Kermit the frog always says “It’s not easy being green.”  I always thought he was talking about his color but he may have been talking about green building.  In February, we purchased 3 tubs to be used for recycling aluminum, plastic and steel and two 55 gallon trash cans.  We were hopeful that the construction workers would use the bins. Our general contractor, Mike Gilles, warned us that we would be lucky if the trash ended up in any containers (it normally just gets thrown on the floor).  The workers do use the 55 gallon trash cans and then we sort through it for the recycle.  It is amazing how much aluminum and plastic the construction crews generate.  On May 24, 2010, we set out the tubs below at the curb with our regular recycle bin.  We’ve considered providing an old refrigerator, a 10 gallon water jug, powdered Gatorade and reusable insulated cups but, we’ve decided that would not go over very well. Do they make Dr. Pepper in a powdered form?  At any rate, we have been able to keep up with the trash and only placed 280 lbs in the landfill.

On June 7, 2010, we delivered 960 lbs of scrap steel from the construction site to Standard Iron and Metal for recycle.  This consisted of scrap rebar from the concrete work, metal tabs from the steel used to hold the aluminum forms together, nails, screws, steel banding from materials delivered to the work site, etc.  I’m glad we we chose to do this because it is the right thing to do, as we only received $40.80!

Reclaiming the wood has been another challenge.  A lot of lumber is used – even in the construction of a concrete home (see photo below.)  We have been pulling the nails out of all the lumber that was used as scaffolding or part of the concrete forms and then sorting and stacking the lumber by size.  The framing crew, Kristal Canady, used the reclaimed lumber for all the sole plates, top plates and cripple studs on the main floor.  We’re hopeful our efforts will save 15 to 20% off the estimated cost of lumber.

Finally, on May 25, 2010, we attended the 2010 WindPower Conference and Exhibition in Dallas Texas.  We went to see and talk to the Urban Green Energy folks about their roof mounted 4KW vertical axis wind turbine.  We believe this wind turbine would be able to power the home.  We have installed an anemometer 20 feet above the back porch roof of the home.  We are measuring the wind speed to see just how much energy the wind turbine would generate.  The federal government offers a 30% rebate of the cost of the wind turbine but we are still debating if we what to go through the approval process, which would include several steps:

1. Get all of our immediate neighbors (anyone that would be able to see the turbine from their property) to sign an “approval” form. 
2. Send information packets to everyone in the neighborhood and allow folks to have a comment period. 
3. Receive approval from the Rose Creek Architectural Review Board. 
4. Get a variance from the city of Oklahoma City at a cost of more than $1200. 

The photo below is a picture of the turbine we have chosen. In our opinion, its unique shape gives it artistic value.

For the last three weeks, Basement Contractors have been setting forms preparing to pour the walls for the main floor of the home.  These walls consist of 4 inches of concrete, 2 inches of Styrofoam, and another 4 inches of concrete.  Setting the forms is quite a process.  First 2” X 6” planks were attached to the outside of the basement walls.  The outside forms were then set on top of the 2” x 6” planks.  Then wood frames are attached to the outside forms so that when the concrete is poured in the forms, openings will be left for the windows and doors.  Steel webbing is then built followed by 2” thick Styrofoam, then more steel webbing and finally the inside form.  In the basement, we used spray foam insulation to seal between the basement walls, the floor joists and the subfloor so the concrete would not flow through the cracks into the basement.  On June 2, 2010 Dolese Concrete delivered 120 yards of concrete.  Yesterday, the last of the forms was removed and we were able to see the final product.  Now the home is looking like the architect’s drawing. 

The plumber, Anthony Steyn of Exeter Enterprises, and his crew have been finishing up the plumbing rough in.  They have also laid the majority of the lines for the 20,000 gallon rain harvest system.  We’ve finished the engineering of the rain harvest system. 

We’ve also found great deals on some appliances.  We purchased a Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer from  Valley Appliance in Alabama and a 6 burner Kitchen Aid Architect Series II cooktop with built in grill from Plass Appliance in Chicago.  We paid about 55% of retail for the appliances.

Suzy spent an afternoon with Jeremiah of RiversEdge Countertops formulating the 10 countertops for the home.  She had more than 40 colors of glass and an endless number of Portland Cement colors to mix and match.  Jeremiah is now working to provide samples of the 10 counters.

