originating the the arid Southwest (California and Arizona). One such resource can be found here: http://www.greywater.com/synopsis.htm

A Tough Decision Made...

2010-08-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

What am I really? A conservative Chemical Engineer or a dirt-worshiping tree-hugger? We've just made one decision that brought those two sides of my world view into direct conflict. The decision on which waterproofing and insulation system to use directly affects the "greenness" of the home via material selection. The conflict has to do with how to implement the underground (therefore irreversible) waterproofing and insulation system that will be installed on the poured-in-place concrete basement walls on the up-hill side of the house.

The tree-hugger in me desperately wants to be a leader in the emerging Green building movement. He wants to use a slick new spray-on soy based foam system that allegedly is stable for years and waterproofs at the same time it insulates. The blowing agent (what makes it foam up) is not a greenhouse gas contributor and so the advocate for renewable resources and climate protection in me loves it! It's reaaaallllly green. BUT...Sue and I have said from the get-go that we want to be leaders in the green building field; not fanatics.

The ChE in me knows that there is nothing more waterproof and stable over the long haul than dead dinosaurs (petroleum based mastic). It's been underground for millennia not just years. We know how it will fare underground over the life of the building and we know (if done right) it will not leak and will not need to be dug up and replaced in a decade or so. We also know that Styrofoam (Dow's trademarked, closed cell, extruded polystyrene foam) is stable for decades because it, too, is made from dead dinosaurs. The problem with petroleum mastic and Styrofoam is that both are the definition of non-renewable. There ARE no more dinosaurs who will die, rot, be compressed for eons and kindly re-supply us with petroleum products. Further, the blowing agent used in Styrofoam production for 60 years is a VERY powerful contributor to global warming (much more so than the CO2 that everyone hears about).

As someone who KNOWs global warming AND depletion of resources to be a problem, I was really torn. Which system is the responsible choice?

At the end of the decision day, I had to go with the conservative Chemical Engineer in me and opt for tried and true. Petroleum mastic and 3 inches of Dow blue Styrofoam. My decision ultimately came down to resting on two principals of green building. THE most important factor in sustainability is "build to last". Do not build something with built-in obsolescence that will be pulled down and replaced in a few years or even decades. The second most important principal in sustainable building is energy conservation. Build a house that is very energy efficient and over it's life, the minimised energy uses of the building will be both economical and green. Leadership always involves compromise. The challenge is in picking the right compromises to make. I hoped I was making the right compromise.

As it turns out, a week after agonizing over this choice I got some great news. My buddies at Dow have been busy(I used to work in a Dow environmental consulting group and my last engineering assignment was at Dow's Freeport, TX facility). Dow Styrofoam is now formulated with a non- greenhouse gas blowing agent. Beginning in early 2009, they've converted their Styrofoam production facilities to the new technology; starting in Dalton, GA. It's sill not renewable.... but my hot button; Global Warming Potential (GWP) has been relieved. Had I known this two weeks ago, the decision would have been much easier. Now I know we made the right call!

These guys work fast!

2010-07-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

After the footers went in a day early, I sort of assumed Friday would be a down day.

Not so! We went out late Saturday to discover the rebar almost completely installed and many of the forms already in place. Our builder is not using the ICF (insulated concrete forms) that are becoming popular in the green building trade. Instead, he'll form and pour the walls using conventional forms that will then be stripped away. After that, he'll apply waterproofing and insulating foam to the outside of the walls. The result will feel cooler in summer and warmer in winter even than the ICF approach. Why? Because the concrete with its large thermal mass will not be insulated from the living spaces of the house. It WILL be insulated from the outside heat or cold so once it's cool it will tend to stay cooler and once it's warm it will tend to stay warmer inside. I love it! This is Too cool!

Footers are in.

