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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Dorothy Rest In Peace

Early Monday morning, November 21, just before 1 AM, our smallest and most vulnerable duck suffered a tragic accident.  Something had been visiting the greenhouse at night and was raiding the ducks eggs. Dorothy appears to have fallen into the center of the greenhouse and landed wrong, breaking her leg.

Ryan found her and after much agonizing thought and many difficult phone calls, decided to put her down. She went very quickly and by the time the decision had been made, appeared to have accepted what was about to happen.  We buried her the next morning in the garden.



Dorothy (middle) at several weeks old
Dorothy in Front


Saturday, November 5, 2011

The property is starting to look like itself again

October came and went. It finally feels like Fall. Ryan and I completed work stripping off the branches this week. The property is starting to look like it did before we had four huge trees drop upon it.


The house plans are also coming along as we started working on the second floor which will house the Master Bedroom and bath, Shaelyn's room, the Pullman Car and another bathroom. That's going to be a lot of composting toilets for one house!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

October 2011 Status Update

Ryan and I are re-evaluating where we stand money-wise at this point. I was up for a job that had a good wage and got pretty far in the recruitment, so far in fact, that we started thinking that I had it in the bag. Alas, it fell through. :(    This sets our timeline back probably a year or so. That's not the worst thing in the world. In fact, it gives us more time to plan the house. We expect to break ground in spring, 2013. 

Currently we are:
  • Continuing to process the felled trees. (Expected completion summer 2012)
  • Finishing work on the first floor design and starting on the second floor.
  • Paying off the property as fast as we can in order to be able to start buying the house systems. The first system will be the water cistern. 
Future posts will continue to focus on the Petal Requirements and details of the systems that we will be using to be in compliance with the Petals.

One last note:  We have decided to get animals (mentioned earlier) to maintain the yard and provide rich compost and fertilizer for the garden and grounds.  As well as provide fiber, companionship and to create a peaceful, farmlike setting full of wonderful chores and experiences that seem to have gone bye-bye in recent times. This will be good for Shaelyn (our city-raised, soon to be 7 year old) and the new neighbors child. None of our neighbors have farm animals and we understand that at least some of them are looking forward to animals in the neighborhood.  A barn has been added to our plans to facilitate these animals.

The animals we are getting are 2 or 3 Pygora Goats from Hawks Mountain Ranch.in Gaston, OR. We were hoping to get a pair of friends that were having a hard time getting adopted but I am proud to report that Chip and Ralphie have found homes.

This is a brand new baby Pygora















This is Brinn. Isn't she gorgeous??


And  one, possibly two, Llamas from Sijama Llamas out of Mulino, OR

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Here comes the Rain!!

Not too much to report this week. Ryan is off of vacation and we have both had to work so we haven't been to the property in a few days. Yesterday it started to rain which I am excited about because our 1000 gallon rainwater tank at the house was almost empty. If we get occasional rain, it will fill the tank and then we will hook it up to the washing machine until next summer. Rainwater makes your clothes very clean.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the weather. We hope to build our first fire tomorrow night and catch up on some TV. Tuesday is our 5 year wedding anniversary and we want to visit a Llama Ranch that day to get some information about what Llamas need as far as space and accommodations.

More to come as I have time to put it here. Thanks for visiting!!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Meet our animals

This weekend I attended the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby, OR. To those of you who like to spin or knit, or who just think that animals are cool, it is something that you should really try to check out.

A couple of months back, Ryan and I were researching the lawn. Right now we have a neighbor, Mike, who mows the property for us. Once we are out there however, we don't want to have to spend a few thousand dollars on a big lawn mower. That would kind of defeat all of the good that we are trying to do by having one of those. To address this we have decided to add to our brood once we get to the property. I will tell you what we have decided in a later post but at this time, I feel it appropriate to introduce everyone to our current animals and more importantly, why we have them.

On our 75' X 100' lot here in Vancouver, we have a lot of animals already. Well, I should qualify that.

For years and years and years, we had two dogs. Period. Our dogs are all rescued. Lacey is rescued from the big Burns, OR, cruelty case that you all may have read about a couple of years ago. Lacey will never be normal because she was deprived of food and shelter for the first two years of her life. She will always be scared but we are working on her self esteem. Ginger was an accident of a breeder / hoarder and she is the Viking Explorer of the group. Fearless and feisty. She will protect her yard against all invaders that are at or near her size. Ginger and Lacey are each others safety, as it should be. Best to have a friend. We all need at least one good friend, don't you think??

