The  Eco-Tech Home Tour will be open April 8 – 17, 2011 at 17515 Prairie Sky Way, Edmond, OK (Rose Creek Addition (N May between NW 164th and NW 174th St))

From 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm Monday – Friday

From 11:00 am – 6:00 pm Saturdays & Sundays

The Eco-Tech Home blends modern building techniques with building materials from the past.  All the exterior walls are concrete and inside you’ll find reclaimed wood floors, reclaimed wood stairs, barn wood, 185 feet of 1880′s hand hewn wood beams and the original bar from O’Connell’s Bar & Grill in Norman.  More than 6000 pounds of recycled glass was used to make the home’s countertops.  Most of the cabinets were made by Ohio Amish craftsman.  A 30,000 gallon rain harvest tank supplies the water for irrigation.  A pair of ClimateMaster Tranquility 27 geothermal heat pumps is used for heating and cooling the more than 6000 square feet of living space.  ClimateMaster will be demonstrating how geothermal energy works.  The home of the future would not be complete without the cars of the future. Cheasapeake Energy will be displaying a residential natural gas fueling station along with a natural gas powered Chevy Tahoe during the entire home tour.   The Oklahoma Chevy Team Dealers  will be displaying a 2011 Chevy Volt during the Eco-Tech Home Tour April 9 – April 13, 2011.  Admission is $9.00 for adults (children under 16 with adults are free) and all proceeds will be donated to pro-literacy organizations throughout Oklahoma. Tickets can be purchased at any OKC Metro Area Westlake Hardware Store or online by pressing the link at the top of this web page.   Here are some of the other features of the home.

- 948 cubic yards of concrete (3,792,000 pounds)

- 82,000 pounds of steel rebar

- 2500 sq. ft. of reclaimed wood floors

- 8000 feet of Ethernet cabling to “automate” the home

- More than 15,000 pounds of scrap material repurposed during the project

On January 28, 2011, we poured the last of the 948 cubic yards of concrete.  (A yard of concrete weighs approximately 4000 lbs. so the house has nearly 4 million pounds of concrete.)  We poured all the driveways, the front entry, three sets of stairs off the back patio deck and a landing.   We then had two weeks of cold snowy weather.  However, it has warmed up again so we have begun building the outdoor fences and Randy is completing the final grading.  Butler Brothers hauled 98 truck loads of dirt off the property.  This is dirt that had been stored since digging the basement more than one year ago.  We are going to add some retaining walls to the front of the home and the driveway ended up a little more steep than we had envisioned (see photo at top).  However, it was a tradeoff between a steeper driveway or more steps from the garage floor into the home.  I hope we’re happy with fewer steps in the garage and a slightly steeper driveway.

We have bricked the back deck columns and installed the guide tracks for the patio deck Clear View Motion Screens.  We will be finishing the outdoor stucco on Monday.  Then the folks from Clear View Screens will begin installing the eight power screens and two sliding screens on the back porch.  We finished the ceiling of the back porch with cedar.  Troy has been building the Fire Magic outdoor kitchen.  The kitchen includes a 90,000 btu gas stove, refrigerator, trash can, paper towel dispenser and a beverage center complete with a blender.  There will be nine dozen empty wine bottles cut in half, imbedded in the front of the outdoor kitchen and lit from the back. 

GWS mulched all the scrap lumber and sheet rock.  We are looking at using Murphy’s Products’ Terra XTREME 3200.  The Terra XTREME 3200 is offered with the goal of increased versatility to process materials such as topsoil, clay, sand, compost and manure, alone or blended together.  We would like to mix the clay soil with the ground up sheet rock and manure to make a rich soil for the flower beds and garden area.  However, the cost may be prohibitive

Omar Flores and his crew from A&E Tile and Design  have laid 2400 sq ft. of Saltillo tile floor (above) and installed the tile in all the bathrooms  (kids left, master bathroom right).   In the master bathroom shower, they added a quatrefoil (pictured on the right).  They have also started on the kitchen backsplash and will be tiling the kitchen island next week. 

Mario’s crew has primed the entire home and finished painting the basement of the home.  The cabinets have been installed through out the home and will be finished in the next week.   We were really worried about the cabinets from Ohio, but every cabinet slide into place perfectly.   We did tell the folks we were going to have a 24” warming drawer in the butler’s pantry, however, we found a really great deal on a 27” warming drawer and purchased it.  We forgot to follow up with the cabinet shop and so we now have a 24” KitchenAid warming drawer and a 27” KitchenAid warming drawer.  If you need a 27” warming drawer we can make you a great deal!

