Do these jeans make my house look fat?

As promised, here is the low-down on the various types of insulation that we’re using in the new house.  I’ll start from the inside out:

2nd floor hallway (laundry room on left)

That’s the insulation that we’re using for acoustic purposes in the interior walls and floors throughout the house.  We’re not putting it everywhere, but we’re using it for places where we want to minimize noise transfer from room to room, such as the bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry room.  This isn’t your standard out-gassing, scratchy fiberglass; it’s made of recycled blue jeans, treated with (non-toxic) borates for fire-, mold-, and pest- protection.  It’s much denser than fiberglass, so it makes a good acoustic barrier, and it doesn’t produce any harmful vapors (fiberglass has formaldehyde).  It’s also as soft as you’d expect old blue jeans to be, so you don’t even need gloves to install it, and since it’s made almost entirely of recycled material, it’s eco-friendly.

Next is the spray foam that we’re using to insulate the ceiling and interior wall of the garage, as well as the band-boards, which are the structural components that the joists and trusses are anchored into.  This is what we planned to use for these spots from the beginning, although I did a bunch of research into other materials.  The downside to spray foam is that it’s quite a bit more expensive than alternatives.  However, Jeff the Builder felt that it was important to seal the garage from the rest of the house, and since the foam expands to fill all the nooks and crannies around the ductwork and joists, it was the best option.  It also provides very good thermal and acoustic performance.

Garage ceiling

As noted before, the entire wall structure of the basement is made of Superior Walls, which are insulated, precast concrete sections.  We got the Xi model, which has an R-value of 12.5.  [Note: R-value is the standard measure of insulation performance, and it's linear; for example, R-20 is twice as well-insulated as R10.  Standard 2x4 frame walls are usually insulated to R-13, and 2x6 frame walls usually go to R-19.]  Since most of the basement is underground, thus well-insulated by the earth, R-12.5 should be plenty, but we’re having JtB add more foam board insulation to the above-ground portions of the walls of the mancave, bringing those walls to R-20.

We also insulated the floor of the mancave before pouring the slab, which is a step that is often overlooked but highly recommended by building experts.  Even though the ground is a good insulator, it’s always around 55 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit, in case our British readers were freaking out), so it’s hard for the basement to get fully warm if there’s nothing but concrete on the floor.  By insulating the slab, we should have a nice, warm basement in the winter.

The SIPs that form the roof and exterior walls of the house have polyurethane foam in the center, so we don’t need to use any additional insulation there.  The ones we have are rated at R-24 for the walls and R-40 for the roof, which is far beyond standard insulation.

I should also mention the concept of thermal breaks (don’t go to sleep on me here!):  In standard walls that are framed with wood studs, the insulation (usually fiberglass batts) only fills the cavities between the studs, which means that the portion of the walls where the studs are is essentially uninsulated.  Consequently, an R-13 rating for this kind of wall is over-optimistic; the effective R-value is probably around 10, assuming no air leakage, which stud-framed walls are prone to.  The SIPs and Superior Walls have no uninsulated studs in the middle and are completely sealed from air leakage, so their real-world R-values are pretty much the same as their rated R-values.  [Technical note: the Superior Walls do have concrete studs, but they are wrapped all the way around with insulation]

The only weak links in our insulation are the windows and doors, but even there we got the highest-performing ones that we could get (within reason).  We’re using all double-pane, low-e, argon filled windows, and the doors are fully-insulated with foam.

I think it’s time for me to end this lesson.

Keeping warm

Today’s theme is warmth.  As in, what does it take to insulate a house?

Judging by what’s going on at our place today, it would appear that we’re a bit, um, obsessive in the insulation area.

We already have the SIPs and Superior Walls for the basement and exterior walls.

Today, the spray-in insulation guys arrived this afternoon (truck on the left) to work on the garage and Jeff the Builder picked up insulation for interior walls on the first and second floors (truck on the right):

Since some of the basement walls are above grade, Jeff the Builder is installing these for extra insulation:

Pete’s going to write a post on insulation sometime soon, so if you have questions, just leave ‘em in the comments.

More photos tomorrow!

Tying up a few loose ends

Again, it seems like a lot has happened since yesterday.

First of all, the city inspector signed off on the plumbing today.  When he was out last week, the plumbing wasn’t finished, so he only passed the electrical.  So we are officially approved to move forward with insulation and drywall!