Why so many animals now???
Recall my next door neighbor. You may remember him from the Clothesline post. The guy with the Tyvek.. Anyway, about 5 years ago a screw came loose in his head when it came to me and I became afraid. I was afraid for 4 years. Then, due in part to my relentless recordkeeping and sheer strength of will, he suddenly stopped doing what he was doing. Four years of being scared to go in my yard affected me deeply.  Ryan and I decided that we live here too and we should be allowed to do what we want and to not be scared to do what we want anymore. What we wanted to do was to have a couple of chickens so that we could have fresh eggs and so that we could cease having to use fertilizer on our lawn. It is expensive and I was always a little worried about the dogs getting it on their paws and maybe poisoning themselves.

Well I don't know anything about chickens but it seemed pretty easy. We figured that we would just eat them after they were done laying and that we wouldn't really care one way or another. While researching what the best chickens to get, I stumbled upon this duck site ( Live Ducks ). I am a water person, I have always liked ducks and ate them once ( they tasted weird). I started talking to Ryan about getting Ducks too because their poo is just as good as chickens, they eat the same food as the chickens and they are super cute. Ryan was worried that they would fly away but I didn't think that they did and once I found proof that they were not all going to disappear, he as willing to try them out. We figured that if they didn't work out we would just eat them and that would be the end of the "Great Duck Experiment".

I ordered the ducks from Metzger Farms (see Resource List) and we set about to get the chickens. We picked up the chicks from the Urban Farm Store in Portland. The baby chicks were cute and everything but they were ravenous feeders. They would attack your hand when you got near them. I saw that it was going to be easy to eat these chickens. They seemed like little serial killers in a feather covering.  The ducks were arrived the next week. I think Ryan finally came on board when he told our mailman to be on the lookout for some ducklings and he replied, "You'll be the first this year."  That signalled that this "duck" idea wasn't as "out of the box" as he thought. The ducks arrived and Ryan was in love.

It has been a year now and I have a lot of chores out in the yard,. This has helped me with my fear and been very helpful in getting me to feel like myself again. I always liked being in the yard and the birds are a very good reason.  The ducks are teenagers now and have a pond. They tried to have a family this spring but we didn't let the eggs hatch. The chickens have grown up and are as friendly as can be. One of them, A Buff Orphington called "No-Name" is just like a dog. She follows us everywhere,. She helps me with the gardening and she is a very pleasant chicken. The Silver Wyandotte called "PJ" (for Paige Jr.), is just a little bitch. She is moody and just seems on the verge of having a nervous breakdown most of the time. We named her Paige Jr. because she was so fearless and independent as a chick. She didn't hang out with everyone else and did her own thing... just like me. I have to admit these last 5 years have made me a bit moody and sometimes I wonder what else is going to happen to me. So maybe I can identify with how PJ feels a little bit.
Either way, we don't even think about eating anyone now and are, in fact, excited about the possibility of Mabel and Bob having some little ducklings once we get to the property. Bob spent two months on her nest this year and she just seems to really want to be a little mother. We are going to let her do that. Dorothy is the runt of the ducks and we don't know if she will ever feel like being a Mom. We are currently hoping that she makes it through this winter. She seems to be the more sensitive to cold and illness and she was slow to understand how to take care of her feathers.We watch her everyday and cheer her on as she preens and tries to keep her feathers waterproof. The test will be this winter.  Bob and Mabel seem to be old pros and we know that they will make it. Luckily, we have a friend that will help us if it comes to that.

So now that you are up to speed as to why we have animals, it is time to meet them...

Introducing Bob, Mabel and Dorothy.  Welsh Harlequin Ducks
Swimming
Grazing

                    And No-name and PJ, the Chickens...

Not to mention Ginger and Lacey, the dogs...


Did I mention that this week we rescued a cat? Ryan has always missed having a cat.

Everyone, meet Otis. He was taken in by one of my clients on a fixed income. He is so friendly and mellow that the kids in the complex often threw Otis up in the air, and down the slide in the playground... because they could. Otis is lucky that they never broke his legs. He is the most mellow and friendly, not to mention smart cat that I have ever met and we feel lucky that he likes us. Even Lacey and Ginger (who hate cats) seem to be getting used to him.

Work on the Trees continues... status update on many things

Seems like I look away and another week has past.

Ryan and I are busily trying to get to Washougal every chance we get to cut on the trees some more. We are making steady progress. We have just started to get into the trunks of both trees and have at least a cord of wood in our pile already as we have been taking the time to cut up the branches as well.



This is where we were at as of a few days ago. We are trying to be fastidious so that we don't have to revisit areas once the wood has been cut. I think this also helps Mike navigate with his mower better.



