900 Sq. ft Earth Bermed Passive Solar Home in Upstate NY

[drainl]

Have a few minutes of quiet, so I'm trying to get caught up a bit on posts.  This was from fall...

Before we could start the exterior insulation, we needed to build frames around the windows. We discussed a few different ways to do this, and ended up with a simple solution – cypress boxes attached with L brackets. The lower edge of the frame has a bit of an angle on it to help water run off. The boxes were treated with an exterior poly. It was really nice to see some changes to the exterior of the building. Just a little wood is exciting when you've been looking at grey cement for so long!











The last photo shows the beginnings of prep for our ground insulation. Lots of this ground work will just get covered up, but it takes so much time and labor to complete!

[drainl]

Before the kitchen cabinet work could begin, we needed to install the counter outlets. For the exterior wall, these are installed with 1/2″ conduit on the outside of the block. The bathroom wall will have T&G, so we were able to install the outlets in a more traditional way. There's also a run of wire through conduit for the exterior outlets. Once they are installed, our electrical wiring will be complete – yay!



We also added a ceiling light. Running the wire required more conduit – this time up the back of one of our trees. We put the light on a chain so we had some flexibility on it's location. I found the old schoolhouse light on Ebay.

[drainl]

The kitchen cabinets were something I really wanted to try and tackle myself. I like building with wood, but don’t have much experience. Every project gets me a little more skilled. I’m going slow, trying not to screw it up too much!

We’re only having base cabinets – most of which are on the exterior wall side. The 24″ electric stove will sit in the corner at an angle. Angles always mess me up! You’d think with the many years of college math I’ve taken, it wouldn’t be so difficult.

Jeff thought it’d be easier to build one large cabinet instead of three separate ones. First we built the toe kick/frame. Jeff scribed this against our floor since it’s not totally level.





We decided on maple cabinets. This is 3/4″ maple plywood.



I used scrap pieces for the bracing. It’s starting to take shape!





Next up was the face frame. We picked up maple from our local lumber mill and ripped it down with a table saw. I picked up a couple of clamps, but could have used a few more.





For the doors, I got 1×4 maple from the mill. I didn’t want to rip these boards, since I’m not very comfortable with a table saw. Instead I decided to use whatever size was available. I thought the 1×4 frame would look too chunky, but I really like how it came out. I wanted the 1/2″ maple plywood panels to be flush on the back, so I bought a new rabbet bit routed the backside.



The (almost) finished mega base cabinet! They need some more tweaking and poly. I bought some really cool knobs off Etsy I’m excited to install!



We dry fit the sink in. After having it laying around for over a year, it’s great to see it in the right place!



It’s really starting to look like a kitchen! More to come…

[rick91351]

  Cabinets.  Looks like you used a Kreg pocket hole jig?   

[speedfunk]

Freedom Quest:  That is a great thing to read. Please put a thread on here on throw me a link at some time in the future.   It will be great to see what your planning on building and the process.

Rick: Yes I do believe that is what she used to join the cabinet boards together.

As for the exterior we were planning on doing a concrete based stucco initially.  For quite a while now plan has been to do horizontal seamed siding, either a novelty pine or a ship-lap spruce.  We will cover it with a nice opaque green exterior stain.

Reasons: (some personal taste)
1. I see houses/cottages in this area where the stucco has a kind of moldy look that I dont like.
2. Applying stucco on foam was not that much fun on our previous firstday cottage build.  It also do did not come out that good.
3. We really like wood.
4. Picked a stain b/c we want to keep it low maintenance.  We dont want to chip it off just re-apply
5. stained wood looks better with age.  The best paint looks is the day its put on.

[bwilcoxson]

Deb and Jeff,

I just joined this site and have spent about three hours reviewing your project posts and pictures.  WOW!  Gives new weight to the word "amazing!"

Do I understand correctly that your first course of blocks on the foundation is mortared in place but all the other courses are just dry-stacked?

Thank you for taking the time during your work to take and post pictures.  Very instructive!

Wishing you well,
Bj Wilcoxson
North Idaho

[GAHOPEFUL]

  Wow! That's all I can say! I found this thread randomly, and have skimmed it from beginning to end. I would love to go back and read all the details later of your build, but had to tell you how impressed I was! Great job you two !

