Planing slats /  by Scott Newland

Thanks to the woodworking tools that my multi-talented brother-in-law, John, owns, I continued the planing of the salvaged cedar fence slats that used to be in the backyard.  Before demolition last summer, I removed the entire wood fence and salvaged most of the wood.  The vertical slats were saved for reuse and, today, I did the final passes at planing one face of each slat.

The next step will be to stain each slat, trim the ends square, and install them.  For the final location on the house, stay tuned!

Spray Foam Insulation, Day One /  by Scott Newland

Advantage Foam Insulation applied the first pass of open cell spray foam insulation today.  This will be followed by closed cell foam in key assemblies and then final touch-ups.

By the way, I have no idea how the mix of other videos gets assembled at the end; this is a randomized offering from YouTube.

Interior overview /  by Scott Newland

Panorama from the dining room.  From left to right: Dining area, living room, entry, stair, mud room, kitchen.

Within a week or so, the exterior walls will be insulated, covered with an intelligent vapor barrier, and drywalled.

Decking /  by Scott Newland

MoistureShield "Cape Cod Gray"

MoistureShield "Cape Cod Gray"

This decking is chameleon-like.  The sample I selected this from at Glenbrook Lumber was clearly gray in color, but the installed material looks more brown.  Amazingly, I took a cut end from the jot site to the original sample board and the two match exactly!

This shot shows the decking in the front porch.  Because it will be a screened porch, there is a layer of insect screening directly below the deck boards.

In background, the continuous insulation is starting to be covered in treated wood furring strips.  These strips will provide the vented rain screen system with the siding cladding.

Garage storage attic /  by Scott Newland

The garage attic: Not quite a future dwelling unit, but plenty of storage and other potential.  I installed the access ladder this weekend (a Werner pull-down, 375 lb. capacity).

All systems go(ing in) /  by Scott Newland

This one view shows the three different building systems (beyond structural) currently wrapping up their rough-ins: Practical Systems is doing the supply and return air ducts, Master Plumbing Services is doing the plumbing and radon venting, and Horizon Electric is doing the line and low voltage wiring.

Two lessons I've learned in this process so far are 1) that floor trusses are the only way to go (as opposed to the I-joists shown here*), and 2) that it will be well worth the time in the future to model the ducts and pipes in 3D as well as the structural framing, recessed light fixture housings and electrical boxes. I'm already doing the latter two, but thinking through and then modeling the ducts and pipes is something I have the software to do and simply need to do.  It was a matter of time and ignorance that prevented me from doing so on this house.

* We use floor trusses on the upper level and it makes routing so much easier.

One of the new Ten Commandments: Amending Rapson. /  by Scott Newland

I have them written down somewhere but I'm in the process of packing before a move and can't find them, but my former Dean and mentor Ralph Rapson once proposed 10 rules for architecture and called them his "Ten Commandments".  They were, like Le Corbusier's "Five Points of a New Architecture", qualities that he felt good architecture should have.  As I practice, I keep coming up against contemporary sins and I am thinking of adding to these, and/or qualifying a few.  Today, as we witness the inauguration of the country's 45th president (who seems to have his own particular rules), I offer one of the New Ten:

For some reason, I seem to think that authenticity is important.  But: What is "authenticity"?  I define it as having honesty and integrity, free of pretense.  I'll hold off on the argument about what makes architecture authentic, but it's easy to ask what makes a building material authentic.  For one thing, a material is authentic when it's true to itself.  It presents itself as it is.  It has honest tactility and doesn't fool the senses.  The way I see it, when one material is used to simulate another material, it's inauthentic.  It's an architectural sin.  When a sin becomes so common that no one really questions it anymore, that points to some greater cultural weakness, and such things need to be eliminated.  The architectural sin that is so pervasive that I am regularly asked to allow it is when non-wood products try to look like wood.  At their worst, they take the form of wood planks but are in fact porcelain tile.  Or they look like tropical wood deck boards but are some plastic-fiber composite.  More commonly, you see wood grain vinyl siding, aluminum siding, steel siding, PVC trim, fiber cement siding and trim, steel roofing, and fiberglass doors.  The simulacrums are everywhere!  On this house, I've been doing my best to avoid fake wood, but I've failed twice now.  The composite deck boards have a wood grain texture that I detest, but the recycled content (LEED and GreenStar points!) and the recommendation by the supplier swayed me.  Today, despite specifying a smooth face steel panel garage door, this was installed:

I recognize that the texture improves paint adherence, but WHY WOODGRAIN?  Why not some micro-textured abstraction of a car tire tread?  Or why not a non-repeating geometry like any number of computer programs can provide?  Why fake something that it's not?  If you're going to do some custom roller to press a texture into a smooth material, why not have it be something original?

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The garage takes shape /  by Scott Newland

Today is a big day for the other building on the site, the garage.  The 24' x 24' garage has a roof with the same 14:12 pitch as the house so it can accommodate future solar panels as needed.  We elected not to go for an ADU* but look forward to having the volume for deep storage and functions that might seem like a good idea years from now.

The garages have been in the front yard for several weeks, and the framers had great fun (not) getting them down the alley.

The garages have been in the front yard for several weeks, and the framers had great fun (not) getting them down the alley.

* Accessory Dwelling Unit.  Such a thing would require dedicated parking, a code-legal stair, plumbing to the city sewer, a fully compliant thermal envelope, electrical, and finishes.  ADU's can be great and I look forward to the opportunity to create them in the future, but we drew the line this side of one for our home.

Ducts /  by Scott Newland

The ducts are all installed and sealed.  A leakage test is to be done next, but more importantly the plumbing rough-ins can be done, followed (quickly, we hope) by electrical rough-ins and then insulation.

I think the duct drops are reasonable in the basement, but I've come to really see the advantage of going with floor trusses throughout.  Next time...

I think the duct drops are reasonable in the basement, but I've come to really see the advantage of going with floor trusses throughout.  Next time...

Waiting. More Waiting. /  by Scott Newland

There is a lot scheduled to be happening now, but we're waiting.  Like for the garage to be framed up (note the trusses in the front yard), the HVAC final work, plumbing rough-ins, electrical...  In the last weeks, only the remaining interior framing has been mainly completed, and the last of the windows and exterior doors have been provisionally installed.  The quality of daylight inside is great to finally see in full!

Southwest Journal essay /  by Scott Newland

A few weeks ago, I felt inspired to write a small essay on leaving home.  It felt good to document some feelings I was experiencing and I thought that others might share them.  Last week, our local biweekly paper, the Southwest Journal, published the piece.  It's not on their website, but here it is:

(click to enlarge)

Concrete slab at last! /  by Scott Newland

With the recent drying in of the house, the basement floor slab was poured today.  This will pave the way (literally) for the finalization of the HVAC system, followed closely by plumbing rough-ins and then wiring.  The pace of things should now pick up again.

In the meantime, as time marches on, mortgage interest rates are on the rise.  Our once ideal timing is slipping away, it seems.

TPO at last! /  by Scott Newland

Sheets of Thermoplastic Polyolefin membrane, pre-seam welding, cap flashing and termination bars.  The white color, where not covered, will aid in minimizing heating up the immediate environment and support the idea of "cool roofs".

Sheets of Thermoplastic Polyolefin membrane, pre-seam welding, cap flashing and termination bars.  The white color, where not covered, will aid in minimizing heating up the immediate environment and support the idea of "cool roofs".