Drywall is here!

When are we getting to drywall?

Well we are finally here, so our friends can stop asking.
For those have not built a house this is the turning of the corner and seeing the finish line. Now the fun finishing items happens (which Cherie has been waiting for over a year).

The mechanical installations were a challenge, but we are finally ready for drywall. Drywall is a milestone. We have struggled to get to this point, because of fine tuning of the design and the need to shift doors, add outlets, incorporate security cameras and assuring the house is sealed and insulated properly. Once you covered everything with drywall, its hard to change. We are now ready to finish our dream home.

For our friend following the blog in Alaska, the Chicago winter has been the most mild ever, hence virtually no snow to shovel. It's not quite Redondo Beach California, but it helps the heating bills for two furnaces maintaining 45 degrees. This make for more time to work on the house. Photo at top is 2012. Photo to left is 2011 Blizzard.

Both 1st floor temporary and new 2ND floor furnaces have been working well and the house has held temperature of 50 degrees. The PEX plumbing is complete, master bath tub set and showers set. We choose to install a Schluter shower systems for all three shower, which is a foam base and curb kit with an orange rubber gasket mat on the walls. The cost of the shower system with drain is expensive at $300 each, but it pretty much fool proof for a remodeling project where you can adapt the foam and flash the walls and drains easily. We said " Do we want to take a chance of a leak or spend the money?" We chose the money and have a piece of mind.

We covered all the supply and returns with MERV 7 filter material to keep construction dust out of the system. A Merv 7 filter int eh furnaces at as a needed 2nd line of defense. To her credit, wife Cherie did a large portion of the unfaced R-11,R-13 , & R30 batt insulation as part of the "Flash and Batt Insulation (see photo of her on the ladder). Yes that's her auditioning for "Dirty Jobs" TV show ( and she's for hire!). She also does roofing without breaking a nail or destroying her manicure (see earlier roofing post with photo).


Cherie, Myself and friend Jimmie did the batt and blown insulation ourselves. The installer of the foam refused to give us a credit for the foam they did not install, so we had to terminate the second half of the contract for the batt and blown insulation. Some people say drywall is the worst job to do. I'd have to say installing unfaced batts is a close 2nd. Using unfaced batt insulation requires vented mask and eye protection.

The fan driven radon system has been installed in the basement slab and after attending a seminar, Mike found out that Radon is the 2nd largest cause of cancer. Radon is the migration of uranium from under you house into your home. In the case for a super insulated and tight house. The radon can easily be trapped inside. So the system is a must in a tight house. The addition of a HRV does help the issue of exhausting contaminants and bringing in fresh air into the house.

We'll be posting again very soon to show the completed drywall and painting take place (No VOC or Low VOC test), so stay tuned. Invites to the pizza and painting party is on their way out.

PS. What about the water??? Water in the crawl space has been the biggest anchor to completing this house. The previous owner let the water run through the craw space and into the sump pump via flow. Since then we have fixed the curb on the sump pump (so you can put a lid on it) and leveled the floors and installed and secondary pump in the garage to siphon off the high water coming from the West. We still get some water at about 10 gallons in one occasion. We are hoping that the fan venting for the radon will help dry out the slab and reduce the risk of water in the crawl. Plan "B" is to install a drain system under the floor on the west.

Summer has past and Progress Continues

Time and Money have been the drive for the Summer. Because Cherie and I had the Summer to our advantage we took advantage of doing a good amount of our own work and save some money. If you have the time, you can save some money. There we also some unexpected surprises that came up.

Since the last post on the exterior we installed the a front concrete porch, a rear concrete stamped patio on the West and pavers for the front walk to the house. We thank good friend Rob Bottensek for doing a super job on the paver and helping with design. We also put final finishes on the storm drainage and septic system to get it fully functional for the up coming Winter/ Spring move in.

On the interior we installed an trimmed all the electric, framed the mud room, Demoed the unwanted walls and finished in the garage and finished pouring the self leveling topping int he crawl and rebuilt the sump pump pit to minimize moisture with in the house.