[drainl]

Thanks so much BJ and GAHOPEFUL! 

BJ - yes, the first row of blocks was mortared, and the rest dry stacked.  We core-filled about every 4th hole and each side of every door and window opening.  Then parged the SBC on the interior and exterior walls. 

[airloom]

Looking awesome Jeff, really like the new cabinets.  We're getting ready to grout our concrete chunk floor how you did your stone floor.  Got my clear coat and surface bonding cement all ready to go, hope it turns out as well as yours.

[speedfunk]

Those are really great things to hear GA and BW thank you very much.

Airloom: Thanks so much man! 
Just a heads up I hope ya check this.  The Surface Bonding Cement worked great.  The poly like all poly wears and has micro chips (best way I can think to explain it).  We only have the poly on the rocks not the grout.  There are spots where it did not stay on the rocks.  The more I see what your doing on your build the more I think that oils  makes more sense. The same reasons I prefer stains over paints.  So Im thinking you should consider using whatever oils you have been using on the concrete w/sbc .  I hope ya read this in time to consider things a bit .

[Zen]

Deb and Jeff

Phenomenal job on this house!  I wish i knew about this thread earlier.

I have gone through the thread twice picking over every detail for when i am ready to build.  Pretty much everything your doing is what we want to do, and we are in upstate NY as well along the southern tier.  I can't express how appreciative we are that you have laid it all out as you have.  and kept this record alive as you have progressed.  This thread is a treasure trove and your house is beautiful.

PAHS is very intriguing, and i was wondering...when you can spare a moment, if you could explain (or point me to where i missed it)  what your plans are regarding the envelope and the sun collectors that will warm the earth in the dead of winter.

Will any water running underground, down the hill behind the house be entering under the umbrella?  or have you made a vertical water proof barrier that i missed?  or is this just not how the water will be flowing?  it looks like you're going to insulate the top of the earth behind your house?

You guys are an inspiration!

[speedfunk]

Hey Zen! jeez..thanks a bunch for those kind words   Thats very cool your so close.  PM me if you want to stop by and take a look/meet up.

The envelope is most likley subject to change.  Im not exactly set on the locations in the umbrella where the heat collectors will be.  I have a few options but most likley will decide when Im doing it.  Which will be soonish.  We just finished the house insulation and house wrap today...woot!   Next  is wood siding..who would have thought we would ever get to this point ..

Water from the rear hill hits a 9 foot deep curtain drain with vertical water proof barrier that takes care of a couple of small springs that were coming out of the hill.  GL trying to find a spot with no water running out of our hill.  I did my best to get all the water and its flowing non stop usually to both sides of the house AROUND soon to be dry and insulated earth. 

I am very excited to see others in our area are building cool thought out homes.
peace jeff

[speedfunk]

Here was the final wall needed to have rigid foam and housewrap on.

We would first dry fit the rigid foam insulation.  It has the great ability to stay where you want it for the most part.


Then stuff any small cracks (maybe say over 1/16 or so ) with scraps of cut insulation or scraps of typar.  I think we managed to get it good and tight without using any spray foam.  Then unrolled a 2' section of typar , put a furring strip in place then attached it the top first (where there was wood)then climbed down and did the 2 or 3 remaining concrete screws to secure furring strip to wall.









woot...

[Zen]

Over here in the Binghamton Area it got up 90+ degrees.       It must have been so nice and cool in there!

Congrats on insulating, can't wait to see the wood siding make an appearance!

Gracious of you to invite us.  Some day, Aimee and I will have to take you up on it!  it would be great to see a cool, well thought out home like yours in person.  I am hoping its a trend in home building.  The Berming just makes so much sense... especially in climates like this.  Did you consider an Earthen roof at first?  what pulled you away from such an idea if you did? Are your windows fully shaded by your eave in the front during the summer?

If you had the Backhoe you have now... had it back in the beginning, would you have had a need at all for the guys you hired earlier?  or would you have been able to do all of the excavating yourself once you got the hang of it?  Basically, were there any jobs that absolutely required the power and large bucket of the bigger machines?  Please say no, so i can tell Aimee its a requirement in the process    I would love to be able to justify buying one.

