solar seminar

Teri and I just got back from a seminar about solar energy.  Very interesting.  However we found out that the lease program (that I had been hoping for) might run out shortly.  Yikes. 

House plans

I bought the initial house plans, which are not for building or copying, but for study and speccing out the job.  I am now officially committed to this project!  Whoo hoo!  By the way, I am going to try to keep track of all the expenses in regards to the house.  You can see them in the box on the right.

Included in these plans:

   Fully detailed and dimensioned floor plans for each level

   Foundation plan and foundation detail drawings

   Whole house cross-section(s)

   Detailed elevations of all four sides of the house

   Typical wall sections and details

   Framing details for each level

   Roof framing details

   Schematic electrical drawings for each level

   Individual construction and foundation detail drawings

   General construction notes and specifications

   Window and door schedules

   Interior elevations

   Stair details

Passive solar design

So, what is a passive solar designed house?  There are several ways of building the passive solar part.

The picture on the left shows the basics-

• There needs to be an aperture, or the way the sun gets in. (The windows). Designers need to be careful in regards to the amount and placement of the windows.  Too many windows and the house warms up to much cools down to quickly.
• The absorber- this is the material that absorbs the sunlight and stores it as heat.  This is normally masonary, concrete, sometimes even water.
• The thermal mass.  The material that is behind the absorber and stores and helps distribute the heat.  The thermal mass is often the same as the absorber except that it is mass that holds the majority of the heat.  To little mass and the house heats up too quickly, and cools too rapidly, creating uncomfortable temperature spikes  More is better in this case and helps an even flow of the-
• distribution.  How the heat is distributed is an important aspect of the passive solar home.  Most use conduction, convection, and radiation to distribute the heat which is totally natural, requiring no equipment.  Sometimes, however, fans and ducts are used to distribute the heat.
• Control of the amount of intake and escape.  There certainly can be too much of a good thing and the designer needs to keep in mind the summer sun as well as the winter.  In the picture you can see that the designer extended the eaves out, partially blocking the sun in the summer months. Also, the amount of windows are a two edged sword, as mentioned above.  Not only can too many windows let in too much sunlight, at night too many windows tend to allow the heat to escape too easily.  A careful balance needs to be maintained.

So, during the day the sun enters through the aperture, hits the absorber and heats up the thermal mass.  When the sun goes down, the house begins to cool, the thermal mass starts to release it's heat and helps keep a constant temperature through out the house.
There are several different ways to approach designing a passive solar home, some of which I will detail later. To be honest, Teri and I started with the idea of passive solar as the main idea around the philosophy of our house, but are moving closer to the geothermal portion- due mostly to our New England setting.  I still hope, however, that the passive solar portion is a significant part of our supplementary heating.

I noticed over one hundred hits on this blog already-  Thanks for reading!

some explanation

Several people have asked me about the site plan that I posted. Specifically, why we were orienting the house the way we are.  First, nothing is written in stone, the tentative placement is just that, but there are several reasons for that particular placement. 

1. The western part of the property is very swampy, in fact wetlands.  We are waiting on the wetlands part of the survey as I write.  This will tell us where exactly we can and can not build.  
2. We want a large "back" yard.  If we place the house more centrally, we won't have any one particular big yard.
3.  We want to use geothermal energy for our heating and AC.  This will require that we dig two, possibly more wells in preparation.  While I'm not sure yet how much room that will take, I think that western portion will be enough.
4. Lastly, we are supplementing our heat with a passive solar design.  This requires that the house faces within 30 degrees of true north.  The way the house is oriented in the site plans is very close to north.

We are still talking about the orientation of the house, for privacy, view, and praticality.  I will continue to update on that front.

The "Green" part

UGGG Second time writing this post, somehow I navigated away from the almost completed entry and I will have to start over.  Blah.

Pete touches in his latest comments about some environmentally friendly options  for new house construction.  I have barely written about that aspect of the project yet, but here is a short teaser of what is tentitively in the works:

1. Geothermic system for our primary heating and cooling needs.
1. I'm pretty sure that this will also heat our hot water, but still looking into it.
2. Passive solar designed and oriented house for secondary heating.
3. A woodstove for backup and just because it's pretty cool  :)
4. Solar panels for our electrical needs.