We’re using different kinds of insulation in different places, which Pete will explain in a later post.  For now, the important thing is that the guy who’s doing the spray-in insulation in the garage is coming tomorrow.  This is the stuff that sprays in wet and then immediately (or some approximation of that timing) dries into a styrofoam-like material.  Oh yeah, I’m going to try to be over there during that bit of fun.

Also, I sent Jeff the Builder an email with the final (I hope) list of cabinets and other fixtures for the bathrooms.  We still haven’t decided on the vanity for the master bathroom, but we have several ideas.

I also picked out the final ceiling fan, which was a relief, because I had been searching for months for one for our bedroom.  I chose one that I saw months ago and liked, but for some reason decided to torture myself by continuing the search anyway.  I also finally found sconces for the halls and lights for the bathrooms, so those things are checked off my list.

And that list?  Well, it’s gone from around 90 or so things we had to pick out to less than a dozen.  Of that dozen, that includes all the appliances for the kitchen.  It’s been fun to shop for everything, but I’m thrilled to be nearly finished.  I am officially burned out on hardware stores and tile websites and all that stuff.  It feels good to finally make decisions on various things and just be DONE.

(But I am not burned out on shopping for rugs and furniture, so Pete should not relax quite yet.)

Inside, our guys got the drywall up in the garage:

And then outside they’ve been working on the siding (side of the house):

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have photos of the spray-in insulation.

Things just keep moving along

I popped over to the house for a few minutes today.  Everywhere I looked, there was activity:

• Jesse was working on drywall in the garage.
• A subcontractor was working on something else in the basement.
• Jeff the Builder and Tom were upstairs working on extra blocking in the walls so that we can hang cabinets and stuff in the bathrooms.
• The bathtub is now in place in the bathroom.
• There’s a stack of drywall on the second floor.  Pete told me there’s a special kind that’s used in bathrooms when tile’s being installed and I think this is that kind.
• I noticed a new hook-up for the water heater.
• And I noticed that there’s new plumbing in the master bathroom shower for the shower head.

I said something to Jeff the Builder about the house being chilly and wondering when the heat pump will be installed and he said we’ll have electricity inside the house by next week and the heat pump will be functional not long after that.

No rest on Sunday

Today was a busy day over at the house.

First of all, Pete and Jeff the Builder met at the hardware store to pick out toilets, faucets, and other things.

Then, they brought everything over to the house and unloaded.

While they were doing that, I continued with my gardening efforts from last weekend and got the third vegetable/herb bed built:

I still need to put dirt, compost, and whatnot in garden in the middle, but I’m getting there, slowly but surely.  I’ve scaled back my plans from building four gardens to only three this fall.  There’s only so much I can get done at this point, as I’m busy at our current house de-cluttering, sprucing things up, and doing some early packing.

As you can see, I planted something in the closest bed — some rosemary from my current herb garden.  I also transplanted some irises that were originally in my grandparents’ yard and then moved to our current house.

By the way, the guys finished the siding on the back of the house:

In the lower left corner, you can see the beginnings of the back steps.

In the meantime, Pete and Jeff the Builder were inside running network cables and other stuff.  Yes, we are firmly in the 21st century and have wireless, but Pete wanted to run all sorts of cables anyway before the drywall goes up.

And where were our children?  Why, in their rooms, of course.

The older girl:

The younger girl was in her room too, but first she closed her door:

Of course, there’s no drywall on the walls…

In other news, we are finishing up our choices for the bathrooms.  We’ve long since picked out the cabinets for the upstairs main bathroom (Ikea, of course), but need to figure out the master bathroom.  I’ve always wanted drawers in the vanity so that I can properly organize my toiletries.  Our first house didn’t have them and our current house does not have them.  So, it’s very important to me that we have them in the new house.  Unfortunately, Ikea vanities don’t have drawers in them, but you can buy a separate drawer unit.  The thing is, our bathroom is so small that we have very limited space and the drawers won’t fit. So, Pete and I have been looking but haven’t had much luck.  if we do find something with drawers, it’s too big or too traditional or too ugly.  We found two online that we like, but one is too big and the other is too expensive.  We’ve been brainstorming with Jeff the Builder and he thinks he might be able to create something, so hopefully that will work out.

