This is the most common question I'm asked on the streets these days. My answer, of course, is: "Not yet, but we're closing in on it. I'd guess we're about two-thirds finished."
So why is our project taking longer than the average home?
Many answers to the question but, like so many folks working without a huge crew, it just takes longer. Our modern homes are complex and the ones we see pop up like pimples on teenagers' faces have huge crews. Contractors and subcontractors come out like lemmings to get the job done quickly. There are the crews for sheet rock, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, foundation, framing, cabinet work and so forth. Our project is, for the most part, being completed with only two or three skilled workers plus a bunch of unskilled helpers. Brad is our full time leader and guru. Ed and Fran fill in the cracks with part time assistance. Josh and Travis are lifting heavy loads as Brad's key workers. Plus there are others from time-to-time providing expertise, labor, advice, skill, support and friendship. But mostly the crew is small!
The complexity of our project is stunning. The solar heating and solar domestic hot water systems alone have taken a great deal of extra thinking, studying and time-consuming implementation. Brad wants our systems to be as simple as possible. Many of the solar systems being installed are very complex and intimidating for the users. In Brad's effort to achieve reliability and simplicity he, his dad, Paul, and various consultants have been madly drawing, planning and e-mailing back and forth with a million ideas and solutions.
And then there's recycling. We are not doing this the easy way by calling the building supply store and asking for a delivery. We are searching for reused materials. We are pulling nails. We are putting old recycled lumber into a usable form. We are finding old doors and sanding and repainting them. We are landscaping along the way which has included building a greenhouse entirely out of recycled materials; installing a recycled fence and growing a vegetable garden; and building a pond and stream for handling our surface water, with Brad driving the huge monster of a machine to set the rock. All of these "extras" take design and labor time.
We are building small but that does not translate into simple. Our three buildings are very complex. There are angles and structural considerations times three since we're not putting our entire 860 square feet into one building. Each building must have all the building code requirements such as whole house fan, heating, ventilation, insulation, roof with drainage, and so forth. Although each of the three buildings is small, there are still three buildings requiring design, engineering, and inspection. The systems for each building must stand along and yet all three buildings must be coordinated and linked.
The crew's individual skills are varied and complex. One moment they will be sanding wood the next driving a tractor. Then they will be cutting on the table saw, installing a roof, seating a toilet or digging a hole. It is awesome to see the skills that come to the job and that get developed along the way. In a time when it seems people can't fix a leaky toilet or change the oil in their car, it is encouraging to see the young men and women working on our project display such competence.
Would we do our home more quickly, leaving it to others? Nope. We are thoroughly enjoying our personal involvement; learning new skills; working together as a family; tackling new technology; reusing materials that would otherwise go to the landfill; and being intimately familiar with every board, tile and stone used to create our new home.
Once our buildings are completed each will appear very simple. The complexity is so carefully integrated it will be hidden from view. I can imagine the question once we're moved in, "Why did it take so long?"
We'll just grin knowingly.
ed to one another and to the foundation. More insulation will be placed on the ground and then there will be "wing walls" of insulation. All to hold the solar heat, stored in rock and sand, in the cavity. Once this system is in place, we'll be pouring the concrete floors. And then, framing can happen and the "look" will take on a new form.
, conductivity, and so on. The system, although used in the past, has not been well documented so the science is sketchy and without reliable data, very experimental. To make matters even more complex, the margins in a small, efficient house are so low that it's difficult to justify the cost. The discussions have been creative and lively, spinning around using metal instead of sand in the heat storage area (such as squashed, recycled automobiles), large stones rather than sand, phase change salts, bundles of re-bar, or water tanks. At this point, we're going back to the simplest system of using solar heated sand stored under the slab. It's been fun following the discussion with our consultants, Barry and Brad as they mix it up with their combined math, engineering, architectural and science knowledge. This whole issue must be resolved before we proceed but the resolution is close at hand. 