We are hiring an environmental building consultant. (We have one bid in already, looking for about three more)  This is primarily because CL+P requires that you have one to be eligible for their energy incentives.  But on the plus side, the consultant will be making sure all of the proper forms for rebates and incentives are filled out correctly.

Other environmental ideas that we are planning are:

1. Increased insulation in the foundation. (Slab houses are natural heating leaches in the floor).
2. Foam, not bat insulation, in the walls and ceilings for both increased heat and cooling retention as well as much better protection against drafts. 
3. Using renewable wood, such as bamboo and cast offs where ever possible.

These are just some of the topics that I wish to explore in the days and weeks ahead. 

Thanks for reading!

the unofficial sitemap

one step forward two steps back.

Well, some good news; the sewer lien on the property (approx. 12k) will probably not have to be paid up front, there is already a twenty year payout plan in place and the town hall will transfer it to us because it's a family to family transfer.  Whew!  However, it was mentioned in passing that most banks won't give out construction loans when there is a lien on the property.  Because of the circumstances that I will own the land outright, and the construction loan will be for the house only, I'm crossing my fingers that the lien will not be part of the deal. 

Our potential banker Gary, from New Alliance Bank, called.  We barely squeak over the 200k mark in the preapproval process.  That is certainly a mixed blessing.  First, 200k was probably the minimum amount that we could even consider when thinking about this project, and negatively, my cousin Tom has estimated the building costs as significantly more.  Admittedly we are hoping to put a lot of "sweat equity" into the construction, but the difference is worrisome.

The main reason we squeak by is (other than I am an underpaid teacher :) )the fact that we still own our home.  The banker said he had to factor in both mortgages into account. Teri and I tried selling the house last year with no success.  However, and again it gets complicated, our neighbor, who rents 1/2 of a duplex has asked us to rent our property to him...  UGG.  Do I really want to become a landlord?  Do I want to just price the house to sell?  I certainly can not put the house on the market yet so I just don't know what to do right now.

Next, I visited the surveyors today.  They have an unofficial site map of the property.  I asked them for a quick copy so that we could lay the footprint of the potential house on it to see if it would fit.  This part is so exciting.  When I got home Teri and I just opened up the map and stared.  This is going to happen!

It's demolition time!

Went down to Coventry Town hall with my three confirmation letters (Please see previous post) and bought a demolition permit today.  The permit is good for six months.  We are on our way! 

Also, spoke to Ken at Messier and Associates (our surveyors).  Ken will have our unofficial site map with the house footprint on it tommorow. 

http://messiersurvey.com/

My cousin Tom wants to see this to make sure that the house will fit on the lot the way we want it.  He wouldn't let us buy the plans, which are about 2 thousand dollars, before this "reality check".

Teri said something which really opened the way I'm looking at this process.  She said, "It might take a village to educate a child, but it's definitely going to take a family to build this house."

Jim and Peg Burnett- quitclaiming the land until a later date.
Dave Burnett (Teri's uncle)- primary builder
Tom Norman (my cousin)- architect and assist general contractor, plus labor
Rob Burkhardt, friend and softball teammate- plumber
John Slattery, friend- HVAC and duct work
Jason Burnett- tile work
Teri's cousin - electrician
And lots of friends have told us that they will pitch in with grunt work.

The enormity of the project is starting to build...

But aren't you a communications company?

Last Wednesday was a snow day, so I thought that I would continue getting ready.  So far, a surveying company has been hired, and some initial forms have been recieved from Coventry town hall.  One of the things that we have to arrange is the demolition of the standing building.  To demo a building you  have to prove that there are no wires connecting the house to the grid.  AT+T, no problem.  We faxed them the request, they sent us an email.  CL+P, same deal.  "two for two" I thought, until I got to Charter Communications- the area's cable t.v. provider.  They also supply internet and phone if desired.  I had called the previous week to see what I had to do.  The service tech secheduled an appointment that week.  I asked for a confirmation email.  A week later, nothing.  So after so much success, that Wednesday (no snow snowday), I called Charter with a lot of confidence.  I was placed on hold- "high call volume".  no problem.  I got a person about ten minutes into the call.  She could not find our address, let alone any service requests. "Let me look again." She said about five times.  Twenty minutes into the call.  She found our address, but no service request.  "You will have to go to our regional office." She said. 
"Go?"  I asked.  "Can't you give me their phone number?"
"No." She replied.  "I don't have their phone number at that facility.  You have to go there, and speak to them directly. I can give you thier address."
"Are you saying that you do not have a phone directory for your own company?"
In a previous career, I worked at Aetna Life and Casuality and was constantly getting company wide directories.

