Stucco

The stucco has really pulled the house together. We went with a sanded finish which isn't the norm in our part of FL. Usually the stucco has a more thrown together finish. We are very happy with this look and it also makes the house seem less enormous then it felt with bare blocks.

Interior kitchen walls

No not really. With a bit of nostalgia for nyc I posted this picture of a newly discovered graffiti wall with drawings by original graffiti subway artists Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000 and some traces by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Ironically, it was discovered on a building that is set to be turned into luxury condos. It looks like there is a spot for the dishwasher right there in the center.

More window views

Low Solar Heat Gain

The big slider windows are in and they look gorgeous. Here's the skinny on the numbers above.

A low U-factor is useful during cold days when heating is needed. A low U-factor is also helpful during hot days when it is important to keep the heat out, but it is less important than SHGC in warm climates. Select windows with a U-factor lower than 0.65 and preferably lower than 0.60.

Select windows with a SHGC of less than 0.40. A low SHGC is the most important window property in warm climates.

Select windows with a higher VT to maximize daylight and view.

For this climate the concern is mostly to keep spaces cool so the rules are different. These sliders allow only 39% of solar radiation through. Also to point out, it is winter now and that small amount of warming in the bedrooms could benefit us as we use the bedrooms in the evening when the temperatures drop. I have to experience this to really know but I think by summer the sun will start to set behind the tall trees that sit on the northwest corner of the house. (Right now the winter sun is setting more towards the southwest corner.) This could help shade that area from summer sun which would have a more severe effect on comfort and AC use.

Passive solar design and sunset views?

I failed a bit on the placement of the house on the site. Ideally all of your big window walls should be south facing to receive the least amount of sun light. Of course you'd want minimal windows facing east and west as they get direct sun in the morning and late afternoon. But we have the water and sunsets we wanted off our deck and so the sliders basically fall prey to the direct heat from the setting sun. As an attempt to counter this there is a 12ft roof which protects the silders up to a point then the sun gets its straight shot. All is not lost however. Because of the shade from both trees and the part of the house that sits out from the rest, the two big sliders that are the main living space in the house do not receive any of this sun (at least right now during the winter months). It is basically the 2 bedrooms that are effected. The Glide House Sunshade idea could be one option. From the Michele Kaufman website, "On warm days, keep the sunshades drawn and create a cross-breeze by opening the sliding glass doors and opposite clerestory windows (above the storage bars). This will cool the space while letting natural light in. On cooler days, open the exterior sunshades and keep the sliding doors and windows closed. This will allow the sun to heat the space while you enjoy the beautiful views!"

Light Reflectance Value

The exterior of our home is stucco. As we are going to try to get our home certified green by the FGBC, beyond being Low-VOC or no-VOC they also require an exterior paint with at least a 50% reflectance value. What does this mean? "Light Reflectance Value (LRV) is the total quantity of useable and visible light reflected by a surface in all directions and at all wavelengths when illuminated by a light source.

LRV is a measurement that tells you how much light a color reflects, and conversely how much it absorbs. LRV runs on a scale from 0% to 100%. Zero assumed to be an absolute black and 100% being an assumed perfectly reflective white. An absolute black or perfectly reflecting white do not exist in our everyday terms. The average blackest black has a LRV of approximately 5% and the whitest white is approximately 85%. Some yellows can measure up into the 80's or 90's as well." (from colorstratagies.net)"

I am going to start small on this one and go to the home depot and see what is already mainstream. All paints have a LRV rating right on the container apparently.

Green Home Designation Course- FGBC

So I drove to Cocoa, FL last week to take the Florida Green Building Coalition's Green Home Designation Course at the Solar Energy Center. It was a long day. I had to stay over to be able to make the 8am start. The class went to 4pm followed by a series of timed tests for each category covered in the course. The instructor was thorough to say the least. You can view his bio at the course link above. Basically the Solar Energy Center facilitates the course for the FGBC. This give the information a strong integrity with the science to back it up. If you pass the course you are able to become a green home certifying agent who submits the required information needed for a home to be designated green under the FGBC standards. The standards are set up to meet and exceed standard building here in FL. That said, it isn't incredibly hard for builders to go green. The beauty of the program for the green building movement is that it offers an in for every builder considering green without feeling overwhelmed. Beyond that it presents green options side by side making it easy to opted for a new method or material for whatever area. The view is that if builders would incorporate at least some items from each category:

General
Disaster Mitigation
Materials
Health
Site
Lot Choice
Water
Energy

then they are helping promote the cause and will most likely begin to implement further elements as they learn more and source more green materials. It's a process that would only move builders further into green as competition has begun to dictate.

