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 . . .

First Snow

Heat Recovery Ventilation

Here's the latest photos from the Nutter Green Home. After finishing up the ductwork in the basement for the HRV Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) system, we had to drill 2 six-inch diameter holes through the 14" thick foundation. (To find out what an HRV does, see the bottom of this post).

Our plan was to use a 3/4" bit and drill a series of several holes around a 6" circle and chip out the middle. BUT, we found this nifty little tool to rent at one of the local rental places. It's a 6" core bit that's 15" long!!!! It has a compressor-like attachment that suctions the drill contraption to the wall, and a vacuum and water attachment that sends water to the bit (see the hose running to it?) We were finished drilling both holes and packed up and ready to return it in less than 2 hours. SWEET!

In the picture below you can see one hole already drilled on the right, and Kenny is working on drilling the second hole on the left.

Here's a close up of the system.
Here's a close up of the piece after we pulled it out of the hole. You can see the 2 5/8" thick ICF foam on either side and the 8+ inches of concrete in the middle. Not to mention that we also had 1" thick of stucco from the exterior that's not shown, and 5/8" of drywall from the interior that came off the foam when we pulled the piece out.

What's an HRV? Well, basically it's a way to get fresh "make up" air into the house. Most of the time, houses get fresh air from incidential air infiltration - leaks in the home's envelope. Since our house is so tight, there's no way for us to get fresh air except for opening the windows - which is not very energy efficient. So, an HRV brings in fresh outside and and exhausts stale interior air. When the two airs pass each other, there is a heat exchanger that takes the heat from the stale air exhausts and gives it to the incoming fresh air. This is a way to preheat the incoming fresh air so that it doesn't affect the temperature of the house and it makes your heating systme work less. This is an energy efficient way to get fresh air into the house during the winter and hot parts of the summer when the house is closed up.

We Won!!!!

Yes, this is a terrible photo - I'll get a better one - but this is our award for the Cincinnati Sustainability Awards that we won this evening. It is sponsored by the Cincinnati American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE), as well as ASID and IIDA, two interior design professional organizations. We were entered in the architecture catagory and were chosen as one of the winners! We were shocked because all of the entries were so good. Three projects were awarded in the architecture catagory, one for interior design, and one for landscape architecture.

More Stucco

First Coat . . .

Applying the final coat . . .

Photos from the Solar Tour

Here are some photos of one of the smaller groups visiting our house for the Solar Tour yesterday. After this group, we got so swamped with visitors, that we were no longer able to take any photos. So for some of you who had cameras at the tour, if you have any good group shots, please email them to me (I posted our email address below) so that I can post them here on the website. Thanks!

Thanks to all who attended the OHIO SOLAR TOUR!

We wanted to thank all of you who attended the Green Energy Ohio sponsored portion of the National Solar Tour. Those of you who were here know that we were kept very busy. We had between 150 and 200 people visit our site between 10 and 4:30 today and most of the time my husband and I each had large groups of 20 or more people. We guided the tours and talked non-stop for over 6 hours and although neither of us have a voice left - we enjoyed every minute of it. Our visitors asked educated questions and were genuinely interested in green building. This fact reaffirms our decision and passion for sustainable building - so thank you to all who attended. We hope that everyone in attendance learned a lot about green building and walked away with a little of our enthusiasm and passion for sustainable design.

I'll be updating this website again tomorrow and adding a few pictures from the tour. BY THE WAY - if you happened to be one of the people who took still photos or group shots of the tour participants and my husband or I giving tours, please email us some good photos that we can post here on the website (our email address is below). We were so busy giving the tour that we didn't have time to get any good photos! :(

If you missed some of the information or have additional questions, you can email me at nuttergreenhome@yahoo.com and I will try to get to answering specific questions as soon as possible. Thanks again!

Let the Stucco Begin!

Actually it's EIFS, a similar system, but either way, we're getting rid of the dirty blue foam foundation, so I'm elated. Hopefully by the end of next week, we'll have a totally finished exterior! I'll post more pics of this process over the next few days. I'll also post pictures from the Solar Tour which is tomorrow. They told us to expect between 50 and 200 people. Yikes!

Oh, I forgot to tell you that someone from a local radio station - WGUC - called yesterday to interview me over the phone about the house. I'm not sure when it will air, but I'll let you know if I hear it. There's also supposed to be something in the Cincinnati Enquirer about the Solar Tour - not sure if it will mention our house specifically.

We're famous . . .

