Late last week our concrete guy (Fred Lutz and his sons) showed up to frame up our front walk and driveway. These guys were certainly some of our favorite subcontractors on this project and helped us with not only our front step and patio but had also done the excellent tile work in our bathrooms. However, this week they were back at their area of expertise —concrete.

Stacy and I both love working with Fred because he not only takes pride an interest in his work, but he also seems to really enjoy the challenge of working on something different, like our project always working to ensure that what he does matches with our vision. So we felt more than comfortable when the first opportunity they had to pour the driveway and front walkway came while we were out of town for the week.

When we arrived at home today from our little vacation, we were really pleased to see the driveway and walkway were complete. Not only does this mean that we can move onto the next step of our landscaping (the front rock and edging) but it also meant that we could finally minimize the amount of dirt that’s been being tracked into the house on little feet.

the sidewalks steps appear to float away from one another…

…creating the perfect natural path from the front door to the driveway.

A close up on one of the circular forms that will be removed and replaced with turf. This will not only create some interest in the driveway design but additionally help to manager more of the run off. You can see the dark gray color (referred to as “green”) caused from the moisture being release from the concrete as it cures.

Besides the driveway being added I can’t believe how much greener it is. The photo above was taken just a week earlier.

When we moved into our house just after Christmas our bathrooms were in working order. There were of course a few details that had to be filled in as we went but for some reason (maybe the 10,000 other things we had going on) it seemed these space were not getting the needed attention to complete them. So this past week I took a little time and finished up a couple of really easy things that finally made these spaces complete. In the boys bathroom we had a left a large cut in the stair well roughly about 5 feet of the ground and about 4 feet wide. This was a clever idea our architect Michael Huber had used to introduce natural light into a room that was without an exterior window. The window was to be filled with a piece of Polygal (dual wall polycarbonate) to obscure views in while allowing the light to enter.

I’ve had the polycarbonate cut and ready to go for a good 3 months now but for some reason had not taken the time to cut down the aluminum channel and fit it into place. After taking an hour of my time to measure, measure again, then cut the aluminum channel and pre-drill holes to fasten it into place. I was very pleased with the result. It is certainly industrial but fits perfectly with the rubberized flooring and metal garage style door we used to hide away the boys mess. In our bathroom we had originally planned to use a wood front on the tub surround. However from the moment it went in both Stacy and I new it wasn’t the right material. The wood interrupted the flow of the concrete floors and really didn’t fit in with the wonderfully sophisticated look of the zebrawood cabinets. So with a couple of left over pieces of concrete board I replaced the wood front and brought the whole room back into harmony.

I was feeling so good about the bathroom, like it was finally complete. Then after taking a shower before work I pulled on the handle of the faucet of the shower fixture as I turned it off. Apparently, it hadn’t been tighten too well during the install or worked itself free a bit over time because the handle came off. The Toto fixtures are very heavy duty, high quality, fixtures so the handle had some serious weight to it. my first instinct was to try and break its fall with my foot but thought better of that just before impact and slid my foot out of the way. Fortunately or unfortunately for me the handle did not hit me but instead struck the floor. Putting the handle back on was easy and I was able to tighten it enough that it will not come off again unless needed. However the weight of the impact of the handle shattered one of the 1″ tiles at the floor of the tub. Just when I thought I had completed that room and could take it off my to-do list, I had one more little project to take on.

The boys bathroom has an industrial feel while still being whimsical with the marsh mellow sinks and apple green accents

The polycarbonate window finished the room and worked to allow natural daylight in.

Pardon the horrible picture but this was the best I could do to show how the polycarb. obscures the view of the room but still lets light travel through the space.

The beautiful materials of the master bathroom weren’t working with the tub surround.

By changing out the wood tub front to a cement one it integrated better into the entire look of the bathroom.

This morning as I was getting out of the shower I heard my phone ring. I couldn’t get to it in time and didn’t recognized the number off the bat. Since I use my cel as my work phone I assumed it was an early morning client eager to open up a new project and figired they would call back shortly. Just 20 minutes later as I was enjoying my morning oatmeal it rang again. This time I was able to answer it before the caller hung up. The voice on the other end was the ever cheerful Curt Stendel of Panelworks Plus our SIPs supplier. He was at the national SIPA conference in New Orleans and just called to tell me our house had been honored with the Award of Excellence for homes Under 3000 sq ft. And on top of the that was the runner-up in the Open category taking second place to a much larger home (from Michigan I believe he said) that featured an extensive list of green features including solar panels — what a nice way to start the day. Congratulations to everyone involved Especially Panelworks Plus and Benedict and Associates for a job well done.