While at the house today, Jeff the Builder and I went through and planned out the exact placement of bathroom cabinets, mirrors and wall cabinets, and towel bars.  The guys are going to do extra blocking in the walls for extra support.

I also gave Jeff the Builder my measurements for the pantry.  I want certain shelves to be at certain heights.  Yes, I already know exactly where I’m putting things.  For example, the bottom shelf will be 20″ off the ground so that I can store certain things on the floor.  Then, I want 15″ between the bottom shelf and the next one up so that I can keep all the small appliances there.  And so forth…

And that’s all I have for you today.  More soon!

Deluxe plumbing, part 2

Since Jen mentioned the plumbing manifold recently, I thought that I’d give a quick explanation of what it is and why it’s better.  A traditional tree-type plumbing setup branches off in various places throughout the house, whereas a plumbing manifold is a central point from which every supply line goes directly to an outlet.  I had thought that it would look like this:

Alas, the red (hot) and blue (cold) tubing is only available in shorter sections, so our plumber wisely used the white tubing, which is available in long rolls, thus minimizing the number of joints that have to be made.

Anyway, some advantages of a plumbing manifold are:

• Direct lines to each fixture mean that the shower pressure doesn’t drop when someone flushes the toilet or starts the dishwasher.
• Smaller-diameter lines can be used, which means that hot water reaches its destination faster since there’s less water standing in the pipes.
• Each line has its own shut-off at the manifold in case you want to selectively turn off a fixture, such as an outside faucet or a shower that someone has been using for 30 minutes.
• It looks cool.

Related to this is the fact that we had the manifold installed in the 2nd floor laundry room, which is adjacent to the two upstairs bathrooms and almost directly above the 1st floor bathroom.  Since the laundry room also contains the water heater, the hot water doesn’t have to travel very far to get to where it’s used the most (the kitchen is the one exception, although it’s not actually that far, either).

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff

Lots of fun stuff to report today.

Outside the house, the guys continue to work on the siding as they have time and close to finishing the back of the house:

The roofing panels were delivered today, so the crew started installing those.  The roof will be clad in galvanized corrugated metal.  Yes, it’s pretty much the same stuff you see on chicken coops out in the country.  We love the look and just had to have it on our roof, even though it’s not at all visible except by helicopter.  No matter, we know it’s there and that’s good enough for us.

Amazingly, we actually have a photo of the roof from earlier today.  Jeff the Builder has been enjoying all the uses and applications of his new iPhone:

Inside the house, the guys have also been busy hanging our beautiful doors. For example, here are the closets in the master bedroom:

I’m going to love looking at those every morning when I wake up.  And not just because it will mean I have my very own closet.

And in other big news, the plumbing manifold is in:

I know there’s all sorts of technical plumbing stuff I should mention here, but I don’t know what it would be.  If there’s something you want to know, leave a comment and Pete will answer it for you.  That includes any questions about what kind of water heater we’re getting, because I honestly cannot remember what Pete and Jeff the Builder decided.

In other fun news, various supplies are being delivered to the house.  Trust me, this is pretty exciting.

For example, check out these boxes of bathroom tiles:

The tub surround in the upstairs hall bathroom will have postage stamp glass mosaic tiles in mixed blues.  The shower in our bathroom will have Imagine Tile on the floor and simple 6′ white tiles for the walls.  We’ve been wanting the Imagine Tiles for 12 years now, but nearly had a collective stroke when we got the estimate on doing the entire shower (the rocks on the floor and the water design on the walls).  So we came up with a compromise that we’re happy with.

Our sexy kitchen sink is here too:

It’s a stainless steel double farmhouse sink and it will be the second thing you notice when you walk into our kitchen.  The first thing will be the slate counter on the peninsula.  At least, that had better be the first thing people notice!

I also noticed some drywall in the basement, means that the drywall dudes are coming soon.  They can’t come until the city inspector comes out for a visit to look over the plumbing and electricity and whatnot, and I think he’s coming this week.

One final fun note.  The crew has been enjoying our lovely fall weather with picnic lunches in the backyard.  Sometimes, they’re joined by spouses and significant others, including Jesse’s wife and baby daughter:

If I had to guess, I’d say that Jeff the Builder was standing on the roof when he took this. Since the days are getting cooler, Pete and I are going to take some chairs over soon so that everyone will have a place to sit when it’s too cold to eat outside.

More soon!