2010-07-16T02:59:00.000-07:00

We've got a combination of "poured in place" and formed footers on the site. The benefit of poured in place is... it's obviously cheaper. Where appropriate, that's the way to go. The benefit of forming them above grade is mainly to promote drainage of groundwater around the basement. The above grade footers allow for a french drain to be easily installed at the lowest level. No buildup of water on the outside of the foundation = dry basement!

Boy it's dry!

2010-07-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

The basement is dug and the garage excavation is almost complete. We're kicking up a LOT of dust. Look at this image to see how far down before there is ANY moisture. If it does ever rain again, we do at least have the silt fence in place. Note the installation details. This contractor understands how they are supposed to work. Even though we are quite a way from any dry weather stream, a silt fence is still required by the Blount County NPDES permit, and our guy respects that.

Since we got impatient and planted some landscaping before the build, we're needing to water the trees to keep them alive during the dry weather. Not to worry! I found a guy on Craigs list selling reclaimed reagent tanks. We bought one... loaded it into the back of our "Big Ugly" truck and water the trees regularly. Once the house is built, this tank will becomne one of our rainwater collection tanks under the deck. It's perfect. 276 gallons w/ a steel cage. It still had a little blackstrap Molasses residue inside when I got it so I knew exactly what it was used for. Completely safe!

And Now it Begins

2010-07-08T04:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 7th 2010; The long wait is over and we finally have started to build. The fun started with window selection; 7:00 AM at the Roastery. Groundbreaking took place today @ 2:00 PM; 98 degrees in the middle of our heat wave. The excavator had to go down over two feet before we saw any semblance of moisture in the soil. It was a dusty job, but Dwayne and Karen jumped right in. Rick Hessick from BR2 builders was on hand as well. Since I already had a gold shovel from the NPPC groundbreaking two years ago, I turned it into a photo-opp. This is gonna be fun!

Back In the Saddle Again

2010-07-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that I can't sleep, so what's a fella to do? I know... Blog! TODAY I meet the builder and his excavator at the site to review the pin placement (location of the surveyor's marks of the building's corners). We could be digging tomorrow if the building permit is issued today too. I feel like singing the Gene Autry classic.... "I'm back in the saddle again..."

From my last post you might have concluded that we would be well under way with construction by now. "Not so fast" the man said! We never imagined that an allegedly qualified appraiser would look at an appraisal by an even more qualified appraiser and discount his work so much. First National Bank's "Field Appraisal" remarkably came back exactly the same low low number as the previous one from that bank. This, despite the fact that the work they were "checking" yielded a result 26% higher. Unbelievable! Well... we went into mourning again for a few months and just couldn't talk (blog) about it.

When we finally picked ourselves up off the ground, I found yet another bank that had expressed interest. In fact, Bank East had first approached me several months ago expressing interest in the Energy efficient house they heard we planned to build. The lesson here must be something like: find a bank that already is doing "Green" or is at least is interested, rather than waste your time on banks that can't spell "green". I'm convinced that despite the alleged "arm's length" that is supposed to exist between banks and their appraisers, First National Bank must have directed the appraisers what number to come back with. They must not have wanted to loan more than $XXX. To top it off, when we finally saw a clear copy of the appraisal report, it looks like the guy appraised the wrong lot! The photo in the appraisal report bears no resemblance to our lot. It's pretty clear the guy had a result in mind so that when he got a photo of a lot with no view, there was no reason to question the direction he had been given. I've asked the bank for our money back (for the ridiculous, wrong lot appraisal fee). We'll see how they respond.

BUT, back to happier things.

Bank East has been a joy to work with! They, too, were concerned with the lack of "comparable sales" for a qualified appraisal and told me, straight up, that there were no guarantees. We just take our chances on the judgement of the appraiser. Still, since they had expressed interest in "green" building AND were nice to deal with, we decided to try our luck one more time. I'm glad we did! Bank East's appraiser made a serious attempt to understand the plans, specs, view, LEED (Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design) checklist and intangibles of our project. The result was an appraisal that, while still not covering the total cost of construction, was high enough that we can fund the shortfall with our savings. In fact, the appraisal report includes the LEED review checklist that we had submitted with the plans. For Blount County, this guy is a real renaissance man!

