Posted by jondavis on Monday, 9 of June , 2008 at 3:16 pm
If you haven’t seen the movie “Amadeus” you owe it to yourself to watch it. It is one of my all-time favorites. Everything about the movie is wonderful and it will make you laugh and wonder what life was like over a century ago. The location, settings and costumes are exquisite. The film is somewhat historical, chronicling the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with home design. There is, indeed, a connection. A little background will be helpful. In the movie there is tension between the current royal court composer Antonio Salieri and the upstart young Mozart when Salieri (who always admired Mozart’s work) realizes that Mozart is crude and carefree and his personality doesn’t match the grace of his compositions. At some point Mozart plays a complex and beautiful piece of music in stark contrast to Salieri’s less-inspired score. As Mozart finishes his piece Salieri turns to the emperor and tells him that Mozart’s piece had “too many notes”.
I have often used the notion of “too many notes” as an analogy in other areas of our lives and it seems relevant in the design of homes as well. Mini-castles seem to be the style of homes during the last decade in the US. It seems that there was mania to throw everything possible into the design of the house both inside and out. No constraint, just wild and crazy design and an abandonment of modest and restrained design. I have seen homes that have multiple styles piled on each other with the result being a gross example of “too many notes” from the perspective of good design.
Good design is an exercise in balance, restraint and modesty. Many of the homes I see being built look like they came straight out of Disneyland— lots of flash and very little substance. Too many of the owners their homes really are their castle. Add a moat and the picture is complete.
I have always had an affinity for the aesthetics of the Asian countries with their Zen-inspired, clean design and constrained use of the materials. Balance is part of the Eastern design philosophy and I think there is much that we can learn from the Eastern worldview. Good design is conscious in its implementation. We in the US should take a lesson from these older cultures; especially given the environmental constrains we face and the crisis in fossil fuels. Good design has the right amount of “notes” leading to a balanced overall design.
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by sunlight on Saturday, 19 of April , 2008 at 3:47 pm
It is time to rethink the shape of our homes in response to current energy and environmental issues. Oversized homes designed to look like little castles have been inspired by some romantic notion of times gone by, not by the prospect of peak oil or rising energy costs. World energy supplies have changed in fundamental ways in the last ten years. We have crossed the Rubicon regarding the use of fossil fuels. The old rules of thumb are not appropriate for current reality.
Being human, we often take more time than we should to adjust to changing circumstances. In some sense, the American housing paradigm is like the Titanic. Our energy boat has a giant hole in it and is taking on water and we are dancing on the decks. We have a limited time to react to this new reality and transition to a new, more sustainable national infrastructure.
What does all this have to do with the shape of homes? Part of the solution to the problem is to make the switch to renewable energy and phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible. One component of this is the amount of energy used in heating, cooling and lighting our homes.
In our business it is our goal to design our homes to be as close to net zero energy use as possible. To do this we have to consider the design and shape of our homes to maximize efficiency and the production of renewable energy. All new homes should really be PV-ready, designed with space on the roof to collect solar energy. The layout and orientation of the home should be in alignment with the principals of passive solar heating and natural day lighting as well. When you combine these design principles with super insulated building technologies, the result is a home that is relatively self sufficient and able to create more electrical energy than it needs, allowing excess energy to be available for others.
Our goal is to have every home we build have the electrical energy production for two homes. This makes sense because in doing so we are helping to create a solar infrastructure that will serve all of us in the future. It also makes sense as an investment. Green energy is the future and selling your excess solar energy back into the grid will repay your initial investment many times, over the lifetime of the system.
Speaking of investments I believe that in the near future we will see a division between the values of old style energy hog homes and new energy producing and conserving homes to the point that old style homes will sell at a deep discount. It is not hard to imagine that many old style homes will have monthly energy costs higher than the mortgage payment. The handwriting is on the wall and the sooner we align ourselves with future trends in homebuilding the better it will be for all of us.
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by sunlight on Wednesday, 5 of March , 2008 at 4:05 pm
I am an advocate of smaller homes for a number of reasons and the single most important “pressure point” when building green and sustainable homes is home size. You can build a new home with every green bell and whistle available, but if the house-to-occupant ratio is too large it defeats the goal of building green.
