Prefab

Well, it has been a crazy few weeks. We got my sister married off (and her husband's family is from Seattle so they came in early to spend time with their Virginia family here so it was not just a weekend but a nice time over awhile of the families coming together)... then I went to New York on business for about a week... (really, it was no fun *at all* ; ) ) Memorial Day Weekend appeared out o' nowhere, but finally, we were able to meet with Ron, our wonderful contractor, this weekend to plan the next phase of the prefab house kit: The Inside.

• To finish the house, we need financing. The financing we did earlier was to refinance our current home loan because interest rates dropped so much. Now we need to consolidate the *land* loan and finish construction. We're increasing the *land* loan by the amount we need to finish construction since a traditional construction loan in Virginia does not understand or value green building or off grid construction / systems. Once construction is complete and we have a certificate of occupancy, we have been told by mortgage lender of our first house that they will consider refinancing the land *and* house. Because co-op interest rates are higher, Handsome Husband projects that once we have a traditional first mortgage, the monthly expenses will remain the same after the construction is financed. So we will be paying about the same, to do more, after having finished the project!
• To get financing, we need to have a quote from our Fabulous Contractor, Ron Bernaldo of Giant Oaks Construction.
• To get a quote from Ron, our Fabulous Contractor, my Handsome Husband needs to give Ron details, a list of systems (down to the model number) so that the electrician / plumber can give us an accurate estimate.
• To get an estimate, we need to have the interior framing done.
• To have the interior framing done, we have to give Ron the customized floor plan. (Yes, people, these house kits are made so you can work with your contractor to make 'em as you want! We didn't change much, just added more room for systems and a nook & cranny for a bookcase...)

If ONLY the rest of the personal decisions we make as a family were as easy as it was erecting the actual house kit! So yesterday Ron was given the floor plan, a list of systems is on its way, and he starts the interior framing next Tuesday.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy pictures from this weekend's off grid prefab-ulous adventure at the end of this long and boring post.

We had some dear friends out, and it was amazing how *comfortable* the house kit was in the heat. Before, we rarely camped this time of year because the sun beating down on our little 1960's Scotty camper in the field was unbearable. In the house kit, it was breezy, comfortable, filled with natural light yet soothing and cool inside. In the winter, the dogs snuck into our beds; now they flopped, lazily collapsed on the concrete.

When I awoke last night to an unexpected thunderstorm, snuggled in my bed as it rolled, rumbling, in, I reflected how our visit in previous years would have ended first thing in the morning, packing up miserable muddy wet dogs and children in the rain. Instead, we contentedly listened to the rainfall as the children played together indoors while the adults slowly woke with steaming strong coffee.

In the house kit, the light was diffused and off the cement, not the sharp slants of light directly on the concrete as it is in winter. That was the first thing I noticed- that yes, the sun was not warming the floor but had moved higher in the sky, and thus prevented by the overhangs to heat. We opened the windows and let in a wonderful crossbreeze. The difference between lounging comfortably in the house kit to walking into the open field under the unsympathetic sun was palpatable- we all remarked on it.

Another thing I noticed was... how grateful I am I chose polished concrete. SO easy to sweep and keep clean. We also have recycled pallets at the doors which have been extremely useful to curtail the dirt- it looks coolio industrial, is recycled, and provides a great function.

We installed the screens, so we don't have to worry about uninvited animals/insects during the night entering from the open windows, and Handsome Husband and Mr. H stopped by the recycling center and plucked a nice tire to create a tire swing for the kids! We hung it off the old oak that shelters the picnic bench. Which, by the way, I picked up a *second* picnic bench for $5 at a yard sale so we can connect them end-to-end and have a fabulous banquet table for lots of guests.

And speaking of guests... we will have an open house in September!

More on this later, but if you would like to tour our prefab off grid zero energy house kit, there is a wonderful bike tour going on in the area on the weekend of September 26th. Bike Heartland is a fun bike tour that goes all weekend long through a gorgeous, historic area of Virginia. I am working with some local farms to have other activities like tours of natural, community supported farms, a winery that will be open for you to enjoy, and more, so pack yer tent and come on down! For more on accommodations, see here (camping at the Heartland Bike Tour), here (Charlotte Courthouse), here (Appomattox), and here (Farmville); and also be sure to visit Miss Emily's, where Necia and her husband will show you great English hospitality. (And boy does she know how to cook.)