Progress! (with finger's crossed)

2010-03-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

It pays to read the fine print! You may have seen my rant about the screwed up appraisal system. Last time we just went with the flow, settled for the next guy on the list and, not unexpectedly, got a rediculous result from an inexperienced, unqualified appraiser. Unwilling to "settle", we struggled to understand the process. Finally, we managed to get a written copy of the underwriting guidelines that the bank used to guide the process. Despite all the stories we had heard about arm's length (bankers can't even talk to the appraiser or know who they are before hand), we found a way to be sure we got a qualified appraiser. It's called a "field appraisal". So long as we are willing to pay for two appraisals, we can hire the first one ourselves! By then, the work is done. The thinking is done. With the first appraisal done by a certified professional, even if a beginner gets assigned the field appraisal they won't get it wrong. Well, the first step is done! We got a good appraisal when we hired a qualified pro. Our appraisal is still on the low side of where it might have been two years ago, but it's good enough to get the construction started. My fingers are crossed. We'll know in about a week if our plan worked.

ARRRRRRGGGGGGG!

2009-12-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

This is frustrating! Now we're all dressed up and nowhere to go. We thought we were doing the smart thing; selling our old house so that we would KNOW how much we got out of it. That way we wouldn't have to worry about selling it at an unfavorable time/price once the new house is complete. Little did we realize that the new banking/appraisal climate would prevent us from even starting the build! 5 months into this little rental house and we're still suck on trying to get an appraisal.

here's the deal. Banks have money to lend. We're qualified borrowers. We've got a good set of house plans. We've got a good builder who is HUNGRY for more work. Building materials are at a temporary low cost point and interest rates are at an all time low. Why not build now? Start today? Start tomorrow? Why not????

Because we got a "Gomer" for an appraiser who thinks he must appraise a $400,000 build as though it were an FHA (starter) house. Because of abuses that led to the housing bubble burst, the new rules prevent banks or agents from picking (or even talking to) the appraiser who will get the file. It's luck of the draw. If the next guy on the list is an inexperienced kid, or a near retirement age person just putting in time, we get stuck with a bad appraisal. That's exactly what happened! The guy whose "turn" is was is a guy who couldn't make it as a builder or a real estate salesman, so he started doing appraisals. He's got his FHA checklist and by golly he's gonna do an appraisal. Granted, there are very few comparable sales in the south part of the county. Granted, we have some costly features designed into the plans. But my goodness... how can the guy think the house would appraise for $150,000 LESS that the cost to build it? This is Blount County, not LA or Florida or Las Vegas. I've given him four comparable sales, in Blount County and he won't use them 'cause you have to drive past 18 miles of older farmhouses before you get to those subdivisions. Worse yet, the "Greenest" feature of our design, (passive solar design and orientation) counts against us. (I think this Gomer probably thinks Global Warming is a hoax too!) He can not or will not count the south facing walkout basement rooms with poured-in-place (thermal mass) concrete walls as bedrooms. The net of that unenlightened approach is that he's trying to appraise a one bedroom house! Never mind that we have a full suite (2 bedrooms, full bath and a second kitchen) downstairs. How ridiculous can you get?

So... what's next? Our original goal to downsize the floor plan and upgrade the quality and performance of our home fall victim to Gomers and the status-quo. We've redrawn the plan to put two more bedrooms upstairs. We'll have to leave the basement suite unfinished. We'll drop off other Green features to try to trim the cost and maybe, just maybe, we'll get a professional appraiser this time who recognises that he can (and should) make adjustments for the quality of a building, not just operate off of a checklist. I'm keeping my finger crossed!

