I'm Plastered

OK, not really, but I got your attention, didn't I?

A couple weeks ago, I took a class on American Earth Clay Plaster application. The class was offered at Amicus Green Building Supply in Kensington, MD (http://www.amicusgreen.com). This a really cool, environmentally-friendly product that we've admired for some time. This is a finishing product for walls, ceiling, etc. that can be used in lieu of paint. Finishing the Compressed Earth Block interior of the house with American Clay Earth Plaster made a lot of sense; it was just a question of cost. I took the class to see if this is something I could do myself, or if it's best left to a professional.

I found the class to be a lot of fun and I walked away knowing that this would be a big project, a lot of work, but something I certainly could handle on my own if I plan accordingly and don't expect the entire house to be plastered in one weekend. I'm excited about this option and thrilled that we won't have to drywall the whole house, but may be able to use this plaster instead.

Here are some photos from my training class. The first photo is my sheet after the first coat; the second is my sheet after some decorative finishes we learned (many of which we won't use since we're seeking a relatively smooth, contemporary surface), and following these are photos of the board other students in the class worked on.

Enjoy.

Let Us Break Ground Together

On Martin Luther King Day, just before Andreas and I headed out of town for business trips, we met on our lot with our architect, John Spears; general contractor, Aaron Holmes; and EarthCraft technical advisor, Chris Conway. We gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony to recognize the milestones we achieved so far and commemorate the start of the construction project for our new home. Since it was in the teens and low 20 degrees (F) for several days prior to and during our groundbreaking, the topsoil was frozen and extremely hard, so we were able to break away only a few pieces of dirt. We enjoyed some champagne after the groundbreaking (non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider for Andreas, since he was flying that day). Here are some photos (note the beatiful super-silt and tree protection fencing Andreas installed in the background).

Mike (on left) and Andreas (on right).

Aaron (on left); Mike, Andreas, John (on right).

Chris (on left), Mike, Andreas.

Timber!!!

Sorry for not posting over the past couple of weeks. We've been out of town for work most of the time, and working on prepping the lot for construction between trips. We closed on the land on January 2nd and the next week the crew was there to take down the trees that needed to be removed. If you've read all the blog postings, you'll recall that we struggled with the decision on which trees to remove, especially the question of the large maple on the front of the lot. Here's a picture as the trees were being taken down.

In the front of the photo, you see the old, green sheds Andreas and I dismantled. The vast majority of the sheds have been taken to the Fairfax County solid waste center where they'll rot away. As Andreas posted earlier, the metal shed was taken for recycling.

For the most part, the tree branches were turned to mulch and are now being used as a root protection matting to save the three holly trees on the South side of the property. The black walnut tree trunks were hauled away by an artist/furniture designer/woodworker who will use the wood in crafts projects. He's also giving one of the black walnut logs to the Corcoran School for students to use in carving and woodworking projects. We feel that went to a wonderful home since we couldn't afford to have the wood milled and prepped for use in our house.

In addition, almost 1/2 of the tree protection fencing and silt fence for erosion control has been installed by Andreas. The rest should be installed tomorrow while I get caught up on paperwork/administrative items for our home construction project and spend the rest of the day on my real job.

After we get the geotextile material from the distributor this week, we can have the tree protection measures inspected and then the construction entrance can be built. Excavation will begin right after that construction entrance is inspected.

To sum it up, I think we're making good progress so far and we're looking forward to the big dig!

Recycling Pays

One of the old sheds that Mike wrote about in his earlier post went to Potomac Metals to be recycled today. We took all 195 pounds worth of steel there and got ... $2. Who says being environmentally responsible doesn't have a quick payoff!

Shed No Tears

Andreas and I spent much of the weekend taking down the three sheds that were on our new lot. One was metal and two were made of wood. All of them had a lot of junk on the inside we'll have to have hauled away. Per our real estate contact, the sheds were supposed to have been completely empty before closing. Most of the junk that the sheds contained was removed, but there was still a pile of stuff the sellers didn't take out of them. So that was the first order of business; demolition followed.

The metal one (steel, we think) was the easiest of the three to take down and that's now in the back of my truck to take for recycling. The wood ones were more challenging and, in fact, the biggest one is only 95% broken down. We made that much progress only because during a lunch break, Andreas suggested we rent a chain saw to assist with the project. That was a smart recommendation and one that saved us a lot of time and effort.

Also today, we put a letter introducing ourselves and our project at the front door of our neighbors surrounding the lot. We invited them to stop by and visit and we apologized, in advance, for any noise and dust we may make throughout construction. The highlights of the day were when several neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves and say hello. Everyone was exceptionally friendly and we're excited to (eventually) move into the neighborhood.

Sorry we didn't take any pictures today. We were hoping to get the sheds completely torn down, to show the lot without them, but we worked until the sun went down. Andreas will be back on the lot first thing tomorrow morning to meet our arborist who will be starting the tree removal project.

At long last!