Today we were visited by a TV crew for an international satellite news station. They do positive news pieces that have a global perspective and so they wanted to do a piece on our house, the Ohio Solar Tour, and the organization, Green Energy Ohio. They will broadcast the piece all over the world - although in the US it's only available on the Internet. I'll let everyone know when it's finished with the editing process and when you can view it online.

Need YOUR Help

Hello everyone - I promised an update for today and here it is. This time I'm going to need a little help. Below you can see this nifty little 50s Retro chair that I bought at a flea market in Batavia, Ohio. I've decided that this corner of the living room will be our classic corner. Now I just need a little something to add to it. I was originally thinking of some kind of little table, and that's still an option, but then I started thinking about something more unconventional. There's always a stack of old retro suitcases, but that's kind of over done. Then I thought about 2 or 3 retro hat boxes stacked to make a little table next to the chair. What do YOU think? You, our readers have been so supportive and helpful (and demanding), so now it's your turn to contribute. Log in, post us some comments with your ideas and opinions.

Below are two shots of the mud room coat storage area made from left over lumber from the playset. I'm going to get some funky storage boxes to go on the top shelf for extra hats, gloves, scarfs, etc. and perhaps some metal boxes below the bench for the kids' shoes.

You can see in all of these pictures that we still haven't finished the baseboard and window trim, so there's still more to do!

Ok, Ok, Here's an Update!!!!!

I'm glad we have such a loyal fan base! We've heard from so many people wanting updates, so here it is. With "Back to School" over for us now, we can focus back on the house. We've started installing the HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilation), and have installed both of the storm doors. Today we worked on the "mud room" coat storage area. I'll post more pics tomorrow when it's finished. Below you can see the finished pictures of the kids' playset, and the really cool thing about the playset is that we had some leftover lumber from the kit that we were able to use to build our custom mud room coat storage area - it's really cool, you'll love it!

In these two pics above and below, you can see the new area rug under the dining room table. I called my rep at Interface Flooring and told him about the project. BTW for those of you who are not in the design field, Interface is THE best commercial carpet company in terms of environmental responsibility and sustainability. Feel free to read their CEO (Ray Anderson's) book, Mid Course Correction. Anyway, so the rep hooks me up and I pick out the tiles above. We're still waiting for the living area tiles - YES, I'll post pictures when they come in. The colors don't read as well here as in real life - there's more orange to it in reality, but you get the idea. . .

One thing to add about the playset: a lot of the mulch that you see there is actually mulch that we made from a huge pile of trees and brush that we had been stockpiling on our property since we started building. We rented a chipper and within about 2 or 3 hours, it was all reduced to what you see here. We ended up needing more, so there is a load of mulch there from a bulk landscape supplier that we purchased. We could actually use a bit more and we'll probably buy it since the rental on the chipper is like the price of 4 or 5 loads of the bulk stuff we bought.

Below is one of my favorite trees on our property. It's right outside our bedroom window and it's already started to turn colors . . .

One more exterior shot

I just realized that I hadn't included this shot in my section of exterior pics from a week or so ago. This is the view of the house as you approach it on the driveway.

Latest Project

Ha! You all thought we'd retired and given up on house projects and our blog, didn't you? Well heck no - we've just been busy on our latest project - see below. It's almost complete, the monkey bars are the only thing left to add, and they'll go at the back behind the rock wall and tunnel. Just in case you can't tell from the pictures, there's also a slide, two swings, a trapeze/ring bar, a clubhouse with steering wheel and telescope, and a sand box below. We still have the mulch left to do, but overall it has the kids' approval.
It's made of Cedar and Cyprus - so it's durable and no toxic chemicals with pressure-treated lumber to worry about with the kids!
Next on the list: mulch around the playset, misc. landscape cleanup, getting some shade trees planted, and getting the HRV installed. Once the weather turns cold we'll begin working on interior trim.

Oh yeah, I forgot to update everyone on the blinds - we have interior blinds now and the ones in the great room, dining room, and kitchen are motorized on a timer so that we can set them to go up and down with the sun. Until next time . . .

New Addition

We are proud to announce the new addition to our family and new home - Her name is C-vette VomBuflod. She is a 3 1/2 year old German Sherpherd. She is soooo sweet and loves the kids. She is well mannered and even though she has no formal obedience training yet, she comes when we call her and walks really well on a leash. We'll start Obedience classes with her and hope to have her achieve her Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog certifications. We'll start there and maybe proceed on to other activities! (The first picture below is courtesy of VomBuflod German Shepherds in Waynesville, Ohio)