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Framing starts on hour LEED house and third monthly budget

March was an active month at the house, with the foundations being poured and the framing beginning. You can really get a feel for the dimensions of the house, and the height of the floors, relative to the street.

The photos shows the stem walls being built – the top of these wooden walls is where the floor support will be placed. This is view is from the back yard to the street, and you are looking at where the back porch will be. The concrete wall behind the man in the white clothes is about where the windows to the porch will be.

You can see the progress in the budget too, with the first larger draws coming in for foundations, and the start of the framing (materials downpayment) as well as down payments for some of the trades. Also coming in are the windows – Pella Impervia. These have increased in price since we made the budget, and this has led to an overage to cover the difference – just under $5,000. These windows are expensive, lets face it. But they will also be great performers in terms of keeping unwanted heat out, and letting light in. They will also last a long time, and not need painting. Having lived the past 10 years in houses where half the windows can't be opened because they have been painted in, and the other half have cracks in the frames and let the hot/cold air in, we are very happy with this decision!

Filed under // budget progress windows

Posted by Oliver Bogler

Concrete for foundation poured, and roof choice for our LEED house in Houston

We had a big week with tremendous progress at the house for the foundation. The beams, which connect the vertical piers that were poured last week, prepared at the end of last week and at the beginning of this week. The last blog entry shows the rebar in the beams. Now you can see the finished product after the concrete pour. Rebar sticks out, ready to receive the base of the house – the sill I guess its called. You an also see the front steps and now this gives a very clear impression of where the ground floor will be. It's nice and high, well out of regular flooding danger. In the center of the house you can see cardboard cylinders with the extension of the piers to the base of the floor. Then on the side, there are segments of the driveway, and an alcove that will house the back steps to the back door into the mudroom and kitchen.

In the meantime we have had the second draw, on which I will report more at the end of the month. It was mainly for deposits for the things needed next – framing materials – and things that will take a while to get made and so need to be ordered ahead – our windows.

We have also made our final choice for the metal roof. You can see the options here at the site of Architectural Building Components (http://www.archmetalroof.com/color-and-substrate.html). We chose the Silver Metallic, having ruled out either of the white options, which while excellent performers were not what we wanted. We did like some of the other colors, but a key goal is to have a good radiant barrier, and the Solar Reflective Index of Silver Metallic (66) was good with a good look too. We were considering copper, but felt that this color would dominate the look of the house. Sandstone we felt was too warehouse like.

(download)

Filed under // progress roof windows

Posted by Oliver Bogler

Foundation work at our LEED House in Houston

This past two weeks we have seen rapid progress on the pier-and-beam foundation of the house. First the holes were dug for the piers, which are about 16' deep. Then the trenches were dug for the underground plumbing, including sewage connection and drains. After these were in place, the trenches for the beams were made. It's quite an impressive meshwork of rebar that forms the periphery of the house.

You can also see the height of the floors – it is measured on a pink flag near the carport, which you can see in the distance of one or two of the photos, and also from the wooden walls that are being constructed, as well as the tubes that will form the next sections of the piers in the center of the house. We are going to be about 3' or so up from the soil, and so well out of flood danger.

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