Whenever I retrospect of my life I am almost always amazed to see how unpredictable the journey has been, this house proved to be no exception to that rule. We knew from the moment we decided that we were going to build that the design of our home was not going to be similar to that of almost anything else. Mordern homes seem to be few and far between outside the pages of magazines like Dwell and Metropolitan Home and many of those seemed to be done on what appeared to be the budget of a small nation, by people living in the Hamptons or over-looking some idealistic view in Malibu. We however did not fall into this camp, our budget was modest as was the size of the home we wanted. We wanted to be conscious of cost but at the same time we wanted to build something that would be done with consideration for the environment — it sounded simple but could it be done?

Artists are supposed to be spontaneous when it comes to their ideas however it is my experience that the most brilliant creative minds I have ever met are actually brilliant strategist and planners who are just very open to the various ideas that present themselves. With that in mind we began a methodical and elongated process of researching everything and anything that would or could go into our house. The following are the 10 big things that we learned about building a modern contemporary, green friendly home:

1. “Green” and “Green Friendly” there’s a difference.
What most of us refer to as “green” weather your building a home or buying a car are not truly “Green” but rather “Green Friendly”. “Green Friendly” means some effort has been put forth to minimize the impact on the environment (i.e. You use recycled materials to build your home). To do something truly “green” you really need to be leaving the environment better than you found it (i.e. plant a tree).

2. Modern doesn’t mean Expensive
Although most of the homes the public sees of this style seem to be for people in a different tax bracket that doesn’t have to be the case. If you’re willing to open your mind to the possibilities, and look for deals online there are ways to get a super cool modern home on what I call a “modest modern” budget.

3. Architects are people too
Contrary to popular belief architects are not all ego driven, self serving maniacs, with only their own self interest in mind. Do a little research and find the right architect for you it can be a rewarding a collaborative relationship that delivers some amazing results.

4. Stuff’s gonna go Wrong
I don’t care who you are, how well you plan, how smart your architect is or how good your builder is — stuff will go wrong. The important thing is how do the people involve react? Do they point fingers, or do they respond quickly to make it right? In our case we enjoyed the later experience almost all the time and although it doesn’t make the stress go away it certainly makes it a lot easier to swallow.

5. Building a house is a lot of Stress
Yeah that’s right I said it, it’s stressful. Your entire world is turned upside down as you make decisions at light-speed and spend money like a kid on MTV’s my super sweet 16.

6. Modern is on the move
With a growing trend of people building smaller homes and as a generation of 20 and 30 somethings preparing to enter the home buying market, don’t be surprised if you see something along the lines of our house going up in your neighborhood. In the future there may even be whole new developments that only allow modern styled homes as a part of their covenants (wouldn’t that be ironic).

7. Everything cost about $1000.
you quickly learn that any and every change you make cost you thousands not hundreds of dollars. Try and think through everything in the planning stage, as it’s lot less expensive to change it on the blueprint than it is to change it on the job site.

8. Green can be unseen
The “green friendly” products that get the most attention like solar panels and geothermal heating are great solutions but maybe not the first and or best place to spend your money. These big ticket items seem too get the majority of the media hype but the truth is the first thing you should do is make your house as energy efficient as possible. Invest in great windows with a low U-value, or increase the R-value of your walls by using SIPs as well as optimizing the design of the house to benefit from simple things (that cost nothing) like passive solar design.

9. It’s good to be home
There is a moment when the workers stop coming by on a daily basis and you start to move your things out of boxes and into the spaces when you realize that this is your house. You’ve put so some much time, energy and effort into completing the vision and suddenly you realize the vision is now a reality. For all the stress and trouble it is an incredibly rewarding feeling to have built something so unique.

10. NO house is ever really done.
Homes are really living structures. We as the occupants, caretakers and designers are constantly updating evolving and changing our homes. Weather it’s painting the interior, re-working the landscaping or putting new tile on the backsplash, it’s all part of the homes evolution.

