Category — project

We’re getting to the point where we’re making final adjustments to the plan. Bob sent along some of the details based on our last meeting for us to review. I think we’re getting there!

Upstairs bath

First, the upstairs bathroom. Early on we had discussed using glass block to partition the shower and tub area from the toilet and sink area, and then using a sliding glass door to close the partition and give the toilet area some privacy when someone is in the tub. Without going too much into details, Bill and I decided that such an arrangement really wouldn’t work for the way we live, and the extra expense for a feature we wouldn’t use was dumb. (Although I really would like one day to have a good place to use the stainless steel barn door hardware.) What we ended up with is a little more traditional layout, with a drop-in tub instead of an alcove one which means we’ll probably have some tile. I am really not looking forward to picking out tiles, because there are just too many to choose from (and nearly all of it is beige). Decoration aside, I think this layout will work really well. I would open the shower door the other direction, though (hinges north).

Accessible Bath

We’ve spent a lot of time on M’s main bath. Most ADA-style bath layouts assume the person is either totally independent in their wheelchair or totally dependent, and M is neither. We really struggled with arranging things for the way she lives now (needing very short distances between fixtures so she doesn’t have to walk far nor stand long) and planning for the future (be sure that her bath could accomodate her, a wheelchair and an assistant). Therefore, we’ve got the bath arranged so she can use it now, and will plan on modifying it when the need arises. There will be plumbing in the South wall so that there is space next to the toilet for a chair and a helper. (Should we have “Future Sink” put on the plan for the bids?)

Basement fireplace

Making appliance selections as early as possible gives one the opportunity to design the space for the object. We knew we wanted a wood-burning fireplace in the basement lower level, and we knew that it would need a chimney. Everything seemed to work out with the fireplace on the east wall, until we realized that the chimney would go right past the east window in our bedroom. When we decided on this fireplace, we looked at the installation instructions and determined that while the chimney can make certain bends, it would probably be easier to install (and possibly a more effective chimney) if we were to put the fireplace in the corner. This is fine with us. We don’t mind sitting with our backs to the windows in winter evenings

Here’s what the chimney will look like. We love the metal tubing, and aren’t interested in boxing it in stone or anything.

Oh, and look for the zeppelin! (Or, more properly, dirigible.) Here’s a possible model — the USS Akron.

It’s been a quiet week in Lake W… er, Whitmore Lake. I’ve gone back to the county to apply for the well permit, which I expect to have in the next couple of days. I’ve asked for underground utilities markers from Miss Dig. I’m ready to call the well company once I get the official permit from the sanitarian.

I found out that the alternating/spiral stair would cost on the order of $2000. However, Bob said today that it would probably not meet Code without some discussion with the inspector, so we decided to forego that option and put in a Code-conforming spiral stair.

We learned that the official name for what we’ve been calling the lookout or cupola is Belvedere, which is cool. It’s nice to know what to call it. One of the last things about the belvedere was the requirement to be able to look in all directions while seated. Bob’s included some custom-shaped windows that will allow us to do that (the sill is about 3 feet from the floor), which worked out to be less expensive than raising the height of the roof. There will be exposed rafters and a somewhat-short ceiling in this space — perfect for hiding away and looking at the “fair view.”

We talked briefly about the deck. For the railing, we’d like to have as little view obstruction as possible, perhaps by continuing the cable rail motif from inside, or by using large glass panels if for some reason we can’t. For the deck floor, we’ll probably go with wood (as opposed to a composite) — unless we find something that’s a little less maintenance. I’m not so interested in using pressure treated lumber (though I’m given to understand that the newer PT stuff is better than the old stuff). However, the deck will be exposed to rain and sun even though it’s covered, so we have to take that into account. There will be a waterproof layer between the deck and the screened porch below, so we won’t get rained on from above when we’re on the porch.

Bob is continuing with the detail drawings, and will make up a Door & Window schedule and a Room Finishes schedule. For the finishes, he’ll fill in what he knows and give us a spreadsheet to fill in the rest (the doors and windows he already knows). As he gets detail sheets completed, he’ll give them to us for review & comment.