Desisions, decisions, decisions

2009-07-23T02:09:00.000-07:00

We've updated the drawings and the contractors have them. Still, in the interviews, it became very clear that we've got hundreds, even thousands of decisions yet to make. "Is the deck wide enough?"; "Can we settle for foam insulation backed by traditional blown-in, vs all foam?"; "How important are the two (2) tankless water heaters?"; "...Or is a single large 'Solar Thermal' water heater the better way to go?"; "Is now really a good time to start?". It's dizzying to consider all that we don't know about optimum green design. Our budget clearly will not allow us to be as evolutionary as we want to be and yet we want this house to show leadership in environmental design. And what about this.... why does green building.... doing the right thing... cost so much? The house right behind us just went up for sale. It's bigger than ours. It's higher than ours (better view). It's on more acerage than ours. ... And it will sell for about the same as we plan to spend on JUST THE HOUSE, let alone the land. What's up with that? Needless to say.... we are a little apprehensive about this project right now!!!

On a brighter note, we've just given the go-ahead to "Grounded Design Studio" to work up a garden plan and overall site plan, including the orchard and rain gardens (for run-off control). http://www.groundeddesignstudio.com/. We're as excited about the big garden as anything and these guys will help us plan it and create the vision of what it can be. Of course, gardening is a long, drawn-out process and our fruit and apsperagus may not harvest for several years... Still, it's a start. Cheers.

Ready or not... here we go!

2009-05-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

We took a little delay these last couple months. Given the uncertainty of the economy these days, we thought it prudent to sell our existing house first. I'm much too conservative to risk getting the new place built and then find that we have to settle for less than we need or expect from the sale of the old one. We'd rather live in a rental for a few months than let that scenario mess with our sleep patterns.
We listed with our champion real estate agent, Debbie Richesin in February. We were almost ready to show the house. A little paint here. A little filldirt and grass there. We were ready to show the house by mid March. Debbie managed our expectations well and we priced it to sell. Despite a terribly slow market, we had respectable showings and then... last week got a very respectable offer. After some tooing and frowing, we agreed to throw in the pool table and patio furniture, but got what we needed to build our plan. Now it begins.

The longest journey begins with a single step!

2009-03-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

A groundbreaking day! We didn't really break ground today, but we DID break THE ground for the first time. Early March, mid 70's, sunny and breezy. What better time to think about a Christmas Tree! It was finally nice enough to think about digging in the dirt so Sue & I made a field trip today after Church & planted last year's Christmas Tree! Great Fun! Sue read... I sweated. Then we both took a nap in the grass, in the sun. All-in-all a successful outing and the first of many times I'll take a nap on that hillside.

Ahhhh. The budget????

2009-03-07T03:43:00.000-08:00

18 months later, we now know better. In October 2007, we thought you could build a custom home for around $125/ sq ft. That's what the web resources said. That's what the Architects said. The "devil in in the details", however is very true in home building. While I have no doubt that the spartan little homes on flat downtown 'in-fill' lots that are the prototypical "green" home can be built for that, we were clearly naive to plan on it for our home. The cost of site work and all the unfinished spaces don't fit into tidy calculations like 2290 sqft x $125 = ~ $300,000. Boy, did we miss the mark!

In all honesty, we DID know there would be extra costs associated with our lot: gently sloping vs. flat; a new development vs. in-fill; 3+ acres, off the road vs. 1/2 acre in town. We knew all that, but didn't fully appreciate the magnitude of the cost impact of those details. Soooo.. we naively pressed on thinking that we could build this house, lot and all for around $420,000.

