Skin on the house

Hello and welcome back to Local Fruit!



Wrapping the moisture membrane



The house project has really picked up pace the past week now that the sun has come out. Framing in the winter means weather delays but our builder’s guys worked through most of the weather. Once the felt was on the roof the guys worked rain or shine.

This short update is mainly to show the skin – outer areas – of the building being applied and installed. The term “water-tight” means that the roof materials are installed to a point of protecting the interior area from rain, the building is wrapped and the windows are installed.

 

Roofing underlayer



The felt product on the roof is pretty cool. It is attached with staples and plastic discs to make a secure water-tight connection. The material is textured and not slick even when wet so it is not slippery to walk on. The roof was covered for a few days, then the vent holes were cut in… in time for the rains of March!



The wrapping of the exterior is standard procedure to create a moisture barrier before the siding is applied. The siding is on site and will take about two weeks to apply.

 

Men installing windows



Windows were delivered yesterday. They are Milgard Tuscany windows, very efficient. Being in the Historic District, we needed to use single hung windows. However, several windows in single hung style do not meet the code requirements for egress. Our window man recommended casement windows that look like single hung- a great idea when trying to meet the conflicting requirements of the City Building Department and the City Historic Commission.

 

Door jams were ordered and temporary doors will be installed to make the house secure. Of course we will need to leave windows open to continue drying the lumber that was exposed to rain for weeks.

 

So now that the building’s skin is being installed, we are taking measures to allow air circulation and increased ventilation so that everything is dry enough in a few weeks to install the spray foam insulation. Even lumber that feels dry to the touch - including some types of lumber yard materials - can actually have a moisture content of up to 16% in California.

 

Now that the rainy season is about over, we are excited that the project is moving forward again. It is fun to drop by the lot and visit the contractors and to watch the neighbors pointing at the house as they walk past. This week windows and gutters were installed. Next week the siding starts to go up.

We are eager to have construction finished and to be able to move in. Even Zoe the dog is happy to go hang out at the house and be stimulated by all the sites, sounds and smells of the project. 

Front of the house



 



 



Advanced Framing in Folsom

Hello and welcome to Local Fruit. The entry this week explains why we chose to invest in the envelope of our home, and specifically highlight the advanced framing techniques that are at the heart of our green construction.

When we started planning for our future home, we spoke with several contractors, architects and designers who all were very competent and professional. However, the top priority on the house is energy efficiency and we wanted to build a home that was designed to minimize electricity and gas usage, and thus cost less to operate in the years ahead. Two phrases were used commonly by the builders with green building experience: “invest in the envelope” and “advanced framing”. The logic is sound – design a solid and well insulated envelope around the living areas; the cost to heat and cool the occupied spaces will be greatly reduced, resulting in a lighter impact on the environment.

The envelope consists of the exterior walls, windows, under the first floor and the attic, in short the entire area that separates inside conditioned air from outside air. Most buildings have leaks caused by spaces that were too small to insulate when built, like electrical outlets and wall corners. By using advanced framing techniques the objective is to allow each and every inch of the envelope to be designed to minimize energy waste. Even the windows were chosen to be as efficient as the budget would allow.

 

Advanced Framing Walls and Floor



 Advanced framing is very cool to watch. The joists and trusses are ordered to the specs of the home and are delivered on site. The lumber is built to the specs of the actual framing requirements per the structural engineer, so very little waste is created at the job site. The floor joists pictured here and wall framing are 2x6 installed 24” on center to both maximize strength and allow for insulation. That means the walls are 6” deep and the studs are 24” apart to maximize capacity for insulation. The location and size of windows is factored into the overall rating for the envelope as well. The result is an integrated system with a higher R-value for walls and attic, which help to significantly lower future utility expenses. Simply using advanced framing techniques can result in a 5% reduction in heating/cooling costs, lower materials costs and a labor savings of 3-5%.



So far, our home is still in the framing stage and the walls are being built at this time. Our builder, Gai Kirkegaard, and Anthony Juarez-Lessing's framing team are doing a great job. They are wonderful guys and we enjoy watching them work. The roof trusses were delivered last week and should be put up this coming week.    

 

Wall and Window Framing



Two of the next tasks are all about energy: insulation and rebates, both are at the heart of the project and are worthy of future blog posts. After all, this is a cool project in a cool area, but our focus is energy and expense reduction. It is exciting to see the house come together!

Roof Truss Delivery



New House Rising in Old Folsom

Advance framing floor joists

Hello and welcome to Local Fruit Folsom!   