Unexpected delays is the HVAC contractor abandoned the job. Workmanship was poor and mistakes were made to the point I asked for the work to be corrected. I have to thank nephew Joey and Nick for taking a Saturday and correcting the substandard work. Unfortunately, the contractor also installed the wrong insulation on the main ductwork running in the unconditioned space. Due to the fact that the clearances were very tight to begin with, the change from R4 to R8 made it that much harder. We had a rough basic inspection by Tom our LEED Rater to help point out the good and bad installations of the HVAC contractor (and have it corrected).

Going forward we have a new HVAC contractor on board and Plumber to help finish the roughs and get to drywall in the next couple weeks. The drywallers and stair guys have been patiently waiting to move in and do their work.

The exterior property continues to be a burden and a blessing. We had hundreds of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers, green beans, cucumber for a fun summer crop. That was twice as much as last year. In the fall we were blessed with 1500 pears from our single pear tree. Cherie and I were able to share our harvest with friends, co-workers and and still give two big bushels to the two local food pantries of 92 lbs. We hope to give more next year. Landscaper's cut the grass this summer and the driveway went for a second patching and seal coating by hand (to prolong the life). Still leaves, branches, weeds and general cleanup takes 1/2 - 1 day a week to keep up.

May Mechanicals/ Water Returns/ LEED Incorporates

March and April came in with a splash. Although the sump pump had not run for 8 months, the winter thaw and rain found it's way back into one wall of the crawl space. Although the new self leveling topping reduced the risk of hydrostatic seepage trough the mud slab, the intersections at the floor still provides a weak point for water to find its way in. Water stop has been utilize to help plug the holes. A dehumidfier and fans help keep the area as dry as possible. On the exterior, a vertical trench/ curtian drain and additional sump pit was installed to capture water at 18" deep, which was finding its way into the new driveway stone and under the garage. Although the basement has drain tile inside at the footing, the crawl space does not.

LEED elements starting showing up. Low VOC Adhesives, Material cut-off reuse wood pile, Recycling, and protection of ductwork.
A marker board at the entry is used for logging hours and remind people of the basics of LEED for homes rules. Each contractor is breifed on what they need to do to meet compliance.

Framing and reinforcement of the existing structure continues, while HVAC and Plumbing are beginning installation. Its expected that the house will be near drywall installation at the end of May. Cabinets start fabrication at teh end of this month.

Spring brought beautiful flower into the west garden to be enjoyed during break time.

With the rain came growing grass and the hassle of maintain 5 acres. Although future plans is to incorporate native prarie grasses, this year the lawn is going to remain the same so finishing the house is kept as the focus. During permit review question were brought up about our property was in a a wetlands. Although the McHenry County GIS map reflected a wetlands foot print, a paid inspection to the Storm Water Management Person determine that the wetland indicated was not present when pyhsically inspected by the county. The next task is contacting the Army Corp of Engineer to make a correction to thier master GIS map for future reference for the new mortgage. The good news is the interor permit was approved as result of the stormwater inspection.

Rear NE Corner shot looking Southwest of yard after cutting the grass in the back.

West Gardern

Craw space with seepage. Cross indicate leaks. There nothing satanic going on here or grave. It was just markings by Mike on the wall.


The curtian drain installation along the West side of the driveway has helpped relieve pressure. We thinking there is a farmer drain tile comming from the adjacent neightbor to the West (but can't find it yet). Were still looking and waiting for the next storm to test our solutions. This continues to be our biggest unknown right now.

May is dedicated to finsihing the plumbing Pex water piping and installing the electric on the second floor. Much of the electric outlet on the first floor is existing and will remain. First floor ceiling light of LED's will be installed this month. Temporary electric provides light at night.

Glad Feburary is over - Mechanicals to start

February of 2011 will be remembered as the 3rd Largest Blizzard in Chicago history and a pipe burst flood in the little accessory building.

Very old temps, bad weather and a small 3" flood during January and February limited working in the house to just the weekends. The February bizzard stopped work for the weekend. Drifts went as high as 5 feet at the door of the pull barn. Thank god for the snow blower that powered right through the 22" of snow on 450' for driveway in a little over 3 hours. The hard part was getting out of our current driveway and getting to Woodstock. It took 4 hours to dig out the 60 foot driveway in Carpentersville.

