Pile survey visit

Met the builder, pilings engineer, designer and structural engineer at the site to discuss the piling layout. They encountered a surprising number of obstructions when putting in the piles, and so the pilings are not quite in the planned locations, and some are a little bit beyond the envelope of the building. Since the SIP panels are already made, we can't adjust the footprint of the building except under the sunroom, which is to be site built. The piles are not far off, so they will just adjust the plates that the I-beams will sit on.
Here's a photo, showing the pilings in place and cut down to the right size now.


There were some gorgeous fritillaries, frogs in puddles on the driveway, orioles nesting, many wasp and bees nests, and then this nest:



The builder has a trailer on site for him and the crew to live out of ... it looks like quite a comfortable set up; I sure hope they will be happy there! It's great that they will not have to commute.

Spanish Revival Wood and Iron Railing

This Spanish Revival home previously had an all-wood railing (which was built very low and unsafe). We removed it and then replaced it with wood newel posts and railing, and iron rods. See before and after pictures below:

BEFORE Pictures




AFTER Pictures

To see more interior work we've done, click here to go to Interior under the Project Photos section.

Cheap and green?

Our builder, Adam Bearup (The Hybrid Home Guy), has just completed a house with the best energy efficiency score in Michigan to date. It's also relatively inexpensive, especially with the tax credits for the solar and geothermal systems included. You can read Adam's take on it at his blog. We visited the house on a very cold windy day in January, and found a very small heater was keeping it very pleasant inside. And it was aesthetically pleasing and looked like it would be very comfortable to live in. Congratulations, guys!

Meanwhile, construction of the above-ground parts of Turtle's Hope is set to begin next week.

Pilings Done

YAY! The tall tubes from two posts ago were cut down and filled with concrete. There will be steel I beams attached to the top, then the house will go in that.

Loan closing

We closed on our loan today. That was nice, after many months. And we lucked out with the interest rate, which went up today. We locked in last week.

Site visit

We were in the area to help Greg's student, and visited the site. Not quite the progress I had hoped, but all the piles are at least in their positions. They need to be driven and filled with concrete. The neighbour said most of the progress was in the last week. Hoping they can finish it next week!

What's Your Style?

Ever wonder what your true personal home style is? If you're like us, we like many different styles, but sometimes it's hard to really qualify our style - is it eclectic, traditional?? We came across this site, called Sproost, which has a free quiz you can take to determine which style matches you based on whether you like or don't like a series of pictures.

The quiz will return 3 results, with the first result being closest to your true personal style. Check it out and see what style you are.

Nice little house in VT

Sweet little energy-efficient house in Burlington VT.
I like the simple kitchen, cozy bedroom, and interesting pattern of the floorboards..