Entries from February 2008 ↓

I have been doing a bit of research over the past few weeks on the most efficient method for heating both our radiant heating system and domestic hot water. This is not meant to be an exhaustive account of that research but I am conflicted as to the best option. In the end we will […]

Today I ordered an estimate for soil and environmental testing for the lots from Ambric Tech Corp. Ambric is an engineering firm recommended to me by Brian at Interface Studios. The testing basically consists of drilling a few holes at least 10′ deep in each lot to determine the content and quality of the soil. […]

Quick post to release the first budget spreadsheet for the 100K House. This will be a work in progress over the next few weeks as we make our final design tweaks.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p4D0y9XxZM0uDf8vWkh2Vaw&hl=en
I will also add this to our documents page in the next few days.

Yesterday afternoon we had our much anticipated budget review with the entire team for the 100K House. Scott from Level 5 Construction had taken the past two weeks to come up with a comprehensive estimate based on the most recent design of both homes in the project.
I knew we were exceeding our $100K budget with […]

Recently I’ve received a few recommendations to check out an alternative to SIPs that uses light gauge steel to give insulated panels structural integrity rather than sheets of OSB. The most local company that provides such a product is the ThermaSteel Corporation located in Virginia.
Some of the touted advantages include the following:

Using light gauge steel […]

I am heading out the door now for a weekend getaway but have a quick update on SIP quotes for the project. I have received quotes from four of the seven companies I requested bids from. I have agreed not to disclose exact pricing from each vendor at this time so for now I will […]