So, next, we begin the interior framing. We install systems. We survive children out of school for the summer. ; ) AND some big family reunions scheduled... so June coverage might be a little spotty.

Even after the house is done, we continue crop tree release and increasing function-yet-preservation of the land, so that in a few short years we can be there sustainably full time.

P.s. This north middle window that will eventually be my daughter's room? The children discovered how to open it and then jumped from the sand pile into the house kit, in and out, in and out, in and out... hence my thankfulness on choosing the polished concrete, *again.* There must have been twenty times a day I was grateful for the concrete. Ah the spills. Oh the mud. Gee the sand. And the polished concrete took it, and looked gorgeous.

The zero energy prefab house kit exterior is complete.

In about 2 weeks we move on to the next steps: interior walls of the modern house, off grid systems (solar energy, solar heat, and rainwater collection and filtration), and with it all, stepping back for a larger view: the land, and how we will encourage its health while bearing sustenance for our family.

Heather Barber, ASLA, of Topos met with us last week to discuss the land, and landscape architecture.

From the beginning, here are my thoughts about the land:

• I love the fact we did not have to cut down ONE TREE for the home site.
• However, we are big believers in crop tree release to help the woods become healthy. What that means, in short, is removing weed/competing trees to let the native, desirable trees grow strong and healthy. Along the field we have a mixture of poplar, hickory, oaks, walnut... mixed in with cedar, red bud, pine, a few dogwoods and... non-native evil ghetto palms! Ghetto palms, I'm out to get you!
• The 8 acre field can be rotated with
  • cover crops of warm season grasses that encourage the quail habitat (as well as leaving strips here & there in the fields, and other quail / wildlife management practices)
  • potatoes, garlic, onions: With friends we can plant the field, then harvest it together, keeping enough for our families and donating the rest to the Society of St. Andrews. I mean, why glean (although I do look forward to doing that with my friend Peggy, what fun combined with hard work on a gorgeous weekend!) when you could actually plant a field for hunger? (Also note: store bought potatoes have one of the biggest carbon footprints as they often travel quite far to reach the consumer. They're so easy to grow, try growing your own in your back yard!)
  • eventually move to the Rodale Institute's cover crop roller. Currently we have a tractor with a bush hog and blade.
• There is a smaller field downhill from the home site we could irrigate with rainwater... we've tossed around ideas of growing some kind of crop there, like asparagus... but the reality is that as it is much deeper in the woods it will be much more accessible to wildlife... but it's something to think about...
• I would love a root cellar in which to store food.
• ...and, I admit, we have a hankering for mid-century coolio functional cooking grills- purposeful practicality with kickin' design. YES I realize this is a murky area, in which I struggle. Half o' me is survivalist (heck my family has survived here for hundreds of years), half of me is forward thinkin' design, and half (fine I never said I was good at math!) o' me wants a third option from the solar cooker and propane marine stove. I mean, if the weed tree is felled, why not use it? (Or not? Considering.)
• Handsome Husband and the casa ti green building architect, David Day thought it would be plenty fun to have our friends hang on the slope next to the east side of the house in the evening and project old movies onto that north-east side of the house. They were even tossing around words like, "amphitheater." We'll see. They're such romantics. Which is why I love 'em. Which is why they're both more talented than I. : )
• We've already planted apple trees around the shed, and I was pleased to see they are all in bloom and healthy! In a few years we can invite friends over to pick apples!

Now I also must remind myself that we are on a STRICT BUDGET. So maybe most of these ideas will not happen for years. But in the meantime, here are a BUNCH of land pictures, so that the Virginia landscape architect Heather Barber can get a better feel of the entry, field, and area surrounding the modern house kit. I commented on many of the photos, so if there is something that interests you, click on it to see it larger, and with commentary.