Since the house was fully insulated with the 1st layer of insulation, the bitter cold was kept out and temps stayed near 32 degrees or warmer in the basement and cold at levels going up. The bad news is the closed cell foam kept cold temps trapped inside the house when the weather turned warmer outside. Electric heaters provided some heat during the months to get temps to about 40 degrees inside. Since the moisture issues had temporally vanished, the sump pump has not run in 6 months , and environment was dry, we focused on installing hanging shop lights in the crawl space area and installing self-leveling concrete flooring over the vapor barrier and the cracked and broken mud floor. The objective was to provide a full seal of the crawl space cracks and provide a smooth surface for future storage. We used two products (Mapei quick setting self leveling underlayment cement mix and QuickCrete Self -leveling concrete mix). At $27.00 a bag for the Mapei it got expensive to do the 1st 1/3 of the crawl. Mike took a trip to the Home Builders Show in Orlando and found a Quickcrete product for almost 1/2 the price. We found that purchasing a 1/2 skid of 32 bags saved $2.00 per bag.. See photos of the finished product.

Brother Steve and Friend Rob help with the mixing and pouring. Doing a such large area, if I'd do it again, I think I would use the 12 set product, because in 5 gallon buckets the product set up too quickly (in 15 minutes)and was hard to feather into other pours in a large space. Se we had a few ripples. Rob was helpful in starting the old furnace. I had replaced a controller board, fixed a stuck inducer, repaired wires and installed a replacement igniter module, and BAM!, we had temporary heat.

We have finalized our interior remodeling permit and submitted for our drawings after meeting with the Plumbing inspector on-site. I really appreciate his feedback on my questions. Septic system drawings were approved and ready to start.

Drawings were completed. Bid came back for the HVAC and Geothermal. We found price for Geothermal to be extremely high even with a 30% tax credit. It appeared to me that Geothermal Contractors are asking a premium for their work and absorbing the tax rebate. The cost payback was not just not there when you weigh the high cost of Geothermal to high- efficiency natural gas furnace. Even if the systems were the same price wit the credit, the 30% tax credit is something you have to get back from the government off each years taxes (for up to 7 years). As a result you have to pay out the subcontractor an extra 30%. Money really is not in the budget. I selected to go with Carrier gas Infinity multi-stage furnaces and AC setup. Bid from residential HVAC contractors were commonly incomplete or inaccurate. Only one contractor of 4 followed the scope. contractor will start as soon as we get the permit.

Plumbing has been selected to be a PEX piping system. The biggest advantage is that the homeowner can do the work and save on labor. A major advantage of PEX over copper is that piping is more resistant to freezing, and not loosing heat energy from a metal pipe. A recent water test showed the PH of our water to be 7.49 (which is near identical to city of Chicago water). The balance of the testing is being done by a water softener company. We are serious considering not utilizing a softener and sticking with a no salt solution and a good filter system. Electric is going to be only a partial conduit system. Main home runs and existing electric will be conduit, however the balance of the wiring with be rope wire and have a license electrician to do the final connections. The existing electrical panel was replaced with a new properly grounded electrical panel by a union electric an.

Furring out the perimeter stud walls is taking place with Cherie, Steve and Nate while we are waiting for our permit review to be complete. The furring will allow perimeter wiring to be done and the 2nd layer batt to be installed over the closed cell foam to get a R-27 wall resistance value. Ceiling deign is R-49 flash & batt (sloped) and batt and blown insulation (flat ceiling). The county has been more cooperative now that they have seen that substantial time and effort is being taken to correct items from the past owner and taking extra steps to assure our home is well above building codes and standard for energy use.

Security cameras with remote access and an alarm system with was installed this week to keep unwanted visitor recorded and from entering the project. last thing we want is for someone to destroy our hard work. No valuable equipment or material is kept on-site.

