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Building a Light Green LEED House in Houston, TX
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June 2011

 

Insulation at our LEED house in Houston is already keeping the heat out

With the wiring and plumbing finished, we did insulation at the end of this past week, and had a chance to check on the house today. Not only does it look like yummy icing, sprayed into all the outside wall spaces, but it is already doing a great job. We were in the house with an outside temperature of 94°F, and of course no A/C and it was actually fairly bearable. Granted, there was a breeze through the front and back doors, but the windows were shut and the shutters about 1/2 down on the North and South facing sides. It was, I would say, about the same as our front room used to be at the end of a hot summer day, back in the old house with the A/C running the whole day. I remember those $500 electricity bills!! Can't wait to see the bills we'll have in the new house!

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Filed under  //  progress  
Posted by Oliver Bogler 
 

Shutters are up & May budget numbers of our Leed House in Houston

Just a quick update - May was a busy month, with most of the internal wiring and plumbing being done, and the windows and shutters being installed. We also started housewrap. Here is a picture from the front, showing the shutters down. The sills on the upper windows aren't in yet, so the shutters are going lower than they ultimately will, but you can see that they do a great job of protecting the windows from storm or sun.

You can also see our budget numbers for this month. We have had a few good weeks in this regard, with most things coming in as expected, which is great. We have now reached the point where we have many of the major items locked in, so the scope for additional overages is slowly shrinking. We will have some expected additional costs, though, such as some of the more decorative lights, which were not part of the original budget - but these can hardly be considered overages.

We are getting very close to insulation and dry wall, which should be accomplished in the next two weeks or so. 

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Budget_actuals_blog

Filed under  //  budget   windows  
Posted by Oliver Bogler 
 

Clarification on our builders - Michael and Tommy Strong

We are working on our project with the brothers, Michael and Tommy Strong - our builders. When we first started this project, we were talking to Michael Strong because of his teaching in a Rice University in a course on green building, and he has been in our discussoins since inception.

At the time of these early discussions, Michael was associated with GreenHaus Builders, and we have mentioned this company on this blog during this time, for that reason.

By the time we obtained financing, and initiated our building project at the beginning of this year, Michael was no longer associated with GreenHaus Builders, and we have no current association or business relationship with GreenHaus Builders, nor did we have during any phase of the building. 

We wish to clarify this, as casual readers of this blog might have the impression that our house is being built by GreenHaus Builders. This is not the case. 

Filed under  //  builder  
Posted by Oliver Bogler