Bevis and the Brush Hogs

For a few weeks, I felt like a kid again.  I remember how time seemed to move so slowly when you were waiting for something to happen.  Like the end of Chemistry class so I could go play hockey.  Time sure dragged while we were waiting to hear from the bank about this construction loan.

Funding a building project is quite different than getting a conventional mortgage.  When you buy an existing house, you hire an appraiser to look at the property, and they will compare it to other properties, generally in the same area that have sold recently.  Then you sign a forest full of paperwork and the property is yours.  Couldn't be simpler.

With a construction project, you still hire an appraiser to review the property, but in this case, they need to determine what the house will look like in 6 months.  They might go out and look at the land to see if it's a Florida swamp, but generally the valuation on the house is more difficult.  Again, they prefer to compare it to similar size houses that have been built and sold recently.  In our case, we had a few problems with that.

First off, we're building in Addison County where there is much less new residential construction than in Chittenden County.  We're also building a high performance home.  There are none of those in Addison County, and lastly, once you build a high performance home, you typically hang on to it, so no high performance homes have sold anywhere near here recently.

Long story short, that appraisal took much longer than we anticipated.  Thankfully we had an appraiser, and make no mistake about it, you do not have any choice in the matter, that got it.  He understood the inherent value in a high performance home even though there was no hard evidence to support it.  And since this house cost 15% more to build, the appraisal needed to come in that much higher than a regular energy star home.  Our guy took the time to speak extensively with our builder to understand all the expensive stuff that makes this house different.

When the bank finally received the appraisal, they had to review it because the appraisal was 15% higher.  We were told at the very beginning of the process that there is no evidence that high performance homes sell for more than conventional homes.  This is crazy!!  They are so much more economical to heat and cool it just makes sense they would be worth more.  Again, the problem is not many have been built and fewer have been sold.  Eventually, the world will catch on, but it sure is a pain to be a trail blazer.

Finally everything fell into place and we closed on the land and the construction loan on the same day.  Our builder got our building permit, we waited the required 15 days, and all of a sudden, things started happening very fast.  The next series of photos were all taken within 10 days.

Bevis and the Brush Hogs.

First all the growth is cut with something called a brush hog, which would be a great name for a rock band.  I know that "Bevis and the Brush Hogs" would be HOT!!.  Next the surveyor stakes out the boundaries of the lot and the building envelope, which is the part of the land on which we are allowed to build.  Next the builder comes and stakes out where the house will go.

Staked.

Sure, it's a bit of a hole, but we like it.

Footings are in.

Foundation complete.

A quick aside here.  Our builder mentioned several times that the orientation of the building on the lot is key.  So many times he'll see an otherwise beautiful home with the garage on the south side of the house.  That way in the winter, you'll enjoy that afternoon sun, as long as you're willing to sit in the garage!!  So he spent a good part of the time orienting the house with a compass.

The next day, I stop by the land and there is a big hole in the ground and several huge piles of dirt.  By the end of the second week, we have footings and a foundation.

Our builder sent us a note at the end of the week to tell us they will give the foundation a few days to cure and then they will be back to lay out the geo-thermal loop and backfill the foundation…

The geo-WHAT??

Up to this point, I must say I was completely ignorant about the geo-thermal loop.  Not anymore dear readers, and if you continue to the end of this post, you too will be conversant in the topic.  You will be a hit at cocktail parties, and you won't even need to wear the lamp shade on your head!!

To understand this, you need a little background on how a high performance home is built and heated.  First of all, it is super insulated.  I've attached a sketch of the insulation in just the basement.  I'll discuss more of the insulation specifics as the house is built.  Secondly, the house is sealed very well so fresh air must be constantly circulated from the exterior.  Lastly it uses a heat exchanger, actually ours will have two, to heat the incoming air using the outside temperature.  It works like your refrigerator, except that it is incredibly efficient, and you can't keep beer in it.

In the heat exchanger, the old warmer air is used to heat the new cooler air.  As much as 90% of the stale air heat is maintained during this transfer process.  So by now you are probably screaming at your computer "but what the heck is a geo-thermal loop!!"

The geo-thermal loop, my friends, is a plastic pipe that runs out of the basement at the very bottom of the foundation wall.  It loops around the house, roughly seven feet underground, and comes back in on the opposite side of the house.  Water, or eco-friendly anti-freeze is constantly pumped through it and it gives our heat exchanger a little help conditioning the outside air.  The temperature at seven feet is a fairly constant 50 degrees fahrenheit at our latitude, winter and summer.  So this gives the heat exchanger that extra boost that it needs to be even more efficient.

And here's the kicker, in the summer, you just flip a switch and the heat exchanger works in the opposite direction.  It takes the hot air out of the house and exchanges it for cooler air, again with a boost from our geo-thermal friend.

There's a few videos that explains how this works.  You can find one of them here.  Admit it, you want a geo-thermal loop now too, don't you??

Next time, I'll talk more about the progress and other cool features of our home to be.