DemianJ's 2-Str Universal in VA (New Pics 7/13/07)

Started by DemianJ, February 27, 2006, 02:05:45 PM

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jraabe

Nice place! I like the window seat and the screen porch particularly.  :)

DemianJ

#51
Thanks.

Good eye, Peg.  That rake has been like that for months.  It gets really windy here and my roofer only used 4 screws to install each piece of rake.  I haven't gotten around to getting the 40 foot ladder out (with help and on a rare non-windy day) to fix it yet.


Homegrown_Tomatoes

Wow, what a gorgeous home, inside and out.  Love all the porches... even if I build little bitty I want porches like that!  

jraabe

Demian and others:

I have a new Gallery page devoted to this house.

Let me know of updates to the information or any corrections that need to be made. :D

Thanks, John

DemianJ

Homegrown, thanks.  I've always thought of the house as being something to attach the porches to.  We pretty much live on the screened porch.  We also bought a water resistent cover for an old futon, so the screened porch also serves as a guest bedroom.  I'm also glad we made the bumpout large enough to serve the same purpose.

Looks great, John.  Would the original, higher res pics still be useful for the gallery?

We've kind of stalled on house progress at the moment.  We've still got a lot of work to do on the basement den and I doubt we'll install any glass panels on the screened porch this winter (I guess all my nonhardy potted plants will be coming inside this winter).



AAA-DAY

I love the porches you put on your place. We are eventually going to add porches, but I am hesitant because of blocking the sunlight into the downstair windows. Do you find this to be an issue? Also, how wide is the porch you are going to screen in? It looks nice and open and airy, like I would like mine to be!
Great progress!    Amy

DemianJ

Thanks Amy and Scott.

Sunlight blocking is an issue.  We actually put homemade plexiglass skylights over south facing windows which does help some.  Obviously, you can also put the roof higher and minimize the depth of the porch (but if you go too narrow, then the porch isn't good for much).  Don't forget to also calculate the sun blocked by the roof support beam (the lowest part of our porch roof).  The bumpout  extends out far enough to get lots of sun. In hindsight, I wish I'd done more sun blocking measurements and that the porch roof was about a 1' higher, but that would have complicated the balcony significantly.  The porch does keep the downstairs significantly cooler than upstairs, which is more of a concern for me b/c I've got tons of free heat from my woodstove in the winter, but AC is costly in the summer.

Our screened porch is 14x12 which I've found to be a good size.  We live out there 9 months of the year.

AAA-DAY

Thanks for the info. Geez...just another thing to think about!   ??? Porches can't even be simple.  d*


Redoverfarm

I had built a 12'X48' addition (shed) on the back side of my house.  That was the kitchen , dining room, and two bathrooms which were on that outside wall of the original house.  When I had framed it up and sheeted that area the original house rooms mentioned before were like a cave.  I installed two skylights in the new roof at the location of the kitchen window and spaced between the two adjoining bathroom windows.  I had sloped the skylight wall 40 degrees toward the windows which was later drywalled.  It made a 200 % difference in the light to those areas.  These were on a north/west side and there wasn't much sunshine except for the late afternoon and little evening sun. 

DemianJ

#60
I'm long overdue for posting an update on the house.

I thought folks might be interested in the energy performance of the house.  So far we average about 750 kWh per month for a family of 3.  This number would be lower except that I work in a home office, so the house is almost never completely unoccupied.   Also, my son is young enough where we use his electric baseboard heater at night, so our winter electricity usage will probably fall 15-20% when he gets older.  Over 90% of our heat is from a low emissions wood stove (which easily heats the entire house for the winter on about 1 cord of wood) and all lighting and appliances are efficient (including the electric waterheater) except for the dishwasher.  In the dead of summer we use window units for a few months, but the rest of the year an attic fan is all that is needed.  Overall, I'm pleased with the heating/cooling performance of the house.  It would be even better if the house wasn't perched on a windy ridge and I hadn't used a few Habitat windows that weren't as insulated as I had originally thought.  Also, although the porch provides some shade for the first floor, we don't have any deciduous trees on the South side of the house.

We've made some cosmetic improvements to the house and have done lots of landscaping, so I'll post some new pics in the spring.

Demian

glenn kangiser

Thanks for the update, Demian.  ! cord is pretty efficient on the wood.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

DemianJ

Yeah, I've been very impressed with the ease of heating this house with a wood stove.  In fact, in hindsight, I'd have used a smaller woodstove (ours is a Dutchwest Federal Airtight, large model).  A small fire in the morning keeps the house warm all day on a sunny winter day.  The only other thing I'd change is to install a powered vent into my son's room and one into the finished portion of the basement during construction.  I do plan on adding the basement vent at some point.  I'll probably also add some additional thermal mass around the stove.

redbird

I'm really inspired by this home!  So inspired we actually went out to pick a spot on the land to build.  Thank you for sharing!
"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
― Woody Guthrie


Demian_J

With the addition of twins, we needed more space for 5.  I did not have the flexibility this time to be involved with much other than the design work and a little bit of GCing, so I cannot claim the honorable title of owner-builder for the addition, but I thought other folks on the forum might be interested in the way we expanded our two-story universal.  We also did some renovation in the lower floor of the main house.  Below is the floor plan and some sequential pictures of the progress I dug up from my phone.  I will post some follow-ups when it is completed.






















rob92130

DemianJ,

Hello. Can you tell me how difficult it was to modify the plans as received to the smaller length? Is it possible to view your plans to make it easier for me? I need a 20 x 25.

Thanks!