Part Two of the Construction Update - It's Looking Great

Nearing the end is the fun part, but the most stressful.

By the time most of you read this post, Cherie and I will have our temporary C of O and occupying the new house periodically. However in the meantime, Let's pick up from the previous update post. As we near the end the stress elevates becasue you have to make final decisions on colors, finishes, design elements that are going to be seen for most of our lifetime. Although we had a very detailed set of architectural plans, the beauty is in the details and finsihed product.
A sustainable home for the most part looks like a regular house wit only a few noticible differences.

I apologize for the post formatting for Google. The blog software unfortunately doesn't post the text and photos the same as seen in the editing format, so I appologies for weird text to phot layout. I have spent hours on my previous blog posts trying to get information to display correctly (with limited success). Blog software revision have gotten 100% better, but still needs some work. The simple addition of an "undo" command really helped on mistakes.


We talked about installing granite countertops, but I didn't have the  photos readily avaialble. The installers did a great job, however the template was off a little and the installers to 12 hours making modifications until 8:00 at night on Holloween night. Reguardless, they did an excellent job and cleaned-up after themselves.

Included below are photos of Cherie doing everything. Everytime Cherie would tackle a new skill, she would ask me snap a photo (hence all the photos of her and not me). She still get a most he credit for putting in some quality sweat equity that most women I know would not do. She has been a great partner and wife in building this house.


The shopping for finishes and making decision is the most stressful part (because it what you will see every day).
During our purchasing trip for materials for the bathrooms and kitchen backsplash, I insisted that we only be shown "American Made Products" (to support the local economy and reduce the carbon footprint of the product). Retailers were very cooperative to assist on finding a local and competitively priced product. We were surprise to find a great selection of Dal Tile made in the USA at Home Depot. Our second bathroom, is 100% American Made Home Depot tile. The master is going to have Crossville tile produced in Crossville,Tennessee (not shown  becasue it's the last project under construction).

Double doors purchased from Restore Charity in Lombard adds a contrasting element to the master bedroom with an arched custome window currently under fabrication.



Cherie and Steve Hopp rehanging the front door and frame to get it to swing and close right



Cherie in a hooded mask priming the arch at the window over the two story entry. All paint was Zero VOC Pure paint.

Cherie on the Scafold ready to prime the arch and wall

Cherie preping for paint int he Great Rooom




Cherie finishing one of many trims in the Master Bedroom
(she even has her own tool belt and pink tools we won't use)





Now we are hitting winter snowflakes of 2012



Great Room with fireplace framed

Cheire installing Durarock cement board in Master Bathroom

Porcelin Dal tile (made in america) installed in the Laundry / Utility Room.

2nd bath with Wood Plank Porcelin tile (and it has a hand scraped texture)

Labeling of the wood plank floor to remind me the plank sequence installtion when I have to remove the assembly to spread tile thinset mortar.

Workout room laminate floor installed by Cherie and carpenter, Steve Hopp. Product was sustaianble and purchased at Costco Wholesale. Putting this type of floor down is all about hte first two rows and having a very clean subfloor.

10 pieces of existing marble from the previous owner was used to tile the 1st floor bath. Luckily Cherie and I were able to find an additional 8 pieces of marble that match exactly that and completed a beautiful floor with left over materials. Otherwise the original material would be useless. Looks great now. Maybe we can get LEED credit for reuse.

Cherie painting the very top window trim on two stories of scafold plus a  ladder to get to the very top. You could pay me to do that paint job (but Cherie voulenteered).

Fire place finished and functioning minus a hearth and trim cap stones. This was a great change from our old open traditional fireplace in the current house to a glass front ventless firplace (which eliminates  most of the heat loss). The fireplace generates 35,000 BTU's without electic in the case of a power outage.

A mudroom was added into the  2 1/2 car garage space to add a place to hang coats and store shoes. The key is to keep mice out of the house. That were our cat Kelsey comes in.

 Doors reused from the previous owners garage setup removed and saved for future use (this if the use). The garage was returned back to a garage, however the oriewntation was rotate to the side of the house.

Mahagony wood double doors for master obtain from Restore in Lombard for $40 each. Our last opening to finsh.

We still maintain a sockpile of reuseable material even at the finish stage. You be surprise how many little block pieces you need when doing the final finish work, Nothing went to waste. We only had one small dumpster during the entire project at drywall. Many scraps were saved, but the drywaller were not big on saving material as opposed to saving time. They did read our contractor board of rules and appreciated the low-VOC adhesive. They have never used it before and thier company choose to start using it, becasue the guys did not get headaches and an reduced breaks needed (hence production increased).

I'll have another few post, but wanted to bring our friend, family and followers up to date on the progress and didn't fall off the end of the earth. As we move to the finish, the project has been very rewarding. A USGBC Tour is set up in May at the house for USGBC members and guest to see in person. Posting on the mechanicals systems, including the Venmar HRV, to follow in the next post.