In the garden

Yesterday, I got to do something I’ve been anticipating with glee for many months — I planted my very first bush in the back yard.

(It’s a butterfly bush.)

This might not seem like a big deal, but if you consider what my gardening efforts have been like for nearly a decade, my enthusiasm over the new yard makes a lot more sense.

For almost nine years I have been gardening through process of elimination.  We bought our 1970s house from the original owner and her gardening philosophy was to cram as many bushes and trees in to one half acre as is possible.  Then, repeat the process.  So, when we first moved in, one of our first tasks was to cut down holly hedges that were over 7′ tall, thin out trees that were only inches apart, and generally try to bring some sunlight into our domain.  Only then could I add flowers, vegetables, and herbs.  I’ve since spent a lot of time continuing to deal with the planting choices the previous owner made, which was maddening.

So for more than two presidential terms, I have stood at the windows and gazed over the yard and tried to imagine what I could have done if I hadn’t had to  fight the Towering Holly Hedge of Death or the Multiplying-Like-Bunnies Redbuds.

And now I have that opportunity.

Imagine me rubbing my hands together in glee.

I have a general idea of what the new yard will be like, but will be working with one of my best friends, who just happens to be an arborist (yes I choose my friends wisely), to develop a comprehensive landscaping plan.

One area in which I already have solid plans is the kitchen garden.  I like a tidy kitchen garden — one that is clearly delineated by raised beds or precise borders. For these new gardens, I knew I wanted to edge them in concrete edgers, as the yard slopes a bit and using lumber to define the beds would have been nearly impossible to do with the slope. Plus, lumber eventually starts to fall apart and the concrete will not.  Even if one or two break, they’ll be easily replaced.

I want a minimum of four 4′ X 8′ beds, but ultimately will have at least six:

• one dedicated to asparagus
• one dedicated to strawberries
• one for the younger daughter, who wants to play edamame (soybeans) — she planted them for the first time this summer and was so excited about her success that next summer she plans to plant seeds every week for a month so that she’ll have a continuous harvest of edamame for July and part of August.
• one for the older daughter, who wants to plant potatoes, cannellini (white kidney beans), and flowers.
• one or two for me to plant tomatoes, herbs, peppers, pumpkins, garlic, and more

This past week, I started gathering my supplies.

Each bed will require 24 edgers.  I went to the store and started loading the cart.  When I hit 48 edgers (two beds), I decided that perhaps I might need to break this project into smaller chunks, because each one of those edgers weighs around five pounds.  I laboriously hauled over 200 pounds of edgers to the checkout and then to the van, where I unloaded them.  (All the while mentally whimpering over the thought of having to unload them and carry them to the back yard.)

Then I went back into the store for dirt, manure, and compost.  Normally, I’d have all that delivered to the house, but this really isn’t a good time to add anything else to what’s going on over there.  So I calculated how many 40 pounds bags I’d need for the first two beds — eight — and loaded them onto the cart, hauled them to the register, and then dragged them out to the van.  That’s 320 pounds of dirt, manure, and compost.

I unloaded some things at the house that day, just so that the rear end of the van wouldn’t drag.  Then, Pete and the girls helped me do the rest on Saturday.

Yesterday, I went over in the morning and started building.

Guess what I discovered about our new yard?  It’s filled with rocks.  So much so, that I’m thinking we should called our new domain “Rocky Hill.” Actually, what went through my mind while I was working was “[insert really bad words here] Rocky Hill.”

Luckily, I had a shovel, so I was able to dig out plenty of rocks that the dudes with the backhoes so carefully steamrolled into the yard when they were moving the big pile of dirt.

I’m not actually all that upset about the rocks because I’ll definitely make use of them next year when I start creating flower beds, but digging them up was not part of my plan yesterday.

I laid out one 4′ X 8′ bed, covered the grass inside the rectangle with a thick layer of newspapers, and then started adding dirt, manure, and compost.

Uh oh.

It would appear that my calculations were a bit off.  Instead of needing four bags per garden, I’m going to need SEVEN.

So, I filled only one garden and need to go get six more bags of dirt, etc.

*whimper*

Not to mention the fact that I still need to get everything I’ll need for the other two beds I want to build this fall.