Mike Gilles and his son took our 13 Wayne County Ohio, hand hewed wood beams to Doug at Renaissance Wood Company in Edmond Oklahoma.  Renaissance cleaned the Beechnut (White Walnut), Chestnut and Walnut beams and they are beautiful.  Suzy and I picked out which beams will go in what locations.  We had enough wood to do all the top of all the vestibule openings, frame the breakfast nook, frame the master bedroom bed recess, and do timbers on the ceiling of the formal dining room.

The crew finished framing the basement, the floor joists were set and the Huber Advantech subflooring was put in place using low VOC (27 g/L) Ace Subfloor & Deck Adhesive and nails.  Sandra Shackelford and Kelly Swisher from Oklahoma Home Centers in Guthrie have done a great job of figuring the necessary framing and subfloor material.  Kelly even provided a diagram showing how each sheet of subfloor should be installed to limit the amount of waste. 

The roof of the basement safe room was built and poured too high so the original floor joists had to be replaced.  Basement Contractors backfilled most of the basement walls last week.  Only sand was used for the backfill under the front and back porches.  They also installed 2” x 6” wood around the top of the exterior walls.  Next week they will be setting the forms for the main floor walls and will use the 2” x 6” boards to hold the forms.  Inside, between the subfloor, floor joists and concrete walls, spray foam insulation was installed.  This was done to keep the concrete that will be poured for the first floor from ending up in the basement.

The Edmond Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to recognize Basement Contractors 500th basement home.  The plumber also laid more lines for the rain harvest system.  Many people have asked about the concrete so the last photo below shows the basement walls with 6” of concrete, 2” of stryrofoam, and another 4” of concrete.

We’ve made significant progress in the last two weeks.  Basement Contractors poured the basement floor, the theater room floor, the garage floor and more of the exterior walls.  So now we’ve poured more than 250 cubic yards of concrete and we still have a lot more concrete to go.  The weather was cooperating nicely until early Friday afternoon when it started raining.  It didn’t stop until late Sunday afternoon.  It turns out the theater room would be a fine swimming pool – however, I hope it never has water in it  again! 

Donny and his crew framed most of the basement, set the support beams and before the rain began on Friday, they set most of the floor joists in place.  Because the concrete is notched for each floor joist, no nails were used to hold the joists in place.  We will level the joists next week and install water resistant Huber Advantec Floor Decking (made in Broken Bow Oklahoma).   If all goes well, Basement Contractors will be back later next week to do some backfill and begin setting the forms for the garage and first floor. 

Now that the basement wall forms have been removed, we can see plans beginning to take shape.  This week we will be working to pour the basement floor and the garage floor.  Before the floors can be poured, we have to get geothermal lines in place, run some of the rain harvest pipes, and do a lot of back filling.  The crews are also setting forms for the front entryway and porch. 

Tomorrow we will meet with Jeremiah Rivers, owner of Rivers’ Edge Countertops in Tuttle, OK to discuss the countertops.  We have been looking at Ice Stone and/or Vetrazzo Countertops but have been stymied by the price.  River’s Edge prices seem reasonable, the counters are poured in place so there are no seams, and it’s all produced locally.

It’s also time to order the clay roof tile.  We hope to use a 60/40 blend of Canyon Red/Brick Red tile from MCA Superior Clay tile.

The wood barn beams from Wayne County, Ohio will go to Renaissance Wood in Edmond, Oklahoma for preparation for installation.

Front of the house from the southeast.              The basement with the theater room on the right.

Cavity drainage installed.                                Rain harvest pipes below the basement floor.

On Friday, March 19, 2010, Dolese Brothers delivered 168 cubic yards of concrete for the lower level walls of the home.  It was a beautiful day, in the mid 60’s to the low 70’s.   As you can see by the photos below, we finished the pour before the weather changed.  We’re not very knowledgeable about concrete curing, but we’ve been told the colder temperatures may help strengthen the concrete.

  March 19, 2010 12:40 EST                                          March 20, 2010 12:40 EST

Photos of the big pour.

In the last few weeks, we’ve picked out the garage doors; ordered the windows, patio doors, exterior doors, including a hand carved front door; and decided on the vendor and equipment for the home automation system and home theater.

We chose Wayne Dalton series 9800 Garage Doors in walnut with horizontal panels from Trotter Doors in Oklahoma City.  We have ordered Weather Shield Fiberglass-clad premium wood windows with Zo-E Shield 5 glass.  We ordered a hand carved front door from Mark Gardner at Monticello Cabinets.  Mark uses antique/reclaimed wood and has been building “green” for many years.  Finally, we chose Aller, Inc as the subcontractor for our home automation system and home theater.  Please see the new tab titled “Product Selections” to review all the products we have selected for our home.

