Building the Villa Straylight

Nest Thermostats

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:45:52 -0500

You may or may not be amazed to find that the programmable thermostat and remote management options are ridiculously weak. We literally had thermostats from Bayweb on order, when we saw an article about Nest thermostats. There is little that I can write that hasn't already been said by the authorities: NYTimes, David Pogue, Macworld.

We will no longer be arriving to a freezing cold house (we keep it at 50 when not there). We can adjust them temperature from our phones in the car, or simply before we leave the office. (update: we have radiant heat, it takes a full day to get up to temperature from 50 degrees.)

It works, as it should, right out of the box, no instructions needed. It took about 10 minutes to install (thwarted only by the depth of the sheet rock before I hit a solid joist in the marriage wall).

These photos leave a bit to be desired, it was 630am and my 16 month-old helper was buzzing around my feet.

After turning the power back on, I connected to our wireless internet connection and the unit self-updated.

It then backed itself up.

It asks for your zip code.

Then setup was complete.

A Panorama

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:12:33 -0500

3 Months From Set To Sleeping

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:46:11 -0500

A long article on the trials and tribulations of prefab building is yet to come. Only thing I can say with definitive clarity is steer far clear of the factory Penn Lyon Homes. (update 3.21.11: just learned Pennlyon was purchased) Our contact there, Ben Burns lied to us, misled us, missed every deadline that was set, was one of the most unprofessional business people I've dealt with. On top of that, we are now 10 months from setting the house and they still haven't paid the set crew. They owe us countless thousands of dollars for errors, ommissions and ridiculous mistakes (some of them not even to code).

But all that aside, Hidden Valley Construction, our on-site builders, did a fantastic job and made up for and fixed all of Penn Lyon's shortcomings.

The basic timeline from setting the house to sleeping in it was just over three months.

Week 9 - So Close

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:26:18 -0500

It is quite possible that the next time we visit, we'll be staying the night. That will be a momentous occasion, I'll try not to jinx it (it's two weeks away).

Week 9 saw the deck closer to completion.
The upstairs bathroom is 98% complete.
The kitchen is pretty close.
The downstairs bath is started.
The floor is mostly in! Looks great, we were not 100% sure about the look of the Cork Floor we bought, it has a much larger grain than we expected. But, it settles into the space nicely and the panel seams disappear well.

We still haven't nailed down an under-bench light solution, so currently it is run to junction boxes.

Week 8

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:39:03 -0500

We'll post a more complete update soon, but the bathroom tile is going in and the porches are being framed up.

Fun stuff.

Week 7

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:28:19 -0500

It's been an incredibly busy January, so it's been two weeks since we last visited the site. In the mean time;
The septic has finally been finished.
The radiant heat is still radiating gloriously.
The cork floor has been delivered (not installed).
The ikea kitchen has been delivered (not installed).
The first floor bathroom was just leveled and the floor tiled.
The basement has been sheet rocked.
The back-up heat system (a long story) has been installed and ventilation run around the basement perimeter (see photos below).

And at long last, the siding has been completed. It looks great. The vertical tongue-in-groove rough cedar planks were all stained in the basement and dried before going up on the house.

End of Week 4

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:19:58 -0500

Take a look at the slideshow below. The window returns are finished, they look fantastic. We're really happy we kept fighting for that (yes there was some resistance).

This weekend we went over interior and exterior stain with Andy and Alissa. It's going to be the Cordovan semi-solid.

You can see the deck pier moldings poking out of the snow. Those haven't been poured yet. It's been a bit cold. Hopefully in the next week. All the utilities are finally hooked up, but despite the septic field having been prepped 4 months ago, it still isn't complete. So the water isn't hooked up yet. Hopefully the septic goes in this week as well.

End of Week 1

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:20:09 -0500

Andy and the crew tackled some interior work for the first week. Framing out the walls in the basement, and tackling the light scoop interior. The only heat source currently in the house is the wood burning stove.

