Desisions, decisions, decisions

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!

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!

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????

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

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

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

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.