Early Decisions

2009-02-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

Once we had the lot, it was time to make some decisions about the house itself. Our research yielded lots of resources for green building in California, but... we don't live there anymore. We learned that if we wanted to be progressive and build a house with lots of green features, we would be breaking very new ground around here. I've often joked that builders in East Tennessee don't know how to spell "green". Our first task, then was to find someone around here who did know about green building. We issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to all of the members of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). in the fall of 2007 we invited any AIA "...parties interested and experienced in design of new 'green' single family residential construction..." to contact us. To our dismay, we got merely three responses, only two of which were responsive to our request for designers with multiple green projects and references. We interviewed both Smee + Busby Architects and Elizabeth Eason Architects. Although Smee + Busby had a very attractive team and made a great proposal, we leaned toward Beth Eason's more extensive green experience. We checked her references and got extremely high praise from everyone.

We put together a Program Plan for the house using an Excel spreadsheet. The Program Plan was the heart of our communication with the Architects. It gave us great confidence that we effectively recorded our thoughts and delivered the message to Beth. I'm trying to figure out how to post the program plan as an example, but havn't gotten it done yet. We'll press on for now & edit the file back in later. The plan consisted of columns headed: description, features,existing, comments, sq ft finished, and sq ft unfinished. We went room by room through our hopes and dreams (and existing home) to write down what rooms, features and finishes we KNEW we wanted. At the end, the plan called for 2082 sq ft finished rooms, add 10% for circulation (hallways, etc) and we needed 2290 sq ft of finished living space to meet our "needs". Of course, our "wants" were still out there too. We called out another 3936 of unfinished space, including an unfinished basement, lots of porches, a garage/work-room, bonus room over the garage and a mechanical room.

Getting Started

2009-02-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

This blog is certainly not going to be a definitive "how-to" on green building, but if someone learns from our experience (and mistakes), we'll be glad. As an engineer, we have tried to go about this in an organized, conservative manner (I can't help it). Like most folks, we've collected a scrapbook of pictures and articles that interested us. Over several years, it's grown into two binders of stuff. It's organized with tabs labled;

Lot Purchase, Land Loan, Permits, Architect, Builder, Financing, Plans and Specs. The second binder has tabs for design ideas labled: Windows/Doors, Bath, Master Bedroom, Laundry Room, Heating, Kitchen, Solar -PV-Energy, Exterior, Landscaping, Outdoor Living Space, Garden/Orchard, and Resources

We've looked for the perfect lot for over 10 years. We've driven every little road in Blount County, looking. Although we know that the most sustainable building site would be a city center in-fill lot, that doesn't fit our view of our "Dream Home". Site selection is probably our biggest departure from green building principles, but, oh well.... we've said we aren't fanatics.

You should see this lot. It's 3.24 acres, currently in pasture, gently rolling down into a shallow swale. The view is about 16 degrees off of due south, looking up over the top of Woodpecker Knobs directly at Chilhowee Mountain. It's just east of the Mint Community at the intersection of Mint Road and Walker School Road (USGS Binfield Quadrangle). It is in the Little Ninemile Creek watershed that eventually drains into the Little Tennessee River (Tellico Lake). It's part of a small development called Beech Grove Trail. 'Looks like we will be the first of the 8 lots to break ground. More later....

It's about the future

2009-02-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

This project has been in the works for over 40 years. It began while I, as a small boy worked alognside my Dad and uncle to build our family's cabin in the Smokies. It grew while my Boyscout leaders invested their time and energy to teach us a love of nature and God's physical world. It crept along while I discovered a love of the sciences at MHS and UT. It blossomed at UT, protesting for the Snail Darter with the UT Environmental Coalition. As a Co-op Chemical Engineering student at Tennessee Eastman Company, I learned how to use Chemical Engineering to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Today, the problem of climate change is larger than any of us could have imagined years ago. We choose to be a part of it's sloution too.

Now, we prepare to break ground on our dream home. We hope it will clearly show our respect for God's gift to us all in these beautiful East Tennessee hills. We hope it will take full use of the sciences. We know it will represent the compromises that are the essence of good engineering. We hope to be leaders in the important field of green building, but we are not fanatics. We would like to build a green home that is simply an early adoption of techniques that become commonplace within the next few years.
Check back from time to time to see how we are progressing.