In a prior post I talked about the white-wash of green building. Building a sustainable and green mega mansion is a contradiction in terms. Having gone through the downsizing exercise moving to the home we are currently living in, I have come to realize how many benefits come from keeping the size down. I have been more than pleasantly pleased with all the benefits that have accrued to us by building small and green.
My wife Margie took all this to the next step a few months ago when she decided to do the same thing with her car. She already had a modest-sized car but she took it one step further by getting a Mini Cooper. I have to say that I had never really paid any attention to a Mini and I figured a car that small must be boring to drive! To me the Minis were just cute toys. But Margie was on a mission and took me with her for a test drive. The Mini is much roomier than I expected, even for my 6 foot frame. I was surprised. The hatchback style also made it practical. So we took off on a test drive and at some point she said, “Goose it!” What followed were grins and lots of laughing. It was really fun to drive!
Hummmmm, small, great gas mileage (36mpg) and fun to drive. End of story. We got rid of our other cars and now are a two Mini family! They are still gas powered, but I think that we have a long way to go before our transportation is what it should be (electric cars powered by solar power). Small, efficient cars are a step in the right direction. The Europeans have known this for decades and their cars and homes are tiny compared to US standards. There are a number of other small, very energy efficient cars on the market. The most notable is the Smart Car which is even smaller than our Minis (but not as cute or fun to drive).
So now instead of just saying “Build green” I will be adding, “and drive small.”
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by jondavis on Tuesday, 15 of January , 2008 at 3:25 pm
House Lust: America’s Obsession With Our Homes by Daniel McGinn
While I have not read this book (it is new in 2008) it is clear from the publisher’s notes that it is about the house building mania we have seen in the US over the past several years. I’m not suggesting that you run out and buy it, rather I use it as a documentary of the insanity that has been America’s recent obsession over their houses.
This is taken from the Amazon listing for the book: In a compelling narrative that takes us inside the homes and psyches of the House Lust afflicted throughout the nation, McGinn examines the forces that turned housing into the talk of dinner parties. He explores the arms race for square footage and introduces readers to a menagerie of characters from the real estate world from renovation psychologists who treat remodeling-addled clients to a guy who trades vacation time-shares the way kids trade baseball cards. McGinn also jumps into the fray himself by enrolling in real estate school and buying an investment property, sight unseen, over the Internet. House Lust shows us just how contagious the ideal of owning the best home on the block can be. And as the real estate boom recedes into memory, McGinn offers cautionary tales to help us curb our lust when prices start rising again.
It is my opinion that, if you are considering buying or building a home in the future, it would be a good idea to stay away from the dying house paradigm of the McMansions that have a lot of bells and whistles but no substance…no integrity. In my opinion the recent housing boom has been a boondogle of huge proportions. In addition to the important issue of how to pay for one of these large houses is the issue of how you will heat and cool these new (but instantly obsolete) homes in the future. I can tell you with absolute certainty that it will be a very expensive proposition.
Energy issues are going to be front and center in the future and paying attention to them now is crucial. I believe the handwriting is on the wall, in fact it is all over the wall in giant capital letters. It says that the old paradigm houses are quickly becoming obsolete and have already started to lose their value and that your money will be much better invested in a zero energy home that makes (on-site) the power it needs to run and maintain itself using renewable resources. The technology is here and the time is now and this is why these are exciting times at Sunlight Homes!
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by jondavis on Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 11:13 am
We all know that energy is going to be one of the most pressing issues facing us both as individuals and a society. In the past few years, oil and other petrol-related fuels, such as natural gas, have been rising in price much faster than the general inflation rate. It was only a few years ago that a barrel of oil was selling at $20 and currently it is very close to $100. That is a 500% increase, and the ramifications of this have not yet worked through our economy. Throw in global warming and political volatility in oil producing countries and you can imagine what we will be contending with in the near future. In terms of energy, we are in the beginning phase of a perfect storm which is going to ripple through our country and the world like a huge tsunami.