Bio+diesel = 1980 Mercedes 240D

So we jumped on the bandwagon of trying to solve our automobile needs without buying a prius. The answer for many is a diesel car that needs no conversion to run on biodiesel fuel which is American made but obviously not at every corner gas station. We secured our ride for $1400 and it runs and it has the colored hub caps we were trying to score. For now the closest biodiesel station is in Tampa an hour away. We could make our own one day or resort to the vegetable oil solution which requires a conversion kit. The idea for us is that we recycled a car and of course once we can find our best biodiesel solution we can finally kick oil and enjoy the "luxury" a 1980's mercedes has to offer i.e. no power windows.

More 360 interior

We have the windows in and the framing in place.

Gottfried 360

Rooms with a view

This is the view so far. There are many Australiam pines that are non-native nightmares. They grow like weeds up along the bank at farthest end of the lot. They get in the way of everything on the ground and in the air. We'll also cut back some of the mangroves which is allowed with a permit. We won't touch most of them but a few areas would be nice to open up. Other than that this view is only going to get better.

Outside the box

Being elevated

The house sits up about 12+ft. It feels strange at first to be up that high.Jasper is already guarding his castle.

Inside the box

Here is the view from the southwest corner of the house looking across what will be the deck and then back into the ac space through the openings where the glass doors will go.Or you can walk through this door from the same space to enter the main space.

The Florida House Revival

This is where it all started for us- The Florida House in Sarasota. This was my tenth post on Gottfried Green back in June of 2006 when I first read about the learning center online. We were still in Brooklyn and only just closed on the property. I remember that first on my list when we arrived was to visit The Florida House. It was 12 years old but still was packed with a lot of innovation. We tracked down the architect Osborn Sharp Assoc in Sarasota and they created this beautiful design that was passive solar and had a grey water system. My Green Buildings was bidding our project- who at the time were the only green builders doing more custom and remodel vs. a few builders who were doing model green homes (which after visiting a few I found it hard to see what was green about them). Everything would come full circle. Osborn Sharp and My Green Buildings met through the bidding of our project and now they are the dream, green team in Sarasota working together to restore The Florida House at its new location. With all the greenwash out there, I can honestly say that they are the real deal in green in FL. They really care about the design as the fundamental aspect of what makes a building green. Design is also half the fun of this whole transition into a new way of designing and building with all the common sense to back it up.

Progress

Here is a view as you would see driving up to the house from the road.
This is the Northwest corner of the house where our bedroom sits back from what will be the lanai.
This will be the length of the lanai which stretches 60x20 along the water facing side of the house. Since there is a 12ft overhang most of the late day sun will be blocked by this overhang while still allowing for us to catch the sunset.
The house looks massive from across the top lot looking over the lagoon. This has to do with the required flood elevation. The actual ac indoor space is 2000sf. As far as footprint we did our best. With a partial green roof and maybe some green exterior walls, I can further insulate and reduce how massive this house feels.