To do: Barbara to continue with the water. Bill to try to contact Living Spaces (again — this is not boding well), as well as any other potential builders. Bob to send along a dxf of the plan so far (so we can do 3D things with it), and continue with the drawings. Our target is to have the plans completed by mid-July, perhaps even a builder.

Today we met with Steve Manville (the sanitarian working with us) to clear up the location of the drainfield and to find out more about the well.

We received the approval letter from the sanitarian, but it wasn’t quite right since he began from the wrong start point when laying out the approval area. It’s not a problem — and it’s an easy mistake to make as there are many many property markers next to our lot and I didn’t make sure he knew exactly where we were when Bill painted the one orange. We’ve been going to the lot for over three years now, so we forget that it’s confusing to someone just coming into it.

The approved area will be where I described. However, the letter also had some other interesting information, like we’re in a “well-first” area. (Also, we have to make sure to have two tanks, but that comes later.) None of the older paperwork I have suggests such a thing, and I don’t think any of our neighbors had to sink a well first, but he’s the one with the map and the authority, so we have to have a well in and approved before we can apply for the septic permit.

After looking through the earlier papers, and reviewing the soil samples we took on Tuesday, Steve said that we only need a 100′ isolation distance from the drainfield (and 50 feet from the tanks), as well as the proposed drainfield on Lot G (the northernmost neighboring lot). (I watched him make a note on “our” folder.) This gives us a little more leeway in placing the well.

However, since we must drill the well first, we need to put it somewhere that it won’t get in the way of construction. At least that’s what I expect. I mean, I suppose we don’t want to put the well to the south of the house, because I imagine that that is where the big equipment will be digging away the hill for the foundation.

Before we can apply for the well permit we have to have the plot plan and survey. I’m wondering if it would be useful to talk to the well-drilling company first to get some ideas of where might be a good spot to put the well. We’ll have to have the water tested when the well is dug, but mainly for nitrates, arsenic and other minerals. Bacteria testing should be postponed until the area is not being churned up so much.

I apologize for this all being disjointed, but I wanted to get everything down while it was fresh in my mind. I’ll start talking with the well people next week to see what they suggest.

This morning we met the excavation company (Kovalak, as you can see on the backhoe) and one of the county sanitarians at the lot so we could get a new location for our septic drainfield. Jim Sr. and Steve (it’s a family business) were already there and had gotten their equipment ready a short while before our appointment time.

We walked out to about where we wanted to put the field (at least about where it was on the proposed site plan), and started digging. It’s kind of on the hill; there is a bit of a broader, lower area south of where we were but of course it’s farther from the house.

It was interesting to me to watch this digging stuff. The claw (I’m sure there’s a technical term) makes a hole just as wide as it is, straight down. Steve said that they could go 20 feet deep with that particular machine. Plus, machines are cool! I can’t imagine trying to dig a hole that deeply with a shovel, and this only took a couple of scoops to dig 6 feet down.

Gratuitous shot of dirt in the scoop. Hey! You would have taken it too.

Shortly after Jim Sr. started digging, Steve the sanitarian arrived. His job is to make sure that there is permeable sand at least three feet deep underneath the top soil, in an area big enough to develop two drainfields (one now, one to be built 20 or so years later) that will suit the house. We have a two bedroom house, but it’s big enough to hold four bedrooms, so that’s what size the fields will be made for. Steve’s measuring the start- and end-point of the sand layer. In this hole, it starts about 7 feet under grade (which is rather deep). It’s usable, but it would require us bringing in loads of sand to fill in the drainfield once it’s built.

This is the type of dirt we’re looking for — sand the consistency of brown sugar. It’s alluvial, left over from when the glaciers receded from this area. (At least I think so. I’m not a geologist.) This area was farmed, but I don’t think plows dug ten feet down, so this is a handful of prehistory.