I expect all mechanicals be completed by the end of March and Drywall to start first week in April. LEED for Homes scorecard and points will be shared on the next post. It was selecting points and assigning there cost ramifications to our overall budget.

Winter comes and we're ready to work inside

It's been a while since the last post.
Siding was finished in October and November which entailed caulking and painting until the weather stopped us. Only one window and one piece of trim did not get painted, but we're happy with the progress. The closed cell wall insulation was complete Mid-October and flat ceiling battens were installed the first week of November. The window jambs were foam filled following that to finish the 2nd building permit. During that time the construction crew of Cherie and Mike took a well deserved trip to Mexico for a week of rest and relaxation with Steve and JoNell. The Driveway was installed to the 2 car garage the week before Thanksgiving.

During the fall family members Mom, Steve, JoNell , Cousin Diane, Cousin Jen and Scott helped paint and suck-up 5 acres of leaves (see photos of the leaf free rear yard).

Drawing for the interior permit has been finishing up during the month of December with a planned sumbittal date of 12/29/10. Septic Engineer Al Schmitt laid out the troubled new septic field design. Either the water table was too high or soil conditions were not acceptable. Field is going to be a chamber system which is a more efficient septic design, but not recognized by the county (so reduction of length not given). Backup sump pump has been successfully installed (in case of a reoccurring ground water problem) and the furring framing has been started to increase the wall thickness from 2"x 4" to 2" x 6" to accomodate the R-27 wall insulation. Mike and Dave Baum have been trying to get the existing high-efficiency furnace running over the last week and make progress with every part replacement.

Our new completion date has been moved back to April 1st,2011. Rushing to finish the house just wasn't and option and Mike wanted to go through Greenbuild to look and other final design aspects. Looking forward, 2"x 2" furing will continue for the next two weeks and a self leveling floor surface is being poured in the crawl space over the hand trowelled mud floor this week. House is also being checked for levels of radon. In a tight LEED house, it is recommended to check if radon will be trapped in the house envelope.

New and revised bids are cominig in this week for HVAC and Plumbing. Some of the existing HVAC ductwork, which is in good condition, is being reused for the 1st floor. Since the basement has been dry for months, it has been determined that the new HVAC unit will be replaced and stay in it's current location. Pricing for an alternate Geothermal system came in at twice of what a high-efficiency natural gas system cost, so the budget and life-cycle cost both say gas. Electric wiring is being done by M & C (that Mike and Cherie Electric). McHenry County allows Romex wire without conduit. This makes it much easier for the Mike and Cherie team to do accomplish the job. Our cabinet contract is going to Joe a local custom cabinet shop, who is using formeldhyde-free plywood and low VOC stains & finishes. I hope to update as the mechanicals start installing this coming month. photos are included of the interior as per request by readers. Unfortunately, they are not the best views right now.

Siding and Insualtion helps move the Exterior Envelope to Completion

Haven't posted since August and the only excuse is that "I'm always working on the house" or picking vegetable from the garden.

We've decide to back off on the aggressive October 31st completion and now committed to a December completion. Due to the fact we have limited resources to hire professional and limited friends, we have chosen to take our time and do a good job and not hurry through the experience.

The exterior of the house is near 100% complete. In the next few weeks painting will be completed and a driveway will be installed. We are pricing both asphalt and concrete for the new drive coming into the side load garage.

Foreman Cherie Dudek (my wife), helped me do a complete tear-off and re-roof of the garage roof (see photos). The sheathing at the perimeter was an added bonus to deal with a raccoon presents in the attic. Although we new Raccoons had gotten into the Garage ceiling, we didn't realize the extent until the hot August summer, when you could smell it. We realize that dropping we left in the ceiling studs near the eaves and the only way to get them out is to temporarily remove the sheathing and clean/ sanitize the area. Cherie freaked out on day during the whole ordeal and demanded I hire someone for $1,000 to clean the mess up. I obviously refused and darted over to the house after work and while Cherie read me all the HEPA mask criteria, I had most of the droppings cleaned up on 20 minutes (as the sun was setting). I was not willing to pay anyone $1,000 for work I could do myself (with taking the right precautions with mask and gloves). That was the cost of our refrigerator ! By the next day Cherie had calmed down and bought a new HEPA vacuum and finished the minor debris and then scrubbed the area down with bleach. Carpenters asked where they could find a wife like mine.