Example: a second home in Oregon

The NYTimes wrote about a couple who suffered through some hardships building a small, second home in Hood River Oregon but not because of the reasons you'd think. I'm sure it didn't hurt to have backgrounds in architecture, sustainable design and to be building in Oregon (more progressive in this sort of thing?). They did run into similar problems that we found here in FL which surprised me. The county, the bank and the appraiser all had problems because their design wasn't big enough and Tudor style like the others near by and didn't have a 2 car garage. Our bank had a problem with no pool, no concrete driveway, only one bathroom and wanting to wait to add a cooling system. I have to admit I gave in a little more and sacrificed some of what I wanted (without the AC they wouldn't give us the loan and unfortunately for me they were the easiest bank I found to work with us on anything and have a decent interest rate). Without the architecture/green design experience it proved impossible to find all the knowledge and experience to build green in the way that I had hoped and so I am stuck with trying to keep as much of the project for later as I could. It's not saying what the building envelop is but some of their green ideas are in the article, "A KEY concept for the house was “to literally have no footprint,” Ms. Donohue said. The roof is engineered to sustain plants and soil to absorb rainwater. Planters with native grasses, which are embedded in the cedar deck and walkway, also help absorb rainwater while screen-covered inserts in the concrete storage units allow floodwater to flow in and out. “There’s the idea that nature is running through the building,” Mr. McKean said. Other features include tigerwood flooring certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a vegetable wax finish, a water-conserving toilet, an on-demand water heater and in the bathroom a solar tube — a type of skylight that intensifies natural light — to use in place of a regular electrical fixture."

The Greenest Building on the Planet

From the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, "The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center has received Platinum LEED ® Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Following a rigorous assessment, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program awarded the Legacy Center 61 points of 69 possible points, more than any other building yet rated in the world." Elements like Photovoltaics, Earth Tubes, Radiant Floor, Wood Heat make up the renewable energy systems. Also, here are some low tech solutions for energy savings from the site:

Low tech solutions yield about half of our energy savings:

Of the energy used by conventional buildings, half typically goes to heating, cooling, and lighting.

Bringing in daylight reduces interior lighting needs.

Higher than standard levels of insulation in the walls and ceiling keep the building cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than typical insulation would.

Promoting cross ventilation—and providing windows that open and close—allows air to flow freely and allows us to turn off the mechanical ventilation equipment.

Overhangs allow the sun in during the winter yet block the hot sun during the summer.

A “thermal flux zone” reduces heat flow between the main office and the outdoors.

Altogether, savvy design reduces the work load on the mechanical systems, and the smallest, most-efficient equipment was selected to do the job.

Buried Alive

I can't say how many times I've had to stop and help a gopher tortoise to cross the road. It's always a wrong time wrong place situation for the tortoise. If they could only keep to digging their burrows and remaining safe. I guess even then they find themselves between a rock and a hard place literally. A friend sent me news about the practice of "entombment" where developers build on top of the burrows and the tortoises are left buried alive ultimately unable to dig through the concrete and asphalt laid on top of them. To spell it out more directly here is a quote from the article in The Washington Post, "Trying to dig out, day after day, but not being able to, it's got to be pretty horrible," said Matthew J. Aresco, a biologist at a 50,000-acre conservation area in Florida who helped bring the tortoises' cause to light. "It's truly appalling." This has turned out to be a win win situation as the fine the developer would have had to pay to bury the tortoises was more expensive then having them relocated. When it works out this way it makes for one less excuse when destroying the environment for the sake of development. Visit Nokuse Plantation for more information about the rescue effort. From the site: "Nokuse Plantation is 48,000 acre private conservation initiative in the Florida Panhandle conceptualized and funded by M. C. Davis and Sam Shine. It is designed to be both a model and a catalyst for future landscape level conservation projects, which is the only way to preserve nature’s intrinsic biodiversity."

Fighting for Florida-Friendly Yards

Mr. Gottfried seems to have lost the camera so I won't have any new photos until next week. In the Herald Tribune, another story about water use and the lack of common sense. I should have a daily section on the blog about how FL bites its nose to spite its face. A couple decided to forget lawns and go with a Florida-Friendly Yard, one that conserves water and needs almost no fertilizers or pesticides. Given the drought you would think this would be made an example of here in Southwest FL. Well, it is being made an example of- what you shouldn't do. The homeowners assoc. of their subdivision says they are violating their rules and will be required to pay a fine of 15k if they do not relay sod in their front yard. They should be able to get out of it using a 2001 state decision that homeowner's assocs can not ban Florida-Friendly Yards.

Distant view

There is a small area of the lot partially cut off by a lagoon. This is a view of the house looking in from this part of the property.

Building Up Walls

Progress continues as the stem walls are appearing quickly. This is the view from the waterfront. The outer most part is the support where the lanai will sit.