We also met with Ron Bernaldo, also known as The Most Fabulous Contractor In The History of the World about our next steps. I can not re-iterate enough how critical having a knowledgeable, experienced contractor has been to the success of our house kit completion. The house kit itself erected easily; but the decisions we had to make as consumers, making the modern off grid house kit "our own"- could not have been affordably or successfully achieved without a contractor like Ron.

Regarding our green building progress, as I mentioned we start again framing the interior, then move on to solar and rainwater collection integration. And THEN we move to interior design of the house kit. Married to a fellow design enthusiast, living our role as house building consumers, I suspect there *might* be design fights ahead.

The first hint came when Handsome Husband nailed up some old sconces. Yes, they do help light the interior of the unfinished SIPs - exposed house kit, but... um... Fortunately they dribbled wax onto his pristine-just-polished concrete floor so I suspect that will be that. But we shall see... never underestimate Handsome Husband.

So maybe I should start a new blog category, called, "design fight" just in case...

In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of the zero energy modern house, it was a *lovely* weekend on the land!

We were SO excited for David Day and his family to visit! As you may know, the green building architect David Day is the designer of our zero energy, passive solar casa ti house kit.

Now finding our land is not easy. I had emailed a map, but felt it best to take my new recycled dirt bike from Richmond Re-cycles and pedal down the drive to the road for a trial spin to see how visible the yellow rope we hung as a marker was for a car. Imagine my surprise when, as I returned to the house kit, I heard a gentle beep behind me, turned around, and there was the Day family right there, already on the land!

They tumbled out, and the children promptly found the dirt hill, sand, and creeks. They have been very busy making "a campfire," "a kitchen," (on the sand pile) and "food." Yes, sand, twigs, and rock food which was served to us and was *absolutely delicious,* while David Day and his lovely wife Kerri sat down with Handsome Husband and myself for a beer at the picnic table to discuss the off grid house.

David was very, very happy with how the house kit had been completed, by the way, and I have asked him to give an architect's response some time later this week to share with you. I just loved seeing him smile as he walked around the modern house he designed, and when he got HIS camera out and started taking pictures... that was a moment I'll always cherish.

Now that we have a little more shelter than my beloved aluminum teardrop camper in which we have camped for four years through all seasons, we are starting to finally meet more neighbors. Earlier that day, we met Mr. Scott, a neighbor whose family bought over 100 acres on our road over three generations ago. He met Handsome Husband on the road as he was trying to make the driveway more noticeable for the Day family to find, and we invited him in for a tour of our passive solar house. I was wondering what an old school guy would think of the off grid house but... he loved it! He totally got it! He walked around and nodded his head as we explained the passive solar functionality, the practical concrete floors that also provided thermal mass, our plans for landscaping. We loved his deep knowledge, ready smile, and stories of the generations of families and land along our road- we learned his family used to farm what is now our land, and that it was traditionally planted with grasses and corn. We really hit it off with Mr. Scott- especially when he started talking about barbecue, and how his family starts at 4 a.m. to begin their roasts, and the detailed traditions they have in creating each community barbecue... I know we have found a good friend and look forward to having his family over when we have friends over and cook for a crowd!

Now this was also the first time we had visited since Handsome Husband sealed the floor. It made ALL the difference- I will never need a vacuum cleaner, a push broom EASILY cleaned the dirt and dust after a busy weekend neatly into a pile, easily finished with a dustpan and brush. We will probably add one more layer of sealant after the inside construction is finished, but really, it could last for years as is. David Day also mentioned we could wax it as well, something we might consider.

The weekend was mild, but at night it went down to the 30's. Inside the house kit, still with no systems installed, it remained 58 degrees. According to Handsome Husband, the zero energy house lost only six degrees from sundown till sunup. By 8:30 the next morning it was already 60 degrees. I wonder if that was not so much due to the sun rising, as it was still early, as much as the fact that little children and dogs were racing around like atoms colliding in the zero energy house! You really do understand the passive house reports where body warmth is pretty much all that is needed. With warm blankets and comfy clothes, we could easily not have to use our solar energy to heat the house except for very few times of the year.