The issue is not if but when and how fast.
The new reality is that energy costs are going to go up significantly and they are not to going to come back down. Europe and most of the world has been dealing with high energy costs for decades but the US has been in a stupor regarding the obvious problem of fuel sources and costs.
I am reminded of a story that I heard years ago that stuck with me. It points out a trait of human nature, perhaps, that has enormous ramifications for us personally as well as globally. The issue is about the ability of our society to see what is taking place right in front of us, coupled with our inability to take action in a timely way.
The early 1900s was a time of enormous change as the world switched from horses and buggies to automobiles. In a matter of a few decades the entire US economy went through a sea change of technologies that eventually changed everything about how we lived. Life was never the same after the age of oil began. Forward looking people could see the possibilities and ramifications of the oil and automobile juggernaut. Before this time, the horse was our primary mode of transportation and an enormous industry developed to make wooden wagon wheels. It was both a craft and an industry where hundreds of thousands of people made wagon wheels. Of course there were all of the ancillary businesses that sold the wheels, repaired them and replaced them as they were worn out.
With our hindsight we can easily see that at some point in the development of the automobile there was a clear indication that major changes were occurring and that the days of the horse and buggy (and all that went along with them) were soon to be made obsolete by the new automobile technologies. What is interesting is that the point in time when the most people were employed in the wooden wheel industry was well after the new automobile was clearly on the rise and the horse and buggy were destined to be tossed into the dust bins of history. People who were forward thinking could see this coming and many of them made the change early on and prospered. Those who did not see the change (or didn’t want to see it) and continued making buggy wheels eventually fell on tough times as their vocation simply disappeared. What fascinates me about this story is that the highest number of people ever were in training to make buggy wheels at the same point when it was well known that automobiles were the future. The writing was clearly on the wall but most people simply did not make any changes until the new reality swept over them and they were thrown out of work and were forced to accept the new reality.
I believe that a similar phenomenon is currently taking place right in front of us regarding homebuilding and, again, most people do not have a clue. Our current homebuilding industry and the design, methods and materials used in the current, average new homes are already woefully out of date and obsolete. We are building buggy homes (a nice pun!) when the reality of high energy costs is clearly pointing out that we will have to change whether we want to or not. If you are thinking about building a new home based on the way homes have been built over the past 30 years, then you will be making the worst investment possible. We are at that the beginning of sea change in energy and if you build an energy hog home (current style Mac-Mansion) you will probably live to regret it. The technology to build zero energy homes is in place, it is well tested and it will be the best investment you ever make, not only in terms of money but also in comfort, peace of mind, and making the world a better place.
Margie and I live in home we built four years ago. It is beautiful, comfortable, almost maintenance free and we pay almost NOTHING to heat and cool our home. In fact, we generate more electricity than we use and we get money back at the end of each year, plus we live with the peace of mind that our home will appreciate much faster than the old buggy style homes. We are actively working toward being part of the solution and not part of the problem. The “point of power” that we all have is the power of the decisions we make. The handwriting is on the wall in great big letters. We are in a new era, but our thinking has not caught up to it. The people who understand this will prosper and those who don’t will suffer.
Simple as that.
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by jondavis on Thursday, 29 of November , 2007 at 8:01 am
Unlike commercial construction which has clear safety regulations that must be followed, residential construction has few, if any, formal safety procedures. It amazes me how many residential work sites are hazardous. From my informal surveys, it appears that more than half of all workers don’t even use safety glasses, which I consider a no-brainer. Between nail guns, skill saws, and other power tools, there are all kinds of projectiles flying around the job site. Add to that all the stationary dangers such as wire, nails, splinters, chunks of concrete just lying in wait to jump out and bite the unwary worker or visitor. Steel toed work boots, leather gloves and ear plugs should be standard tools of the trade, in my opinion. Why so many contractors don’t insist on workers protecting themselves with these things is something I have never understood.