After the auspicious beginning — the first hole was ok (not ideal because of the depth), we hit a few snags. We went south, we went west, we went east… To the west the holes showed wet clay — which means any sand would have been too saturated to be useful as a drainfield. Similar problems were to the south — we were digging awfully close to a swale that leads into the creek to the southwest. Eventually we focused on the eastern edge. Drainfields in our township have a 10 foot setback from the property line. I thought it had to be 30 feet, but that requirement is for buildings. Lucky us! Bill is standing on the eastern boundary, and we’re using Steve’s measuring tape to figure out where to dig next.

Here are three of the test site mounds. The first one (I think) is the one to the right.

After we figured that our best chances were to the east, Jim suggested we take a sample right on the 10-foot mark (ten feet inside the property line). He’s been doing this over thirty years; there’s some experience talkin’. The mound nearest to the camera is a good one (the sand starts about 2 feet under the soil), the next mound up and a bit to the right (where Steve the sanitarian is measuring) is the second good hole (also a bit on the shallow side, which makes for easier building of the drainfield). Jim is digging a third hole to triangulate a roughly 4000 square foot area of good dirt. Luckily for us, it was also a good hole, and Steve will be sending out the official letter in the next week or so.

Once Steve the sanitarian left, Steve the excavator got into the backhoe and started to fill in the holes. We don’t want our neighbors or the deer getting hurt!

Bill painted this property boundary marker florescent orange to remind us (as though we could forget!) that this is the starting point for laying out our drainfield. From this marker, draw a line due west. Along this line, starting 10 feet from the post, is the north edge of the drainfield approval area. The constructed field should be 32 feet wide (east-west) by 50 feet long (north-south) (the sizes are from my notes, we’ll get the real values in the letter). The marker is at the corner of two of our neighbors’ lots (“E” and “F”).

While Steve was refilling the holes, I took a picture from the bed of the trailer towards the main digging area. You can hardly tell we were there.

The drainfield is farther away from the house than we originally planned (both to the south and to the east), but in the end it may work out better for our construction budget. We won’t have to dig as far down to lay the piping, we won’t have to bring in as much fill sand to cover the piping, and the location is at a lower elevation than the floor of the basement (I think — in any case it’s lower than in the original) which helps with the whole gravity thing. It is a little disappointing to not have the drainfield where we’ll be able to see it from the back patio. We’re intending on planting prairie on it. However, I’ll take being able to build the house over a slavish devotion to design.

Besides, we can put more prairie in other places.

I got all of the paper work together so that we could apply for a new soil evaluation. We had a valid one already, but since the approved septic drainfield is located where we want to have the house, we have to move it. Therefore, we have to get a new evaluation (sometimes called a “perc test” but since there’s no water involved, it’s not really the right term).

After I got the papers together, I called the excavator. I spoke with a very nice lady named Carol, and we set up some tentative times. Then I went out to the county offices and gave the nice lady there my papers and a check. I called Carol to tell her that I’d done so, so she could coordinate with the sanitarian when we, the sanitarian, and the man with the backhoe would all meet to dig some holes on the lot.

She called me back with all the times, and we’ll meet next week. I have little doubt we’ll be able to get approval, it’s just a question of whether or not we’ll get it where we’d like it.

A small little baby step to actually being able to build the house, but every little bit takes us forward!

On 28th March we met with Doug Selby of Meadowlark builders at our office in the Shining Tower.

This first meeting was intended to introduce us to each other. We’ve seen the Meadowlark site, and know they are familiar with building superinsulated homes. Doug had read Sprawlette, so he was aware already of our plans and some of our issues. So rather than going through the advantages for building energy-efficient homes, we discussed business and budget.

Like Fireside, Meadowlark is promoting their green/sustainable building techniques and experience, and as they have been doing it for a few years it doesn’t make them seem like they’re trying to jump on any bandwagons. They have about 10 people in the company, and do remodels as well as new homes. They offer a modeling and design service for HVAC, since they haven’t found locals that take into account the specifics of a particular house and its siting when figuring heating and cooling needs. They also offer custom cabinetry in-house.