Other than that, Ryan and I are slowly letting ideas percolate in our heads for the house. In the last few weeks we have revisited the entire first floor layout to address an issue of providing a buffer space between the entry and the living space, this led to the total relocation of the stairs going into the basement (AKA Ryan's new train layout) as well as positioning of the mudroom in the garage instead of in the house.

Moving the stairs and the mudroom creates a condition where we can completely seal off the heat envelope of the main living areas from the "transitional" areas where there will be a lot of movement from inside to outside. I will be posting the layout of our house on this blog at some point once all of the major changes have been made.

We are also researching quite a few things for the house and yard. The Living Building spec  (of which I have not posted all of the Petals yet. My bad  :( ) wants us to locally source as much of the materials as possible. However, the "ideas" for what we are planning can come from anywhere in the world. I like that.

We were contacted by Barry LaDuke of LaDuke Radiant Sales. He is a resource that can get our grubby little hands on an actual Daikin Altherma, now that we have decided that that is the way we want to go. His website has a lot of cool stuff on it, so check it out. He has also introduced us to a product created, developed and manufactured in Tualatin, OR. Barry will be sending us a sample and we are excited about reading into the Ecowarm Panel

A while back, I had helped my friend Allen Poole install the tubing for his radiant heat flooring. His method was to use plywood sleepers to hold down the tubing and create a surface to attach flooring to as well as absorb and redistribute heat from the tubes to the room. The Ecowarm is the same idea except that the sleepers use a smaller tubing, there is a recycled aluminum layer that more efficiently distributes the heat from the tubes and the tube size can be smaller. Thinking about it, it sounds like a no brainer, but we are eagerly awaiting the sample and want to consult with Allen to get his opinion on what he thinks as well.

Isn't this ingenious? Allen's Kitchen floor

Allen, I continue to be blown away by your project. Just looking at this picture makes me smile because when we installed this tubing, it just seemed like this is how everyone should have their floors. Who needs a bunch of noisy forced air vents everywhere? Why aren't more people doing this?  YOU are an inspiration to me.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

We Pause this message for Station Identification... and the best refrigerators

This last week has been super busy on the property. The September 11 activities and subsequent reliving of that horrible day took the wind out of my sails for a few days but we are back.

Ryan and I have been making trips up to the property in between work shifts to process the wood. Our chainsaws just got back from the repair shop so we will be able to make some real progress in the coming days. We offered our neighbors the entire dead tree but that somehow was misunderstood, so between the neighbors that burn, we are giving away half of the trees fell. We hope that by the time we actually get up there they remember that we come in peace.

A shout out to Triangle Resources, they take as much as we can cram into our truck and let us dump it for only $7. They are 6 miles away from our lot, so it is gratifying for us to be able to recycle the wood waste rather than be forced to burn it.

I was researching the fridge that we want to put in the house and stumbled upon this list of Reefers that are Energy Star Compliant.  It is such a big list that I had to share.


Energy Star Compliant Refrigerators

This is the one that we are looking at.. it uses so little power that they use them in places like the middle of the jungle in Guatemala. Sunfrost

The Materials Petal is next

Saturday, September 10, 2011

September 11

Ten years ago, I was working for Louisiana Pacific in the Web Department. We had just been hit with the NIMDA virus and all outside internet access had been killed. Additionally, our company was going to through some major changes. At home, I was knee-deep in a "grandmother" situation. The week of 9/10 was going to be super busy and emotional for me. Then on Tuesday, I was getting on the 105 heading to work and the bus driver said, "Did you hear that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?"

I think that I was lucky. For everyone else, stuff was happening but they could not get out of our internal network to see. As far as I was concerned, my #1 priority became getting as much information that I could to my companies internal sites so that our employees, company-wide, could concentrate on what they were doing and know that their Web Department would share anything that happened with them. It was all on the front page. A week later, our Internet access was opened again so that people could "get out", but that started a trend in what was to become, my department. 9/11 started a lot of things for a lot of people.

NYT Front Page

I remember it like it happened yesterday. For several years, I couldn't even listen to patriotic music without tearing up. Watching that second plane live as it crashed. Feeling such sorrow for the First Responders that gave everything that day. Watching month after month as the volunteers worked on "the pile". It is in all of us who watched it. I try, everytime I see a police officer or fireman, to say something to them. There never seems to be a good opening. It must make them feel as awkward as it does me to say, but it needs to be said.

You are the ones that run toward the fire. You are the ones that catch the man with the gun. On 9/11, hundreds of you ran towards those burning buildings and got those people out. You climbed thousands of steps for the chance at helping just one more person survive. I cannot imagine the fear that you felt down inside when you saw the first building fall, but you did not let it show. You are the ones who put your lives on the line every day to keep us safe. THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO.