In the basement, we are using carpet in the theater room and in the guest bedrooms.  The theater bathroom (named the Pit Stop bathroom) will have red and black garage deck flooring.  The rest of the basement floors will be stained concrete.  The big areas of the basement floor, game room and fitness area, have been stained blue as the photo shows.  Mary Ann Walls will be painting a mural of the Beatles Yellow Submarine on the basement wall.  A Williams Brothers Bootles pinpall machine (Williams wouldn’t pay royalties to  the Beatles) will be in the basement as well.  We are also restoring the front and back bars from O’Connell’s in Norman in the basement.  How’s that for being green and reusing something!  We purchased the carpet from Bud at Floor Mart in Dallas last week.  They have a large selection of media room carpet.  Commercial grade carpet at a fantastic price  point.  The pit stop bathroom has stainless steel tread plate as a wainscot with three rows of license plates from all 50 states around the room.  The sink is mounted in a 50 gallon drum and the cabinets are Gladiator garage storage units – evoking a true “man cave” feel.

Finally, Hayes Electric, has been working to get the lights all hooked up.  The photo on the right shows the lights in the formal dining room.  They have installed 67 Cree CR6 LED can lights.  The LED stair lights are amazing – the lights themselves as well has the trim carpentry that was done by Marco’s crew.  Marion Moore of Taos Tin Works has finished creating three pendant lights for the kitchen island, two sconces for the powder bathroom and two sconces for the formal living room.

The project is moving very quickly.  Between keeping the work site clean, doing research for all the decisions and doing our regular jobs, we haven’t had much time to update the blog.  The Wayne-Dalton garage doors were installed by the Trotter Overhead Doors on Nov. 22 & 23.  We choose Wayne Dalton model 9800 horizontal garage doors in walnut.  One of the three doors has a 39” lift kit so that a car lift could be installed in the future.  On Tuesday, November 23, 2010, Jeff’s parents delivered the cabinets from Miller’s Cabinet Shop in Mt. Hope Ohio.   The kitchen, children’s bathroom, powder bathroom, laundry and basement game room cabinets are knotty hickory.  The guest bathroom cabinets are maple.  The craft room cabinets are brown maple and painted persimmon (Suzy’s color).  I call it OSU orange but it’s growing on me.   It was quite an engineering feat to fit all the cabinets on the trailer as the photo at the right shows.

Builder’s Insulation finished insulating using Icynene LD-R-50 spray foam insulation on Nov. 30, 2010.  We have been able to keep the home at 68 degrees using one 60,000 btu ventless gas heater. 

During the week, Troy of Savannah Builders designed and built the frame work for the kiva style fireplace and banco.  They used Ready Products Radiustrack hand bendable steel framing to build the framework.  They then applied a wire mesh and spread STO stucco over the wire mesh.  The pipes in the corner are to drain rainwater from the 1000 sq ft of flat roof.  This water flows to the rain harvest tank. 

Comfortworks load balanced the heating and air system on Dec. 1, 2010 and Guaranteed Watt Saver Systems, Inc. (GWS) made their initial inspections of the home for LEED and National Green Building certifications.  We have sealed all the heat and air ducts until construction is completed.  This is to keep the system as clean as possible. 

Sound insulation was installed in many of the walls and the basement ceiling on Dec. 3, 2010.  See photo at left.

December 7, 2010,  we hauled another pickup truck full of cardboard to Waste Management for recycling.   On December 9, 2010, my wife and I sold another 720 lbs of scrap metal to Standard Metal and Iron for $46.80.  It was interesting to go to the scrap metal yard.  You can see the cars stacked in the background and we saw the claw in the background pick up a car. 

   We installed the remainder of the Wayne County Ohio barn beams in the home. We added beams in the master bathroom, children’s bathroom and in the main hallway of the home.

The week of Dec. 13, 2010, Anthony of Exeter Plumbing worked on hooking up all the drain pipe into the 30,000 gallon rain harvest tank.  Anthony also installed an overflow line from the tank to the street. 

We passed our electrical rough in inspection thanks to the work completed by Hayes Electric.  We originally planned to have a generator with an automatic transfer switch and battery backup units to condition the power.  However, some of the equipment I had purchased during the past 5 years was not compatible.  So we are installing one 10kva battery unit for the safe room and one geothermal unit.  We may do the remainder of the power system at a later date. 

The sheet rockers began working upstairs on December 9, 2010.  They were very fast and seemed to keep the scrap to a minimum.  We had heard that the sheet rockers were very messy.  We placed trash cans throughout the home, 5 gallon buckets for cigarette butts and showed them where we wanted the scrap sheet rock stacked.  However, they managed to ignore all the requests and leave sheet rock, cigarette butts, and food trash everywhere.  They were done by December 16th and we began the cleanup process.  The picture to the left shows the scrap lumber and sheet rock pile. 

