Modern House Kit Update and The Saga Of VMI's Basketball Court Continues!

Anyone here like puzzles?

'Cause we're gonna be putting together 5,000 square feet o' VMI basketball court soon... think of it:

The Challenge!

The Fun!

This is better than the crossword in Sunday's Herald Tribune!

Or not.

Any-hoo, Handsome Husband went out to check on the house kit progress, bush hogged the field, and unloaded the VMI floorboards. The rest of this post are his words, hence the sudden dignified tone. Enjoy.


"I got up at 6 am, made coffee and hit the road to approve the foundation preparation and receive the VMI Basketball Floor delivery.


As I was emptying out the shed for the floor the plumbers pulled up and I handed them the PEX tubing I had ordered. I began bush-hogging but Ron, the general contractor, soon arrived and we approved prep work.


(Radiant Heat And Off Grid Foundation Video:)



I returned to the tractor for an hour and the flooring arrived. We have a 20x20 shed and the fork lift was too tall/big so we ended up getting the plumbing crew, which had just finished installing the radiant heat loops, to help and were done within an hour.


(VMI Floorboards Unloading Video 1 of 3)



(VMI Recycled Boards Video 2 of 3)



(VMI Wood Reused In Prefab-ulous House Video 3 of 3)
(Copeland's note: Oh. My. Gosh... can you believe we were actually thinking we could just rent a U-Haul and drive to Lexington, load the wood *JUST THE TWO OF US*, drive to the land, and then UNLOAD it?!?!? Soooooooooooo grateful to Bill Miller of ZellerMiller Companies, a VMI alumni who heard of our plight and used his construction connections to help, Bill Miller SAVED US by putting us together with these people to deliver the wood.)




I invited everyone to lunch, and as we left I noticed a flat tyre on my car - upon return to the site the delivery guys hadn't left yet and raised the car with their forklift so that the tire was changed quickly.


When I finally made it to lunch we spoke about alternative energy and it turns out that the plumbing company has done several geo-thermal projects."






















(Copeland's note: Psssst! Check him out, Mr. German-techno-music being a *total* boy and driving around the house kit listening to country. He is having waaaaaaaaaaaay too much fun out there!)

 

Modern SIPs House Kit: Foundation Work Video And Photos!

Ah, fall. It's been rainy and we all have colds.

So when the 4 year old whined that she wanted to stay home and play "pony"... recognizing that this time of year we pretty much camp every weekend and will be doing so for the next few weeks... we conceeded.

The Boyz, adventurous, strode off to the land; The Girlz, keeping close to home, had a lunch date with Mr. H and the H's two daughters: Three happy girls talking about ponies and unicorns while Mr. H & I split a hot saki and gorged on delicious Asian food. : )

Our modern house kit foam is down, the foundation and radiant tubing are being laid, and pretty much from now on you will quickly see our prefab hybrid SIPs house become complete.

Our fabulous contractor Ron thinks it will take about five days to put the SIPs panels together and frame the windows /doors /interior load bearing wall for our modern house, fyi, for your own evaluation and estimates.






In the meantime, here are some pictures and videos of the land taken by The Boyz... happy and muddy and running loose in the wild. ; ) Keep yer eyes peeled for next week's installment of Green Modern Kits: SIPs House Kit Construction Continues On Our Modern House!

 

Radiant Heat Loop Design Complete!

Ahhhhh, a nice little email to wake up to from my handsome husband, sent last night:

"I have finished the drawing for the radiant heat tubing.

We have 2 zones (North and South) each with 3 loops. We have 3 loops each to keep the length of the loop at an efficient level i.e. if you pumped hot water into a single loop per zone it would heat the house unevenly since the water would cool down as it heats up the slab.

In addition the loops are designed according to whether the area of the loop has exterior walls, in which case the loop stays close to the exterior wall as much as possible.

We now need to order the supplies.

Good night!"

What a nice way to start the day!
So today I'll order the foam (for under & around the foundation), double check on other system products that I need to order (like the tubing) or have ordered, and continue to add that information to our list of costs (you can find our cost list here).

 

Systems Design

We have been working on systems design for the past weeks.

Unfortunately, as perfect as the casa ti is, it is not designed to house off grid systems. We *may* have to tweak it a tad to fit in everything...

Keep your fingers crossed...