"We do not." she replied.

Well, after asking for her supervisior, and speaking with her for about 10 minutes (now almost an hour into the call), she admitted that she also did not have the phone number for this facility.

By now you are probably wondering why I didn't just open up my own phone book and get it, but we had already tried that and found that it was impossible to actually get a person on the line with out knowing someone's exact name.  Very frustrating.

She did, however promise to email someone who might know how to get me a letter confirming no wires.  I wasn't going to hold my breath. 

One of the last things I asked this supervisior, who was very nice, btw, was "Aren't you a communications company?  Isn't it strange that you really have no ways of communicating with each other?"
"Yes sir, it is." 

Three days later I received the confirmation email.

Our first plans

So below is a link  to see our first attempt at house plans.  I used a free floor plan generator, so the dimensions and sizes are a bit off. It was also not as user friendly as I would have liked, or have many features, but it was free...

http://www.floorplanner.com/projects/19192995-my-first-project

Along the top of the house you see a small green house, literally a green house, which we put in because of a design we found on the web.  The design won an award for passive solar heating plans.  The theory is that the sun heats up the green house, (the five barrels are 55 gallon drums of water used as thermal mass) and then vents and windows in the house help heat it.  The vertical wall separating the first floor bedroom and the living room was to be made of concrete, as additional thermal mass and to help radiate the heat throughout. We also included a hot-tub and outdoor shower.  A woodstove in the great room was for supplementary heating.

I then showed my plans to my cousin Tom, who is an architect, who told me essentially "nice plans but it will take 6-12 months to convert these to real drawings."  He suggested that I visit  architectual house plans.com to see if there were any houses that were close to what we imagined.  So I did.  Wow, what a site.  I was thoroughly impressed with the house designs, and the philosophy of the site.  This wasn't a generic house plan site, these were real designs, with real houses built by them.  I then came to the house titled "Northern Sun" and fell in love.  It looked somewhat different then the one Teri and I had built but it felt the same.  Teri agreed, and we were off.
http://www.architecturalhouseplans.com/home_plans/72

dreaming...

It started as a dream with Teri. She had been going to Coventry Lake since she was little. Her Grandma Betty and Grandpa Pete had a house on the lake and she spent long summer days and overnights there. She learned to swim in the lake. Bonded with her cousins. Her father bought a piece of land (225 Avery Shores) and built a cottage just down the street from there. Teri has told me that some of her fondest memories originate on/around the lake. Many years ago she told me that she wanted to live on the lake. She wanted to buy her Grandmother's lake house, but we weren't able to do that. When Peg and Jim, Teri's mom and dad, offered to sell us their property, we jumped at the chance. So here we are.  This house is one that Jim built, except now it has a large hole in the roof where the tree fell on it.  Our first tasks are to get the land surveyed, and to demolish the house and garage.

Here is a google map of the site. If you click on the picture it will enlarge. As you can see, it's close to Coventry Lake. If you follow the sand bar to the shore, it leads to a resident's only beach area.

Welcome

Hello all (any) of you that found your way here. My name is Sam Norman, and I live in a very small house in Connecticut. My wife and I, with my three children have been looking unsuccessfully for a house. First our house, a two bedroom farmhouse, didn't sell. The stress on the kids and us at each showing finally took it's toll, and we took the house off the market. Luckily for us, a piece of land became available to us and we decided to build. At the same time, one of our neighbors asked if he and his family could rent out our house. My wife, Teri, and I are both very interested in building "green" and I decided that other people might profit from our successes and failures while trying to get this house built.

thanks for reading,

Sam