Cluttered job sites are an accident waiting to happen. There could be negative ramifications if your builder lets the job site turn into a chaotic mess. One of your builder’s top priorities is to reduce the chances for injury at your job site. In spite of having Workers Compensation Insurance, you and your builder could become embroiled in a lawsuit if someone would get seriously injured at 
your site and that could have huge negative consequences.
In the builders contract that we offer to our customers, there is a clause that stipulates that the builder will do a daily cleanup of the work area and also a weekly major job site cleanup. In addition to making the site safer, a clean, organized job site creates a positive work environment and a more pleasant tone. People seem to take more care and do better work when they see that the builder cares enough about the project to keep it clean.
Many people like to stop and look at homes under construction, especially over the week ends, and they have less experience navigating over the obstacles, especially with young children in tow. Teens have been known to visit job sites at night when obstacles are even less obvious. Most residential job sites aren’t fenced, so anyone can “visit” at any time, which leaves your builder, and you, exposed to problems.
The photo below shows a foundation crew at work, illustrating another one of my pet peeves. Notice the numerous pieces of sharp rebar sticking up from the concrete without safety caps (like the orange ones in the top photo). The man in the center of this bottom photo, like the man in the photo on the left, is directing the flow of concrete from the large pumper hose which is connected to a cement truck. When concrete is flowing through the hose, it’s heavy and can move around unpredictably. 
With holes and obstacles everywhere on the ground, one wrong move and an eye is lost forever or a worker could be injured or killed by falling on the unprotected rebar. This is a very dangerous situation.
When you visit your home (or any other home) under construction and you notice safety issues such as this, speak up! It’s easy for builders to become too casual about safety when they are around job sites every day. Even the most experienced construction workers can slip and fall, and visitors to your job site are at even greater risk. It’s in everyone’s best interest to be aware of job site dangers and being diligent about this can prevent injury.
Category: Construction
Posted by jondavis on Wednesday, 3 of October , 2007 at 3:01 pm
I believe that there is a big difference between a house and a home. It is sort of like the difference between having a meal at a chain restaurant and having a good, home cooked meal. Both will make you full, but one has soul (like a home) and the other does not.
I took this photo while traveling through southern Arizona a few years ago. (Be sure to click on the photo to see the full, large version!) Needless to say, this old fellow was quite a character and his home followed him wherever he went. I came across him parked at an intersection of three roads in southern Arizona. As I approached, he was sitting outside with a cup of coffee watching the world go by. Being a sucker for interesting people and heartfelt photos I stopped and talked with him for a while and eventually asked if I could take his picture. I was struck by several things during my 30 minute visit with him. First, even though scores of cars passed, no one else stopped to even look, much less talk to him. I was also taken by him as a person. He was clearly a resourceful guy and he had quite a set up with his home on wheels and his family of animals. The simplicity and slow pace of his life was refreshing and deliberate as I soon learned. As we talked I realized that he was very bright and he was making the best he could of what was a pretty tough life. There was no anger or remorse from him and the more I listened, the more he reminded me of some of the “saints” of the world such as Ghandi, Thoreau, Jesus, Buddah and Mother Teresa. He was deliberate with his life and I appreciated him for that.
Being in the business, I just had to talk to him about his little, cozy home. He was very proud of it and it was clearly an extension of himself and a reflection of how he lives his life. His little house oozed with soul. It was a living example of the principals of A Pattern Language applied to a micro home on wheels. I loved his house and I felt good about what he had created. He had all he needed and nothing more and he had more freedom than anyone else I know. No property taxes!
As a designer of homes I try very hard to help my customers bring to fruition a home that is an extension of them; their wants, needs, dreams, expectations, values and aesthetic tastes. I feel successful with my customers when they love how their home feels and when they feel a strong connection to it. It is not their house, it is their home and there is a big difference in my mind. The new McMansions that have popped up all over the place have no soul whatsoever. They have the gadgets, trendy touches, expensive finishes and do-dads, along with way too much space that is out of scale with the human form. Their owners can’t possibly have an intimate, soulful relationship with their houses and most don’t even know what they’re missing.