Do you have any gardening plans?  ideas on a greenhouse? earth bermed greenhouse?  If i had a Backhoe i would be digging for no good reason.  Ponds, buried solarium... tunnels, recessed courtyard, sunken garden... divert a creek, perfect drainage.

I have a million questions, but i am going to take it easy... read this thread over again, spread the questions out, and grow more jealous.

[drainl]

Thanks for the interest Zen! 

Jeff probably has better info than me, but early on I think we needed the big machines.  Jeff had cut a large amount of trees on our site, and the big machines got all the stumps out, knocked down some more large trees and pushed everything around.  I don't think our Kubota could have done that.  It might have struggled a bit with some of the large rocks they pulled out too.  After the initial site work, I think Jeff and the Kubota could do it all.  We rented a similar sized machine a few times before deciding to buy one.  There are many more uses planned for the machine beyond the house.  Lots of gardening, water management and earth shaping.  Once we have most of that set, we plan to sell the machine.  It'll be greatly missed though!

As far as heat, the house is like stepping into air conditioning on a hot day.  It's great!  It's never been uncomfortably hot inside.

[drainl]

While Jeff was working on his cabin project, I tried to get some indoor projects done. 

Since the kitchen cabinets are pretty simple, I wanted to do something neat for the knobs.  I found these great railroad spike knobs on Etsy.  Since we live in an old railroad town, they are fitting. 





I made doors for the bathroom vanity with various scraps.  The stain helped hide the differences in wood species.



Most of our landscape is still in construction zone.  Slowly we're getting perennials in.  We've planted strawberries a few years in a row.  This year was definitely our best, with 2-3 quarts/day at the peak.  Hard to say since while I picked I usually had three little ones tagging along eating.  It's been interesting to see how they grow in different locations.  The dampest, sunniest area did the best.  We're winding down on strawberries now.  I'm planning a trip to a u-pick place to stock up our freezer.  Our raspberry and blackberry bushes are looking good.  The blueberries had a rough year last year.  Most are recovering OK.  I picked my first from a wild low brush bush today.   



Back to the house, we had a tough decision to make - siding style and color.  I won't tell how much we spent on wood and stain before we made a decision!

[drainl]

Completing each step of the building process has been visually very exciting... blocks going up, parging, insulation, house wrap.  Then after awhile you get very tired of seeing gray cement or gray insulation or white house wrap that's coming loose in places.  Time for some color - siding! 

Originally at the beginning of the project we had planned to stucco the exterior.  After all the cement work, we knew we wanted to do sometime different.  No way we'd do vinyl, so wood it is!  Our last house we used a semi-transparent stain and 7-8 years later it still looks great, just faded.  On the other hand, the trim we painted on the house needed repair within a couple of years.  We agreed on either a green or red exterior.  Finding the right color is very tricky though.  We started off with a gallon of green on hemlock channel boards.    Then I vetoed both.  So we picked up a barn red - who knew it'd be almost purple!  Then we went all out and got lots of different samples.  Finally we chose Redwood.  It's a redish orange.  I love it!  We went with a solid color stain.  We'd prefer a semi-solid, but Behr didn't have it.  It does seem thick like a paint, but hopefully long term it'll preform like a stain.  For wood, we switch from channel to novelty siding from our local mill.  It feels very solid up on the walls, and if one board needs replacing in the future it'll be very easy to take just that board out. 

Here's the bedroom corner before we started.



Jeff wanted to add an extra layer of rubber membrane.  If we did not add this there would only be typar and 4" foam.  This would get sunbaked and degraded very shortly.  We tucked it up under the furring strips.  It also does a great job cleaning up the bottom and hiding the house wrap. 



The first board!



The Hitachi lineup.  Love these little guys!






A typar free shot.


On to the front!  We had to trim the furring strips since they were various lengths.  Only way was to loosen up the lower Tapcons. 








I feel like when I tell someone we're putting up siding, they think it'll be done in a couple of weekends.  It takes lots of time and this is a single story house!  We don't have room to store the boards indoors, so we get a little at a time from the mill.  Staining is weather dependent and slow.  Next cutting (plus staining the fresh cut ends) and attaching each board with pre-drilled holes and screws.  After it's all up we'll go back through to add trim and touch up the stain where needed.  But boy is it gratifying!  Blocks and concrete are hard and uninviting, but this beautiful red wood really makes it feel like a home. 

