Confessing an Addiction

We were so excited to start blogging about what has happened over the past 3 months at the house (framing, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems), and then something happened.  While visiting my dad in mid-February, a casual conversation turned into a full on ancestry search.  This search became an addiction.  Each night upon arriving home, we had dinner, put Alden to bed, and had a quick chat that went something like this:

Alycia: How was your day?
Jared: Great! Yours?
Alycia: Wonderful.
Jared: I'm going to work on the family tree.
Alycia: Yeah, me, too.

Jared has had the most exciting finds - a American Revolutionary War veteran, the boat manifest listing family that immigrated from Germany in the 1880s, and familial ties to family friends in the "German Valley" in Wisconsin.

Alycia's paternal tree traces back to Germany, exclusively, but we weren't able to find any information regarding the date of entry into the USA.  The maternal tree is a melting pot of European descendants - Germany, Wales, France, Scotland, and Ireland, so far.

Alden (4 mo) meeting Gramps.

Ok, let's chat about the house.  Jared spent most of November working as a member of the framing crew.  Brett's team worked hard throughout the month to get the house sealed up for winter. Jared and Brett installed most of the windows and doors as a two man crew.  Tom spent some time driving the lift and swinging a hammer.  By the end of the month, we had a weather tight structure with a roof - just in time for the first snow.

Exterior sticks on the 1st floor are up!

First floor - kitchen to living room view

First floor - front door and stair well

The Breiter men were splitting wood, when the framing crew didn't need extra hands.  Still plenty more to do!

Tom driving the lift , and Jared hanging sheathing on the garage. Colin is headed for more material.

View from the front bedroom

View from the master bedroom

Front door looking toward the kitchen and dining room - before the interior walls were framed.

Kitchen to living room with sheathing in place

The stairs are ready for use.

A video tour of the house

Alden's first trip to Menards.  We spent 5 hours in the store buying siding, plumbing, roofing, and misc materials.  The receipt is about 7 feet  long!  Good thing it was the 11% off sale.

A few things we'll do differently next time:
-Planning ahead for spray foam insulation (i.e. get it on the drawings!) means 24" on center (instead of 16" oc), which would save on material and labor costs.
-Inset trusses continue to be extra work.  The the window sizes didn't account for the truss depth (had to purchase more windows) and mounting the sill plates was extra work.
-Not go hog wild at Menards.  We bought several items several months before they were needed.  This resulted in having material too early and in the way.


For those who are interested in our technical research:
We considered  two options for the main structure of the house: stick built and structural insulated panels (SIPs).

As mentioned in a previous post, we would like to have an energy efficient "green" home, but require a reasonable pay back period to make the investment.  We spent several months researching SIPs and having our project bid by SIPs companies.  Based on our research, we believed some of the cost of the SIPs material is offset by the reduction in labor costs (1-2 weeks of labor instead of 8-10 weeks of labor).  Additionally, the home would be completed much faster and would be significantly more energy efficient.

However, research does not equal reality.  What we found is that the house can be erected in 1-2 weeks, but the lead time for panels is 6-8 weeks.  The panels aren't ordered until the foundation is complete, so the timeline is in the same ballpark as a stick built home.

The SIPs energy savings calculations in the marketing brochures are compared to a home that is built in the most extreme conditions with 2x4 construction and batt insulation.  The building code in Minnesota requires 2x6 construction with a higher insulation rating than in the comparison charts provided by SIPs manufacturers.  After comparing the code required energy levels of a stick built home to a SIPs home (using energy.gov), we found the energy savings for SIPs were way over stated.

Comparing the quotes between stick built and SIPs for materials and insulation showed an increase in building cost of 30-40%.  The labor costs were equivalent to stick built quotes and the material costs were almost double.  The payback would be several decades.

Ultimately, we decided on a stick built home with closed cell foam insulation (http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/green-basics/spray-foam-insulation-open-and-closed-cell).  This provides energy savings similar to SIPs at a fraction of the cost.