Once again, I have to apologize for my lack of updates. What’s it been… 3 months? It’s embarrassing how much time I’ve let slip by. I’ve received a number of emails inquiring if we’ve run out of money or if I’ve given up on blogging—Thankfully, I can say it’s neither. Work has become entirely consuming, ...
Our ICF foundation has 2 5/8” of foam on the exterior, which created a minor aesthetic challenge for us. To ensure everything was flush once we added the cladding, we needed to strap the exterior walls out to compensate. The ideal solution would have been a continuous layer of rigid foam (for complete thermal break), ...
I suppose I could have come up with a slightly less cliched headline, but whatever… our stairs were installed yesterday and I’m pretty excited. We went with white oak for the treads, which will eventually be stained a dark brown (at least that’s the game plan at the moment). My wife and I had contemplated walnut ...
We’ve obviously shied away from a traditionally pitched roof, however one common misconception about the house is that the roof is flat. While it definitely appears that way from the ground, it actually slopes away from the structure at around 2 degrees. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s enough to keep the water moving and ...
We’re expecting to finish the framing this week, so I figured this might be an appropriate time to reflect on what we encountered along the way. Aside from a few tweaks, I’d say the framing has turned out quite well. However, that’s not to say we haven’t encountered a few unexpected complexities… most of which stemmed ...
Our construction drawings were submitted to the city a few weeks ago, so we’re in a bit of a holding pattern while we wait for our building permits. This process usually takes around 10 business days, so we’re expecting we’ll receive them this week. These latest set of drawings are quite comprehensive and illustrate in great detail ...
I’ve already discussed the benefits of using ICFs for our foundation, but we’re now considering using them to construct the entire building envelope. We had originally expected it to be cost probative, but after getting a few quotes it appears to be comparable to traditional stick framing with spray foam insulation, which makes it far more palatable than ...
When compared to the construction itself, I suppose this may seem somewhat trivial, but I believe communication and collaboration are critical factors that shouldn’t be overlooked. Especially in the design stages of the project. Working with a constrained timeline has required that we communicate openly make decisions as quickly as possible. To maintain forward momentum, we insisted ...
I don’t believe this is particularly common, but we’re planning on building two extra rooms in our basement by excavating the space under our garage. In a typical garage, the floor is simply a concrete slab that sits on top of soil, however we’re going to approach things a bit differently. Because our foundation will be ...
After spending the better part of 2 hours trying to craft this into a witty and/or clever post, I’ve come to realize there isn’t a particularly glitzy way to spin this, so I’m just going to cut right to the chase. I’ve added a calendar to the site! Ahhh, that’s better. I still plan on ...