Four years ago we sold our 3000 sq. ft. home and built a 1480 sq. ft. home right down the street. It was one of the best things we have ever done. I love our small home because it fits us perfectly. Like the old man and his traveling home, we are able to have a real relationship with it. Our little home feels airy and open and fits our values. It is where our hearts are… and our souls too. You can see the photo journal of the construction of our little home, along with the floor plan and animations at Little Sunlight Homes.
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by jondavis on Sunday, 16 of September , 2007 at 7:21 am
Anyone who has ever installed fiberglass insulation between studs in a frame home knows very well that the technolgy is marginal at best. The author of the following article, Steve Maxwell is the technical editor of Canadian Home Workshop Magazine
We added the photos for interest (and humor!)
Insulation Innovation Holds Promise for True Efficiency
There’s something less than ideal about the way new Canadian homes are insulated, and drywallers see it more clearly than most.
The surprising, hidden fact is that if it weren’t for Sheetrock, the inside surfaces of exterior walls in many code-compliant houses would be coated in frost and ice during cold, windy winter weather. In fact, many are, though homeowners never see it.
An experienced drywaller I know brings a windshield scraper with him, just so he can brush the ice off the plastic vapour barrier before he puts up wallboard in fully heated houses. This happens in lavish, expensive custom-built projects, too. The energy waste is as dire during summer weather, you just can’t see it. So what’s going on? How can this possibly be?
New houses are required to have walls with an insulation rating of R-20, yet my own observations suggest something far less. Discrepancies like this put me on a quest for answers, and what I’ve found raises serious questions about the value of the fibreglass insulation that’s routinely used in three-quarters of all new Canadian homes.
Owens Corning developed fibreglass in 1932 and since then, fibreglass batts have become a standard feature of Canadian homes. The design and insulation of wall frames hasn’t changed much in many years, so no one questions it. But the fact is, fibreglass is really a rather poor insulator. The open structure and low density of this material allows air to move right through, sapping energy performance enough to foster frosty walls and some pretty scary, real-world energy stats. To discover the discrepancy is between actual thermal performance and theoretical energy ratings of fibreglass, you need to look at two pivotal research studies.
The first comes from the Roof Research Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Scientists there discovered that fibreglass attic insulation delivers only 50 per cent of its rated thermal performance at —28 C. As cold, dense air makes its way into the vented attic space, it moves down through the fluffy fibreglass in a way that doesn’t happen when batts are rated in the lab. And the colder the air gets, the worse fibreglass performs.
Another study is Canadian, conducted by Dr. Tony Shaw at Brock University in St. Catharines. He analyzed the energy consumption of two nearly identical new homes built side-by-side to code standards. The difference between the two structures was the walls. One had 2×6 wall studs insulated with R-19 fibreglass batts; the other had walls with structural insulated panels (SIPs) rated at R-17. Under wintertime field conditions, the walls of the SIPs home delivered their exact rating – R-17. The internal, closed cell foam insulation in these panels isn’t subject to air infiltration, so thermal performance remained high and consistent.
The walls of the fibreglass-insulated, stud-frame home, on the other hand, performed at an actual level of only R-4 because of the inevitable air movement within the hollow wall cavities. Hard to believe, but true. You can put all the building wrap and siding you like around the outside of a house, but air still wafts through wall cavities, carrying energy with it. In the Brock study, the code-built, stud wall home lost more than 60 per cent more energy than the SIPs home, while the SIPs structure cost less than 5 per cent more to build.
New building technologies that include closed cell foam insulation instead of fibreglass are code-approved and field proven. Trouble is, few are making it onto home building sites in a big way because most prospective homeowners don’t know enough to ask for them. At least not yet, anyway.
We Canadians need to become much better energy stewards than we are right now. To make that happen we need to support builders who use proven homebuilding innovations, while re-examining all building traditions in light of what makes sense today. And who knows? If we do things right, maybe my drywaller friend won’t have to bring his ice scraper with him any more when he puts up Sheetrock.
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The photo (right) is a Sunlight home under construction in Wisconsin. All Sunlight homes are built using polyurethane-filled SIPs (structural insulated panels). The composite wall and roof R-values are R-37 and R-42, respectively.
