by Jen Pennington
house coloring sketch...one day...
A few months ago, I read an article in DWELL magazine talking about the “slow build movement” happening in this country. Here I thought we were just slow builders, but it turns out we are actually part of a “movement.” While I’m not too sure the “slow build movement’ is going to catch on like wildfire, (mostly because people don’t like to live too long with unfinished projects), we realized the time we’ve been taking to build may have actually led us do a few things right. We know this because we are still married. Pointing out what could have been done differently is a bit too easy, because it hits you like a cast-iron frying pan on the head. So I thought I would note a few things that have made a huge difference on our project.
Study the land. We spent 4 years figuring this out. Making our way through paths of prickly salmonberry bushes, old skidding trails, taking short courses on forest stewardship, coloring the woods with strange looking ribbons, and noting the changes in the position of the sun in the winter and summer. Watching where water pooled or vernal ponds formed. The best money we spent in the very beginning was getting our property surveyed and knowing where our lines and corners were. The architects and I used the PDFs the surveyors gave us to figure out all kinds of things.
Ted Hunter organizes panels on top of the slab.
Surround yourself with great folks and seek the right help. Find people who won’t dismiss you when you tell them you are going to build your house yourself. Architects Tara Romano and Neil Stevenson from Neil Stevenson Architects gave us a great modern house design, with an open floor plan that would allow us some flexibility. Our contractor, Ted Hunter came with his own crane truck and preferred to work alone with owner/builders. Steve Thornton, a friend and designer/builder became our sounding board and offered up great advice along the way.
Build community. When you build on an Island, everyone knows each other. Building suppliers, equipment rental places and landscapers become a big part of your world, so pay your bills on time and it’s amazing how many people will want to work for you.
Getting electrical through the conduit in utility trench.
Utilities first. We first dug a 400 ft. trench and put in all our lines ourselves, leaving the connections to the experts. We carefully hung the water and telephone lines above the propane and electrical conduit. (Care had to be taken with this trench along the driveway as it went through part of our wetland). More important than a toilet (you can rent those), was having access to the internet, electricity (no noisy, gas powered generators) and a wired phone line since cel reception is spotty. Putting in the lines in first also allowed us to build a gravel driveway to accept heavy equipment in Summer. (See video of utility trench).
Design for dual purposes. Instead of wasting space, much of our space does double duty. For example, a larger hallway is not just a corridor but massive storage space allowing my husband to roll out big metal racks that travel down to the living room/photo studio. At the other end of the house, my office contains a recessed wall bed to quickly become a guest room.
Amazing screeders Conner and Jason Chang
Concrete love. Our first floor is all one big 6-inch concrete slab with a radiant floor heating system. Taking great advice from Jason Chang, our fabulous screeder, I designed a joint control pattern (cuts that are no deeper than 2-inches) that connected all interior corners and left no areas more than 100 square ft. Not only effective but very cool looking. As soon as it was done, our contractor Ted had us put 4×8 sheets of masonite on the entire floor to protect it. It has made a huge difference.
The second floor goes up on a very cold day.
Prefab is fab. We chose to build with a Structural Insulated Panel System or SIPS. Our design was prefabricated and shipped to us and I am amazed at how little waste we have had on site. We’ve been building for two years, and we are only now about to make our third trip to the dump with a small Toyota Rav and a small 4×8 ft. trailer. Are there things that are a pain about building this way that no one tells you? Oh yeah, but I am beginning to see and feel the benefits. One of which was how easy it was to fit and level the windows and doors.
Bob prepares to install a door in his own unique way.
Don’t scrimp on windows and doors. This was our biggest expense next to the SIPs and I have no regrets. (I can live without that fine Italian couch, Herman Miller desk set and Espresso machine.) Between the SIPs and the windows, we noticed the difference immediately when we were able to heat up an unfinished, enclosed room in the middle of winter in just two hours with a couple of electric heaters.
An organized jobsite is a happy site. I am a piler. It is both an attribute and a fatal flaw. When working with SIPs the panels had to be organized in a certain order so the crane could pick them up in succession. I built a workbench for our little tools, bits, blades, squares, etc., and put it on wheels and put together some of our other wheeled shelving for heavier duty tools. Lumber is still stacked in the big room on dunnage. Garbage cans were laid out for food waste, usable wood trimmings, and recycling. A massive stack in the front of our property divides up the good and bad wood scraps. Folding all visqueen and plastic sheeting scraps, saves tons of room. Sweeping up at the end of every weekend, made it so much easier to work.
Draintile surrounded by gravel and wrapped in groundcloth before burying.
Go with the flow. In the Pacific Northwest, water is a major issue and due to a slope in the back of the house, we have installed three lines of defense against water intrusion against the foundation. The first is actually a FormaDrain footing form. Slits in this recycled plastic channel allow water to flow around the perimeter of the house and collect in an outlet on the SW corner. Meeting up with that is a draintile about 2 feet out from the foundation running around the entire back and sides of the house. (Another is planned later). Against the stemwall foundation we installed a Delta Foundation Drainage system to waterproof the stemwall. We have even purchased metal furring strips from Furring Master for a rainscreen that will provide an airspace between the house siding and the weather wrap. Lastly, a cistern will collect runoff and draintile water and be used as fire protection in summer. In winter any overflow is part of a plan to make the hydrology healthier in our wetland through yet another level-spreading infiltration trench.
Jen Pennington is the owner and designer for Rhizome Design & Images. She lives and works part-time in Seattle while building a green house with her husband, photographer Robert J. Pennington on Whidbey Island.
Great project you are working on Jen!