From the monthly archives:

February 2008

Window Article and Thoughts on Fiberglass Windows

February 27, 2008

I have been in contact with Tara Taffera, the editor of Door & Window Manufacturer Magazine, over the past few months regarding what windows we plan to use on the 100K House. Yesterday I received the February issue in the mail that Tara sent me with an article on windows in LEED for Homes projects. [...]

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Budget Priorities for an Energy Efficient Home

February 25, 2008

I arrived at the topic of this post in a round about way today. It started with a search for the best refrigerator for our project on the energy star website. While we obviously need an energy star model, the range of energy usage ranges from roughly 400 – 700 kWH / year on the [...]

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Appraisal Back but Settlement Delayed

February 22, 2008

We passed another milestone yesterday, which was to get the appraisal on the homes back based on our plans. Since we are the first to build a new home in this up and coming neighborhood and there are few comparable new construction sales nearby, we were a bit nervous. We got the call late yesterday [...]

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New Floorplans and Elevations from ISA

February 21, 2008

ISA and I have had a few meetings since the discussions on the new floorplans last week. If you look closely you will notice that we have incorporated some reader suggestions such as surrounding the new bathroom layout with closet space rather than having them run the length of the side wall. Special thanks to [...]

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SIPs Have Been Chosen as the Building Method of Choice

February 18, 2008

Last week I had a meeting with Scott at Level 5 to discuss using SIPs in detail. We called one of the manufacturers and asked all questions that we had regarding our project. Once we got off the phone Scott quickly said that he was willing to go forward with SIPs or the project and [...]

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Second Floor Layout Concept with Reduced Footprint

February 14, 2008

As we have been getting farther along in the process I have started to be a bit concerned with a lack of storage space. With a small house and no basement, I think we really need to add some more storage. The sketch below shows a modified 2nd story floorplan that addresses the storage issue [...]

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Kitchen Peninsula Cabinet Design Idea – Front View

February 13, 2008

I went ahead and sketched up what I have in mind for the cabinets in the peninsula this AM since there was mild interest and a bit of confusion as to what I meant. What we have here is a 10′ wide section of cabinets and countertop with the 6″-12″ deep chase for electrical and [...]

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Possible New Layout for the Ground Floor

February 12, 2008

In our last design meeting we decided to shorten the footprint of the house from 42′ to 36′ and to remove the half bath on the ground floor. This has caused us to rethink our floorplans a bit. I have been struggling with the kitchen and ground floor layout over the past few days. Below [...]

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Ross Mechanical Group Hired to Design Mechanicals for 100K House

February 12, 2008

Due to our concerns over spec’ing the best mechanical system for our homes, we officially hired the Ross Mechanical Group, Inc. to design a custom mechanical package for both homes today. We originally met the owner, Ross, at the 2007 GreenFest Philly event last fall. He has been in contact ever since and has already [...]

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Site Modification in Progress

February 11, 2008

I’m switching over to a three column format for the website now so the site will look odd for a while. Hopefully all goes well and I will be able to include some more helpful links on the homepage when complete. I have a lot of sites, forums and vendors that I’d like to reference [...]

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