GWS started chipping the scrap lumber and sheet rock on December 22.   Butler Brothers hauled 98 truck loads of dirt, that we had been stored on a neighbor’s lot since beginning the project, to the next phase of Rose Creek to be developed. 

We also added a wine rack on a kitchen wall.  The rack is 12 inches deep and shaped to match the opening in the kiva fireplace.  We used hexigonal shaped clay tiles from Paisley Brick in Paisley, Ontario, Canada.  The tiles are only available in the US through Superior Clay Corporation in Uhrichsville, Ohio.   It really turned out nice.  

On Friday, Builders Insulation Co. started blowing yellow (not pink) Icynene LD-R-50 Spray Foam Insulation into  the garage roof deck.  Blown insulation is more economical than batt insulation (such as Pink Owens Corning fiberglass insulation).  Blown insulation can be installed more quickly.  Blown insulation expands to fill the any voids, holes or cracks, batt insulation doesn’t.  We started in the garage since the Amish made cabinets will be arriving in Oklahoma City on Monday.  We have not started to sheetrock, so the cabinets will need to be stored in the garage.

Icynene LD-R-50 is a light density, open-celled, flexible, water-blown polyurethane  foam   insulation.   Icynene replaces some of the petroleum oil with renewable castor oil in this product.  Although some other products contain higher amounts of agricultural-based materials (soy), we liked that castor beans can be grown on marginal land and are not useful as food.  Matt Capshaw (Builders Insulation), Mike Cacic (Icynene Manufacturer’s Rep) and Jerry Jennison (Icynene Regional Sales Manager) have been great partners.  We will be insulating all the roof deck, the theater room ceiling and the waste water pipes.

The two pictures were taken 16 seconds apart.  You can see that a thin layer of the insulation is   sprayed onto the roof deck.  It then expands to fill the entire space and any openings.  I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge and thank Builders Insulation and Icynene for helping at the Oklahoma City Habitat for Humanity Hope Crossing project.  If you really want to learn about building energy efficient, healthy homes, I encourage you to spend a weekend volunteering at Hope Crossing.

Troy, of Savannah Builders, has started installing the kiva fireplace and banco in the family room.  We have to complete the fireplace structure before we can receive our framing inspection approval.    One Way Wiring has completed laying the data, alarm and tv cables.  We added motion detectors in all the bathrooms so the lights will come on at 10% if the motion detector senses movement after the home has gone into bedtime mode.  Think of it as turning on the nightlight.  We have also learned that the system can control the bathroom ceiling fans.  It is possible to measure the amount of time someone sits in the bathroom and program the fan to stay on an incremental amount of time after the person stands up.  Our home won’t include this feature, however it shows what is possible.

Suzy and I have compiled a list of 65 items we need to finalize and purchase.  Items like the hardware for the guest bathroom, material for the bookshelves beside the master bed, and many pieces of furniture.  We have decided to forgo the swimming pool.  The neighborhood does have a very nice community pool and we are a little tight on our budget.  We have decided to use Clear View Motion Screens on the back porch.  That will make the Weathershield 12’ folding door (photo on left) off the formal living room much more useful.

  We continue to generate trash and have now sent a total of 909 lbs to the land fill.   

The roof is on and we’ll find out if the job is complete during the next significant rain.  It really looks good.  Suzy’s blend of MCA Canyon Red and Brick Red looks very sharp and all the rows are straight. 

Pedro Torres Plastering Inc. is working to apply environmentally responsible Sto Stucco to the exterior walls.  The color looks great with the tile roof.  They have installed corbels across the front and both sides of the home.  We should finish the stucco work in the next week.

After comparing BioBased and Icynene spray foam insulations, we chose to use Icynene LD-R-50 open cell spray foam insulation.   Using high-yield castor oil material, ICYNENE LD-R-50 reduces the need for petroleum-based polyol. Castor oil is a natural ingredient that is safe enough for use in personal care products such as lip balm.  The insulation should be completed by the end of the week.

Exeter Plumbing has finished the radiant heating system for the flat roof drainage system.  The small plastic lines attached to the large white drain lines will circulate water from the Geothermal system and prevent the drain lines from freezing.  Anthony also reworked one of the four drains for the flat roof area making the drain function as an emergency overflow drain.  They also set up the pool pipes to circulate the water through the solar panel array on the flat roof.  The photo to the right shows the framework for the solar pool heating array that has been installed on the flat roof section of the home.  We will be installing 720 sq ft of solar panels to heat the pool. 