We had a lovely weekend, but again felt the deep desire to "just move in!" The good news is that the interior begins again after Easter - and no, we can not wait. : ) In the meantime we dragged out an old trunk I have used since college in New York to keep kitchen things in, and a portable closet given to us when friends moved away to store coats and pillows and sheets in, so that we don't have to keep carting everything back and forth.

In the pre-dawn, as I listened to the coyotes howl (coyote here are the size of shepherds), I admit that as much as I miss camping in my camper it is nice to have my family safe within the modern home's strong structural insulated panels...

Oh, by the way, I have some good news regarding house kit tours / annual open house days! Keep September 26-27th on your calendar, because I am going to line up some fun farm tours, a house kit open house and more around Charlotte County's Heartland Bike Tour. There is so many history sites and cultural things to do, and you can even ride your bike, camp out, and more! I also plan to have regular "open house" days seasonally where I choose a date where interesting, fun & historical events are going on in the community so you can not only tour the house kit but make it a destination weekend in Virginia. Within fifteen miles of the land there is founding father (Patrick Henry's Red Hill), civil war, and civil rights history so plenty to see and learn.

So stay tuned...

On our way home, I thought it would be fun to take some photographs to show y'all our little town...

And on the drive home, I took pictures of the landscape, reminding us all why we all need to preserve and value these landscapes and see it as a national resource. Just an hour away, development encroaches with mass grading, ticky-tacky inefficient developments, and no respect for what may be our most valuable asset, our land. Remember: without local farms there is no local food...

So here are our house kit, little town, and driving home pictures, below! I hope you enjoy!
(I added lots of comments to the pictures so if you see something that interests you please click on the picture to see a larger version with comments.)

Our little town:

And the pretty scenes we pass:

Still no interior walls (Ron is off building his pastor's house who needs to move in by Easter), but that did not deter us from camping in the house kit.

After four years of camping in the tiny-but-fantastic 1960s aluminum Scotty camper, I have to admit it was nice to lug a bunch o' the camping equipment from the Scotty to reuse in the open, spacious off grid modern house. As I pulled the practical, necessary camping equipment we had relied on for years from our beloved camper, I looked at it anew and realized that a lot of camping equipment is not eco-friendly! When we bought the necessary equipment years ago, it was because the folding chairs, storage tubs, cutting boards, machete knife cases, blaze orange hunting hats/gear were IMPERATIVE to have in an isolated place when camping through all seasons.

Now, in the comfort of the house kit, I'm looking at all this and thinking, "Man. If someone made environmentally friendly affordable camping gear they would make a FORTUNE!"

(Hmmmm. HMMMMM...
...
Nah, I already have too many jobs. But YOU do it!)

I was gone all Saturday at a social media conference nearby, so when I returned the mattresses had been blown up, the sheets and blankets were on, the "solar soldiers" (as we call the solar exterior lights) charged from a day in the sun, and two happy pipsqueaks were jumping and playing in their new passive solar living space.

Just seeing the queen-sized air mattresses in the still-not-framed-in bedrooms gave me a better idea of the room dimensions. Setting out the beds, the card table, chairs along the east side, really gives us a sense of the future finished space. It's perfect. It's open, filled with natural light, yet warm, cozy, interactive without being cramped. I can't wait to see it more furnished. It's getting very hard not to jump ahead and move in.

It had snowed over ten inches earlier this week...
The ground was wet and there was mud.
Oh, was there MUD.
A LOTTA mud.

I swept muddy dog tracks, children tracks, my tracks, his tracks.
(This is starting to read like a Dr. Seuss book, no? Say it ten times quickly.)
Aaaaaand was grateful we had chosen the smooth take-it-all concrete instead of frou-frou bamboo.
(I would have spent the rest of my life trying to protect that floor. It would have been awful. I would have been miserable.)

Yet, just days after a major snowfall, it was so warm this weekend we opened wide the doors wide and WOW could you feel the cross breeze- I can not wait to spend time here in spring! The dogs naturally gravitate to the passive solar sunbeams in the concrete thermal mass- and love surveying their kingdom from the open doorways while listing against the frame, half awake, in the sun.