The basement walls are going up.  The walls will be 12” thick – 5” of concrete, 3” of DOW Styrofoam, and another 4” of concrete.  We choose the the Thermomass Building Insulation System by Composite Technologies Corporation because of the high energy efficiency and price.  Weather permitting, we should pour the concrete for the basement tomorrow.  Last week, we laid the basement plumbing lines, installed the geothermal lines from outside the home to the mechanical room and continued to install the forms for the basement walls.  As part of the basement plumbing, we installed four 4” lines to carry rain water from the roof to the 20,000 gallon rain harvest tank.  We added three 6” vent openings (pool bathroom & guest bathroom, theater bathroom and mechanical room) into the walls today.  We are going to install the electric panels in the safe room so we added several 2” openings in the roof of the safe room.  We are still trying to figure out how to have a wood burning, kiva, style fire place and still meet the standards of EPA Indoor airPLUS please contact us.

We completed the footers last week.  The site was fairly dry and everything went well.  However, it rained again this weekend and we have a big mud hole – again, as you can see in the final photo.

In order to save money and make sure we have minimal waste, we are attempting to handle site cleanup on our own.   On Friday afternoon, Jeff did the first cleanup of the worksite.  It is our goal to achieve zero construction waste to a landfill during the build. In a house like ours – built using traditional methods – total construction waste would be between 5 and 12 tons.  The theme of this will be reduce, reuse and recycle.  We will move 55 gallon drums onto the site for scrape steel (bent nails, small pieces of rebar etc), plastic and aluminum.  We will break down all cardboard boxes for recycle.  Jeff plans on making all his own shims for windows and doors from the scrap pieces of wood.   Larger pieces of scrap wood will be sorted and available for construction.  The broken clay tile from the roof, access scrap wood, and scrape sheetrock will be turned into mulch and used as fill material around the home during final grading.

Five concrete loads later the foundation is poured.

Monday February 22, 2009.  It rained on Saturday and Sunday.  I’ll be another tough week.

Since early January, construction has been stymied by weather.  It was the wettest January ever in Oklahoma.   We have had water in the basement hole continuously since Christmas.  The water was pumped out last Thursday, February 11.  On President’s Day, work began on building the footer framing.  The first truck, of more than 70 loads, of concrete is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, February 17 at 11:00 am.    Another 8 days without rain or snow would really be nice.

We are still struggling with the Kiva fireplace.  We’ve been told “USGBC Platinum houses cannot have any wood burning fireplaces.  NAHB Green Program requires an EPA certified fireplace.”  However, we understand that if the home meets EPA Energy Star with Indoor AirPLUS requirements the home will qualify for USGBC Indoor Environmental  Quality points.  We have been in contact with Mr. David Price of the EPA.  He believes it’s possible to have a functioning wood burning Kiva fireplace that will meet the standards.  Mr. Price developed the technical specifications for EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Label for new homes and field guidance for builders, HVAC professionals and energy raters implementing the Label’s specifications.  He also serves on the ANSI Committee developing the NAHB/ICC National Green Building Standard.

Thank you to our new neighbors to the south.  We went to the work site and saw the temporary cable TV link strung along the driveway.  We can only assume our construction crew cut your cable.  We also want to thank the Coits for letting us store dirt on their lot 363.

It’s been too muddy to haul off much dirt, however, some digging has been accomplished.  (The dirt is being stored on the Coit’s lot.)  The team has reengineered the roof so no beams will be necessary in the kitchen or in the home theater.  Additionally, we are reexamining the 20,000 gallon rain harvest system.  We have been quoted $28,000 for a steel tank from Tulsa and $25,000 for a fiberglass tank from Denver.   Now we are looking at building the tank out of concrete under the garage floor.  The solution looks good and will save 30% or more.

We attended the Oklahoma City Home and Garden Show last weekend and the 2010 International Builders Show this week.  At the Home & Garden Show, we met Jeremiah Rivers of Rivers Edge Countertops.   They offer concrete/recycled glass countertops similar to Ice Stone or Vetrazzo at half the price and they are local!  We’re looking forward to checking our their product.  We also talked to a couple businesses regarding home automation systems.

At the International Builders Show we narrowed the field to two companies for the home automation system – HAI and Verve Living Systems.    We purchased Fire Magic’s demonstration 32” outdoor grill and figured out the rest of the equipment for the outdoor kitchen.  We also visited with Ameristar Fence from Tulsa, OK.  They use recycled steel for some of their fencing products.  We hope to begin pouring the foundation next week.