Victim #1:Fire Chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Killed when the first tower collapsed.
Shortly after 9/11, the comedian, Yakov Smirnoff created a giant mural which hung on a building overlooking Ground Zero for a long time. I would like to share it here. For a long time, this image was a backdrop for LP's Internal Homepage.  We cannot afford to forget the lessons learned that day.


Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of this fateful event. The day that we lost 3,123 people representing 40 countries. 

I hope that you all take a moment out of your day and remember where you were, how you felt and most of all, the innocent lives that were lost on that day.

Trees Down

On Friday, September 9, 2011, Wright Tree Service cut down our four trees. According to our neighbors, the process was exacting and very professionally done. They put those trees down with precision. In fact, even though they could have, they completely avoided the willow tree smack dab in their way and opted to fell two trees on either side of it. A few of the neighbors have already approached us about the trees. Ryan and I feel that there is plenty to give everyone some for the winter. We are most excited about being able to help some others who burn exclusively and have been hit hard by the times. Mainly we are happy about the PUD being able to help us with these trees, because we were kind of lost in knowing what to do.

The dead tree delimbed itself!!

Me and Lacey chillaxin'

This is our current view from the north end.  See the Willow Tree? Those guys are amazing!!
Ground View

Friday, September 2, 2011

The Health Petal

The Health Petal: Maximizing physical and psychological health and well being.

According to the Living Building Challenge 2.0:
"The intent of the Health Petal is to focus on the major conditions that must be present to create robust, healthy spaces, rather than to address all of the potential ways that an interior environment could be compromised. Most buildings provide substandard conditions for health and productivity. There is a direct correlation between decreased comfort and increased environmental impacts, since solutions in the physical environment to improve well-being are often energy-intensive and wasteful."
I know... sounds a little "new age-y" right?  I try to think of it as the Challenge architects want us to live comfortably and to breathe fresh air. How many of us, in an effort to save a little bit of money, turn down the heat just a little too far? Or how many times have you entered someone's house and all you smell is the fresh carpet that they just had installed?  That's formaldehyde (form·al·de·hyde) folks and a host of other nasty chemicals off-gassing from your brand new carpeting. That new paint smell?  Same thing.  Chemicals.

Big deal right?  Hey, I'm all about chemicals. When I was in the Job Corps, we used to paint every day. Every day we would clean our brushes with our bare hands in that vat of paint thinner that was half saturated with that "donated" paint [read: lead based paint].  Do I have cancer? Not yet.  But, even then, and even us stupid kids in the Job Corps would joke about how we were all going to get cancer someday. Nowadays there are some people that are so sensitive to chemicals that they can't even be around certain things in new houses or they get sick.  Chemicals have their place but it's pretty silly to go around thinking that you can breathe them and nothing will ever happen.So, we have the Health Petal and it's three Imperatives.

The Health Petal:
  • Civilized Environment = Every occupiable space must have operable windows that provide access to fresh air and daylight.

  • Healthy Air = To promote good indoor air quality, Renovations, Buildings, and buildings completed as part of Neighborhood projects must meet the following criteria:
     
    • Entryways must have an external dirt track-in system and an internal dirt track-in system contained within a separate entry space.
    • All kitchens, bathrooms, copy rooms, janitorial closets and chemical storage spaces must be separately ventilated and exhaust directly to outside air.
    • Ventilation rates must be designed to comply with ASHRAE 62.1-2007 and equipment must be installed to monitor levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature and humidity.
    • Smoking must be prohibited within the project boundary.

      Conduct air quality testing at pre-occupancy and after nine months of occupancy to measure levels of Respirable Suspended Particulates (RSP) and Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC).
  • Biophilia = The project must be designed to include elements that nurture the innate human attraction to natural systems and processes. Each of the six established Biophilic Design Elements must be represented for every 2,000 m2 of the project:

    • Environmental features
    • Natural shapes and forms
    • Natural patterns and processes 
    • Light and space 
    • Place-based relationships
    • Evolved human-nature relationships
Remember wayyyy back (last week) when I told you it was going to get a little touchy feely? Biophilia is what I meant. Pete Dubois from the county says that this is more of an "intent" thing. We have looked at the Biophilia book referenced and it all looks like pleasant shapes and room design. Like Fung-sheui kind of. We are planning on tackling this part by making some allowances to preserve the view, allow in as much light as possible, make our house blend in as much as possible with color and size [Read: our house is not going to be Southfork on the Washougal River. Please tell me that you got that reference or I am truly too old to be writing a blog.  :) ] .

As far as the "Evolved human-nature relationships"... you've got us there. Seems to me that the Indians when Columbus landed had a pretty good "human-nature" relationship so shouldn't it be "uncivilized human-nature relationships"?  We are planning on going back to the Great Depression sans the killing all of our animals for food. I doubt that PJ and No-Name would appreciate being dinner and the joy that they give us is more valuable than any chicken dinner their bodies would afford us.