With all these lessons learned I don’t know that I’m quite ready to jump into another house project just yet. However, I have found that I love sharing with other people what I’ve learned along the way and can’t wait to start a new adventure where I can do just that what it is we’ll just have to wait and see.

Here is a link to the photo and quick video tour of our house and article that appeared in the Star Tribune.

In the midst of all the madness (of racing to complete our house) I find myself failing to stop and take in the really cool things that are happening. So Monday when I received these images from Eastvold Custom Woodwork of my reclaimed timber breakfast bar being cut down to size It was a wonderful little moment.

The original timber piece was just a bit over 26ft in length 4 inches think and 18 inches wide. The final bar will be 15ft in length and roughly the same thickness and width, with a 3 foot tall section that runs from the floor up to support the end of the bar making an “L” shape. The pieces had been picked up from the Duluth Timber Company roughly a month ago where they had salvaged it from a 1940’s Boeing Aircraft hanger in a little town just outside of Seattle called Maple Valley, Washington. However little had been done with the piece since then as cutting a piece of wood like this requires a special blade and the crew at Eastvold had been waiting for it to arrive before the cut into the monstrous piece of timber. It was crucial that we get a perfect cut as we had planned to run the grain of the piece down the length of the bar and have it perfectly align with the vertical piece that would act as the leg of “L” shape.

Although it was our request (in particular Stacy’s) that we have a long continuous bar on the one side of our kitchen I don’t think that either of us truly grasped how truly remarkable in size such a piece would be. However seeing the the photos of the entire Eastvold crew working together to execute a single cut, on this truly stunning piece of wood, quickly gave us an understanding — and we liked it.

The whole crew from Eastvold gets involved in the cut.

Getting ready to make the precise miter cut.

A great close up of the timber.

a perfect cross section.

Perfect imperfection.

I had a friend of mine tell me that “he has been living vicariously through me” via my house blog. I thought about that a bit this morning as I was getting out of the shower, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do that. But thinking about my blog I realized that it is all about the highlights, the cool products the moments of interest, when in reality it is so much less glamorous than that. In order to share the harsh reality of building a modern, green friendly home here is 72 hours in my life.

Sunday 10:00am
Drove to lot to install sheetrock returns on windows. After an hours worth of work I had 1/3 of a window complete — 20 and 2/3 windows to go.

Sunday 4:00pm
Drove to video shoot at clients location to capture space in off hours.

Sunday 10:00pm
Drove to office to meet with boss and review client presentation for Monday meeting.

Sunday 12:00pm
Drove home answered emails and went to bed.

Monday 8:30am
Drove my oldest son to school (our temporary housing situation is out of our school district)

Monday 9:10am
Stop at lot to talk with General Contractor and see what time he wants to do a walk through with Stacy on variously little details. His wife has gone into labor and he may not be around for tomorrows inspection.

Monday 9:30
Go to work.

Monday 10:00am
Mix up with the delivery of our appliances, they’re here 17 days early and we have no place to put them – ship ‘em back.
Monday 7:30 pm
Got home from work.
Tuesday 5:00am — (Took the day off)
Got up, got a work out in.

Tuesday  7:00am
Got to the house and put in sheetrock returns — I’m getting good at this, I got 4 windows done in an hour.

Tuesday 8:00am
Corey my builder shows up, his wife had the baby at 1:00am but he shows up anyhow. He helps me put in sheetrock returns before our inspection — he does 4 widows in about 10 minutes.
Tuesday 9:00am
two inspectors show up and we make what I thought was a successful and somewhat smooth inspection… Couple minor details to button up for the next day but nothing that should slow us down.

Tuesday 10:30am
I took the day off from work but ended up having to go in to put out a fire.

Tuesday 4:30pm
Come home and spend some time with my family

Tuesday 8:00pm
Met Corey my builder at the house to work on the punch list of little things the inspectors brought to our attention. (Got totally out worked by my General Contractor).
Wednesday 2:00am
Finished all the little details around the house and headed home to bed.

Wednesday 5:30am
Wake up and give my builder a wake up call so he can get to the house and get ready for another review inspection with the city.

Wednesday 10:00am
Issues with the second inspection cause some delays.