The Emerald House

Interior Walls

stepoffthegrid — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:03:15 +0000

Halloween wood!! Our Wood was milled on Halloween. Spooky!

The big open main area. You could drive a truck in through the garage right into the main living area.

Master bedroom and bath

Main living room and kitchen wall

Jessa’s room

Hallway to bedrooms

Kitchen pantry

Updates Coming!

stepoffthegrid — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:10:24 +0000

Ok so it has been awhile since this thing has been updated. Sorry we have been building a house. Now that we are coming down to the deadline how about taking some time for the blog.

Windows and Walls

stepoffthegrid — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:52:17 +0000

The windows showed up! Vertical battens and underlayment for the rain screen are going on. The outside is almost weather tight.

Nothing like setting a 4′ x 7’6″ window from a 2 x 8 going from the scaffolding to the roof

Setting windows into the night makes me hungry for steaks.

15′ window in the office. Yes sir.

The front door is in!

4’6″ x 8′ window, around the corner is a 2′ x 12′ one. All in all pretty average wouldn’t you say?

How to make a giant window affordably.

The front is all buttoned up and battened down

and so is the back!

Cleaning House

stepoffthegrid — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:45:36 +0000

It has been muddy, really muddy. After finishing up the outside we needed to start the interior framing. First we had to wash all that mud out.

Now that is a surface we can work with.

Panthers and Sharks

stepoffthegrid — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:24:19 +0000

After finishing sheeting the roof it is time to insulate and waterproof it. For the insulation we used 1 inch extruded foam with an insulation value of r-5. For the waterproofing we used Sharkskin roofing underlayment. Underneath all that we first put on commercial grade tyvek just to add another layer of protection. The waterproofing is a normal thing for all roofs and exteriors of every house obviously but the insulation on the outside isn’t. The purpose of the insolation is to help prevent thermal bridging through the much less insulative wood studs, headers, and rafters. This insulation is just in addition to the other insulation that will eventually be sprayed on from the inside.

The front door of the future office of Footprint Construction.

Raising the Roof

stepoffthegrid — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:21:11 +0000

The main area of the house is going to have an open sliding partition dividing the main living room from the children’s game room. In order to achieve this open span we recycled some bar trusses from a local demolition company.

The main roof structure is built up of TJI’s spanning from bearing wall to bearing wall with 2×6 crossing on top of that. This built up method allows for spray foam insolation for the depth of the 2×6 and still allowing clear chases for MEP’s in the depth of the TJI’s.

The garage roof structure is built up from trusses with 2×8 spanning in between each one.

The main roof of the house is covered with 80 sheets of 4′x8′ osb. Yes, one giant 2,500 sq ft 2.5/12 slope roof.

Framing the office and the garage

stepoffthegrid — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:43:17 +0000

Welcome home. This is the front door to the house. on the left of the door there is a 12′ x 2′ window and straight across from the front door there is a giant 8′x4′ window.

The office has a 15′x4′ window on the south side and a 7′x4′ window along side of the exterior door which is the offices separate entrance.

The garage is a 3 bay over sized garage allowing plenty of room for even the largest vehicles of todays crazy market.
This area of the house has some interesting structuring where the garage and residence collide.

It takes more walls to create a home.

stepoffthegrid — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:30:11 +0000

The kitchen walls are up. Yeah there is a giant window all the way across the wall.

There are also a few windows out front. The upper windows are 4′ tall by 7′ wide and there are 8 of them.

Since the house is on a slab we are making one of the bathrooms into a storm shelter. We are in kansas so probably not a bad idea.

Framing Begins

stepoffthegrid — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:36:43 +0000

The lumber is on site!

With our efficient framing we used different length boards on the angled wall that would yield the least amount of waist possible.

The raising of the first wall!

Setting one last wall on the first day of framing.

The Slab

stepoffthegrid — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:50:09 +0000

Before pouring the slab we put down 2 inch ridged insolation below the slab and on the outside of the footings, we also lined the forms with 1 inch ridged insolation to stop thermal bridging through the slab and up into the house.

This indention into the slab is in the master bathroom enabling us to put in a flush walk in shower.

Just minutes before torrential down pour and then large amounts of snow the slabs control joints are cut and then the slab is covered with insulated concrete blankets to help with proper curing.