I'll let you ponder this latest Petal. The Materials Petal is next. Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!

    Trees.... Trees we want to cut down.

    In our Solar Survey post, we demonstrated how the trees and buildings around you can affect your solar exposure. In general, our current solar exposure is truly great, but we can always dream, can't we?

    That pesky bump on the right hand side of our survey was problematic for us on several levels: it limited both our solar and wind exposures (Ideally, you want your wind turbine to be above everything else.), they exposed our structure to a falling tree hazard and lastly, one of them was DEAD. D-E-A-D as a doornail. What is a doornail anyway?

    Ryan called every tree man and yard he could find near our site. Four trees was not enough of a haul to even mess with.  We were at the property cutting down one of the damaged trees last week and our neighbor Mike showed up. He said, "You have a dead tree. Just call the PUD and they'll remove it for you."  Really!!!???  Seriously??!!!

    These trees??    They're kind of tall. Mike went on to say that since the power lines go along the road, the PUD was invested in preventing an issue with the dead tree possibly falling over during the rough Washougal winters.


    We were so disheartened that somehow we were going to have to figure out a way to cut down that dead tree ourselves.

    Enter Jim Huggins of Clark PUD.   (Our new favorite man in the whole world)

    We met with him and his tree man this week.

    One signature on a permit and it's all set up.


    The best part is that they are going to fall all four trees because the dead one is in the back and a real pain to get to.

    Here is a photo of the marked trees. The dead one is the left one in the back. Right next to it is one that is dying and leaning.


    They will be falling all four of these trees whole next week. We will try to be there and get a video.

    For the next... year? or so, we will be chopping up these trees. We plan to give some of the firewood to our neighbors as a gesture. We will be able to use some of it but suffice it to say, we will have quite a bit of firewood if any friends or family are interested. 







    Saturday, August 27, 2011

    Clothes Dryer

    The clothes dryer we have now is between 20-30 years old. It is an old Maytag and it works like a champ. I couldn't tell you exactly how much power it uses (mainly because I am almost afraid to look at our meter when it is running. :( ). I am guessing that it uses around 5000 watts when it is on. We try not to use it much.



    Two years ago I bought a rotary clothesline and installed it in the backyard. I chose one called the Breezecatcher. It is very stout and clean and awesome. It can handle a huge load of clothes and is very balanced so it rotates in the breeze even if I load it unevenly.



    This is the Breezecatcher in our backyard. [off topic comment ] Beyond is our neighbors house. He thinks that Tyvek is the same as siding as it has looked that way for 3 years now. This year he stopped paying attention to his yard altogether so now it looks like we live next to some abandoned house. I am waiting for a car to start showing up on what used to be his lawn. [/off topic comment ]



    Ryan took a while before he accepted the fact that we were hanging clothes on a line. The clothes are scratchy and , well, it's just more work than throwing them in the dryer and turning it on. That is true.



    Why use a clothesline?

    • Dryers use a HUGE amount of electricity. KOIN news report

    • I can't justify NOT using one during the summer.

    • The dryer adds to heat in the house and for those who lack air conditioning, this is an unnecessary problem.

    What are the drawbacks?

    • If it rains while your clothes are out there then your clothes get wet all over again.

    • It's more work.

    • Drying your clothes on a line does nothing to remove dog hair or lint.

    • There are some neighborhood associations that forbid having a clothesline due to them being "unsightly". CBS News: Dispute in Bend, OR



      -OR-

    There is an organization that is trying to create a movement towards using clotheslines: Project Laundry List

      If you think back 40 years ago... every house had a clothesline. Yes, I was a little worried about my neighbor seeing my underwear on the line, but you know what? I can count 4 separate times when I have personally witnessed him peeing on the side of his house. He lets his guests do worse than that in the neighbors yards. In light of that, worrying about him seeing my underwear on the line shouldn't be a big deal..



      The compromise that changed everything. This year, taking into account the drawbacks of having the clothesline, we reached a compromise. We hang the clothes and then put them in the dryer for about 5 minutes with a dryer sheet. This fluffs up the clothes, imparts some of the magical "dryer sheet softness" on the clothes and gets rid of all traces of pet hair. Lacey, we love you but your hair is everywhere.





      At the new place, we will be installing another Breezecatcher and placing it in a covered area. This way, we can hope to use it closer to year round. It should also allow us to buy a smaller, more efficient dryer.