Meadowlark offers fixed-price contracts, and would consider a fixed-fee arrangement. Given the sketches so far, Doug threw out a number that is really not in our ballpark, but suggested that once he saw construction drawings he’d be able to have an estimate within 8-10% of actual (further refined budgets require a contract). They don’t have available capacity to work as construction consultants (unlike Burnside, which I forgot to note below). Once we break ground, it would take about 8 months to finish.

Some of the options Doug suggested to reduce the cost of our house and yet remain superinsulated include advanced framing with a skin of foam board, or using ICFs to build the above-ground walls. His opinion was that both would be less expensive than SIPs, with the ICFs being more expensive than the wood framing.

I thought it was a useful meeting, if only to remind myself that flexibility at the design stage is all we’ve got, so we’ve got to get it right before we dig the first hole.

This was our first design meeting after our rather eye-opening meeting with Bob Burnside. We talked about our budget, and the current expected cost (if you trust the Means books) and the fact that they don’t match each other. They’re not nearly as far off of each other as Burnside’s estimates, but he was working pretty much off-the-cuff. I just didn’t realize that we were so far apart internally, which is why I was so surprised and disappointed.

I am still disappointed. We started this project several years ago with the idea of having an advanced, energy-efficient structure, even if we have to have modest interiors. It’s a trade off I’ve been willing to take. Now I am learning that not only can’t I afford a medium-priced refrigerator, it’s likely that I won’t be having a superinsulated house, at least not one like I expected to have.

I feel like we’ve gotten on the wrong track — we’ve been focusing on the floorplan and what we want and would like to have, and have forgotten that we have to be able to afford to build the thing. I suppose we can consider the current plan as “near-final” and what we will eventually end up with. But that means we have to figure out what to put off for later.

And we’ll decide that later. Nothing like putting off hard decisions.

In that light, we asked Bob to go ahead with the construction drawings, as we can have no real idea what the house will cost to build until we get real bids, and real bids needs real drawings.

Today we got the contour map of the north end of our lot. The variation in height is less than I thought, though the downslope does continue a bit farther south.

Now we can start figuring out where to put the house

I’ve decided not to take the Residential Builders Test. I think taking the seminar and buying the ($95!) book was useful, but by the time I take the test (and probably retake part of it) and register, etc. I’d triple the cost before I’ve even decided if I wanted to act as the GC. That few hundred bucks could go towards some door knobs or something

However, I do feel much better educated even as a homeowner about some of the intricacies of residential building in Michigan. The state doesn’t really do a good job of informing homeowners of their rights and responsibilities when dealing with contractors — for instance without this class, I would have never known that an unlicensed contractor can’t put a lien on your house. (He could sue, of course, but not lien.)

This doesn’t mean that I’ve decided to not act as GC — that’s still up in the air. I’ve identified a few potential builders, some with ICF/SIPs experience, so I’d like to talk with them first. I’m willing to pay for experience, but I’m finding it difficult to see how to “let go” of the project.

At least I’m not going to spend three weeks cramming Residential Code into my head.

I spent some time poking about the Washtenaw County Well & Septic website today, and I think I have finally figured out the rough order of business:

• Preliminary
  1. Survey/Topo [done]
  2. Proposed Site Plan [done]
• Apply for Soil Evaluation
  1. Dig 6ft holes with excavator and sanitarian to find a good spot, hopefully where we want it per the plan [done]
• (assume dug area is ok)
  1. Figure out where the septic, well and house are going to go [done]
  2. Proposed plot plan¹ [done]
  3. Apply for Well and Septic permits² [well done]
• Get Water
  1. Drill well [done]
  2. Get water sample [partly done, arsenic & nitrates ok]
  3. Submit well logs and water sample
  4. Get final inspection (can be done during a septic inspection)
• Build Septic
  1. Excavate field
  2. Get excavation inspection
  3. Place field and tanks
  4. Get final inspection
  5. Cover up field and tanks
  6. Get grading inspection

I’ll update this post as I learn more. (Updated 6/3/08 moved water drilling earlier, because we’re “well-first”)