I went for a nice long (muddy) walk with the 4 year old, watching while she measured creeks with her stick, surveyed the breached pond, and climbed hills with the dogs. A lot of trees had been downed from the heavy snow, so we had to cut some. Don't worry, the ones that fell were scrappy young ones that weren't part of the crop tree release strategy we have. We will never timber; but are trying to help prune and encourage healthy growth of the woods through selection so they can grow strong vs. competing for resources with weed trees.

It was good to hear the frogs.
They, and the bees, have had a rough few years. So to hear them peeping so exhuberantly in March was glorious. (Listen to video, below...)
I remember a few years ago on my family farm noticing that the pond was quiet, the 35' deep pond where I grew up fishing and canoeing and swimming and... listening to peepers. It was so strange to hear the blowing of the wind, the water, and, on that day, no frogs.

Frogs are loud. My entire life had, until then, been filled with the cacophony of peepers and bullfrogs. So to hear the frogs so loudly happy on "the land" gives me hope.

On Sunday, I spent a good bit of time curled up in a chair, reading fifteen year old issues of Countryside Magazine given to us by Ron & Judy while the children and dogs played.

Now HandsomeHusband, I will remind you, is from a large European city. He delighted in the scouting camera he had erected on a nearby tree and what it revealed: two deer stopping by to check out the off grid house kit! I'm including some of that here too.
: )

Here are more pictures, below, than you would EVER want to see of our fun weekend camping in the off grid zero energy modern house kit!
Just click on 'em to get the large version and captions!
(And some videos o' frogs and passive solar musings, below.
Hey, it was a fun, muddy weekend. : )
)

It was in the low- to mid- forties when we arrived on the land and incredibly windy... but inside the modern passive house kit it was a cozy mid-sixty-ish.

Now don't forget that while we may have the exterior weather-tight, we have not yet hooked up systems. So that nice warmth was generated purely by the passive solar design.

This was the first day I have been able to take pictures of the finished structural insulated panels house kit exterior, so I went a little overboard- any of you whom have wondered what the completed outside looks like, well, you have more pictures than you could ever want to satisfy your curiosity. : )

I hope you enjoy 'em as much as I do!

I also apologize for some of the blurred photos- I will take better pictures and buy another 'cheap land camera I can get muddy and not cry about when the 6 year old drops it *again*'- it is clear it has been dropped one too many times.

As I mentioned, it was a very windy, brisk, February day; but inside the modern house it was calm, peaceful. Natural sunlight filtered in and filled the space in a wonderful way.

Really, there's no need for lighting except in the evening in my opinion.

Even without interior walls, the family naturally groups itself in areas of that main common space- we have thrown a fold up table and chairs on the west side where our dining area will eventually be, and some chairs and blankets for sleepy children on the east side where they naturally snuggle down and cuddle with the light falling on them, keeping them warm and secure feeling, as they rest.

I loved how I could (finally!) sit down at the card table and skim a homesteading magazine *while* having a nice view of the children and dogs playing in the dirt, see them, hear them, yet while they ran wild, everything was so calm and cozy where I sat...

Next we paint the west door black, and finish insulating around the foundation by putting foam all around the foundation that is currently exposed in these pictures.

Once that is done, the massive hill of dirt that my children have much enjoyed (yes I rue the day I tell them this) will be pushed back to infill around the house kit.

We also move on to framing the interior, then installing off grid solar and rainwater systems.

But more on that later, in the meantime, enjoy the beautiful day!

Below you will see a slideshow (click to get the bigger version that also has more detailed captions) plus some fun videos I made...

Oh, and yes, my Handsome Husband *did* run out and get us another camera after all these blurred pictures... : )

Ironically because the light was streaming in so brightly from the windows, the camera overcompensated these interior videos so they show darker than what it was in real life. In fact, I think all the pictures are darker as well. I'll take better videos / pictures next weekend...

My dogs were trying to tell me to let them inside as I made this video of the inside...
Look at that last frame, Khan rounding the corner while Pacha is telling me to Let. Them. In!