      As long as there is wind, clothes will dry on a clothesline

      Water Heater decision made

      After having shown Ryan the Dainkn Altherma videos and some follow-up discussion, we have decided to pursue the Daikin Altherma.  This consolidates our home and domestic hot water heating into one system while allowing us to take full advantage of the planned Solar water pre-heating systems.

      This decision also gets us further down the road with the Energy Petal compliance as the Daikin Altherma is electric.

      Friday, August 26, 2011

      Another Daikin Altherma Video

      I found a better Daikin video which illustrates its capabilities better (there is also sound).






      Tough Decision

      Ryan and I are trying to figure out the water heating piece.

      We know that we want solar. We have decided on a Drain-Back system for the initial water heating. The cost will be somewhere between $11- $13,000 to have Solar Energy Solutions install it.

      We decided on this configuration for several reasons: it is the most maintainence free configuration, there will be no worries about anything boiling over or blowing a gasket in the summer, no glycol (at $50 a gallon this is a good thing) and there is some awesome monitoring that we will be able to set up.

      That decided we now have the water heating piece.  The solar system deposits its pre-heated water into an 80 gallon tank. Fair enough. In the summer, this will be all we need. In the gloomy months however, we will need some kind of heater to heat the pre-heated water so that it is hot.

      This is where it gets complicated.  Per the Energy Petal, all of our energy usage has to come from renewable resources.  NO!!! WOOD IS NOT CONSIDERED RENEWABLE|. Can you believe it??  I just learned today that there are NO COMBUSTIBLES ALLOWED in Living Building 2.0.    No wood stove. Can you imagine living in the woods and not being allowed to use a wood stove?  If they could burn wood 2,000 years ago, we should be able to burn it now as it is carbon neutral.  I digress.

      Lucky for us we are in the Pilot Project so we can have some combustion. Baby steps. I for one don't think the technology is there yet to have no combustion, but that's just me.

      We were researching electric water heaters and gas water heaters and learning a lot. Then Andrew of Solar Energy Solutions suggested that we use a tankless water heater. We have one at our house right now and to be honest, I have not been blown away by the energy savings, but mine was installed in 2003. I hear that they have gotten a lot better. Andrew suggested we look into a Takagi TK3 as it is the only truly solar compatible tankless water heater.  What does "solar compatible" mean?

      Most tankless water heaters take the water, at whatever temperature it comes into the unit at, circulates it and causes it's temperature to rise a certain degree (say a rise of 60 degrees). So if your water is 40 degrees entering the unit, it will be 100 degrees when it comes out. There are some adjustments, but on the Bosch I have here, it is just a knob that you turn. Solar compatible units monitor the incoming temp of the water and only apply enough energy to heat it to a certain temperature, thereby using a LOT LESS ENERGY in the process.

      The problem is that the Takagi uses natural gas or propane. Combustion is not allowed!!  To add another layer of complexity,  we are going to have a Hydronic Radiant Floor Heating System, which is a closed loop system, therefore needing it's own heater as well. We had thought that we would get an air to water heat pump to be used solely for the floor heat. Keep the systems separate...Simple enough right?  Wrong.

      The heat pump is run on electricity which helps us with the renewables requirement but the one that we have been looking at, The Daikin Altherma, also has a domestic water piece. So, it can be the domestic water heater for those gloomy months. OH... it also has a solar preheat piece.  So now we have the possibility of having two separate systems that do exactly the same thing but in totally different ways. Can we have one system do everything?


      We have a call into a friend who is using the Daikin in his house and this will hopefully give us some answers. Like... how exactly does one heater give both water for hydronics and domestic hot water?  Do we end up drinking water that has run through the tubing used to heat our house?  Will a tankless water heater fill the bill for the hydronic system (we wish that it was electric).  What is the actual cost?  The Takagi is less than $1000 and it seems like the Daikin is over $10,000. If this was only about the cost, I think it would be easy but then there is the efficiency factor.  Heat pumps are super efficient while the tankless water heater might be expensive to operate because we will be using Propane.

      This video might help:

      If anyone has a comment or opinion, we would love to hear from you.  :)


      Wednesday, August 24, 2011

      Video that you all must watch

      This is a video of the first certified passive house on the west coast. It is located in Salem. Our house has a passive design but after talking to our solar contractor, we were uncertain if passive even works here. This video reassured us that we are on the right track and that our efforts will not be in vain. Many thanks to KATU for running this story.

      Check it out!



      Our Solar Exposure

      Please pardon the interruption of our regularly scheduled program of the Health Petal to bring some information that we just learned.  Our site has awesome solar access.  Ryan and I took the Pathfinder tool to the property site yesterday and conducted a Solar Survey.