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Category: Construction
Posted by jondavis on Friday, 3 of August , 2007 at 12:57 pm
Most people who decide to build a new custom home begin by choosing a home style that they like. Most of the homes that I have designed have had pitched roofs, but a substantial number of our projects have had flat roofs; usually either Southwest pueblo or contemporary styles.
In the past, flat roof homes were thought to be lower quality because a flat roof is cheaper to build. In many cases cost has been a factor in the choice, but not always. In some cases zoning height issues don’t allow a pitched roof on a two story home. With the new popularity of modern and pre-fab homes touted in high style magazines such as Dwell, flat roofs are gaining status. There are a lot of people in the Southwest who love pueblo style homes and for these people, a flat roof is a must.
So what are the issues in a house with a flat roof? The most important one is that flat roofs have more leaks than pitched roofs. Water that sits on a roof or runs off very slowly is certainly more prone to leakage than a roof that drains quickly.
Let me introduce you to the monster that is the cause of most of the flat roof horror stories but before I get into that keep in mind that you pretty much get what you pay for. The most popular finish roofing for residential flat roofs is tar and gravel. The reason it is the most popular is that it meets code and is cheap to install! Most homeowners are not roofing experts so they simply do not know what kind of roof they are getting or even that they have options and, in the case of homes that are built on spec, the roof is already in place when the new owners purchase it.
In my state of New Mexico, roofers offer what they call a 20 or 30 year roof but is only warranted for two years. There is a glaring contradiction with those two numbers. If the roof is really a 20 year product, shouldn’t it have a warranty of more than 10% of its so-called life?
Here is the reason that a hot tar and gravel roof does not last very long. First, when a home is framed, a wooden decking is laid down for the roof. Then the tar and gravel roofing is applied by laying down several thin sheets of tar paper with hot tar mopped in between. This is also called a “built-up roof†because it is built of layers of tar paper and tar. Gravel is put on top as the final layer to act as a barrier to the sun and to add a hard, walkable surface. As the roof goes through the daily cycles of hot and cold the materials expand and contract. The tar on a new roof has the elasticity to deal with this movement, but over time the solvents in the oil-based tar evaporate and the tar gets brittle. Eventually that brittleness causes the membrane of tar and paper to crack and you now have a way for the water to get through the roof. If you have a house with a tar and gravel roof, the best preventative maintenance is to put a white coating on the roof using a product like Snow Roof. This material is flexible and is less prone to drying and cracking. Another advantage is that it keeps the roof much cooler during the heat of the day which reduces the movement. A white roof that reflects the light means less unwanted summer heat migrating from the roof into the home, which keeps the home cooler too.
There is another type of roof that will last longer and save you a lot of grief over the long term. Commercial buildings with flat roofs use a “membrane†roof which is a fairly thick, rubberized material. The membrane is a single layer and the seams are melted together with a torch. This roof costs more that the tar and gravel roof but it lasts many times longer. It is the best investement in the long term and it is the roof that we specify on all of our flat roof homes.
One more issue about a flat roof has to do with architectural style. Pueblo style homes (such as the one pictured above) typically have a small (18″) wall (parapet) around the perimeter of the roof. The parapet, in effect, creates a shallow bath tub on the roof and the water is drained through openings in the parapet. Along the bottom of the openings is an gutter extension called a scupper or, in the Southwest, a canale. The roof must be built to direct the water toward the opening in the parapet so that it drains properly. Unfortunately, flat roof never seem to drain perfectly, especially over time. Flat roofs with parapets are prone to leaks where the scupper penetrations go through the walls. In commercial buildings it is common to have drains in the middle of the roof so that water drains through a pipe and gets taken down through the building and out to a drain area. It is rare to see these on homes (because of the cost) but they are a good solution. On many of the contemporary style homes, the flat roof will only have a few parapets, or none at all. In this case it is easier for the water to run off the roof.
I have probably told you more about flat roofs than you ever wanted to know, but if you are thinking about building a custom home, it’s a good idea to be knowledge about roofs so that you make the best decision for your home. Don’t simply allow your builder pick the roof for you.