Here I talk about our vintage camper that, for four years now, has been our sole shelter here. We camp pretty much from early March until late November/mid December in that unheated camper... but cramming four people in there was getting pretty crazy and it is going to make a world of difference to now be able to be here year round in a house. (This video was made *last* weekend hence my reference to the unseasonably warm day- this weekend, it was your typical February temperatures!)

It was a crisp but gorgeous winter day and we headed out to the land.
I can't tell you how we all collectively relax but also become so alert / get SO excited as the car crunches slowly down the drive... it's calm in your heart paired with exuberance.
Car stopped by the camper, we tumbled out, and I ran to the modern passive house kit.

It was a cold day. We have no systems hooked up. Ya can't get more, er, zero energy house than that! ; )
Yet when I opened the door to the passive solar house kit, the air inside was noticeably warmer. Not hot-n-toasty, mind you, but the passive solar design alone was enough to keep us from being too chilled. I hustled the cold children inside, and the next time I turned around the four year old was warm enough to have kicked off her shoes. In February.

After getting everyone settled, I headed over to Ron and Judy's to pick up some reused chicken lamps, feeders / waterers for my, ahem, imaginary urban chickens.

As we visited, Ron updated me on the latest costs so I have updated the construction cost post accordingly here. This currently covers foundation, house kit, erection of off grid SIP house kit, installation of cladding / roofing membrane (we decided to have the north roof be membrane), radiant tubing in foundation... erhm, am I missing anything, readers?

That final danged piece o' cladding has arrived from the vendor, and the Amish will finish installing it (and all remaining cladding, they were waiting for that final piece) this week. So expect great finished pictures next weekend.

NOW, for the interior.
You may have recalled we are in the process of refinancing.
We'd be crazy not to- we have the opportunity to drop over 2 points! But... it seems everyone else in the world has the same idea... so we're just waiting...
And waiting...
And... waiting...

In the meantime, we are still sorting out the VMI basketball court wood with which we will line the interior of that main room in the off grid casa ti. It's a basketball court. Of wood.
So, it's takin' some time.

Like you, we have spent time and thought into what our home will look like so have searched and frugally planned over the past few years so that we won't have to decorate from a big box store.

We have acquired quite a few thrift store recycled / reused furniture finds that look, frankly... amazing.
I am excited to put it all together!

But first we need to finish the interior...
And modest systems... (because who needs big systems when you're energy efficient?)

Here are the latest pictures of our modern passive solar house kit! Handsome Husband returned from the land with these pictures of the cladding as it is going up. I couldn't resist just letting this post be pictures / video of the modern house and not the post I had planned- a business analysis on why finding affordable, national distributors of cladding for residential use has been so difficult. Hope you enjoy our Supa Mod House Kit Update! As you go through the modern passive solar house pictures, remind yourself that all of this: putting together the structural insulated panels (SIPs), the shiny super mod cladding, the passive solar design... all of this is being done by... the Amish! Pretty crazy, huh? Here's a slideshow, click on it if you want to get all up close and personal. And here he walks us through the affordable green house interior... And the modern house exterior...

Our zero energy off grid modern house construction update from our wonderful contractor, Ron Bernaldo! Here he explains the progress and his thoughts, as a contractor who has not worked with structural insulated panels (SIP), or a house kit like our passive solar casa ti house kit.

"Eh, I would say it doesn't take a lot of technical expertise to put the panels together but there are quite a few steps involved, so it's not a speedy process.

We got the 44' wall done, and the one 16' wall done, and the first piece around the corner... it wasn't a wonderful day weather-wise, and I had to take care of some things on another job... but all-in-all we've got one guy filling in the framing, 2 setting panels, and the most experienced carpenter following us just framing in the doors & windows.

The factory rep checked in with us... and I had some questions that they walked me through.

I prefer screws to nails or staples, so I deviated from traditional instructions on that.

I put up a 44' wall today.
Normally we have braces all over the place, and there overnight.
I went up to that wall today, and we couldn't shake it.

It's a neat design. I'm really happy with it.

The panels go together EASY. But you do have to do things as you go along, and that's what slows you down.