Today is the day we thought would never arrive. We just got back from a wonderful meeting at Lighthouse Title in Arlington, VA where Tina guided us through the closing process. At looonnnngggg last - we now own the lot! Or, more accurately, our lender does (Access National Bank in Reston, VA.) Tina and her colleagues at Lighthouse Title and Terri and her colleagues at Access National Bank worked their tails off the last few days - during the holiday season - to wrap up the details for the loan so we could close today. We greatly appreciate their hard work on our behalf and we were extremely impressed with the professionalism and high level of customer service that everyone provided throughout the process.

To make the day even more perfect, our wonderful realtor, Suzanne Fauber with Buck & Associates in Arlington, VA, gave us a bottle of Pride Mountain Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. I can't wait to open that to celebrate!

I'm glad the weather forecast for this weekend calls for sun. We will spend tomorrow and Sunday working to clear away the three large garden sheds that currently are on our new property. Andreas has already talked to the tree removal expert and on Monday a crew will be on-site to remove certain trees, including the large maple I wrote about in the beginning of this blog.

We will be able to start construction after a couple more details are worked through with the general contractor and our fantastic lender.

For Larry M.

Our friend Larry M. has asked me several times to post an image with the floor plan/layout to this blog. He has seen the drawings on paper and asked why they're not posted to this blog. Well, here they are. The first image shows the main level/first floor. That includes two bedrooms located on opposite ends of the house. The master bedroom is on the East side (the right side of the image) and the guest room/office is on the West side (obviously on the left side of the image). The heart of the house contains the kitchen, dining and living rooms all open in one big great room (okay, not so big, but it will feel much more open than if we walled off each room). The entrance to the house will be on the North side (at the top of the picture) just across from the stairs into the basement. In the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs, when one walks in, the ceiling will be lower and as one turns to the great room, with the roof slanting/rising up, the eyes will be drawn to the expanse of windows on the Southern side.

The lower level (aka the basement) will have a third bedroom and rough-in plumbing for a third bathroom. The washer/dryer will go into the basement as well. Eventually we will divide the basement a bit more to add a media room with my wine collection, and there will be a workshop (future airplane building area).

Solar, Solar Everywhere

Yes, I know it's been a long time since we posted anything. The state of the financial markets left us scrambling to find financing after the lender the mortgage broker found for us decided they were no longer going to do construction loans. So we had to start over with finding a bank. More on that later.

Solar, Solar Everywhere - in Bavaria that is. Andreas and I just returned from a Christmas trip to Germany to spend the holidays with his family. One of the things that struck us on this trip was how much solar energy is being captured in Germany. Old barns, old farm houses, new houses, and commercial buildings of all sizes had solar PV panels capturing energy and/or solar water heaters. It was amazing and refreshing. Hopefully that's something we'll see in our country in the not too distant future. Hopefully Obama's commitment to green collar jobs and potential tax incentives for renewable energy options will lead to more affordable solar power in the U.S. Cost certainly is an issue for us, which is why our house will be solar ready instead of solar powered.

It's Easy Being Green

We've posted earlier blogs about the EarthCraft Virginia certification program. On Tuesday, we met with Chris Conway, our EarthCraft technical advisor; John Spears, our architect; and Aaron Holmes, our construction manager, to review the EarthCraft certification standard and to determine if we met the requirements and could achieve enough points for the house to be EarthCraft certified.

EarthCraft has three levels of certification: regular EarthCraft House, Tier 2 (known as EarthCraft Select), and Tier 3 (known as EarthCraft Premium). As you might guess, the required standards are even more stringent for tiers 2 and 3 and more points are required for each higher tier. (150 for regular, 200 for tier 2, and 230 for tier 3)

It took over three hours to review the certification technical standards worksheet line-by-line and compare that with our house plans. Since we set out for this to be a green house, we expected to easily achieve the regular EarthCraft House certification. After the careful review, it became clear that we had met all of the requirements for EarthCraft Premium certification AND we earned 462 total points as we calculated them. The certification restricts the total number of points that can be earned for certain categories (e.g., Durability, Energy Efficiency) and when we capped our points for these categories, we were still left with 331 points. Since Tiers 2 and 3 are new categories as of April this year and, to the best of our knowledge, no one else has built an EarthCraft Premium certified house, we have a chance at being the first EarthCraft Premium House in Virginia. That would be wonderfully amazing if we can make it a reality.

Kermit the Frog says it's not easy being green. I beg to differ. It is easy - you just need the right architect!

GreenFest

GreenFest is starting in DC and it ends on Sunday. I'll arrive home from California on Sunday morning and plan to go on Sunday to sit in some educational sessions and walk the exhibit floor. Check out their site: http://www.greenfestivals.org/.

Certifiably Crazy

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.

What a Surprise!

I opened my email to grab and then post the scanned image of the building permit, and received a delightful surprise. Our house designer, John Spears with Sustainable Design Group, emailed me some artistic renderings of the house. Computer imaging is truly amazing. I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I did.

Building Permit

Three Steps Forward....

