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.

The little trailer than can by Adventure Trailers. Notice the rollout solar pad on top of the tent

Reminiscent of an oversized Swiss Army knife that folds out into all kinds of useful tools, it was even hard to tell there was a little trailer sitting underneath everything. What really made the trailer attractive is its ability to follow a 4-wheel drive light-truck or SUV across some of the most treacherous terrain. It’s built tough with a unique trailing arm suspension system with air shocks that protects itself from coming apart on back country roads. Not only that, but it easily protects the fully loaded contents inside it.

The Eezi Awn Globe Trotter tent on top of the trailer model I saw was fully loaded with all the bells and whistles and while compact, it may set you back about $20K. Mario Donovan, an owner and the designer for Adventure Trailers described ordering a trailer much like a pizza. Get just the toppings you want or order it with “the works.”

Mr. Donovan also talked about his experience living in Africa, and I could see where one of these trailers would come in handy. Of course all I could think of was that a set up like this with a tent off the ground away from less than desirable critters and snakes would certainly make for a better night’s sleep.

Adventure Trailers are made to be custom ordered with the amenities you want

While not exactly less expensive or truly lightweight, when you compare the footprint of the trailer to that of larger campers or an RV, the amount saved in gas alone may be worth it. Beyond that, its flexibility to go into remote areas or leave the trailer behind as a base camp item makes it a great off-the-grid research, relief aid, or camping alternative.

To find out more about the different models of trailers visit their site at: www.adventuretrailers.com

Now that my husband Bob and I have built two small sheds and a 110 sq. ft cabin, it was time to take on the Big House. A term generally reserved for a jailhouse, the locked in feeling to this project both financially and physically has us doing two to five with some time off for good behavior. But first a checklist: Marriage intact…check. Costco size case of Ibuprofen handy…check…Constant overwhelming feeling of chaos and confusion…check.

Now that we had that sorted out, it was time to move some dirt around. The back of our house site has a slight grade to it. With the help of Jim Lux, our amazing Bobcat acrobat/landshaper, part of the slope was cut and brought down into the lower areas to flatten out the grade. (See Jim’s Bobcat Ballet video below). Big boulders were delivered, and Jim artfully placed them behind the house for the beginning of a retaining wall. We then got some fill to even it all out and a couple of weekends of renting a JBC front-end loader and dirt compactor from Double R and we did the rest. Most people think we are crazy to do this, and far be it for us to let them think otherwise. This is not for everyone. And most people hire it out which is way smarter. But then again digging is in my husband’s blood and part of his DNA makeup. His father was a mining engineer in West Virginia, Wyoming and Utah. He once made Bob help dig a swimming pool. But that’s another story.

As for me, I got good at the front-end loader. Must have been from watching Jim all those times. Never thought I’d say that or have a reason to. Then Bob and I would switch off and I’d walk around with the dirt compactor. Two-hundred-fifty pounds of a vibrating, shaking plate that compacts dirt in six to eight inch layers. While tedious, it is not that hard. My husband in his own charming way found the only bright spot about me using it had more to do with the jiggling movement of certain upper body parts. “Yeah, keep laughing clown boy, you won’t find many wives that will do this.” But hey, if it keeps him motivated, so be it.

After that was finished, we spent two days measuring out the foundation and setting pins in the ground. Then the batter boards were set in. We even used lime as opposed to spray paint to make our markings. When we were done it looked like some new field game played on a square court. We were now ready for the arrival of Uncle Ted, our builder and setting up the forms for the stemwall.

[[Show as slideshow]]

Above: Images from the foundation pad in progress.

James waiting for the bus

Over 33 million trips are taken on some form of public transport each work week in the United States. In 2006, it is estimated that Americans took 10.1 billion trips on public transportation.* We eat, sleep, play, talk, listen to music, watch TV, have business meetings, carry out missionary work, sing, cry, laugh, and even get married on public transportation. Currently, my public transportation of choice is the bus. Buses have taken me safely home from many a night out on the town. They have carried home groceries, gifts for my wife, new books, and a kitchen gadget or two. I have crossed international borders, rivers, lakes, and mountains on a bus. The bus does not exclude. It does not care what color you are or what your gender is (I think the one exception is nudity—bus drivers tend to frown down on that). It can accommodate people with disabilities and will even let you take your pet onboard.

So why do so many look down upon the humble bus?
I have to admit, at times, public transportation can be scary. I have been mugged on the tube in London and threatened on a bus in Seattle. Small details in the larger world that stepping onto a bus opens up. So often we are faced with the good and bad found in society—why not on the bus?

So why do I still take the bus? I ride the bus because if you truly want to get to know and be a part of the place you live or are visiting, there is no better way than the bus. I once met the man who invented the Kit-Kat candy bar. He had also invented several other popular candies but the candy industry got scared of his innovative products and bought him out. He was almost sane enough that I wanted to believe him. My nephew got so excited the first time he took the bus, he licked the window. To be honest, I thought doing that would be fatal but it appears that children are immune to bus germs.
The bus represents the great unknown to me. When I climb onboard, sometimes I am not even sure where it is going to take me. Most of the time, I have no idea who I will meet or what will happen on the trip. At times, this is frustrating. At other times, it is an adventure and an inspiration. The bus gives me hope that one day we will all be able to get along and co-exist. I mean, if so many of us can cram ourselves into a six ton steel box after a hard day at work and hurtle home at speeds in excess of 60 m.p.h. in temperatures that range from freezing to boiling, there must be some hope we can share this huge planet peacefully and gracefully.
So, I urge you to leave your car at home and take a walk to the nearest bus stop. Take the bus to work or to the park or wherever it is you want to go. When you climb onboard, try to remember the excitement my nephew felt when he climbed aboard his first bus. I don’t expect you to lick the window but please open yourself up to the world you live in and enjoy the ride. It is good for the environment. Really it is. But I’m sure you probably already knew that.

James McGrath is a Web developer for Rhizome Design and avid supporter of public transportation. Secretly he wishes to be a bus driver and command the masses for a day.