Mark Gardner of Monticello Cabinets and Doors has delivered the front door.  It is hand carved from reclaimed lumber.  The door is beautiful and because it is reclaimed wood, there are some holes that go completely through the door.  We will be using a syringe to fill the holes with clear glue to seal the door.   Mike Gilles and his co-worker Troy install the front door.

Hayes Electric has finished the rough in for the electric.  We were told we would be unable to use the uninterruptable battery backup units we had purchased.   I’ll be looking for a second opinion from a commercial electrical company.  The units are Liebert 10kva UPSystems.  I need to find someone local that has some experience with these systems.

R-Company has finished the rough-in for the central vacuum system and Grandview Windows and Doors has finished installing all the Weathershield windows and doors.  The door (photo to right) off the formal living room opens the full 12 feet.  It’s really been nice to fully open the door the last couple weeks.  We had decided not to screen the back porch but since seeing the possibilities with this door, we have decided to purchase the electronic screens.  We are looking at Phantom Screens and Clear View Retractable Screens.  We’ll let you know our final decision. 

Basement Contractors has completed digging and pouring the rain harvest tank.  It has two small chambers (they can be seen in the photo at the end of the tank) to deal with sediment and one large chamber that will hold 19,500 gallons.   The tank will capture all rainwater from the roof and most of concrete areas of the home and used for irrigation. 

One Way Wiring has completed the data and TV cabling of the home.  They laid more than 100 cat 6 cables and more than 25 RJ6 cables.  It would seem to be over wired but after attending HAI Home Automation training last week, the possibilities for the wiring are almost unlimited.  When someone rings the front doorbell, the porch lights can come on if it’s after sunset; if anyone is home, the front porch camera will display the video on the home automation touch screen panels as well as any tv that might be on.  A home automation, all home stereo system and security system can be purchased in installed for $2 – $4 per square foot.    One Way Wiring has recommended we use a Panasonic AE4000 projector in the theater room and after reading the specifications and reviews, we are sold.  We are still debating if we will use blinds or curtains over the theater room windows.        

We installed the hand hewed wood beams from Wayne County, Ohio two weeks ago.  We used the beams above all vestibule openings and to frame the breakfast nook and the bed in the master bedroom.  We are also using the beams above the bathroom vanities and there are two on the ceiling in the formal dining room.   

Additionally, we removed one truck load of cardboard to Waste Management for recycling. 

Renaissance Wood delivered the steps for the staircase between the first floor and the basement on Sept. 16, 2010.  They were made using reclaimed wood and each of the 17 treads weights about 75 lbs.  On Saturday, Jeff attached scrap cardboard to each step in an effort to hinder further distressing.

Texoma Roofing Company from Durant Oklahoma installed the 1000 sq ft of flat roof on Saturday, Sept 18, 2010.  They used Firestone ISO 95+ polyiso insulation over the roof decking to provide insulation and create the slope necessary to drain water.   Over the insulation,  Texoma Roofing installed Duro Last vinyl roof membrane.  Jeff was impressed with the strength and ease of the “welds” used to join two pieces of the material together.

Comfort Works of Goldsby, Oklahoma has finished the rough in for the Climate Master geothermal heating and air conditioning system.  I’ll admit I don’t know much about the system.  Our builder, Mike Gilles, has a lot of experience with geothermal systems and we went with his recommendations.  There are two – two stage Climate Master Tranquility 27 units installed, one in the attic and one in the basement mechanical room.  There is an ERV system and we are using MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) 16 filters.   This will earn two LEED points.

This is the label from Zoesheild  glass in our Weathershield windows that were installed:

95% – 99% UVA &UVB Protection

Solar Heat Gain Coefficient down to 0.25

Updated photo showing the front elevation taken Sept. 28, 2010.  In front of the home is the rig used to drill the nine geothermal wells.  You can see the roofers installing the clay tile roof.  We installed Palisade Synthetic Underlayment over the Huber Advantech Roof Decking since the roof was leaking.  The MCA Superior Clay tile needed to be set at 15” x 11” rather then the manufacturers specified 16” x 12”.  This was because the tile nail holes are exposed when set at 16” x 12”. 

We are still weighing all the trash and logging the contents of each bag.  This bag contained the styrofoam and plastic wrapping from the windows.  It weighted in at 20 lbs.  We have now thrown out 538 lbs of trash from the work site.  It was unrealistic to believe we could build the home with zero waste.   I do feel good that we have reduced the amount of waste generated from the construction of the home.

Mike Gilles, our builder, unloading the clay tile roof off one of the two trucks that arrived from California.