One more solid day could get us all the way around the perimeter.
If I can get the perimeter done in 3 days, I might do this in 7 days. (That's my goal.)

One of those interior walls will need to go up first to set the roof panel... so that will slow the perimeter/exterior down.

The only thing I'm unhappy with is the amount of material that did not come with the kit. We need material for the clerestory, for the framing of interior, etc. - so I need to account for that.

But I am still considering in my mind the framing for the extending of the roof on one side... that will eat up time.

That's about it!"

Copeland's note: The house kit is *just* the SIPs and SIP parts, of which I had been clear. I will ask him tomorrow why or what he thought would else have been included- they do come with a window and door schedule, but we are very clear about our "bare bones" - which makes it affordable and flexible for the consumer, who could then make their own decisions according to their style and budget.

There is rain in the forecast, which will certainly slow them down... and I also rescheduled the cladding delivery (it was supposed to be delivered Friday) for next Friday (they only deliver on Fridays), because of the rain. Remember, in a rural lot, you do NOT want to get a truck full o' metal modern cladding stuck in the mud!

I am really looking forward to spending the first night with our children in this house, and sharing it with our friends and family. David Day Design did a beautiful job on an affordable, passive solar house kit for Green Modern Kits.

Thank you folks for bearing with me through my non-green building / modern design / house kit blog musings... (as much as people laughed at Vintage Hat Fridays!) the next few weeks will be focused on what you came here for to begin with:
The SIPs passive solar modern house kit construction!

Yesterday, we spent a beautiful day hanging out on... our foundation.
...Despite the whiny four year old.
As it was muddy, my first order of business when we return is washing all those dog prints off the concrete. Which will not be fun, as by then there will be walls and a roof overhead. Dag.

The Structural Insulated Panels arrive at 8:30 Monday morning.
Our contractor's crew is Amish, hence our documentation will be interesting as the Amish don't want to be in photographs. (Which we completely respect- I am actually *very* excited that our Amish neighbors are putting together our passive solar modern design house kit - and look forward to talking to them about what they thought of it!)

For those of you interested in the Amish, I thought I'd show you their super-cool tractor / forklift!

This is what they will be using to unload the SIPs when they arrive!
I learned from our contractor that November is Amish wedding month. Hopefully it will not disrupt our house kit construction schedule too much, but really, if it does, that's fine by me. I have loved learning about the Amish and their community through our interaction there; the more I read about their traditions and close community interaction, the more I appreciate them.

So... you will see a lot of things happening now on the outside, then it's on to the interior, with modern, environmentally friendly design. This includes reused materials, practical functionality, off grid net zero decisions in systems. More on that soon...
In the meantime, here's some pictures from a lovely day on the land!

From the second David Day's fabulous casa ti house kit design was laid before me, I have dreamed, imagined myself in my future home. Which bedroom will be whose? Where will the dining table go? How to furnish it?

(Luckily, for myself, an avid thrift-er, I have kept an eye out for good finds and amassed a basement full o' furniture over the years with which to trick out our prefab-ulous house. Here's an example of just a few o' the things I've collected & reused over the years!)

I have imagined all sorts o' frugal, crafty solutions for the interior wall. See, drywall just doesn't "do it" fer me; I like natural, I like patina, and, even the green alternatives for drywall were a little too smooth for me. (Watch out, there's Bryan Adams in them thar link!)

So when a friend on twitter messaged me that a historic college, Virginia Military Institute, had torn up it's maple basketball floorboards and was auctioning them on GovDeals.com, I *jumped.*

Let's just say... those salty builders bidding against each other had no chance. In the last 12 seconds, I swooped in and stormed off with over 5,000 square feet o' solid maple history.

So our casa ti interior will now be lined with beautiful, durable, historic maple boards, reflecting my passion for history yet maintaining a natural, modern design.

Now lissen here, you crafty VMI alumni or lovers of reuse: I am not going to need 5,000 square feet o' boards. Certainly I can find ways to use it all, but if anyone is interested in adoring the history and natural beauty of this maple in their own home, direct message me. : )