Final Paperwork is in . . .

Here is some of the final paperwork on the house. You can see here how well we scored. We scored a HERS Index of 36, which means our house is 64% more efficient that a standard 2006 home built to code. If anyone is interested in the process or the tests they performed, just let me know!

ENERGY STAR TESTING RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well today was the day! The HERS Rater came and did the Blower Door Test and the Duct Leakage tests on the house today. First, let's talk about progress on the garage . . .

Below you can see that we've been working hard on the garage since the drywallers finished. We've installed new cabinets (actually used: salvaged from Building Value - see link at right for their website). We'll be painting these cabinets for a more professional look, but for now at least we have some storage. We've also got some misc. storage shelves on the other wall - you can see they need some adjustment to be more efficient, but it's a start. The cabinets that Kenny is sitting on are also salvaged, and the tops open up like a toybox. They are really narrow too, so they are perfect for the side of the garage for outdoor toy storage for the kids.

Below is Holly doing the Blower Door Test. She's from a company called Homes + here in Cincinnati. She's been doing a lot of commercial LEED work lately, she said.

So, we hooked up the contraption below to the door and made sure all other doors and vents were closed. She turned on the fan using the smallest ring (there's three different rings and the smaller ones are used for smaller houses). She said that even though our house was bigger and probably needed the bigger ring, she'd start with the smaller one just to see if we could get a reading considering how tight we think we'd built the house. I don't know much about these tests, but she said we had to reach a 50 in the readout window on the left and then when that one reached 50, we would record the number in the readout window on the right. As it turns out, our house - even though it is big - was able to make the reading using the smallest ring. The reading that we recorded was 320. She said that was the lowest she'd ever seen and that even though it was unofficial, it was a pretty safe assumption that we would receive the highest available rating of 5+ Stars!!!

In addition, Holly tested the ductwork for leakage percentage. We did this by covering all of the supply and return registers with wide tape. Then we ran the blower door fan again to get another reading and do another calculation. She said that a typical "production-type" house usually has around 24-25% leakage in the ductwork. An Energy Star Certified home must reach 17% or lower. Our ductwork had less than a 10% leakage rating - which is really low. We really don't know what the actual reading is because when taping off all of the registers we FORGOT to cover all of the upstairs returns in the bedrooms and halls (because we were concentrating on the floor registers and forgot that the upstairs returns are in the walls). So even with the upstairs returns uncovered, we still only had 10% leakage!!!

Now we wait for our certificate and stickers to come from Columbus! Of course I'll post photos when it gets here!

Below is the storage cabinet above the future sink. We have the stainless sink that goes there - just one more thing on the list to be finished!

Nutter Green Home - In Print

Here are a few of the print articles we have been featured in this month. The house was also featured in the program guide for the Cincinnati Home and Garden show that was held in early March at the Convention Center.

I've also been busy speaking to local groups about the home. In January, I spoke at Cincinnati State to the Green Energy Ohio group, then in February I spoke at the College of Mt. St. Joseph to an Interior Design studio, and then yesterday, I gave a presentation at Xavier University to a group of faculty. (and some of those were actually PAID gigs!) Anyway, hopefully we'll get more people involved with the native landscape this spring. We can use all of the funding and volunteer help we can find! Enjoy the photos! (BTW - both of the articles below of from the March issues of each magazine)


In Cincinnati Magazine's article, our house is discussed, along with a few other green homes in the area. It's kind of buried in the back of the magazine in the Home and Garden Section.

Drywall Complete!

Well, we finally have drywall in the basement and garage complete. Here are some pictures of the garage. Now we need to install shelving and the storage system so that we can clean out much of the basement and shed. Once that is finished, we'll be able to install the shelving in the shed and work through our storage woes.


The other big thing on the agenda for the spring is the landscaping. We're trying to get supplies, volunteers, and funding in place to install a native rain garden, and also a wetland to help with some drainage issues. In the fall, we're also planning on adding a native prairie. So if anyone out there would like to take part and assist us in some of these projects, we're looking for young people to come and spend the day with us learning about the benefit of these landscape techniques. My Daisy Girl Scout troop will be participating in some of the planting, and I've also contacted the Clermont County Master Gardener's and 4-H groups. Just send me an email at nuttergreenhome@yahoo.com for more information or if you are a native landscape supplier and would like to sponsor a portion of the project. Keep in mind that we give tours of the home and grounds frequently and have been featured in several local print media such as Cincinnati Magazine, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Home Improvement Magazine, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Thanks!

Garage Insulation

Well, we rented a lift today and Kenny and I worked on insulating the garage ceiling. (We took a few breaks to allow the kids a little fun - see below). We were able to finish the ceiling, and only have a few wall pieces left until the entire garage is insulated. Then we can have the drywallers come in and finish off the room in the basement, garage, and fix some miscellaneous drywall goofs in the house that the previous drywaller never came back to fix. We hope to have the basement painted by the end of February. Kenny will be finished with basketball by then, so hopefully then we'll be able to move on to trim. You'll notice that we used the rolls of formaldehyde-free insulation on the garage ceiling, but used the regular batts (with formaldehyde) in the garage walls. It was just a matter of convenience and we felt we were ok in having the formaldehyde in the garage since there's an exhaust fan and it will be covered anyway.

Basement

Here are some pics of the basement. We've added some walls and insulation for acoustics. Hopefully we'll get the garage insulation finished so that we can have both drywalled and move on to painting, drop ceiling, and carpet. Note that the insulation in the basement is Johns Manville Formaldehyde-Free insulation.

Garage insulation

Hello again. I know, I know - I'm taking much too long in between updates these days, but with the holidays and actually living in the house, time just flies by!

Below are two snapshots of today's work. We're trying to get the garage insulated so that we can have it drywalled. Today, we did about 2 full walls. We actually worked on 3 walls, but there's some missing pieces on each wall, so it's about 2 walls total. Once we finish the walls, we'll rent a lift and do the ceiling. It's going really well and quick, thankfully. The hardest part is having to move all of our crap in the garage each time we get to a new area. We don't have any extra storage areas, so we have stuff packed into the shed and sitting in the driveway on the trailer. Of course it was raining and cold, so we had to make sure the stuff we put outside was ok to get wet. I can't imagine what we'll have to do when the drywallers come . . .