[Dog]

The color you guys chose it beautiful! Looking great~ 

[archimedes]

What a difference some siding makes.  Looks great.   

[drainl]

Been awhile since we've updated - be prepared for a bunch of photos!

The staining continues...


South facing wall almost done.


Here is the rubber peice 2′ ish that goes from under the siding to overlap the ground rubber. It also protects typar from damage when we eventually backfill.  This is the east facing wall.








East wall siding done...WOOT


Another wall done with the south wall we previously finished-ish


We have some plans for adding trim, but for the most part we plan to keep it simple. 

[drainl]

Floor re-do:

The way I choose to try to do the floor plain did not work.  The gravel I layed out ended up in reality not being a vapor barrier like I had in mind but instead being a way to capture and condense moisture in the air.  The metal pipe i ran for conduit ended up being a drain .  The cold pipe condensing further and drain said moisture to our crawl space.  During this making the boards have varying amounts of growies.  When it was humid out / long periods of rain you could smell below the oak plank boards and it was funky....when it was dry it was not bad.

This had bothered me for a while so while I knew it would be a hell of a job (and it was) it was time to do it again.  I removed all the gravel...with a pick and axe took out about 9 inches of packed dirt covering 200sq ft area.  Wheel barrow it out... it was very labor intensive and that was just the prep.  After getting things clean I layed 6mil thick ,black plastic on the floor and the sides completely sealing the extremely shallow crawl space..more like a void between floor joists and ground.  Concrete screws held the joists against the wall.

We ended  up using rough- sawn hemlock 2×8s.  This how ever was the same direction as the floor boards but rather then spanning the 20′ the other way was the best way.  I then took hemlock 2×4's and filled the gaps so that the oak boards with holes already drilled would line up.  There used to be gaps in between the boards which would collect junk so i decided to shiplap each boards with a circular saw to get a "sealed" floor.  That was also a lot of work.. still got our room to do ..but for some reason that room is not as bad so it will wait while I build up the motivation to do it again This house will be right..just might take a few tries sometimes    Pictures.





finished and stained

[drainl]

The last of the plumbing/electrical:

The plumbing has been mostly done for a while know besides the kitchen sink.  Our friend Ron had the pex tools we needed and he had done most the indoor plumbing so far so I was waiting for him.  He had some time so we rocked out the last of the plumbing.  Check .  One step closer to final inspection.





The electrical is another thing that has been 95% done for a while now.  We just needed to do the siding so we could mount the last  exterior outlet and light.

[drainl]

Exterior behind house - water membrane, and solar collector
(from speedfunk)

So as of before these pics we had none of the insulation umbrella/skirting/cape of PAHS system done.  The rear section had been absorbing some water and putting pressure on the rear wall a bit in the previous years so this year I wanted at least the back done.  The was the goal before last winter too..lol.  We currently have the first 4′ all around the house down.  That is the 4′ that is going along the ground horizontally outward.

The problem is there is a list of things that needed to get done..this was one.  So as a spur of the moment thing I had my friend Ron and his brother in law Ash help for like 2 hours.  We managed to get insulation on and it covered temporarily.  As this stage in the project where movitvation is a bit low (actually getting better the more progress we make) its nice to accomplish something that had been taking mental space and at least get it started



Here is a nice shot from behind looking down.  The circle you see is where the solar collector will go.  There is no insulation there so that that ground can absorb the suns energy and tuck it away for winter.  The pipe you see Is my attempt at making a completely passive solar water heater.  I am hoping to avoid the possibility of freezing without using any complicated heat exchanger.  By tucking the tubing against the warm earth I think i can keep it so it does not freeze.  If it did for any reason though its ABOVE the water rubber membrane so would not get to dry heat storage area!





At this point we coverd with the rubber membrane which was nice with 3 people!  We left it a night .  The next days I have peeled back the membrane and am filling up the void in the circle.  With no dirt fill it would be a low point and would collect water.





Its now completly covered, but the camera battery died so I can't get the photos!

[drainl]

We passed our final electrical inspection this weekend.  Woohoo!     Always good to see another signature on the building permit. 

[Mwinfrey]

How is the temperature in the house doing without any mechanical means of heating and cooling.  I expect well but would like confirmation.

Thank you, Mike