Our construction project has benefited from three weeks of dry weather after the foundation was poured.  We continue to enjoy watching the house rise from the foundation, and to see the walls take shape.  This photo shows the advanced framing floor joists.  The advanced framing method allows for lumber orders to be delivered very close to the correct size needed in order to minimize wasted wood and maximize strength. 

Old Zoe watching the neighborhood

The garage apartment is being framed, but without stairs it is difficult to get to the top.  But the main house is easy to enter and we are pleased to walk the spaces.  Even Zoe the dog seems quite content to go to the job site and just hang around, watching squirrels and birds.  What is it about dogs and construction? 

Main house, fig tree, garage

We are measuring the rough walls in each room to verify that the dimensions are right, and found that a bathroom is a few inches too narrow according to the plan.  I may be reading the plans incorrectly because being short by five inches could eliminate the possibility of installing a future shower in the downstairs bath.  One more question to ask our builder, Gai Kirkegaard Construction  and framer…  we are grateful that these guys are patient with us as we are constantly thinking of questions. 

We bought the claw foot bathtub on Friday. Although I feel guilty about buying an iron tub made in China, the fact that it has been sitting in inventory in Sacramento since before the recession eases my conscience.  The builder has asked for the tub delivery to occur the same day and time the lumber crane is lifting roofing trusses.  Of course the scheduling gets complicated as the crane date for delivering roof trusses is a moving target, and the tub delivery can only occur on certain days.  If we can get both events to coincide it will be much easier for the crew. It is not every day that a heavy tub is lifted over trees to be placed in a closet!

Garage - SE Corner

Garage - SW corner

We also ordered the art glass inserts for the small fixed glass windows in the parlor and family room.  Othon Art has a stained glass showroom in nearby Orangevale with a very impressive workshop.  When the glass is ready, we will pick it up and take it to the window company to be incorporated into the frames.  This was actually more fun than any product we’ve had to choose so far. 

Worker coming through the crawl space access

In the past two weeks the first floor subfloor was built, the first floor exterior walls were framed and some of the first floor interior walls were framed.  This week the stairs will be built, the second floor framing will begin and possibly the roofing trusses (and tub!) will arrive.  However, the ten-day forecast calls for rain showers on six of the next ten days; we should expect a weather delay.  After all, we are framing in January and that simply can not be accomplished in most of the country. 

Check in soon as the photos will show significant progress over the next 2-3 weeks.  In addition, the energy calculations should be finalized in the next week or so. We are building this home to be as efficient as possible and it is exciting to see the energy engineers’ reports that quantify the results of our efforts in kilowatt hours and therms.  This means we can estimate the energy spent heating and cooling our home, and also estimate the energy savings (which translates directly to $ savings) and the rebate incentives from the local utility companies.   The energy nerd in me is excited to finalize the utility reports and the frugalista in me is eager to equate the projected energy usage to lower operating expenses.  We are very eager to apply to PG&E and SMUD for rebates.

A New Foundation in Old Folsom

Hello and welcome back to Local Fruit!

The foundation was poured this week which is a huge milestone for our construction project. The foundation was framed over the course of a few days, the inspection was on Wednesday and on Thursday the pumper truck arrived to pour endless amounts of concrete into the extra deep framing trenches. The first cement mixer truck-the whole load-went into one garage foundation wall that was about six feet tall! Today, Friday, the garage floor was poured and trowled until smooth. It has been fascinating to watch the progress.

Yesterday started with the big burly concrete contractors greeting us with smiles. Dan, the man controlling the pumper truck, thanked us for building a house that put his crew to work. Umberto, the supervisor, also thanked us for creating work for his men. It was clear that the ten men working on our site during the pour were professional, friendly, and serious about their work. The youngest-looking guy told me he had fourteen years of experience. I was glad to be able to watch them work, and to see the pride they take in their work.

 

Although we planned to build this energy efficient home in the Historic District of Folsom before the recession, we felt committed enough to the project to continue even in times of economic uncertainty. The sincerity of the gratitude expressed by the work crew was both deeply touching and rewarding. With our wonderful contractor, Gai Kirkegaard, this home is off to a solid start!

Deep Foundations

Hello and welcome back to Local Fruit!

After waiting for what seemed like eons for building permits and weeks for the rain to break, construction has finally begun on the house. If you are following our project you will want to check back often as the house will take shape quickly. Our super-builder, Gai Kirkegaard, has lined up the subcontractors and is chomping at the bit to get this house built and to get us out of his hair. I am the first to admit that I am very detail oriented which is good for a builder; clients like me are time consuming. It is kind of like the saying to be careful what you ask for… you might get a strong minded client who is still a challenge to please.