A membrane flat roof will last about as long as a pitched roof but the key is picking the right roofing material and making sure it is correctly installed and maintained as per manufacturer’s instructions so that you don’t ever have a run-in with the Wicking Witch of the West.
Category: Custom Design
Posted by jondavis on Friday, 6 of July , 2007 at 12:06 pm
The topic of owner/building or owner/contracting comes up pretty regularly around here. The short answer that I give my customers who are considering owner/building or owner/contracting is to approach this issue very carefully.
The process of building a house is multifaceted and complex. To do it well requires knowing a lot about many different topics; engineering, how things are built, physics, managing people, organizing, navigating through government red tape and much more. Without prior experience in many of these things, the learning curve for building a home is very steep. It’s a little scary to learn (without working as a team with someone who already knows) especially when it’s your own new home! There can be painful and expensive lessons if things go wrong, but it can also be a very rewarding experience if you are realistic about it and if you approach it with the right attitude and with the right set of skills.
If you really think you want to owner build then a good primer would be to take a stab at being an owner/surgeon and operate either on yourself or your spouse. If you can get through that successfully, then you will probably be a successful owner builder/contractor!
Of course I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the analogy is not too far off. We men tend to think we are a mix of Tarzan and Superman, at least that is how I have often viewed myself. However, over the 55 years of my life I have slowly come to the realization that it is more like Fearless Fly and Mighty Mouse. How amazing is it that we men think we can take on a project that has thousands of variables, government entities to deal with, processes that can be amazingly complicated, hundreds of different kinds of materials, and do all this in a work environment that is right out there in the heat, rain, snow, dust storms and so on. Add to that you have to deal with lots of personalities of the various subcontractors, and supervise them when you don’t know a damn thing about what they do. Then there are the building inspectors and the bureaucracy that is behind them. Most inspectors are great guys and are there to help but I am always surprised that there are a substantial number of them who are having a life-long bad hair day and you, the contractor or the owner builder, are their closest whipping post. At least the seasoned contractor has been beaten up enough times to know what he is getting into every day!
Is it really that tough to owner build or contract your own home? The truthful answer is that it can be great or horrible depending on the circumstances. There is a lot to know about the home building process. That said, there are a lot of successful owner builder/contractors who have navigated the maze and have had a great experience. I have worked with a number of owner builders who have done a great job in building their houses and they were still married and happy at the end of the experience. I have to come to believe that it takes a very particular person to have a good and successful owner building experience and the number of people with the right mix of skills and personality traits is fairly low.
We currently have an owner builder project in framing in Moab, Utah. The wall panels are going up and it won’t be long before the house is closed in. What is most amazing about this project is that the owner has done almost all of the work by himself. He is doing a great job and his attitude is unbelievably good. Add to this he is doing the work in the heat of the Utah summer! He calls me often with questions (very smart thing to do) and he is just chugging his way through the construction with a great attitude. My hat goes off to him because I know I would have had a hard time doing what he has done to date. It certainly shows me that there are people who are more highly evolved than I am. So in spite of what I have said about owner building/contracting it can be done successfully.
We currently have another owner builder who is also doing an admirable job in Virginia. His job site is immaculate and he has been organized and thorough from the beginning. I wish that all professional contractors ran their projects like this guy. His attitude is the right combination of high standards with a calm demeanor. His house photo appears on this post. Click it to see a larger photo.
My bottom line recommendation for almost everyone is to find an experienced general contractor to build your home. A seasoned contractor will have already gone through all the learning curves and will make your life much less stressful. I don’t mean to scare you off from what can be a great experience but I do want to caution you to really be prepared for what is akin to running a marathon. It can be done, but it is lots of hard work. If you do decide to owner build/contract your new home, we can supply you with support and documentation to help you navigate the maze, including phone or e-mail technical support from us.
We have a lot of information on owner/building and owner/contracting on our web site. To find out the specific skills you’ll need to be successful, follow this link.
Category: Passive Solar
Posted by jondavis on Wednesday, 13 of June , 2007 at 11:56 am
In the 30+ years that we have been designing and building homes, we have made the goal of ongoing improvement part of our company culture. Integrating new, proven materials and methods has been the norm for us from day one.