      In a nutshell, this device has a compass and some special paper. Stand at the place where you think you want to put your solar panels. Ideally, get up on something high so that you can duplicate the height of the panels. We did ours on the ground. Doing this skews the results to the conservative side.

      Point the tool to TRUE SOUTH. In our area that means 165 degrees. Place the dome over the paper and reflected on the dome are all of the possible sources of shadow or sun blockage. On the paper is the path of the sun at the various times of the year. Trace the shadows on the dome to the paper.  Add up all of the values, factor in the angle of the panels (you can use 100% value if your panels are mounted at the optimum 33-37.8 degrees of tilt, which ours will be). The result is the percentage sun exposure of your site. You will be able to see on the paper, where the sun will be every month of the year approximately. It's pretty cool.

      According to our survey, we have 83.1% solar exposure!!! 

      This is a conservative value as we were at ground level, used only the full values on the paper and the fact that we may be cutting down one or more of the trees that you can see on the bottom right of the paper (one is dead).

      Saturday, August 20, 2011

      The Energy Petal

      This is another one that is kind of a big deal. For the purposes of the pilot project, strict compliance with this petal is not required. We only have to use 25% of the energy that an average house would normally use.

      "The intent of the Energy Petal is to signal a new age of design, wherein the built environment relies solely on renewable forms of energy and operates year round in a pollution-free manner.
      In addition, it aims to prioritize reductions and optimization before technological solutions are applied to eliminate wasteful spending – of energy, resources, and dollars. The majority of energy generated today is from highly unsustainable sources including coal, gas, oil and nuclear power. Large-scale hydro, while inherently cleaner, results in widespread damage to ecosystems. Burning wood, trash or pellets releases particulates and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and often strains local supplies of sustainably harvested biomass. The effects of these energy sources on regional and planetary health are becoming increasingly evident through climate change, the most worrisome major global trend attributed to human activity"
      The Energy Petal:
      • Net-Zero Energy = One hundred percent of the project’s energy needs must be supplied by on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis.

      Again, if you are thinking that this one seems hard, it's because you are not in the conservation mode already. I go into peoples homes for my job and I am almost constantly amazed at how wasteful most people are. Even those who are on the edge of being able to make it. The TV is always on, or the heat is turned up, or the dryer is going non-stop in the middle of summer. I know that I sound preachy and it is not my intent. I just don't get it. Maybe someone can explain it to me.  For us, we hope to comply with this Petal and then some. We are extremely excited about trying and we will probably throw a big party when we do. Woo Hoo!! 

       From here on out, the Living Building Challenge 2.0 gets a little touchy feely. The Health Petal is next. I am hoping that you will see what I mean.  Peace out for now.



      The Water Petal

      The Water Petal is a big deal and, for us, the first real challenge to existing thinking so far. 

      "The intent of the Water Petal is to realign how people use water and redefine ‘waste’ in the built environment, so that water is respected as a precious resource. Scarcity of potable water is quickly becoming a serious issue as many countries around the world face severe shortages and compromised water quality. Even regions that have avoided the majority of these problems to date due to a historical presence of abundant fresh water are at risk: the impacts of climate change, highly unsustainable water use patterns, and the continued drawdown of major aquifers portent significant problems ahead."
      The Water Petal:
      • Net-Zero Water = One hundred percent of occupants’ water use must come from captured precipitation or closed loop water systems that account for downstream ecosystem impacts and that are appropriately purified without the use of chemicals.

      • Ecological Water Flow =  One hundred percent of storm water and building water discharge must be managed onsite to feed the project’s internal water demands or released onto adjacent sites for management through acceptable natural time-scale surface flow, groundwater recharge, agricultural use or adjacent building needs.


      I'll let you think about exactly what that means for now. We will be complying with this petal 100% and are extremely excited about doing so. Stay Tuned. The Energy Petal is next.

        Friday, August 19, 2011

        What is a Living Building anyway? Site Petal

        In a nutshell, a Living Building is a building that has a footprint (water, energy, pollution, asthetics, etc... ) of as close to zero as possible.

        In  the heavily rule intensive and regulated world bureaucracy that we live in, a Living Building is a building that complies to all 7 "Petals" with 20 related "Imperatives"  of the Living Building Challenge 2.0. administered / created / overseen by the International Living Building Institute (ILBI). 

