Dry Wall

The outside of the house is almost complete, and now it's really looking like a house inside too.  We spotted several types of drywall being used.  Such as lightweight panels and ToughRock.

In the bathrooms around the tubs and shower is Durock.

Here is a view looking from the great room through the kitchen to the front door.

This is the view looking from the kitchen to the great room (the insets will be for the entertainment center and bookshelves.)

Here is a picture from when they just started, so drywall and studs can both be seen.  The cut outs in the drywall will be plate glass windows, their purpose:  to let light in from the front to the back laundry room.

Here is Steve's study in the basement.  The concrete looks like it is floating in the wall.  A wall was built in front of the concrete foundation wall at the bottom, so that electric outlets could be installed.  The drywall above is above the foundation wall.  The foundation wall is concrete for thermal mass for the passive solar to work.

We haven't decided yet if we will paint the concrete to match the paint on the drywall, or if we will just seal the concrete and leave it exposed as a tool to explain the passive solar and thermal mass concepts to future visitors.

Final Stucco

It has been a few weeks since the brown coat (base coat) of stucco was applied, and now the final layer is finished.

 Here is a streetview with the final stucco.

As mentioned in the last stucco post, the product is La Habra.  We decided to have the trim color match as closely as possible the window frame color.  We thought this would make the windows look larger and would look better than having it look like the windows were two colors.  The color that we thought looked best as a compliment, to be used on the walls of the house, ended up being darker.   Driving around looking at other stucco houses in the surrounding neighborhoods, we noticed that most houses used a lighter color on the base and a darker trim.  We are glad we went this way.  It is different, like our house, and we think it looks good.

Here is a shot with the clerestory finished and the bottom floors still with just the brown coat.

This is a closeup of the finished coat and the brown coat (ironically the finished coat is the brown color, and the "brown coat" is the gray color.)

Another shot in progress.

This shot shows the stucco trim butting up to the wood trim at the eave.  We are thinking about painting the wood trim the same color as the stucco trim for consistency.  We may paint the siding the same color as the garage door.  Although not the door in this picture, which is the passage door and also will be painted the same color as the overhead garage door.

A Cooling Effect: Insulation and Venting

In an effort to naturally cool (and heat) the house, insulation and venting have been given much thought. For insulation, we are using Owens Corning Eco Touch.  In some areas it will work best to use batting in mat form, and in other areas, insulation will be blown in behind a retaining fabric.  Depending on location, R-11 and R-19 is used.

Here are pictures of the batting in mat form in the package and installed at the roof line.

And following are pictures of the loose-fill insulation retaining fabric installed on the wall, waiting for insulation to be blown in.

Here is a wall with retaining fabric installed.

 Closeup of wall with fabric installed. 

 And here is a wall portion with the insulation blown in behind the fabric.

And a closeup of the wall with the insulation blown in.

Venting the roof and attic space is also important to keep the shingles and inside of the house from overheating in the summer and to prevent ice dams from forming in the winter.

In a previous post talking about the underside of the clerestory, the exterior soffit roof vents can be seen.

A system of AtticMate air vent channels has been installed above the insulation layer that will channel outside air from the soffit vents up through the ridge vents.

Stucco Prep 2

Learned this week that the stucco application is a multi-layered process.  A few days ago they applied the first layer of stucco. 

 

Fastwall Stucco Base Concentrate

A factory controlled high-quality blend of portland cement, lime, fibers and proprietary additives that conforms to ASTM C926. ASTM C897 or ASTM C144 sand is added at the job site. Can be installed up to 1/2 in. (12.7mm) in one application.






It is gray-colored and looks like concrete.  This needs to dry for a few weeks before they apply the final layer in the colors we chose. The base of the house will be Clay and the window and door trim will be Aspen.

 

Stucco Prep

The house is being readied for the stucco installation.  They have installed building wrap and metal lath.

 

We will be using Lahabra Stucco.

Solar Tubes

For more light in the (earth-sheltered) back part of the house, we used solar tubes.

In the garage, we used

 

The solar tubes on the garage still need the domes to be installed.

For the closet in the master bedroom, we used Solatube.  This brand was more expensive than the Velux, and Steve thought it sounded like it was better constructed and would let in more light.  To help the budget, we decided to use Solatube inside the house and Velux in the garage.  It will be interesting to compare them and see which brand we think is better.

This is the Solatube from the outside with the dome installed.

Roof

The roof shingles have been installed.  We used

The color is Sienna Blend.

Here is the front of the house with the roof complete.

And here is the back with the installation almost complete.