I’ve been traveling for business and then I needed to catch up on the home clean up so we haven’t been able to write.  However, we have had lots of progress.

On Thursday, July 8, Mike Gilles and myself decided at 7:30am that it was not going to rain on the work site.  Mike ordered the crane and by 11:30am we were lifting roof trusses. 

It had been raining every other day and we really took a big chance.  The front page of the July 9 Daily Oklahoma read, “Record Flooding hits Oklahoma City” and the south side of OKC did have record flooding on July 8, however, we didn’t get a drop at the home.  The crane was a bit of overkill for the job (it’s usually used to build large wind turbines).

By 3:00pm on July 8, we realized we would not be able to set all the trusses, however, we were able to lift all the trusses onto the framing and exterior walls.  This way we did not need to have a return trip for the crane.  The crews did a great job. 

This photo was taken on Tuesday, July 13 and shows that the roof trusses were in place and the crew was working on decking the 1000 sq ft of flat roof (40 ft x 25 ft) to be used for solar panels.

We used Huber Zip System Roof Sheathing for the roof deck.  Put it on, tape the joints and you’re dried in.  The crew said the decking was slippery and they complained of blisters because the red color makes the decking hot.  Huber should consider making the product a lighter color.

A view from the back showing the parapet wall around the flat roof.  That wall is covered in Huber Zip System Wall Sheathing.  It also shows the roof decking after the seams have been taped.   So we used Huber products for roof decking, floor decking and wall sheathing.  If we had it to do again, we would use regular 5/8” floor decking and we would use regular roof decking.  I don’t know if the Huber products were installed incorrectly or if the extreme temperatures affected the product, but the roof decking and the floor decking both leaked a lot. 

Inside we have started working on the heat and air system.  On the floor you can see the Arch-Tec arches.  We are using arches in all the nooks, above both doors to the master bathroom, in the dining room and over the bathtub in the girls bathroom and the guest bathroom.

We have placed all the appliance installation instructions on the studs where the appliances will be installed.  This helps the subs know all the requirements.

We continue to haul off and weigh each bag of trash.  As of August 21, 413 lbs of trash have been sent to the landfill from the project.  In this bag is a lot of plastic used to wrap the duct work.  By far the majority of the trash has been generated from what the workers eat for lunch.  We are reclaiming the aluminum cans, plastic bottles, cardboard, metal, pallets and copper from wiring scrape.

On August 25 and 26 Gary Rollins and the rest of the crew from Grandview Windows and Doors installed the windows.  We are very pleased with their work and the Weathershield windows.  We used double hung throughout the home except for a large casement window in the master bedroom.  We choose the Zo-E Shield 5 energy efficient glass and the windows are fiberglass clad for even more energy efficiency.  For more information on the windows see our product specifications.

 On August 26, Suzy went over the lighting and electrical plans with the builder, Mike Gilles and the lead electrician, Dex.  They looked at the location of the switches, electrical outlets and the type of lights (cans, sconces, track lights etc.)  We are using Juno cans with CREE CR6 LED lights for the majority of the homes lighting.  We saw the CR6 lights at the International Home Builders Show in January and liked the color of the light.  We don’t like the light color of florescent lights and were concerned about the color of the LED lights.  The CR6 is a direct replacement for a 65 Watt 6-inch incandescent downlight and is dimmable to 5 percent with most standard incandescent dimmers. Delivering 575 lumens and using just 10.5 Watts, the new fixture is designed to last 50,000 hours and features a 5-year warranty.

Comfort Works has been installing the ClimateMaster geothermal heat and air systems as well as the duct work.  We are using a two zone system (upstairs and downstairs) and the thermostat has 4 remote sensors so the home temperature is measured in 5 places and averaged.  They are also installing an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) to provide adequate  fresh air to the home.  This is necessary because of the tight envelop of the home.

We are recording the temperature inside and outside the home every two hours.  This shows the inside temperature at 79 degrees while the outside temperature is 90 degrees and the outdoor wind speed is 11.4 mph.  The home seems to be holding the temperature quite well even without any doors.

The electricians from Hayes Electric expect to finish the electrical work before the end of September.   We are gathering all the scrap wire and stripping out all the copper for recycle or Suzy and our daughters may take the copper and make a wind sculpture.

The cabinets are all ordered from Miller’s Cabinet shop in Millersburg, Ohio.  My parents have been working with the owner, Roman Miller, to work out all the details.  The majority of the cabinet doors will be made of knotty hickory with a few cabinets made with maple and some painted cabinets (craft room) made with brown maple.  We have measured each cabinet dimension at least four times.  We have also laid out the central vacuum system. 

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.