So many things came together this week and we're very thankful for that. First, as Andreas posted, the CBIRT meeting went well on Wednesday. Second, on Wednesday evening, we received the completed appraisal, and the value of our project was better than we had hoped for, which should allow us to obtain the financing we want. Third, on Friday morning, the City issued the building permit to us.

The 30 day appeal process (whereby City residents can appeal the issuance of the building permit) is counting down - it ends on November 16th. We scheduled closing for the land for November 17th (tentative date which will be changed only if there's a valid appeal of the building permit, which we don't expect since we didn't ask for any variances and everything is in line with the city code).

We're now working on the co-ownership agreement with our lawyers, developing the detailed project plan, and awaiting the final confirmation on the financing (the loan underwriter will be going through the appraisal with a fine-tooth comb in the next few days). Also, I'm working on a public relations/marketing plan for this project to give visibility to environmentally friendly design and construction principles, and to recognize our partners who are collaborating with us on this project.

Sea Birds

The City of Falls Church has a public review process for the approval of grading plans - the Chesapeake Bay Interdisciplinary Review Team (CBIRT). Each grading plan gets discussed at the CBIRT meeting; neighbors within 150 feet of the property are invited, and a public notice appears in the Falls Church News-Press.
Today was our turn.
Normally, people show up to complain about one aspect or another of the proposed construction (even though, strictly speaking, the meeting is only about grading, zoning, and tree preservation compliance). I had a bet with the City's Zoning Administrator that someone would turn up to complain that the house was too small.
Well, nobody showed up to complain - and within a half hour the meeting was over. Our grading plan now has a big "APPROVED" stamp on it; and with the grading plan approved, we can now go and collect the remaining signatures on our building permit. The hope is that within the next day or two, we'll have our building permit issued as well.
And then, we waits.
Our contract for the land is structured so that we close 30 days (to allow for appeals) after issuance of the building permit - we wanted to avoid owning an unbuildable lot. So our next challenge is to find financing. As Mike wrote in an earlier post, Debbie Perper is working hard for us on that aspect. Tentatively, we've scheduled closing for the middle of November, more than a year since we first started this process.
I should say that everyone at the City has been wonderful, especially in working around the fact that we don't technically own the lot yet - all plan and permit approvals are typically issued to the property owner, and only after tree protection and sediment control has been put in place. But with a few quickly drawn-up letters of agreement (we agree to put tree preservation and sediment control measures in place within 7 days after closing on the lot) we were able to work around this. I'm sure not every municipality is this helpful.
It feels like we're on the home stretch.
At least until we start with the building portion!

Appraisal Coming Soon

One aspect of obtaining a construction loan is getting an appraisal for the project (land value + building value). Given the volatility of the financial markets this past week, we were understandably a bit concerned about how the appraiser would view our project. Tonight we received an email from our mortgage broker stating the following:

Just an FYI that the appraiser loves the plans. Here is some of what he has told me:

We are working on Falls Church property. It is an inspiration what they are doing.

The subject property is extremely close to West Falls Church Metro, where there is to be a large new town to be built this Spring.

They are so smart and got a great price on the lot too. Brilliant! Appraised value will indicate an entrepreneurial profit after all costs (acquisition & construction). $X-$X at the end of the day.

Again it is such a blessing/inspiration to be a part of this process. I repeatedly communicate to people of how great open floor plans/contemporary architecture is. My favorite modern edifices are Dulles Airport, the East Gallery and Falling Water.”

We should see a report early next week I hope.

The appraisal is the key ingredient for our financing. Without financing, there's no Falls Church Erdhaus. Needless to say, this email made our day. Sorry for X-ing out the numbers in the quote above, but you understand.

Canadian Center for Architecture

I'm in Montreal, Canada for work this week for meetings at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The U.S. Delegation met for dinner this evening and since we all share an interest in architecture, visited the Canadian Center for Architecture. The CCA had an exhibit called, "Some Ideas on Living in London and Tokyo by Stephen Taylor and Ryue Nishizawa". It was quite an enjoyable exhibit; the contemporary design of the Tokyo architecture was quite appealing to me and both architects were effective in their use of very small lots. Here's how the CCA describes this exhibit:

"The exhibition marks the first North American presentation of residential projects by Taylor and Nishizawa and reveals their ideas addressing the challenges of building homes in existing city environments. Due to their scale, extensive built environment, and existing efforts to grow the city from within, London and Tokyo face similar urban development issues but occupy cultural contexts in which themes of proximity, privacy, community, and public space take on different meanings and require distinct solutions."

Financing in Today's Market

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!

Are We There Yet?

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!

Amicus Green Building

After I published the last blog, I thought of something else I wanted to mention - that is a store in Kensington, MD that specializes in environmentally-friendly products. The store is called Amicus Green Building supply. We got a quote for our kitchen cabinets from them and we're planning to buy our soy-based stain for the concrete floor there. We're also intrigued with a product called American Earth Clay plaster. I received an email from Amicus promoting a seminar on applying this plaster yourself and called within two days of getting the email. But by the time I called the class was filled. So I'm now on their waiting list.

Check out American Clay at http://www.americanclay.com/ and Amicus at http://www.amicusgreen.com/.