Last Week

Not much in the way of bloggable stuff going on right now. Got our permits (septic, well, building) in the mail this week. But because we got our poured concrete sub so late, we're not on his schedule til June 11th. (We were on his schedule the last week of May and then the first week of June, but I guess we can't complain since he's squeezing us in as it is. Those kinds of interactions with contractors deserve their own post - if not their own blog - and I'll get to that soon.) So we hope to get our footers dug and poured this coming week, and be ready for the forms to go up for the foundation the beginning of the next week.

Hi Seiko!!!

Radiant Heat

We've decided that we have to have air-conditioning. Personally, I'm not a big fan of AC - I like a good floor fan and to be able to hear the outdoors. But if folks are going to give us money to stay in our cabin, last thing we want to do is ask them to suffer through the occasional 90 degree WV afternoon (and then there are the down-the-road resale considerations). It's a big added cost for us; we could have just done radiant heat in the floors and the woodburning stove, not have hired an HVAC guy, and not have had to have a soffit in the basement or to cut up the floors to add registers (air vents) after the house is delivered (Simplex doesn't recommend doing it in the factory, because HVAC guys are always moving the locations of the registers around to suit the duct installation).

So we will have a forced air AC system. Which means that radiant floor heating becomes a redundancy - forced air heat is a no-brainer if you're doing AC. But we really want it in the basement - exposed concrete will be chilly down there, and what's the point of having it if you're just gonna put rugs over it? So I'm thinking I'm going to try to put in radiant heating anyway, if only in the basement (but maybe underneath the first floor, too). Anybody have any experience with a redundant system like this? Used a furnace with a closed secondary system for the radiant? Or used a separate heater (maybe tankless)? Installed it yourself? Let me know - lostrivermodern AT gmail DOT com.

Appliances

We bought them today (Memorial Day sales and all). The only real observations I have about buying appliances are:

-There are too many options; and

-Cabinet-depth refrigerators apparently aren't cabinet-depth. If you put something call "doors" on them, and then something called "handles" on them, all of a sudden your cabinet-depth fridge is sticking out five inches past your cabinets. The alternative, I understand, is to pay three times as much for a "built-in" fridge that really is cabinet depth.

A Generation Gap

So we combined our visit to the factory last week with a visit with my grandfather. He wasn't aware of any of the details of our project, though he knew it was happening. I told him it was going to be a prefab house and started to explain how prefab construction works, and he stopped me and told me he knew all about it - he'd seen it on Bob Vila (my grandpa is a solid DIYer).

Then I showed him the blog and the design of our house. This is a rough recap of the conversation:

Me: It has an inverted roof.

Grandpa: Why?

Me: (Something about modernism)

Grandpa: But how do you shingle it?

Me: (Something about a rubber roof that's less than a 1/2" thick)

Grandpa: (Back to watching the baseball game)

Some comparisons of renderings to the box as it stands now:

Finishes

I've gotten some great feedback from people emailing and asking that I address issues they are interested in. A few people have wondered what the quality level is of the finishes. So I'll detail a few here:

Windows are Anderson 400 series, sliders are Anderson Frenchwood Patio doors;

Daltile white subway 3x6 tile in the shower (we looked at the much more expensive glass tile, which we both liked a lot, but decided against it), Daltile black and white mosaic 1x1 tile on the bath floor (instead of slate or other nice stone products);

Zodiaq synthetic black countertop in both the bath and kitchen (instead of some more expensive natural/synthetic stones);

Merillat maple cabinets (nice maple doors with less expensive plywood boxes);

5/8" strandwoven bamboo floors from Sustainable Flooring;

Lutron Maestro dimmer switches;

Lightolier recessed lighting;

Kohler sinks, toilet, bath fixtures (though nothing outrageous).

As I said, compared to a lot of the finishes you see in Dwell or even in some of the Res4 projects detailed on their site, ours are modest and genuinely cost effective (and of course largely unspectacular).