Progress made since the last post is the installation of all the fiber cement Hardiplank siding and Miritec fiber cement trim. Also at the beginning of October, the 2" closed cell spray foam had been installed on all areas as part of the "Flash and Batt." building insulation. The R-value of 1" of foam is 6.7 and 2" is 13.4". We plan to install 2" furring to create and internal 6" stud scenario. Total wall insulation will amount to R-26 walls and R-49 ceiling when finished. All the crawl space and floor sill plates were foamed just in time for cooler weather (and to prohibit outdoor critter from taking residence for the fall and winter). Metro Insulation was the contractor hired from Rockford to do the work. prior to the insualtion work, Cherie and friend Linda took on the job of removing all the old sill plate insulation and cleaning up and debris in the crawl space. This included 1,000 recent acorns stored by a squirrel (that has now been evicted by foam).

I have to drop a special note on our great carpenters of Steve Hopp, Greg and Corey. Besides someone dropping a rag down the toilet (and putting it out of commission for 2 weeks and making the ladies suffer), they have done a great job in craftsmanship. I'd recommend these guys to anyone. They hustle and work hard. You could not ask for more.

Falls coming and leaves are accumulating, so the next post will be soon and highlight the fall preparation, interior permits and creative design elements related to our LEED Certified Home.

Construction is taking shape/ Driveway is done

It's been over 2 month since my last post.

We're a little behind schedule on the main house, but the other areas have made some good ground. Due to regrading, gutters and mortaring a manhole our water seepage problems have been gone for 2 months. Goal is to finish by October 31st.

Our LEED home provider is signed-up and design improvement have been discussed.

We submit for the "interior permit" after our LEED "Design Charrette". The big ticket LEED items are spray foam closed cell insulation, Solar panels, and HVAC/ Geothermal system. Naturally we are going with low-flow toilets and aerator faucets to reduce water consumption. We are researching the low-flow shower heads.

As for the area around the house. the grass and landscaping has taken place. Sister Cindy from Redondo Beach and kids Nicolas and Heather helped seal coat driveways, and cut grass on the riding lawn mowers. What a gas for the kids, on their first riding lawn mower experience. Sis, thanks for the help. Mom, Twin Brother Steve, JoNell, Scott and Jessica all pitched in time which was appreciated. We have many other friend and family that have helped as well and say thanks. By the way, my wife Cherie is boss and share in the do-it-yourself chores. Couldn't do it without her and enjoy it most of the time.

Driveway took 4 weeks to patch one crack at a time and seal, but looks great. Hopefully I can get credit for saving a driveway from LEED vs. replacing it (jokingly). The garage door and header have been installed with the garage being rotated 90 degrees.

1,000's of acorns have littered our property. Our plan is to donate a 1,000 of them to the conservation district to plan new trees two miles to the East. If hey want the rest, they need to come and pick them up of the ground.

We resolved permit problems with removing the 50' semi-trailer (via scrapper) and pulling a permit for converting the little house back to an accessory building to meet the current code.

We have permits finished for the roof and working on the 2ND permit for siding, windows and garage doors. A super-insulated garage door is installed and Hardi-plank fiber cement siding is being finished on the three other sides of the house. Foam Insulation is very large premium. We are doing Flash and batt insulation on most of the walls, Full foam in some walls and cathedral ceiling and R-42 insulation in the ceiling. 2ND floor ceiling are very difficult to engineer.

The new cutting edge septic design is almost complete by Forest City Engineer (it's required) and the landscape design is being done by Rob Bottesek of Lawnscapes (great landscaper and close friend). I highly recommend Rob.

Cherie has done major clean-up on the planting beds in the from of the house. I failed to plant wild flower earlier in the year that was taken over by weeds. Now the entry looks respectable.

This week windows are delivered and installed next week by the carpenters. Foam for "Flash and Batt." ,electrical wiring, HVAC, and Plumbing is next.