Happy Halloween

Building Blocks

The concrete blocks arrived and the cascading corner foundation sections are being laid. Another survey will then be done to document that the house is physically on the land where it should be. If I had people commenting on the blog I might bring up how non-green I know concrete block is but because of solving the elevation issue and budget it makes the most sense in the grand scheme of things. So beyond that the house is moving forward at a brisk pace so far.

Finding Our Footing

The trenches are dug for the footers to go in. The inspector just happened to be there when we got there. We had to go but we'll know tonight if we passed because the footers will be in when we go back to Gottfried. The county comes to inspect frequently throughout each phase. The trenches were dug this morning, the inspector showed up by noon and then (hopefully) the footers will be in place later today.

Englewood Water Board Torture

I just paid $6285 to the Englewood Water District for water and sewer hook-up. Believe it or not I saved $3900 because someone in 2001 paid that amount toward the cost. Yes, it would have cost around 10k otherwise to connect to the county sewer and water. Between this cost and the impact fees, I would assume the county is glad we came along. I think of Olga next door and her struggle with the EWD. They offered to hook her up for free at a certain point. My only thought is that they are still going to have to run the pipe from the road back to our house and they run it on the North property line which borders hers. I'll just have to keep an eye on the destruction. Read more about Olga's experience at the Link.

Energy Star Tax Credits

While I am on the Energy Star Site it's a good time to also bookmark the current energy tax cuts. There is a very clear chart with all the resources to select products, find out the amount of the tax cut, what receipts/proof you'll need and finally you can print the various tax forms.

Important to note: "Home Improvements
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has provided guidance for consumers: IRS Notice 2006-26.

Tax credits are available for many types of home improvements including adding insulation, replacement windows, and certain high efficiency heating and cooling equipment. See chart. The maximum amount of homeowner credit for all improvements combined is $500 during the two year period of the tax credit. This tax credit applies to improvements made to your primary residence from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2007.

If you are building a new home, you do not qualify for the tax credits for "eligible building envelope components" (windows, doors, insulation, roofs) or "qualified energy property" (HVAC & non-solar water heaters). However, the tax credit for photovoltaics, solar water heating, and fuel cells is available for homeowners building new homes."

Energy Star Home Advisor

Energy Star Home Advisor offers a page on their website where you can enter your location and current energy uses to determine ways to reduce energy use and costs. It highlights the usual list for existing homes:

sealing duct work
more insulation
upgrade windows
upgrade HVAC
programmable thermostat

Energy Star requirements are really just a bare minimum for how far you can go with R-Values and SEER ratings etc. but it is a good start to see where you fit in with home energy consumption.

Site Clearing- Day 3

Click to enlarge.

It is day 3 of the site clearing. Everything that needed to go has gone and the site is being leveled with a swale running along one side of the house closest to the neighbor. The house corners have been pegged (not yet officially) and it seems massive but then when we picture the room walls within it doesn't feel that big at all. It is basically two pods. The main part of the house is the rectangle which is 1600 sf. The square pod is 400 sf. It is marked as storage but we will finish it later into a guest suite/3rd bedroom. I'll have freedom and more knowledge to try to incorporate some of the features of the prefabs and green homes I admire. I'd like to try to keep the square pod off the grid even though it will be connected to the main space through a shared doorway. Haven't quite thought that one through yet. Basically it would have its own water and power sources set up. I want to be able to try some of these systems on a small scale.

LEAFHouse- Tankless hot Water Back-up

At the LEAFHouse, they use tankless hot water for back-up. To get started we'll be only using tankless and install solar hot water later. FL is certainly ideal for solar water heating in general.

At the LEAFHouse, "[Their] system features a tankless water heater, the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 20. Maryland’s average yearly “insolation,” or amount of sunlight available to make hot water, is 3.98, which is a little low as compared to a sunny place like California at 5.4. This means that, especially during the winter months, when insolation is low, the backup water heater will be doing its job." This tankless cost $500.

LEAFHouse- Solar hot Water

For the LEAFHouse, "Apricus water heating tubes provide all the hot water for the house, including the hot water for the radiant floor.

The tubes absorb the sun’s radiant heat in an insulating layer of air-evacuated glass. A vacuum is an excellent insulator, allowing LEAFHouse to make hot water even when it's cold outside.

