skip to main |
skip to sidebar
After the foundation was poured, one concern we had was how far out of the ground the house appeared to be. It made our intentionally small footprint house look like a much larger house. When we were planning our house, we read some of Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House" books in earnest, enjoying her perspective on designing a house for how we really live and using each room daily. Anything else is would be unnecessary extra for us. You can learn more about Sarah's philosophy, which we certainly share, here: http://www.susanka.com/.
Now that Bartley installed the window wells and did the rough grading around the house, the home looks like it will be a much more management size. What a difference a little dirt can make.When the weather clears later this week our Contractor, Aaron, will be on-site to test the dirt/sand/cement mixture in order to make the Compressed Earth Bricks for the walls. Then the team will get into full swing with brick manufacture! We're looking forward to the demonstration of the brick-making this Saturday. If you'd like to come by and need our address, please email me at flybymike at gmail dot com. (replace at with @ and dot with a period).
One more note - the HUGE pile of dirt in our neighbor's yard is now a much smaller pile of dirt, which will be used for making the CEB.
While some people think we're certifiably crazy for embarking on this project (instead of just buying an existing house), we think it would be crazy to buy a traditional (energy inefficient) house in the DC area that we don't really like and then have to put a lot more money into updates and upgrades. This way, we get what we want in terms of style of house, sustainability in construction and living, etc.
Speaking of certifying, we attended a green building class in Roanoke this past week for the EarthCraft Virginia certification program. This training was geared for construction companies, architects, etc., but they allowed us to attend as owner-builders. The EarthCraft certification is like LEED for homes, but it's a much less expensive certification process. The program started in the Atlanta area and, to date, more than 4,500 homes have been certified by EarthCraft. The program expanded into Virginia just a few years ago and they are hoping to certify several hundred homes annually in the Commonwealth.
The seminar focused on how the certification program works. There are minimum requirements that must be met in order to receive EarthCraft certification, then there are other points a builder has to earn in addition to the minumum requirements. Many of these requirements are tied to energy efficiency. For some homebuilders, this will take some significant change to their construction practices in order to achieve certification. For us, since we have intended the house to be environmentally-friendly from the start, this is a validation to ensure we are actually building green.
We've been assigned an EarthCraft technical advisor who will oversee our construction and conduct some on-site inspections to ensure we meet the required standards. We're very hopeful that we'll achieve this certification.
In an earlier post, I discussed the house design and noted we were planning 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. That's in-line with the concepts put forth by Sarah Susanka and other followers of the "Not So Big House" philosophy. However, the banks probably don't subscribe to that philosophy and we've been advised by our mortgage broker to finish the 3rd bedroom on the lower level so the house will be a 3 bedroom/2 bath house. That's a little extra money and more work for us up front, but should help significantly in the valuation of the house so we can get the necessary bank financing to make this project a reality!
Whenever folks ask when we'll be in the new house, my standard response is, "hopefully this time next year." I've been saying that for about 6 months now. This process reminds me of the many family vacations where I sat in the back of the car asking, "are we there yet?" for hundreds of miles, driving my parents crazy. The patience that was required on my part was always worth the reward of the vacation destination. I'm sure the same will be true of the house construction project. (Of course another benefit of the house project, unlike the vacation, is there's no tortuous drive home - once the house is built, we'll already be home!)
And there are signs we might be getting closer to the construction phase. The fine folks in the City of Falls Church had some questions about the tree preservation plan and the grading plan. The companies that developed those plans finished their work in response to the City's questions/concerns at the end of last week, so the revised plans can be submitted to the City at the start of this week. Hopefully our vendors did their work properly and the City will soon issue the building permit. Once we have that, we'll schedule the closing for the land and line up the tree removal company, excavator, and concrete company for the footers and foundation prep. Hopefully, we'll be able to break ground by early November before it gets too cold and the ground freezes!
Another of the good things about our future neighborhood in Falls Church is that there's no one prevailing architectural style. Glancing up and down the street, one sees old farm houses, craftsman style homes, colonials, cape cods, ranches, and even some contemporaries. So our little house will fit right in -- it's yet another style (green modern, in the absence of another name to describe the architectural genre of our house) to compliment the diversity of the neighborhood.
Our house is one level plus a full basement. 2 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms. Each bedroom suite is positioned on an end of the house, with the master suite at the back of the house (eastern exposure, quietest part of the lot). In the center of the house is an open floor plan great room, with kitchen, dining, and living rooms. There are five sliding glass doors on the south side and three on the north side, with a deck surrounding the house to allow for an indoor-outdoor flow during parties, etc.
As you see from the sketch, there's a "shed roof" rising towards the southern sun, bringing the ceiling from about 9 feet to about 15 feet. This helps prevent the small house from feeling too small while allowing more winter sun to warm the house.
We are going for a modern look, without the coldness that some modern homes project. Our friends and family are welcome in our home and we look forward to (some day) opening our doors to you.
I'm not sure what led us to the point of wanting to build a house. I've always loved houses in general: architecture, design, and construction. When I was a kid, I used to bike through the city I grew up in to look at the different styles of houses. I've kept my eye on the real estate market, wandered through open houses on occasion, and drew house plans and elevations for houses I thought would be cool to live in.
As the DC real estate market started to cool off, it seemed to me that it might be a good time to look at what options might be available. We casually looked at several homes, all of which had a list of problems that would require extensive renovations. At the price point for these homes, renovating wouldn't be in the budget for years to come. Many of these houses were extremely energy inefficient. Others were simply out-dated with 1980's kitchen cabinets and linoleum flooring. None of them were modern design. And the vast majority of them were huge, with bedroom after bedroom that would go unused.
Several years ago, Mom and Bill had bought me a subscription to Dwell Magazine, which contained many homes that were really cool looking, and which seriously introduced me to the concept of a "green" house as a viable option. They keep renewing the subscription and I read each issue religiously, learning with each turn of the page. Then a lightbulb went off in my head (or maybe Andreas said it often enough that I finally heard it). Why not build what we want rather than move into someone else's house and modify that to meet our needs?
And that's the start of the journey. In future posts, I'll write some more about the path we went down, considering pre-fab (of different shapes and sizes) and detail some stumbles we had along the way. Many people have helped us significantly with our learning process, and we've put together a good team that have counseled us through the planning and implementation phases. I'll introduce you to some of those folks too. More to come...
It's been almost a week since I've posted an entry to the blog. I was hoping to have some news of some sort to report, but that hasn't been the case. Chad with UBuildIt Bethesda (I'll blog about who Chad is and what UBuildIt is in a bit) has sent out out house plans for bids for the foundation and other early stage projects of the construction. But no word back on that as of yet.
Since I began this blog with the "Implementation Phase" (which I think of as the period after we applied for the building permit up until we break ground and start the "Construction Phase"), I thought it would be helpful to add some posts that discuss the "Planning Phase". For the next few weeks, I'll bounce back and forth between Planning and Implementation. So you will get a sense of what brought us to this point while I keep you current on where things are at as we move forward.
Now that Bartley installed the window wells and did the rough grading around the house, the home looks like it will be a much more management size. What a difference a little dirt can make.
