It's Quiet Today

We've been moving along at such a productive pace, but it feels like things have come to a screeching halt.  About a week and a half ago, just after we decided on interior and exterior doors, interior trim, etc., we found out the supplier, ProBuild, is going out of business.  Sadly, this economy is so hard on the building industry.  Tom, our GC, was on board with another supplier right away, but this still puts us behind because we have to wait for estimates when we thought we were waiting for delivery.  We need the temporary exterior doors to continue. That's another 2 or 3 weeks.  I had a meeting with the new supplier, McIlwee Millwork, at the house and just as we were wrapping up a ProBuild truck arrived with 2 of the 3 exterior doors.  (The third is due to arrive tomorrow.)  The funny thing is neither Tom, Tony or I signed off on an order for doors with ProBuild, but here they are!  The doors will be installed at the end of the week and insulation is scheduled for next week so in the end we didn't loose much time. Tony thinks we could be moving in by Christmas, but I think January.  This is the one time I hope Tony is right!

Happy Birthday Evan!

October has been a busy month, but I need to stop and tell you about the excitement in our house.  Evan turned 13! My baby is a teenager.  I can hardly believe it.  It seems like it was just yesterday she was singing happily in her crib.  Jack would call her little sweetheart and you know, she really is. Happy Birthday Evan. We love you!

The Lion Newspaper

Part of building LEED is community awareness, thus the blog.  Communicating ideas and sharing what you learn is important no matter what you do. Building LEED encourages this and Tony and I really believe it is an important part of this project.

Recently our family friend Katie Norton-Williams asked us if she could pitch our green house project to the school newspaper.  Katie is a junior at LT and a recent addition to the staff at the Lion.  She interviewed us and I'm happy to report her article made last weeks paper.  Nice job Katie!

Windows

A good window is key in building any home.  With this house, we are trying to make sure it's as energy efficient as possible.  This means sealing the envelope of the house keeping air leaks out and heat/air conditioning in.  We checked out all the manufacturers we could think of and we liked Pella the best, but we were not totally convinced.  We used them before and I didn't like the way they tilted in to clean and there were a few issues with the locking mechanism but, the customer service was great so it ended up we were happy.  In our last house we used Eagle.  While we were happy with the windows, they were expensive and the sales rep seemed to care more about his golf game then our business so we decided against them this time.   Our friend Freyja (a landscape designer that you will hear about in the coming weeks) invited us to see a house she worked on in Oak Park.  This beautiful house was full of inspiration for building green.  Tony spent some time talking to the builder (One Watt Construction) asking him so many questions about the house.  He learned a lot about building a passive house and many of their ideas were incorporated into our home.  The windows in this house were spectacular.  Not only did they have the contemporary look we were looking for, they offer a true triple pane. In the end we went with Lowen. 

Our job has been going along well with very few bumps.  Well that is, until the windows arrive.....  Three of them were broken.  That happens.  If the rep would have been on site when they were delivered (like promised) he would have been able to come up with a plan on the spot with the carpenter on how to best solve this problem.  Because he wasn't there, the carpenter had to reject the broken windows and send them back with the truck.  Tony figured out a solution with the rep over the phone later that day and the broken windows were scheduled to be re-delivered and we will wait for the replacements to come in.  The Lowen guys can then pop the broken ones out and pop the new ones in.  Easy.  This protects the inside of the window frame from the weather, keeps the house dry so work can continue inside and allows the carpenters to continue working on the outside.  When the broken windows were re-delivered (again no rep on site as promised) the carpenters put them in as directed but there were no broken windows in them.  This means no protection covering the open space so of course the ran got in. When Tony called the rep he was basically told that it was our carpenters problem and not theirs.  Where's the customer service?

The thing that bothers me the most is the attitude.  We've done this a few times before so we know what service other companies provide.  In this economy you would think the various trades would be offering discounts and things just to get business when in fact, most are not.  They have bills and people to pay so they can't really discount all that much.  So where they SHOULD shine is in the area of customer service.  Word of mouth is the best advertisement.  I hope this isn't Lowen's way of doing business, just bad sales representation.  We are disappointed in they way Assured Corporation has been handling our customer service situation, but we do like the window.  Once this is repaired, I hope we don't have problems in the future because I'm sure we won't get any help from our rep.

Evan's Style

 

Isn't it fun?  Ok, there is nothing eco about it but it's filled with style and so is Evan.  She's been asking for this fixture for a few years but now with the new house we can finally make it happen.  The kids have always had input in their rooms.  They throw out a "theme" and I make it work.  This time we are pretty much letting them do their own thing; paint color, layout, flooring, the works.  She wants her walls black with an accent wall of hot pink and metallic wallpaper. (We're still looking for that but there are a lot of options.)  Evan is full of creative ideas.  She's big into fashion and loves to sew.  A skill I would love to learn one day.  She may even try to make her own curtains.  I can't wait to see how it all turns out. 

Through the Roof

It's really starting to look like a house!

Last week the carpenters framed out the 3rd floor so we should be about ready for the plumber to come in and do his thing (venting). Then comes the roofing. The guys have been very patient with us taking photos, something that is a requirement for LEED. Tony took these last Friday. It's a good thing they are not afraid of heights.

Our GC's Assistant

Our son Jack couldn't find a summer job. This poses a problem because he likes to spend money and we like to keep ours, so we hired him for Tom, our general contractor. He has been Tom's assistant on the house. This means he runs errands and does a lot of clean up around the constructions site. He's been pretty responsible about it and is doing a good job. He hasn't complained about getting up earlier than noon on the weekends (He is a teenager after all!) to go with Tony to sweep up, sort wood, etc. Since he was a little boy he liked to build things, use tools, create and construct. For a 16 year old he has some skills! The past two summers he's gone on a week long mission trip to an impoverished area in the Appalachian Mountains with our church and an organization called ASP. He's been working on construction projects to help people fix their homes. I think he likes the work and knows he has made a difference in the lives of families that do not live a life as fortunate as we do. Definitely a noble thing. When we went to check out the framing for the second floor, we walked through the house talking about what will go where. It's always helpful to visualize everything. You know, to get the big picture with your minds eye. As usual I was snapping away with the camera. The top picture is Jack using his minds eye in his bathroom. Guess what he's standing in front of? Sometimes that kid cracks me up!