Catching up to the 21st century, part 6...home tours

6-4-06
We went on the daily acts tour today. Met some really progressive people and saw some nice work being done. Cindy and I got free admission just for driving 2 people around to the sites in FIDO (our biodiesel VW Golf TDI). The first site was a permitted loadbearing strawbale outbuilding that could likely serve as a dwelling with water and heat added. The walls were about 2 feet thick, so they were 3 string laid the thick direction (required for loadbearing). Outside plaster was concrete. All of the foundation and floor was concrete. Lots of concrete was used. This is one of the things they would have changed if done again. The building gets pretty cold in the winter. That is likely the result of no attention to sun when orienting the building. Again, this is a storage shed, so passive solar heating was not a design requirement. The guy half of the owner couple is an electrical engineer, and he was pretty knowledgeable about the structure and construction. It sounds like they used the tie strap precompression method and ran TYVEK up the first bale to meet city permit requirements. The building had a nice organic feel to it with wavy walls and huge curving window reveals. The electrical wiring was apparently quite simple – a chainsaw was used to cut the runs. The lot is right next to a major creek, so flooding is an issue. They did some earth moving to create a pond in the far backyard near the creek, moved this dirt up to the house to fill in a former depression and created a gentle swale to redirect water down to the pond. The pond overflowed during the New Years storm in ’06. The pond has a liner near the bottom. It is apparently self-sustaining. Birds have planted mustard by the pond so they can harvest the seeds later. The lady half of the couple has formed a group to restore vegetation along the creek. They recently received a sizable grant to help their efforts. There was also a speaker from the National Wildlife Federation who described a certification process that lets you display a wildlife habitat sign in your yard if you meet certain criteria. The requirements are water, shelter, food source and all natural. What did I take away from this tour?

• Strawbale is nice
• Ponds are a great idea
• Need to research permaculture

The 2nd site was an eco village in Cotati. Steve (intern) introduced us to the location, showed us the cobb bench which was supposed to be shaded by a big oak that split in half and fell down recently. Now it is the “sun bench”. We saw a gazebo structure with post and beam framing and a taught plastic tarp for a roof. There was a firepit in the center with seating all around. There was a cobb oven that supposedly does a great job cooking foods that you want to stay moist. Apparently, there is no convection so the foods don’t dry out. Firewood is put in to burn and turn into coals. The coals are pushed aside and the dish is put in the middle. The thick cobb walls and coals cook the food with radiant heat instead of convection. There were pieces of cob test blocks and shake test jars displayed on shelves around the gazebo. It was a pleasant place to sit and have our lunch. Janine Bjornson was teaching a new college class how to apply earth plaster to clay-slip straw walls. We also saw finished lime plaster on other demonstration walls. Supposedly, lime plaster is less susceptible to the elements, but requires more effort (heating/drying, etc…) to complete. This requires more research on our part when it comes time to plaster our walls. I asked Jeanine 2 questions related to adobe floors. First, what were her thoughts on adobe vs fly ash concrete if the clay was not available on site. Her response:

"Is the fly ash on site, is the concrete on site, how far does the Portland cement have to travel?"

Put simply, limit concrete usage to only what is absolutely necessary to meet structural code requirements. Most other natural building materials have less embodied energy. I then asked about her personal experience comparing concrete as thermal mass to adobe. She did not have direct experience because she has not done a fair experiment comparing 2 similar buildings in similar sites in similar climates. However, she has seen people walk into adobe floor buildings and lay down on the floor. She has never seen this in a stained concrete floor building.

I asked the other teacher (Bob) if adobe floors needed re-bar, he thought not. We noticed that the earth plaster mixture had flour as an ingredient. Wondering if this is a food source for pests/vermin? I think coating the flour particles with clay is like coating styrofoam in rastra with cement. It keeps the vermin from getting at the food.

The restroom had a 5 gallon bucket sawdust toilet. Steve recommended a book called The Humanure Handbook which describes the 20+ years of research that went into this method of composting human waste (a must read!). The outhouse did not smell or have flies which was surprising. There was definitely a few deposits in the bucket when I was there. Sawdust is used after every use to cover up the poop and piss. This is apparently the secret to eliminating odor and flies. I think I heard that compost would also work like sawdust. Gino from the soco biodiesel co-op spoke at lunch about biodiesel. I asked him how many miles he has had on his fuel filter, 20,000+. This makes me wonder if something is wrong with our vehicle because our mileage is only low 40’s since the filter change. Need to call Thunderstruck and ask what they might think. Take aways from this tour:

• earth plasters for sure
• study lime plaster
• leaning towards an adobe floor
• read The Humanure Handbook
• natural building materials are really the sustainable way to go

The 3rd site was a display of creative recycling by Tina and Troy. They had a very tight budget after graduating college, so they learned to get most materials by dumpster diving and scouring the town for sales, giveaways and barters. Tina is a pretty extensive gardener and has about 40 different things growing in the yard. A rotating variety of fruits are yielding during every season. She saves seeds and hasn’t noticed any real loss or gain in germination or productivity. She says that she can’t keep kale from bolting in her yard. Funny, because we have had trouble getting our kale to finish flowering and seeding. That is the difference between Petaluma & Cotati climates. They had a variety of small apple tree that grew in a column shape, very space efficient. They got into a house by sharing with roommates. They eventually had kids, so the roommates moved to outbuildings which they have built mostly from scrap materials. Troy said there were 3 things he wanted us to take away from the tour:

• learn skills
• look for quality materials
• give back to community

They had a finished stem wall for a cobb building made from urbanite (recycled concrete), waste slate and cylindrical concrete test samples. They had a clay slip straw building mostly finished that people rent out. They need to finish the plastering. The roof is COR-TEN, a beautiful weathering steel that attains a rust finish over several years. Once it gets the finish, it does not corrode anymore. It is the same material as beams in steel skyscrapers. Troy recommended checking with commercial builders to get COR-TEN overruns from their big jobs. He said I should be able to buy their excess for 10% of retail. He got his from a builder in Ukiah who’s customer didn’t like the weathered look. There was a timber frame structure with a living roof. All the wood in this structure was old growth redwood. Troy learned timber framing from a friend in WA who helped him build the structure. Troy learned to be a stone mason while on the job training. He’s building a chicken coop and will finish this project ASAP because the chicks are starting to smell up the house. They had a worm composter. They had kiwi and grapes in pots that would eventually get planted in the ground to vine onto an arbor. Projects move slowly because Troy is good at always starting new projects. Tina’s comment on the slow progress was that way they have time to make changes as needed. I would add that the time gives you a chance to learn and think more about a design. This will always result in a better design (in my opinion). My take aways from this site:

• recycled wood for sure
• look into COR-TEN roofing
• leaning even more towards straw walls (either clay-slip straw or strawbale)
• put in more human effort
• learn a skill from an expert
• I can do more than I think I can

whew, what a great tour day!

Catching up to the 21st century, part 5...home design begins

The last "Catching up" post ended with closing escrow on the land purchase in Santa Cruz in December, 2006...yeah!

We immediately switched from "land purchase" mode to "home design mode". We learned that a home designer - Joshua Drews - purchased one of the neighboring land parcels. We met with Joshua of Eco-Logical Designs soon after close of escrow. Joshua received high marks from Ben (the person we purchased the land from). We couldn't agree with Ben more. Joshua is an excellent designer. He has the ability to listen to and understand his client and propose solutions that fit the client's needs rather than project his agenda.

