Final inspection achieved!

After several months of hard work, a final inspection was obtained. I would like to extend a special thanks to all of the sub-contractors that made this project a reality.

The big items that remain, and won't occur until the weather becomes more favorable, include completion of painting the brick on the outside of the house, landscaping and minor trim work inside of the house.

Enjoy the latest photos...and yes, we actually got a lot of snow in Columbia SC!

Construction Progressing.....

exterior trim work on-going



drive under master bedroom with planting strip






garage trim completed, painting is next



cement board panel and batten system for exterior trim




stained glue-lam and decking system at kitchen ceiling



Interior door installation on-going




master bath vanity location, casework to be installed next week



shower with pre-molded pan and cement board surround



stained concrete floor in kitchen and basement

Lots of progress since the last post.....

On the exterior, the site has been rough graded and the drive has been poured. The site is being cleaned up, the exterior trim work is reaching completion and exterior painting will begin soon. The front doors will be installed next week which will allow for the house to be acclimatized. Hardwood flooring will arrive on site next week and installation will begin later in July. The interior doors are currently being installed. All cabinets will be installed within the next two weeks once the house has been acclimatized. The stained concrete floors have been completed in the kitchen and basement. The glue-lam and pine decking ceiling/floor assembly has been stained and finished. All gypsum board installation has been completed and interior of house has been painted.

Long time, no post.....

Construction is continuing along! In fact, sheetrock is going up right now. I know, I know, my posts are way behind. I will try to catch you up soon! Anyone in the Columbia area can come on Friday and see part of what has been taking my time lately - I am presenting the project as a case study for the USGBC Midlands Provisional Branch lunch meeting. Here is a link to the meeting info:

http://www.usgbcsc.org/branches.htm#midlands

Hope to see you Friday - remember to RSVP!

Here is a picture of the open cell spray foam insulation - more info to come on that!!

Wow, it is a small world....

So, Architectural Record picked up the Real Life LEED blog which picked up our blog, so welcome to anyone just tuning in! Maybe now is a good time for a recap. Scott and I (I am Gretchen) are both owners at different architectural firms in Columbia, SC. Scott is with Garvin Design Group and I am with Studio 2LR. We are about 2/3 of the way through a gut rehab of and addition to a home built around 1915-ish. We have registered the project as a LEED for Homes project and have learned a lot since we started construction last July.

We are doing some of the work ourselves, but we have had great contractors and friends who have helped us complete a lot in a short amount of time. We have also gotten some really cool products for the house. We have a tankless water heater from Rinnai, energy efficient windows from Jeld Wen, energy efficient mechanical units from Carrier, and numerous other products. One of our really cool upcoming installs will be foam insulation from Icynene. So keep following us, we will be explaining the LEED for Homes chapters one by one as well as sharing progress photos up to our project completion in July!

Check Out Another Blog

Another LEED blogger found us and wrote about our project! Check out what Joel is saying at http://www.reallifeleed.com/

WE3: Indoor Water Use

WE3: Indoor Water Use. Maximum Points - 6 (Page 52) No prerequisites for this section. Credit 3.1 is for High Efficiency Fixtures and Fittings and is worth up to 3 points. Credit 3.2 is for Very High Efficiency Fixtures and Fittings and is worth up to 6 points. Under each of these credits, there are three headings: a. Lav faucets; b. Shower heads; C. Toilets. Take toilets for example. If you meet the criteria for heading C under credit 3.1, you get one point and you don't qualify for the two points under Credit 3.2. and vice versa.


For lav faucets to meet 3.1, you have to be equal to or less than 2.0 gallons per minute. To meet 3.2, you have to be equal to or less than 1.5 gallons per minute OR the fixture needs to be WaterSense labeled. We are using a Hansa fixture and meet the criteria of credit 3.2

For shower stalls to meet 3.1, you have to be equal to or less than 2.0 gallons per minute PER STALL. This means you aren't going to be able to install 6 shower heads in the master bath shower with each shower head being low flow..... To meet 3.2, you have to be equal to or less than 1.75 gallons per minute per stall. We are using a Hansgrohe fixture that meets the criteria of credit 3.2.

For toilets to meet 3.1, you have to be equal to or less than 1.3 gallons per flush OR dual flush OR water sense labeled. To meet 3.2, you have to be equal to or less than 1.1 gallons per flush. We are using a Toto fixture and meet the criteria of credit 3.1 (it is dual flush and WaterSense labeled).

From this section we earn 5 points!

Kickstand Photos

The Kickstand photos are here! You might remember that we had Kickstand Studios photograph us at the site. Check out their blog for some of the pix! Click Scott and Gretchen on the list on the right hand side of the blog......

WE2: Irrigation System

WE2: Irrigation System. Maximum Points - 4 (Page 48) No prerequisites or accountability forms for this section.

Credit 2.1 is for installing a High Efficiency Irrigation System and is worth up to 3 points. There are 11 items that you can earn one point for each, up to three points. Points that you can earn also depend on the percentage of your designed landscape that are served by these measures.

Credit 2.2 is worth one point that you get if you have a third party inspect the work done under Credit 2.1.

Note: You can do Credits 2.1 and 2.2 OR, Credit 2.3 below. You can't do all of them.

Credit 2.3 is Reduce Overall Irrigation Demand By At Least 45% and is worth up to four points. Depending on the percentage you reduce, you get from one to four points. this must be calculated by a qualified professional based on a number of formulas provided by USGBC.

It is still early in our process to know exactly what we are going to do with our irrigation, so I am not going to add any points to the tally - we will revist this one down the road!

New Roof

Here is the crane that was used to lift our new trusses onto the house. He had to thread a needle between two existing trees to get them onto the house.









They started the trusses at the back of the house

Here is the view from the garage!

Tomorrow our Rinnai unit comes - Very exciting!!! I will tell you more about it in my next post. Then we have to get back to out lessons. We have more Water Efficiency to discuss!

Happy New Year (Almost)!

You still have to wait for 2009 to see what happens with our missing roof!

Just wanted to let you all know that a couple of weeks ago we had some great photographers come over to the site and take pix of us with various construction and material backdrops. Lucas Brown and Lee Bradshaw at Kickstand Studio are great - anyone in the Midlands area who needs photos, portraits, headshots, etc. needs to call these guys!! They also have a cool red couch they will carry around to random alleyways or parking garages so that they can capture you and your friends or family in the perfect setting! Will post the pix soon......







Here is Lucas taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.....