More about the Factory Visit

As usual, we were well received by the folks at Simplex (last time I was there they put my name on the marquis on the highway). We had asked Jason beforehand if it would be ok if our kids tagged along and they were happy to oblige (though they kept us out of the factory). It was really great to actually step inside of the box and feel what the space was like. When we were first looking around at the different prefab options, we had no real perspective on what 14' wide or 16' wide would be like for the whole length of a house - those are both obviously fine dimensions for a single room, but how does it feel to have a whole house fit into that width? When we first met with Res4, we were lucky to learn that they had a project on Long Island that had recently been set that was right around the corner from my mom's house. There were contractors on the job, and we met with the foreman one afternoon last summer and walked through. It was an enormous house - I think it was four modules. But we were really able to see how a single bar would work just fine for what we wanted. So yesterday it was reassuring to actually stand in ours and feel how open and comfortable the space is. The soffit feels like it extends a bit further into the middle of the house than I was expecting, but it certainly has the anticipated effect of forcing one's attention to the sliding glass wall and it certainly exaggerates the height of the butterfly. Of course, as you can probably tell from the pics, the boxes in the yard are all stacked pretty close together, so the view was of some lumber and other materials. It'll be nice when it's a view of trees, sky and valley.

The finishes, for the most part, looked terrific. One of the real upsides of designing this as a second home/rental is that we aren't nearly as obsessive about the finishes as I'm sure we would be over a place we'd be living in full time. That's another of the paradoxical advantages of prefab (or at least the process as we've experienced it): constrained choice. Res4 has done this so many times now that they've identified a limited number of finishes that they think work. We picked cabinet and floor material/color, tile selection, sinks, faucets and appliances from a small set of options they recommended. They did the rest. So walking through the box I'm seeing things for the first time (like the brushed aluminum recessed lights, which we never discussed, but which look awesome). I'm sure we would have wanted more say over those types of finishes if this were a fulltime house, and I know I would have hated that process. (In a previous life I was a lawyer and I was involved not too long ago in a litigation over a $1.5MM custom home between the original builder and the owners. Reviewing the email and correspondence was really enlightening; having to pick every finish detail in a 5000sf home is an overwhelming task.) As a result, there are of course some things that wouldn't be my first choice - the windows on the uphill side of the house have white hardware, while the sliders have a much more attractive silver, for example. (I asked about that today, and John at Res4 said that Armstrong charges a hefty premium for the silver and Res4 doesn't think it's worth it.) So those are the kind of tradeoffs you're talking about when you cede control over the finer details. I'm happy with the tradeoff on the whole.

One big surprise (and it shouldn't have been, because both Res4 and Simplex talked to me about it months ago) is that we are going to have to paint. One of the realities of prefab travel and setting is that drywall inevitably cracks. I had reviewed this with everybody a couple of times; we discussed that Simplex will not be responsible for fixing any of it. But it turns out that, because of this inevitability, they don't do finish painting - just a white prime coat. And the sliding doors come unfinished as well. So that's one more thing to do on the back end. Not a big deal, but one more thing (and not a fun one, either).

There's also the fact that not everything's perfect at this stage. Wrong size cabinet here or there, mismatched door hinges, little things. The last apartment that we owned (in a wonderful old cast-iron building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn - man did it kill me to have to sell that place) was also new construction, so we were used to the idea that there are always things that get missed/need to be fixed. That's something I think anybody who's doing this process for the first time should be prepared for. The key is to have good communication and a good process for how that stuff gets resolved (and between Res4's very high expectations and Simplex's excellent responsiveness, we've been very happy with that part of this process).

Sarah says my posts are always too long, so I'll stop here. But more about the visit soon.

Today's Factory Visit

Well the house is coming along great. The EPDM is on, bamboo floors are in, bathroom is being tiled, trim is being fitted. It was great to see everything in person rather than pictures...

Simplex seems to be keeping up with Res4's attention to detail, and it's great to know that both of them are as excited as we are about getting everything done right. I hear some of the guys at the factory have even been checking in on this blog - if so, thanks for all the hard work.

