Another whirlwind couple of build days are behind us! Quite honestly, after how long permitting and approvals took for this project, the speed of the actual build progress is almost overwhelming. Crews came back yesterday to finish the excavation for the footings and begin doing the sewer connection work, both for our basement toilet and to connect the future water and sewer line to the triplex. Today, the sewer connection was mostly finished, our excavation was approved by our engineers (who also happen to be former ultimate frisbee teammates of Peter's), insulation foam was added, and the footings were poured. I'll be honest, it is hard to do my own work when I can just watch this out the window. I might have to go back to the office more just to focus a bit. Yesterday and today were both exciting and a good reminder of how far we have to go in terms of sustainable construction. We worked with our architect and builder to reduce the amount of oil products (foams, glues, etc) as much as possible. Right now, we couldn't find a usable, approved, remotely affordable product for foundation insulation or the mandatory radon remediation plastic layer underneath the foundation (even ethanol plastics aren't currently approved here). As you can see in some of the pictures today, we are at least trying to repurpose/reuse any plywood or OSB that we need in the project and are even planning to use planks instead of OSB for roof decking. We know this project won't be perfect. The chainsaws today were electric, but we still have the foam in general, gas powered bobcat and digger, cement and cement truck, etc. We are trying our best and hope that our project will continue to push the construction industry in a more sustainable direction! Big shoutout to our architects (Precipitate) and builder (A-squared) for accommodating our sustainable goals and bothering sales reps about more sustainable products. This kind of pressure will make a difference in the long run! Minimal construction hiccups so far. Our triplex sewer line was a bit shallower in the cement than expected, so we had to pivot our basement layout slightly. Our basement stairs will have a new, extended landing platform, but nothing too tragic overall. We do have to find a light to go with our new basement WC. The slats let in some light, but I'm not sure that is what the user is looking for... Onward!
0 Comments
We are officially underway! The Final Countdown is over and work has officially kicked off on our site. What a difference a few hours can make! Many of our lilacs sadly had to be removed, but we now have a large trench opened up as we prepare our site for plumbing work in just a few days and concrete work right behind that. Though we have always known that our site is quite small (1/8 acre, including the existing triplex), it is always a bit amusing to see contractor's realize that fact. So right now, instead of having the soil pile off to the side of the project area, it is piled up in the middle of our future home footprint. We also moved our trash, recycle, and compost bins snug up to our neighbor's house for the time being and restacked our firewood elsewhere. One fun workaround for our small site: since we don't really have room for a portable toilet, we are simply providing access to our unfinished basement, which happened to have a small WC from back when there were coal workers who would be in the basement shoveling for the furnace. The WC hasn't had a toilet in many years, but the pipes are still there. It turns out that it will be cheaper to just install a toilet again than trying to figure out how to make a portable toilet work. Plus, it will smell better and not be outside. A reasonably good solution! More to come next week as work continues, but check out the progress photos below. Peter here. Much like this classic 80s ballad, we have been counting down to this moment for much longer than anyone expected. July 9th, 2021. Tomorrow. We finally begin construction on our new strawbale home! The site has been staked anew and an excavation crew will be arriving in the morning to clear out the small jungle that our backyard has turned into to prepare for plumbing and concrete work over the next couple of weeks.
We are so excited to finally be starting! A big thank you to Precipitate for their work on designing our home and getting it through the endless slog of permitting with the City of Minneapolis, Andrew Morrison of StrawBale.com for constantly providing his time through permitting and with our architect and build team (looking forward to his straw bale training this fall!), Charity Weibel from Old National Bank for sticking with me over more than two years and helping to create a workable finance mechanism for this project, and Andrew Nelson of A-Squared for agreeing to build this crazy project with us! This team has put up with a lot to get this project to where it is now and we can't wait to see it all come to life over the next several months. Get ready/excited for more website content, photos, and projects updates as the on-site work begins! I will be playing The Final Countdown on repeat for the rest of the day. |
AuthorKatie Jones and Peter Schmitt chronicle their building adventure. Archives
January 2024
Categories |