Cabinets and Concrete

Cabinet installation has begun.  Here is a picture of the kitchen.

And the dining room.

A template has been made so the granite can be fabricated.

You may have noticed the "lines" on the floor.  That is masking tape over brown paper to protect the concrete.  We will have stained concrete floors.  Unfortunately a couple of days ago when the paper was lifted to begin the staining, we found that some sort of chemical reaction occurred and the line remains.  Dave is trying to use an acid to blend it before applying the stain.

In the basement, the concrete was poured gray and then we had a test patch with the acid stain.  We were not thrilled with the color, so we decided to have the main floor poured with a colored concrete first.  The color is canvas, by ColorFlo.

In the basement we are using Walnut as the color of the stain, and on the main floor the stain color is Mahogany.  It will then be sealed with poly-seal.

Here you can see the process in its three stages.  At the top of the picture is the great room, before any stain has been applied, in the middle of the picture is the hallway, where stain but no sealer has been applied.  At the bottom of the picture is the master bedroom where it has been stained and sealed.

Here is another picture of the finished floor in the bedroom.

Starting the Finishing Touches

Here is a summary of what's been happening the past few weeks:

A workshop has been set up in the garage.

Shelves are being installed in closets and other spaces.  This the the future custom pantry.

The cabinets have been delivered and installation should begin next week.

The doors have been delivered and installation has begun.  These are doors to master bedroom and master bath (taken from inside the master suite).

The concrete floor has been poured, and we are trying to decide on a stain color.

 Tile installation has begun.  This is the wall in Steve's office, with tile being installed to cover the concrete foundation wall.

This is the hall bath.

This is the master bath, first the shower and linen closet, then the tub.

Phase Change and Texture

Originally Steve wanted the back of the house to be completely earth sheltered.  There were several reasons why he had to compromise and the back of the house is now four feet out of the ground, as shown in the last picture of this post.  To have the same benefits of earth sheltering, which are mostly energy efficiency, at the back of the house, we are putting two layers of drywall with a phase change material in between.

The material is called bioPCmat and it better stabilizes building temperatures by absorbing and releasing more heat in less space than alternative building materials.

Here is what it looks like on the wall at partial installation (it is already covered with the second layer of drywall except at the top)

Here is a closeup of the sheets of bioPCmat, the squares are filled with a gel-like material

 The drywall has also been textured.  We chose to do knockdown texture.  Here is a closeup of the texture

Here is the great room with drywall and texture complete.

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.