As I look at many of the so called “green homes” that are popping up, I realize how few designers/architects apply a systems approach to the challenge of designing homes that are truly sustainable. In the last 4 years many thousands of new homes have been built across the country, yet the vast majority of them were obsolete the day they were finished. They only add to the looming energy problems and do little or nothing to make our country’s housing appropriate for the current times or for what lies ahead.
This reminds me of an article I read years ago about the transition from the horse and buggy culture into the oil based, automobile culture. The gist was that in spite of the obvious and huge change in transportation technologies, the ability of people to really understand the significance of the change was woefully behind the curve. It noted that the number of people learning how to make wooden wagon wheels continued well after it was clear that the automobile was going to surpass the horse and buggy as our primary mode of transportation. People were not in tune with the rate of change and much effort and resources were wasted doing things right but not doing the right thing!
This is exactly what were are doing today in America. The bulk of new homes being built have no cohesive, sustainable approach to the looming reality of peak oil issues. Most new homes are essentially built with 1960s technology and most of the emphasis is on the “fru-fru” (amenities). Cosmetics without substance. Band-Aids are not the way to make real change; particularly given the short amount of time that we have to make the transition to a truly sustainable culture.
In our work we have based our homes on these four cornerstones:
Site based design
Minimizing Conventional Energy Use
Maximizing Renewable Energy Use
Sustainable building materials and processes
SITE BASED DESIGN
The first strategy for a Sunlight home (or for any building to be optimized for sustainability) is that it must be designed for the local climate, and for the site on which it will be built.
Edward Deming taught our generation that the first 15% of any process is crucial to its success. When these initial conditions are flawed, no amount of tinkering will make it right. Our Pre-Design Worksheets along with the initial, two day visit we make (with our clients) to each new project site are how we set correct initial conditions for the project. Good design is nothing more than good ideas applied properly. The initial design work is the foundation for the rest of process, so paying attention to the first 15% is critical to the success of the project.
MINIMIZING CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
Our second cornerstone is minimizing the amount of energy needed (first) to build the home and then to operate and maintain it over its lifetime. Keeping the house size smaller is a first good step in building a energy efficient home. Maximizing the amount the energy that the structure can generate is also important.
Super insulating new homes is a no brainer, in my opinion. If you think that fuel costs are high now, just wait 10 or 15 years! People are raising a ruckus over fuel prices now. A little research on the topic of “peak oil” will make it clear why it is imperative that we address this issue now. Building a home that uses 75% less energy (or more) ensures that you will have locked in the bulk of your utility costs for the life of the home. Society benefits when waste is reduced. Conservation of energy is our first line of defense in building a sustainable home.
MAXIMIZING RENEWABLE ENERGY
Our third cornerstone is the use of renewable passive and active solar energy generation to the extent possible given the location of the project. Passive solar design principles are well established and their use is beneficial throughout most of the country. In addition to energy benefits, the extra daylighting makes the home much more comfortable during the day. Thermal mass is important in a passive solar home and we have have been using thin, “distributed mass” on interior walls. It has always been our goal to make the workings of our passive solar systems as transparent as possible. The use of super insulation is also a large contributor to any passive solar heating and cooling schemes.
Active solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are well established and, with no moving parts, are very low maintenance. Federal and state tax credits are making them more cost effective. In areas where you can tie into the electric utility grid, selling your extra power by day and buying it at night, you are freed from using battery storage. Our home/office uses a small, 1.8 kwh system manufactured by Uni-Solar. On a yearly basis, the system is taking care of almost all of our electrical needs, which are more than a standard residence since we run our business from our home. We were in Germany last summer and were impressed with how the Germans have made it a national imperative to make their country energy self sufficient. In comparison our country has hardly gotten started.
SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AND PROCESSES
The last cornerstone of a Sunlight Home is using sustainable building materials and processes. Ceramic tiles made from recycled glass, renewable bamboo floors, and natural clay wall finishes are just examples of the possibilities of materials. Mit