        The standard is explained in all its glory in the following document:
             http://www.clark.wa.gov/environment/sustainability/documents/LBC2-0.pdf

        Today's post will cover the Site Petal

        Site Petal:  Restoring a healthy coexistence with nature.
        •  Limits to Growth  =  Projects may only be built on greyfields or brownfields – previously developed sites that are not classified as any of the following:
          On or adjacent to sensitive ecological habitats such as:
              • wetlands: maintain at least 15 meters, and up to 70 meters of separation
              • primary dunes: maintain at least 40 meters of separation
              • old-growth forest: maintain at least 60 meters of separation
              • virgin prairie: maintain at least 30 meters of separation
              • prime farmland
              • within the 100-year flood plain

          Project teams must document conditions prior to the start of work. On-site landscape may only include native and/or naturalized species planted in such a way that emulates density and biodiversity of indigenous ecosystems and supports succession.

        • Urban Agriculture = All projects must integrate opportunities for agriculture appropriate to the scale and density of the project using its Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R.) as the basis for calculation.

        • Habitat Exchange =  For each hectare of development, an equal amount of land must be set-aside in perpetuity as part of a habitat exchange.

        • Car Free Living = Each new project should contribute towards the creation of walkable, pedestrian-oriented communities.

        You may be scratching your head about now because this seems pretty tough. You're right!! That's why there are hardly any of these homes built anywhere. I guess the phrase, "Go Big, or Go Home." comes to mind. Luckily for us here in Clark County, we have a hybrid of sorts. A pilot project where we don't have to adhere to all of the Imperatives. 
        You see the people in Clark County have enough vision to realize that it's not an all or nothing game that we are playing. Some of the Imperatives are so far out of most peoples boxes that there is no way it has a chance of catching on with Joe Public, not to mention Joe Legislator or even Josephine City Official.  That's why this pilot project is so awesome. We are going to get to try out some stuff that would never, ever fly in this day and age.  Remember when everyone had a clothesline? In my mind, it's the same era as when you could swim in the river without worrying about getting sick?  We are going back to stuff that makes sense. I hope that you keep coming back here. 
        The next post will cover the WATER PETAL. That one's really going to blow your mind






        Wednesday, August 17, 2011

        Birth of a blog: it all started with a plumbing problem

        We are Paige and Ryan, a married couple in Vancouver, WA. We have always been green. More in the "Look at all of the money we are saving!" way then in the, "Neither of us bathe in anything but patchouli oil and watch how we shun society.", way.  


        We live in a house that I bought in 1993. Many of my 18 years here have been spent as a single, workaholic with the obligatory 2 dogs as companion/guard dogs. As we embark on our "dream" project, a little history is required.

        About 15 years ago, I had a little accident in the basement and was introduced to the concept of "grey water". I had no idea that every time I threw a few clothes into the washer that 40 gallons of water (40 GALLONS!!!) were being flushed down the drain. Maybe I'm weird, but 40 gallons seemed like a lot to me and I was ALWAYS doing laundry. That started my little experiment.

        Now, I don't think that I went crazy by any means, but some of the people that I dated probably did. Once I learned that my sewer rates were based on my water usage during the summer, I embarked on a quest to see how low I could get my water, and by extension, my sewer bill. Soon I was using all of that water on my roses and lawn. I started capturing the dish and shower water also.  My usage dropped quickly and soon I discovered that I could do everything I wanted water-wise and use about one unit per month (745.8 gallons).  It's too bad that the City of Vancouver's Water Department only lets your bill go so low. For years, our water bill has been $53 every two months. 


        On those months that we falter and use more water, the bill only goes up a little which is a bummer because there is little incentive to conserve.  Aside from the cell phone and Internet, the water bill is our highest utility bill.  The electricity bill is another matter.


        Living alone for years, my electricity bill was around the same every month. My usage, having a TV, two computers, an old refrigerator, furnace and various other appliances was always between 7- 8 KwH per day. Having an unstable job, I was always looking to save money. I dutifully swapped out my bulbs to compact fluorescents and turned out lights when not in the room, etc...  Then, in 1996, my Grandmother moved in. [cue ominous music] .... Overnight my electric bill went into orbit. Who knew that one kindly old lady would need so many freezers.  so many freezers   Her penchant to crank the heat up and leave every light in the house on at all times along with the attitude that she could afford to pay the electric bill, so why should she care what it was. I remember one summer month when the electric bill was $50!!  It had never been that high before. She didn't care. She said, "I'm like the Indians. You can't change me."  My Grandmother lived through the Great Depression for goodness sakes!!!   I was amazed at her attitude. I am sure that she was shocked by my thrifty habits as well but these habits have kept me living within my means through many a rough patch.  When Grandmother moved out in 2001, my electric usage went back down and stayed there!  Take that!!


        In 2005, I met the love of my life, Ryan. For us, being green is a fun game that we play. The prize being freedom.   This blog is about our new project. A house in Washougal that we are going to build. A living house. 


        Here we will chronicle our journey to research new technologies, plans that we make, resources that we find and this will house our documents and show you how awesome it is to be green!!!