Construction has started on the new passive solar home being built by Next Step Living, for Ethan & Elisabeth Melad. The home, located at 17 Ashley Rd. North Brookfield MA will have many features that make this one of, if not the most efficient home I have ever built. (some of my past projects)
The combination of an efficient building envelope combined with passive solar design and the most innovative solar window that can be found anywhere is what will make this house shine. As the job progresses I will continue to post updates, pictures and videos of the different features that makes this home so special.
A not so quick update of where we are in the project.
We finally got the permit to build the home on August 11th, 2010 and the homeowners finalized the financing on August 13th. The entry way to the property was completed a couple of weeks ago and before that we couldn't even get a truck into the site. The access to the property needed to cross a wetlands area and required 5 large culverts, building up the ground about 5', 14' wide and 100' long, no simple task. The rough driveway, 450' to the house has been completed and the foundation has been dug. The well has been completed along with the excavation of the water line to the house. I spent the last 2 days excavating the 80' of water lines, 400' electrical lines from the transformer, across the wetlands crossing and across the 225' of open field to the house location. Not only has the excavation been completed but this afternoon we completed installing the electrical conduits from the crossing to the foundation hole. 3' deep trench 225' long, with 6" of sand below the conduit, one 2-1/2" electrical conduit and one 1" conduit for the cable lines. 6" of sand on top, some caution tape and the trenches filled back in. The excavation for the foundation was completed today after some help from the large excavator with a hammer drill showed up this morning.( ledge). As I was wrapping up my day about 6:30pm the well guy showed up and installed the water lines from the well head to the foundation hole. On Friday the foundation guys will be showing up to pour the footing for the house and at that time I will be concreting the electrical conduits that run just 6" below the ground along the wetlands crossing, finish filling the well trenches and cleaning up the mess from an incredible week of production.
By the end of next week the foundation should be completed along with insulation, perimeter drain and back filled. After that the fun begins, the following week, with the framing of the house and the Structural Insulated panels will begin to go up. Stay tuned.
Tom Pittsley
Good Luck Tom. I will be following.
ReplyDeleteNice going Tom! Take a look at my new blog: cozycomfycool@blogspot.com and tell me how to make it look as good as yours.
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