We originally wanted to be on an accelerated schedule to start building in April of 2007. We quickly realized 2 things made this difficult to achieve. First, we would have too little time to design our dream green home. Second, we were lacking the cash to build the home without financing.

~~~~~~another flashback~~~~~~

Earlier in 2006, we took the summer off. Cindy's company shut down her product line, and I quit Phonic Ear. We both spent an unforgettable summer as volunteer backcountry rangers in the Trinity Alps. During weeks off from the ranger "job", we met with our prior supervisors at Symantec (Cindy) and Loral (me). Both offered us jobs on the spot. We told them they would have to wait until the summer hiking season was over. They accepted. Between hiking tours, we found a great rental home in downtown Mountain View with nice bike/walk commutes to our jobs. Mountain view is only 25 miles to Santa Cruz. We were now serendipitously set up to earn the cash to build our home while living just a short drive "over the hill" to visit our Santa Cruz land. In September, 2006, we packed up again and had movers take us from Petaluma to Mountain View.

It was hard to top the summer hiking experience in the Trinity alps, but I managed. After hiking and before starting work at Loral, I spent 2 weeks taking a Permaculture intensive design course at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC). This was truly a life changing experience. The place and the people rocked me to the core and I will never be the same. I give the highest possible recommendation to OAEC, their staff and their Permaculture training. The experience helped me visualize what is possible when designing in harmony with nature.

Some highlights from 2006...these are posts I would have made if I had a blog at the time:

4-15-2006

Went to Santa Cruz to meet Karsten, pull some Scotch Broom and lay out where we would like to build our home. Two homes are allowed on our parcel. Karsten is allowed to build the main home up to 7,000 square feet, and I am allowed to build a 1,200 square foot second unit; aka granny unit or Auxiliary Dwelling Unit (ADU). We staked out a 46’x26’ single story outline. Wow, the pad is big! We went home considering 2 story homes, like a bungalow style with a dormer room upstairs. We also drew up some 20’x30’ 2 story floor plans. We couldn’t get happy with any of these alternatives. Joshua gave us a call later that week to suggest that a single story home is what we should design if we want to live in it long term. We would like a single story home for different reasons than Joshua mentioned, but at least we would be prepared for immobility when it arrives.

4-18-2006 to 4-24-2006
We were considering the idea of sharing Karsten's home. We took another trip to Santa Cruz on Sunday, 4-23 to meet Karsten. We saw Doc (Michael) on his last day camping on the property. He was heading to Europe to receive alternative cancer treatment. We talked for a while with Karsten about our desires regarding sharing. Karsten was intent on all parties really wanting to share for the community aspect. I couldn’t get past doing it only for the $$ aspect. Cindy is more private and was never really interested in sharing. We called Karsten and notified him on Monday, April 26th that we were not interested in sharing his home.

I started playing around with a energy analysis program called HEED during this time (highly recommended). I discovered that 11 degrees west of south is the optimum orientation for the south wall of a passive solar home in the Santa Cruz climate. This orientation results in:

• maximum net metered photovoltaic (PV) solar array production annually
  
• maximum passive solar heat gain
  

This is a tweak which results in a 3% improvement over the standard advice to orient the long wall with passive solar gain windows in the due South direction. Every local area has a microclimate that affects hourly heat gain and loss from the building. In the case of Santa Cruz, morning fog creates a situation where more energy is available in the afternoon. Afternoon sun provides more energy to a PV array and windows that are shifted more west than due south. A West of South orientation is also beneficial to our site plan. The 11 degree angle makes the home footprint line up well with the contour lines on our building site. The lesson here is to iterate the orientation of your floor plan to seek maximum PV array production and passive solar heat gain. Then see if shifting the orientation off due South has any positive or negative affects on your site plan.

4-24+
Working on 1200 sq foot floor plans. Idea is that area should be maximized in case we ever have to sell. Ended up with a nice plan with a Jack & Jill (J&J) bathroom. I'm not too keen on the J&J bath since guests have to walk through a bedroom to get to the bathroom, and a 2nd door would penetrate the room where I plan to play my drums. The second door makes the room more difficult to soundproof. One plus is a bathroom window on the east wall. This window will let direct sunlight into the room for a few weeks every year helping to minimize mold. I came up with another plan that had the bath located on the north wall between the bedroom and entry area. More detailed trade study written on the drawing.

Looking very seriously into Rastra as a wall material. I hope Karsten uses Rastra so we can get some experience with the material. Seems to have enough positive characteristics to make up for the relatively high embodied energy in manufacturing and transporting it from AZ. Thinking about this material or salvaged wood stick frame. Either way, salvaged wood framing under standing seam is our 1st choice for the roof construction.

5-18-06
Played a little with eQuest as a comparison to HEED. Very extensive entry dialog. Many options that are not needed for a residential application. The program is more suited to commercial buildings. Same goes for Energy-10. HEED is a much more suitable application for residential use. Too bad California Title 24 requirements cannot be satisfied with HEED. You must use one of two approved analysis tools: EnergyPro or MICROPAS. Neither of these tools is as user friendly as HEED for residential home energy analysis.

Bad news from Marty at Daily Acts today – only 6 people signed up for the home tour on May 20th, so it is canceled. We are looking into 2 possible tours on June 4th, one natural building tour in Sonoma county by Daily Acts, and one self guided green building tour in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Daily Acts tours seem more organic. We can drive people in our biodiesel powered VW GOLF TDI and go on the tour for free. We will try to get some info on the building types and what cities they are located in for the Green Bldg tour. If no luck, or if the homes don’t seem like what we are after, we will do the natural home tour. Chris Farkas was excited at work today because it looks like he will submit for permits Monday for his straw bale 800 sq-ft home.

5-20-06
Played with home design software Chief Architect today - pretty decent program.

5-27-06 to 5-29-06
Thinking about solar water heating and radiant floors. I decided against an evacuated tube collector. In my opinion, the amount of energy gained in the temperate climate along the California coast does not warrant the price premium compared to a flat plate collector.

To be continued...