We are thrilled with the initial feedback from the energy consultant who is performing the Title 24 calculations on the house. All buildings in California must meet or exceed the building code’s energy efficiency standards, known as Title 24. One of the main reasons we are building this home is to build as efficient a home as the budget allows. Our energy engineer uses a program called “Savings by Design” which generates reports on the efficiency of the building compared to Title 24. The initial rating for our home was 53.7% more efficient than Title 24 and the preliminary number doesn’t even consider the solar photovoltaic system or tankless hot water heater. Wow! 53.7% is far above where we thought we would come in and should allow us to achieve our goals to significantly reduce energy use over the next 20 years. It felt good to get good news after such a long wait to start construction.

 

Today we received the not-so-good news that the soil is too soft for the foundation as designed. The soils engineer recommended the foundation trench be twice as deep as was originally designed (think twice as much concrete, twice as much cost). By following his recommendations we will end up with a foundation that is taller than planned, by about 18”. This is significant because of the slope of the lot. From the front of the house it will sit a little higher than we wanted, and the front porch may end up about 4 ½-5’ high. This is not what we planned from a design perspective, and is a hard increase to add to the budget. Yikes.

So as pleased as we are about the energy profile of the home, we did not expect to have such a tall home in the quaint historic district. Landscaping will be critical to create a warm and inviting home, but that is still months away. In the mean time, we are happy to be under construction at last. I hope you come back soon for updates.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/
http://gaikirkegaardconstruction.com/

December brings permits and rain

Hello and welcome back to Local Fruit.

Our new house project has finally cleared the most frustrating hurdle which was obtaining permits from the City of Folsom. After three rounds of comments from City staff, plans being resubmitted with comments, and four long months waiting, we finally have permits! Whoohoo! Of course it is now mid-December and we are in the middle of the wettest rainy season in years.

Had the permits been available two months ago, we would have a foundation by now and maybe enough of a roof to allow work to proceed through the winter. Now the soil will be too saturated to safely allow the heavy equipment access to trench for the foundation and pour cement. I am not complaining, though, because waiting for weather is much more tolerable than waiting for the City to release permits. The City staff is trying to manage their workload in the face of budget cuts, reduced staffing levels and furlough days, all of which impact their ability to turn around projects in a timely manner. Even though I have been frustrated by the City, I am thankful to live in California where construction occurs year-round.

On the bright side, our builder (Gai Kirkegaard Construction) has done as much work as possible prior to obtaining permits: the utility trenches are complete, the temporary electricity is set up and the grading is mostly complete. He even installed an empty conduit for our internet cable utility before filling the last trench and the rains started. The subcontractors are lined up and the administrative tasks of completing contracts and getting their insurance are well underway. Although we can not physically proceed due to weather, work has been scheduled and materials are being ordered for our home.

The forecast for the next ten days calls for rain, but that is okay. After all, Christmas is next week and I don’t expect much to happen during the holidays. I had hoped to hang a wreath on a house under construction and to take Wassail (a hot cider drink) to the workers this week; I will just make Wassail next month instead to take to the workers when they start digging and hammering in cold weather.

We are pleased to have permits and to be ready to really get building in January. Meanwhile, it is Christmas in Folsom and we are a little cheerier than a week ago! We are healthy, our local high school just won the state football championship, and we will see family in San Jose and at the Oakland Zoo next week. (My sister works with giraffes at the zoo, and we will go visit her at work.  I do not have a family member living in the zoo that I am aware of at this time...)

Thank you for following Local Fruit and I hope to show you more about our project in 2011.

Merry Christmas!

http://gaikirkegaardconstruction.com/

http://www.folsom.ca.us/about/default.asp

http://www.oaklandzoo.org/

Waiting for the Permit

We are still waiting for the permit...

Our project is in that anxious phase between submitting to the City and receiving a permit to build.  This is a very frustrating phase because there is so little feedback to us as owners of the project.  We submitted to the City in October, and hoped to have a permit in hand in November and be able to start construction.  Our wonderful builder, Gai Kirkegaard, is as eager to proceed as we are; he is equally frustrated with the City of Folsom and the on-going challenges that are put before us.  We really do want to build a house, and we really do want to pay a boatload of fees to the City.  It is reasonable to think that the City staff would be supportive and receptive to our small project as we are putting people to work and generating much needed fee revenue for the City.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.  This phase of a construction project is not supposed to take long, unless your project is in wholesome Folsom! Today is December 2, 2010;  With any luck we will have a permit by Christmas and we will wait for the rains to subside so that the subcontractors can start our foundation.  The pressure will be on to finish by 7/1 so we can move out of the rental an into our home.

http://gaikirkegaardconstruction.com/