73rd Post – Rain Garden

Week 18 of Construction

Before Plants

A rain garden is an area in the yard designated to contain the rain from the impervious areas such as roofs, sidewalks, driveways and roads.  A rain garden is composed of a dug out area with native plants to drink and filter most of the water; this is a man made wetlands.  For years developments had been plowing in wetlands and building over them and now they are finding out the benefits of wetlands.  

Close up of outlets from rain gutters

So here we are recreating nature with rain gardens to help the rainwater filter before it makes it to the ground water and storm water drains.  Rainwater picks up pollutants on the way down from the sky and after it falls the water collects more pollutants on our roofs, lawns and driveways.  Rainwater can contribute up to 30% of pollution for our rivers and streams.  This is an easy way for everyone to make a difference in our health of our ground water and river systems. 

Less then:  < 1% of the world's fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.

Taken from:

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html

There are different ways to build a rain garden and a variety of plants to use in a rain garden. There are many good resources from universities and water conservation departments.  Here are just a couple of examples for Oregon:

http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/onlinepubs/h10001.pdf

http://tilth.org/education-research/in-good-tilth-magazine/articles/2008/19i/rain-gardens

http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=25102

72nd Post – Sheet Rock and Sewer and Rain Garden

Week 17 of Construction

They were very busy finishing mudding the sheet rock yesterday and today they were sanding the mud down.  In the afternoon they sprayed on the texture to the walls.

Today they finished digging the sections for the sewer and water and connecting it to the street.  They also dug the water garden for our rain run off (more to come in a later blog).

Rigid foam

We also had the last of the loose fill insulation into the attic space.

There were two other subs here today to prep for their work next week.  Wow, there was a whirlwind of activity around our PH right now.

The loose fill insulation finished

Adding loose fill insulation on top of the rigid foam

71st Post – Sheet Rock and Sewer

Week 17 of Construction

Today Jason put more mud on the sheet rock while others dug for the sewer to make the connection.

I also finalized the drawings for our kitchen cabinets.  They will be starting them tomorrow.  After that I went to look at countertop material.  I have been busy making items for the house; lights, stain glass windows and inserts for the kitchen cabinets.

70th Post – More Sheet Rock and also Siding - 4

Week 16 of Construction

Taping the seams

The sheet rock instillation will take quite a bit of time.  There are so many layers in this process.  They will be taping and mudding the seams this week.  Once done, they have to let it dry and then sand the areas and repeat the process.  This will go on for about a week or more, so this is all that will be done inside the house.

On the outside they have finished the siding.  It has some very clean lines with the accent on the windows and gable ends.

We had our guide dog group, P.A.W.S., come and look at our new PH for our walking outing.  Here is everyone outside.

Our guide dog Orrin, that went back for formal training just graduated last Saturday.  We were very sad to see him go but his new partner is Frances and she just loves him.  Well why not...he is a great dog!

68th Post – More Sheet Rock and also Siding - 3

Week 15 of Construction

The siding men were working hard at installing the James Hardie Board.  I am happy with the detail design that I had come up with on the widows and doors.  I saw the gable end design in one of the many books I checked out at our library.

There is more detail to come

The sheet rockers came in

and cleaned up to prepare for mudding the seams and edges on Monday.

Be Blue – Protect our sky – Go for a bike ride this weekend. 

67th Post – More Sheet Rock and also Siding - 2

Week 15 of Construction

Here are some photos of the progress.

 

Yesterday, we met with our builder, Ethan Beck, our designer, Ted Nickell and Drew Wood of Indoor Air Quality Research Collaborative.  Drew Wood is going to be doing an indoor air quality tests with both houses.  He wants to see how two houses side-by-side, with two different ventilation systems and heating systems compare.

He does research and develops air claening systems for children.  He is looking for ways to clean air for children with asthma and other breathing problems which effects children develpomental health.  Right now he is working to develop something for L.A., CA. School District because the air is so polluted.  Our PH will have a special air exchange system that cleans the air that may help with his research and studies.  

66th Post – More Sheet Rock and also Siding

Week 15 of Construction

My husband is now disappointed that all the wonderful insulation is being covered up by the sheet rock.  So here is the last look of the insulation.  You can still understand the thickness when looking at the windows or door entrances.  The sheet rockers have been working hard on applying the sheet rock through out the house.  Tomorrow they should be finished nailing/screwing it up.

Main living space

The rooms seem a lot smaller with the sheet rock up and now we have to use the doorways and not walk through walls.

Today they started to side the house.  We are using a Cement board called James Hardie Siding.  This is pretty incredible stuff.  If you want to look at the site their link is in the product for building.  

Be Blue - Protect our sky - What percent of lights are florescent in your home?  Next time you buy lights try florescents, they last longer and uses much less energy.

65th Post – Sheet Rock

Week 15 of Construction

They have loaded the sheet rock in the house so they can put it up tomorrow. This was the sky last night.

Today, Earth Advantage was here to certify our insulation.  We past even before the blown in insulation is applied to the attic space near the roof joists.  Yes, we have three different layers in our roof space.  First the insulation bats, next the insulated spray on foam, this also acts as our vapor barrier and last inside the attic space and last the blown in on top of the spray on.  This is for a total of R122.

As you can see this is not his
jacket from Guide Dogs!

I told my readers before that we raise guide dogs for the blind.  Our last dog Orrin, was featured in a new cast.  If you would like to see him just copy this URL (it works better to copy it) to see our beautiful boy!

http://www.kptv.com/local-video/index.html?grabnetworks={videoid:4345053}

Be Blue – Protect our sky – check into energy saving programs because you might be able to receive programmable thermostats.  There are real easy to change out and it will save you money and carbon output. 

64th Post – Insulation

Week 14 of Construction

Our daughter is telling me to add more pictures.  If you would like to look at any of the photos larger in the blog, just click on them.  Once you are done click on the back arrow and you will return to the blog.

Insulation was added to the rafters in the ceiling yesterday.

Fiberglass insulation was blown into the walls today.  The reason fiberglass was used is because it does not settle like other insulation.  Especially since we have such large voids to fill with the double wall construction – 16 inches.  It has been said our house is like an Igloo, instead of ice we have insulation. 

I visited Neel Briggs who is making our wood from our old tree into cabinets…the wood is beautiful.

Be Blue – Protect our sky – Protect our ground water by reducing or eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers.  This photo of a frog on a Dahlia is from our front yard.  Below is a good book with organic solutions.

Title	Rodale's vegetable garden problem solver: the best and latest advice for beating pests, diseases, and weeds and staying a step ahead of trouble in the garden
Author	Bradley, Fern Marshall.