*whimper*

Oh well, in the meantime, I laid out the edgers for the second bed and then used rocks to mark the corners of the third bed that I will so-help-me-god build in the next week or two.  I am so very Martha Stewart that I measured carefully to ensure an even 4′ spacing  between the beds, as well as an even 6′ spacing from the fence.  Why so much?  Because next spring I’m going to plant at least four blueberry bushes along the fence, so I need room for those, as well as a path between the gardens and the bushes.

Here’s what things look like so far:

Finished bed in the back, half finished bed in the middle, and rocks marking the corners of an unstarted bed in the front.

See what I mean about Martha Stewart?  And I’m only getting started.

After all that, I planted the bush that I mentioned at the beginning of this rather lengthy post.  My dear friend/favorite neighbor had a butterfly bush self sow some babies and she dug one up for me, knowing that I intend to plant numerous butterfly bushes in the new yard.  Sharing plants with this friend has been one of my gardening delights.  When my grandparents moved out of their house, I dug up dozens of my grandmother’s irises and brought them home and shared them with my neighbor.  She and I are now dividing our respective iris patches so that I’ll have my grandmother’s irises in the new yard.  My neighbor knows that I’m planning a lavender garden, so she’s preparing one of her huge lavender plants to be divided next spring.  And so on.

[Side note to any family and friends who might already be thinking about my 40th birthday next May and wondering what would be the perfect gift for me:  Plants, people.  Lots of 'em.  Seriously.  Just hook me up with some plants and I'll be more than happy.  Bonus points if you come over to the house and get muddy with me out in the yard.]  [And I mean that in a totally non-smutty all-about-the-garden sort of way.]

Today, my back and lower body ache from all the bending over yesterday, but it was totally worth it.  I’m blissfully happy about the beginnings of my gardens.  There’s not a lot I can do with all the construction going on, but at least I could get started on this one project.

In other news, the electricians will be back at the house today and I’m guessing our guys will be working on the siding.

More soon!

Siding, electrical stuff, and gorgous doors

I know, I know, I haven’t updated in a few days.  Sorry.  There’s still lots going on, but I’m not sure how interested y’all are in electrical and plumbing stuff.

First of all, the crew has been working on the siding as the weather permits.

In the back:

So now the different sections of siding in different sizes should be a bit more clear.  Jeff the Builder’s thought was that mixing things up like that will help break up the mass of gray and I think he was spot on.

And in the front:

Inside, the biggest changes have been the increasing amount of electrical stuff being installed. For example, in the master bathroom, here are the box and vent for the fan, as well as the can-like thingy for a recessed light over the shower:

So, lots and lots of electrical stuff.

I also learned yesterday that it is now required by code to have wired-in smoke detectors all over the place, including one in each bedroom.  I live in a 1970s house with just one screwed-on detector on each floor, so this change was totally new to me.

Our crew has also started installing the interior doors:

You can’t really tell in this photo, but these doors are so nice.  They’re solid.  The wood grain is lovely.  And the doors have been sanded to the point that they’re silky smooth.   I love these doors, which is something I wouldn’t have expected to be so excited over, but I am.

I’ve started making plans for the kitchen garden in the backyard and hope to start building raised beds tomorrow.  I’ll post photos when I’m done.

More soon!

Deluxe plumbing

Check out the two drain lines that will be connected to all of the 2nd-floor plumbing:

Jeff the Builder is our spokesmodel

The black pipe on the right is cast iron instead of the usual PVC plastic; the heavy cast iron muffles most of the noise of the water cascading down the drain whenever someone flushes the toilet.  This is one of those little details that higher-end builders recommend, and it’s been on my dream-house wish list for many years. I think we’ll really notice the reduction in sound (especially since this wall borders our eating area), and the total additional cost was only around $250.

The copper pipe on the left is the centerpiece of our drainwater heat-recovery system.  The water from the two showers/tubs on the 2nd floor drains through the center of this pipe, while cold incoming water flows upward through the tight coil wrapped around the outside.  This transfers heat from the warm drain water to the cold water flowing into the water heater.  As a result, the water heater has to do much less work to heat the water to the correct temperature.  Not only does this save energy (and $$$), but it also effectively increases the capacity of the water heater.  It’s unclear to me why every new house doesn’t have this; it has no moving parts and should pay for itself from day one, since it will reduce our electric bill by more than it adds to our mortgage.

We’re having a couple of other cool plumbing features installed in the very near future, so I’ll have a post on them once I have pictures.