On to pics. I'll just put them up and say a bit more about the visit tomorrow...

Gotta wear your hardhat:


Looking up at the peak of the butterfly over the master bedroom:


Open windows of the downhill side of the bedroom:


From the inside of that bedroom:


Clerestory window above the stairs:


Double windows and tile in the bath:


Close-up of bath window and tile (the sills are sloped toward the shower, which is a nice touch - thank you Simplex):


Bamboo floor (darker than you usually see):


Close-up of the bamboo:


Sliding mechanism for bedroom pocket door:


Brushed aluminum recessed lights (look very sharp):


Trim in the living room (just tacked right now):


Kitchen cabinets (I was worried about how the sloped ceiling would look above them - I wanted a soffit to come flush to the front of the cabinets; I was convinced otherwise and I'm glad. The slope of the ceiling is pretty dramatic with the shadowing here):


Front door hardware:


Sliding door hardware (same finish as the front door, but the light is different here):

I should be grading papers right now, but instead...

...more pics from the factory. These are from last Friday. We'll be at the factory tomorrow, where I understand they installed the floors today and began the tile. So more pics tommorrow night.

Toward the master bedroom:


The entrance side:


Toward the kitchen:


The shower stall (to be tiled with white subway tile):


Looking at where the stairs will be (this plywood will be knocked out and stairs will be build on site; the factory would build them and ship them loose like they are with some other items, but being off at all with the foundation height would create problems):


Down the hall toward the bedroom (these floor-to-ceiling cabinets are across from the bathroom):


The corner windows in the master bedroom (which I think is my favorite part of the whole house):


Framing the cricket in the roof (EPDM is going on at the end of the week I think):

Budget

I've begun to post hard numbers for our budget here. I've posted a permanent link to that page on the bar on the left. I've tried to list site costs first, and house costs second, but the whole science of calculating $/sf is lost on me (I don't know what gets included and what doesn't). If anything is unclear or if there are costs I've missed, shoot me a note (lostrivermodern AT gmail DOT com). I'll be doing this piecemeal, so bear with me.

Rendering

No pics from Res4 today, but here's another rendering from Res4 with a fuller perspective (the windows on the corner will actually have another set underneath them):



They've also updated our status page, so people can see our project on their site (along with lots of other great Res4 homes). We'll be headed to the factory on Tuesday and we'll definitely have some pics as soon as we get home.

Too Hot in the Hot Tub

I know it's probably blasphemous, but Michael and I occasionally sing it Godfather style.

Anyway, anybody have one of these? We're scouting out hot tubs and it looks like a lot of different people are selling these barrel stave cedar ones. Please leave a comment if you know anything about them...

Res4 Factory Visit

John was out at the factory today and said things are moving along. All the windows are in and they were getting ready to start the floor and tiling. They've got the box out of the assembly line and into the yard, so the pace of work is no longer dictated by the boxes in front and behind of ours in line. Sounds like they've slowed the pace down a bit to accommodate our concrete hold-up, which is nice. I think they're shooting to finish the box around the first week of June, and to deliver it the second week (after final inspections, punchlist items and signoff).

Should have some pics tomorrow. And Sarah and the boys and I have an appt at the factory next Tuesday afternoon for our first walk through, which should be very exciting. So lots more pics next week.

Insulated Concrete Forms

Just a note about our foundation. As you can see from the plan for the house, the foundation is kind of an "s": the three walls of the house (the fourth wall is panelized in the factory) and two retaining walls for the parking pad. We explored using an ICF like Superior Walls, which seem to have some pretty good upsides, but because they can't be used as retaining walls we still would have had to pour concrete (or come up with another option like Allen Block). So it didn't make sense for us. (A cost comparison is difficult - the ICFs cost a little more, but they give you better insulation and often come studded and ready for drywall.) But you can read more about why it might be a good choice at GreenOptions (with some different opinions down at the bottom).