The pipes you see in the opening beside the foundation are our Geothermal temperature regulating system. It's sort of a homemade system that Walt recommended. The system consists of an intake and outflow pipes in the basement (second picture below). These openings feed a series of buried pvc pipes which condition the air by regulating it to the ground temperature, a very stable 50 - 60 degrees year-round. We'll post an update when we've had a chance to use it.

Box Set Movie

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:50:31 -0500

Episode 2
Straylight Short Film Series
TRT 6:44

Music: Mogwai "Ratts of the Capital" from the album Happy Songs for Happy People.

A House is Born

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:36:19 -0500

On Friday 4 December 2009, the Villa Straylight was delivered. Not without a few hiccups (I'll elaborate later) but now a house exists.

Here's a raw time lapse video of the house being set, I'm choosing my favorite audio track, the rock mashup, I also made a Dub version and a Classical version for your enjoyment.

This time-lapse was shot on a Canon EOS Digital Rebel, using an intervalometer shooting one frame every 5 seconds. We started shooting at 8:30a - 4:45pm. The original material is 1936 x 1288. This was crunched to 726 x 483, using h264 codec out of FCP.

The house was on three trailers. 1 @ 14' x 36', 1 @ 12' x 36' and one with the light scoop and parapet walls to be finished on site. You can see the crane stack the trailers as each one is finshed.

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Also, here's a 150 still images, unedited, as a flickr slideshow.

The Boxes are Delivered

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:33:21 -0500

The two halves of the house were delivered today, to be set on the foundation tomorrow.

Basement Heat

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:29:59 -0500

Friday the 13th, of November 2009.

The foundation continues. This week saw the foundation sealed and plumbing and radiant heat coils added.

Pictured below are an addition to the Superior Walls. These are Simpson Tie Downs. These were required because of structural issues with the large amount of window to wall dimensions. Instead of the regular tiedowns (the taller metal straps) we had the 'Simpson' style tie-downs manufactured (smaller metal footer items) and per the State review and the engineer we added 29 of these around the perimiter of the foundation walls.

A Foundation is Delivered

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:24:59 -0500

Fall 2009 Update!

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:01:32 -0500

It has been an unnecessarily long and drawn out year of trying to get this house built. We've waded through countless bids and considered every route from stick built to various levels of prefabrication. The gory details can wait until it is finished, but at long last it is moving forward - with a functional plan and people in place to get the job done.

The final recipe is:

1. Architectural Design by Rapson Architects based on the Case Study House # 4
2. Factory and Prefab coordination and consulting by Walter Bestwick.
3. Prefab Foundation by Superior Walls.
4. Prefab house construction built in the Penn Lyon factory in Selinsgrove, PA
5. Site prep and on-site finishing by Hidden Valley Construction. (who have been fantastic!)

Wood Stove

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:44:59 -0500

UPDATE:

We found this stove at Lowes that is a close enough match and going to the one.

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In doing research on stoves we have been in a bit of a quandary because honestly they are all so ugly. Especially the pellet stoves which seem to be especially awkward. There was one model of pellet stove we found that we liked but of course it is only available in Japan. Then we found a wood burning stove that looks good, a blend of classic old-fashioned with clean lines and slightly industrial.

Vogelzang Defender Wood-Burning Stove, Model# TR001

High-efficiency airtight stove heats up to 1200 sq. ft., with a maximum output of 28,337 BTU with Douglas fir, and 68,000 BTU with hardwood. Heavy-duty 3/16in. steel plate construction and fully firebrick lined. Features secondary air reburn combustion system, a cast iron feed-door with gasket, clear-view air-washed ceramic glass, cam-lock latch and cool-touch spring handle. Stove accepts logs 18in. long. One full load burns approx. 8-10 hours. Safety tested to UL 1482.
$599.00

Then there is the problem of fuel. The reason we have been looking at pellet stoves is because they use electricity to burn sawdust pellets, so it can be a carbon neutral form of heat. We really want a stove though. Compressed sawdust heat logs look like they might be good solution. They are also made from waste sawdust and burn much cleaner than firewood. And we could also use them outside in a fire pit, too. So maybe we can have the stove we want without burning trees. Win-win.