While the outside of the tubes are cool, the inside the tubes can exceed 300º F. There is a pipe connecting the tubes to various appliances that require hot water throughout the house. The tubes eliminate the need for an electric or gas water heater.

Back to the LEAFHouse- Water Recycling

I've chosen the LEAFHouse- to pick apart because the website offers many details including costs. For their graywater system, "The [graywater] is held in a tank, gradually filtered through a special planter bed, and used to irrigate the landscape around the house [and wash the car]." They also harvest rainwater as discussed in an earlier post.

Water, Water nowhere

Simon Norfolk/NB Pictures, for The New York Times

My neighbor Olga believes the end of days is coming soon. She's 8 years shy of a century of living on the earth and sometimes I think she is right. Things do seem dire. I read local environmental news here. Someone in Naples shot a bald eagle last week. How stupid do you have to be to shoot a bald eagle?? There is the Atlanta drought which is translated to the rest of us through pictures of the empty lake. California is on fire and now I read this article in the Times. It's a great piece because it goes back in history to how water "works" in the Southwest since the US started regulating it. Long story short, the decreased "snowmelt" that feeds the Colorado River is causing drastic water shortages for something like 7 states including California. I know here in Southwest FL we have our own drought that I can see by looking in a pond in the back of Grandma Gottfried's house that was full last year at this time and now has about 6 inches of water in it. It takes a lot for things to sink in the minds of humans so I guess we can wait it out and see if the rising seas beat out the lowering levels of potable water.

More green walls

I am going to end up disecting the Leaf House because it has most of the cutting edge technology in place and working together with the design. They provided the green wall sponsor ELT Living Wall Systems. This is a Canadian company but the website offers all sorts of information about how, why and what to do with some great example photos. At the Link is a list of all the sponsors that helped with the Leaf House.

U of MD's LEAFHouse-

I was hoping in the future to have a green wall vs. the green roofs.. University of MD won 2nd place in the 2007 Solar Decathalon. If I could have their LEAFHouse- shipped here and put on our lot I'd be happy to move in. They explain everything they've used and done on their website so I'll have a reference for all the details. They use their exterior green wall for rainwater mitigation. "In typical housing developments, water from rooftops and paving is allowed to run offsite; storm sewers must be constructed to carry the water to the nearest body of water, carrying with it all the contaminants it picks up along the way. The LEAFHouse includes a rainwater management system that minimizes run-off and the associated environmental impacts.

Rainwater collection at LEAFHouse is a multi-layered system. At the roof level, downspouts collect rainwater that, at the post-competition site of LEAFHouse, will be directed to a cistern from which the water will be used for garden irrigation. The Green Wall will likewise act as its own downspout, directing water from the roof down to a rain garden. Finally, our decks are equipped to catch the rainwater that passes through them and direct it to a cistern for on-site non-potable uses (irrigation, car-washing, etc.)."

The ground breaking

This morning was the start of the site clearing. As I mentioned before, although it looks like a murder scene, we were fortunate to only have non-native trees and a few palm trees that needed to be removed. Since we have over a dozen palms throughout the property we were ok with giving up 2 or 3. I'll travel back this evening to see the change with the stumps and debris cleared and the space open.

mkLotusTM Bathroom

I couldn't find a picture on her website of the bathroom but the bedroom looks almost exactly like ours will look with the high windows over our bed.

Eco-Friendly Bathroom Features:
- FSC certified wood cabinetry
"Not sure we'll be using cabinetry in the bathroom."

- Floor and wall tiles contain 55% recycled glass
"I think this is going to be Home Depot small, hexagon white tile on the floor. The recycled glass can be pricey."

- Eco-friendly plumbing fixtures, low-flow shower head, mixer, and dual-flush toilet by Kohler
"Yes."

- LED lighting
"Yes."

mkLotusTM Kitchen

Eco-Friendly Kitchen Features:
- FSC certified wood cabinetry
"We're doing Ikea so it is what it is."

- Fly ash concrete, rice hull, and recycled porcelain aggregates countertops
"Looking into recycled counters of some sort but haven't decided which one."

- Eco-friendly/low-flow plumbing fixtures by Kohler
"Yes."

- LED lighting
"Yes."

- EnergyStar appliances
"Yes."