Entry 32: School's Back...

Hey Everyone!

I've been back at Duke and finished my first week of classes. It's a busy and happy time seeing friends and getting into the swing of things. I went to the site last week and saw some really great things that happened while I was away in Uganda (which was awesome!). Unfortunately, the photos I took were having trouble on my computer so I couldn't get them up then. I have resolved that issue and want to show you the current condition as of now.

Cabinets in the newly painted kitchen!

Some of the latest developments inside and outside have been painting the inside walls, put up interior trim, installing the Square D-Clipsal light switches, installing the kitchen and lab cabinets, building the outside decks, installing new exterior doors, solar panels and paving the sidewalks. This is an incredible amount of development in a little over 4 weeks! Everything is on schedule so that the house can open for the Board of Visitors Meeting in early November.

A dirty lab without the counter top.

Tonight, we had the Smart Home Kickoff event, which turned out the more people than we could handle. I'll be leading a tour of the home tomorrow to interested people and the list keeps growing. I'm very excited to welcome new help to the program and hope this semester will be the best one yet.

Standing on the second floor deck (solar panels in front)

I haven't yet figured out a timely schedule for blogging construction related issues, but will get back soon once everything is settled in a couple of weeks.

Until then,

-Scott (The Construction Manager)

P.S. - If you lost touch this summer and would like to read the entries or check out the new look of this blog, feel free to browse the archived entries and the picasa photo archive.

Entry 31: Blog Break for Uganda

I will be leaving for Uganda on Monday and won't be writing any new entries until the school year starts. Duke Smart Home and Engineers Without Borders are teaming up to build a resource center that will educate the locals on sustainable living and farming technologies. The center is by a group called the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development (RASD) and their website is here. I'll be deploying a solar powered system with computers and a printer for the center and hopefully an internet connection.

Members of RASD

Check out the webcam for live images of Smart Home construction.

-Scott

Entry 30: Genie Ride to the Roof

Hello summer friends,

This will be my last entry this summer because tomorrow is my last day. It's been a great summer sharing construction news and planning for my trip to Uganda. Today, I rode the cherry picker (or boom lift) called the Genie S-60 up to the white metal roof to see the green roof sections, the 5 solar hot water panels and all the extra space for student projects.


Inside the house, construction workers finished drywalling the pocket doors and the other interior doors were piled in the common space. On the way up to the second floor, I noticed the glass brick style window was installed for the secondary staircase.

Outside the home, workers are installing the back deck and front decks . The most dramatic change in my opinion is the front decks because of the large steel support beams that were being put up today. See the photo below to see how it looks.

Another focus of being up on the Genie S-60 besides checking out the solar thermal panels was to see how the green roof actually is right now. Although there is a drought in the area, it rained here in Durham yesterday! As you can see below, the plants are growing even though they are spread out and fairly sparse. Time will only tell how the green roof will develop.

Lastly, don't ever look down (like in this picture below) if you are afraid of heights when riding a cherry picker. I was strapped in a full body harness so I didn't feel in any sort of danger.

Thanks for reading my blog on the construction and keep looking on the webcam for more updates and browsing the Picasa Photo Archive for all of the photos taken since last year. The project is scheduled to finish sometime in late October and it will open up to the Board of Visitors in November. More entries will likely follow after school starts and hopefully other projects and residents will use this blog to share interesting photos and stories.

Signing out,
-Scott

Entry 29: Kickin' on the AC

Hello summer friends,

On Tuesday, I made a visit to the site to give a tour to a reporter. The first thing to show you from the outside is the Cembonit is mostly complete. See a photo of the front face below.


The deck installation is next on the agenda for the outside. The exterior doors by Anderson are scheduled to come in next Tuesday. While the weather has been excruciatingly hot and humid, the home is cooling down as one of the two AC units was up and running Tuesday.


Inside, the pocket doors were being installed in each of the 2 upstairs bedrooms. This will allow both doubles to easily open up adjoining rooms. What you see below is the cavity for the doors, which will be covered with dry-wall.


Lastly, an unexpected visitor (Sundance) came by to install the solar thermal system on the roof. I took this picture below of the backside of the 5 panels before they go up.


This is my penultimate week here at Smart Home, so check in next week for my final entry of the summer and there will likely be a long hiatus as Tom and I will be in Uganda soon working on our project in collaboration with EWB.

-Scott

Entry 28: Man on Stilts!

Hey everyone,

Yesterday, I visited the site to take some more photos for you and inside I found a couple of workers smoothing out the drywall with putty. There isn't much to show you from this visit just that the back and 2 side walls are mostly finished with Cembonit and the front side began yesterday (see below).

Check out the webcam now as new panels will be installed in real time on the front (south) face. I also found a pile of steel that will be used for the decking on the site (shown below).

Be sure to visit next week,
-Scott

P.S. - See how much cleaner the 2nd floor workspace is in comparison to the first photo of Entry 27 below.

Entry 27: Site Update

Hello all,

As you can see from above, the drywall has been hung up in most places in the home. The 2nd floor (pictured above) is a busy spot for inside work.

The slow process of installing siding will hopefully be finished soon, but the picture below shows only the back (north) face completed. The workers have had a difficult time hanging it up properly, which has resulted in numerous attempts.


The air conditioner units were installed outside the home recently. They were donated by Trane and will each work for one level of the home.

In the basement, 6 large 350 gallon tanks for rainwater were installed. 9 were originally specified, but 6 could only fit in the back room! There are 2 other larger tanks outside the house that are yet to be installed.

The air conditioner units have been installed but the system has not started up, so the house is still pretty hot.

I only have 3 more weeks left in my summer internship, and I have yet to figure out who will take over until school starts up again. Next week is an OAC meeting which will be full of new updates.

Until next week,
-Scott

Entry 26: Tour to Future Residents

Good afternoon,

This morning I met with 3 future residents of the home and a 2 interested students and gave a tour of the home. We looked around and luckily I brought along the camera to snap some shots of things going on since last week.

The first thing to see is an update on the very slow exterior siding panel by Cembonit. Only the north face is covered and not completely.
The second thing to see is the completed Icynene insulation throughout the entire house. Drywall should close it off and will begin on Monday.

The last thing is light fixtures began to be installed this morning now that the insulation is finished.
That's about it for this week, see you next week.
-Scott

Entry 25: A Rainy Summer Visit

In the sporadic rainy weather, I rode my bike over to the site to snap some photos of the latest happenings in construction. What I have to show you are the 3 biggest developments:

1) Cembonit Paneling: It's a slow process, but some more panels are up.

2) Lab Counters: Heavy duty steel frames are up in the lab spaces and bedrooms to support the counter tops that will rest on them in those rooms.

3) Icynene: The spray foam insulation has begun and is currently in the basement. It should be done by the beginning of next week. Then they can put seal off the dry wall.

That's all for now. I'll give another update next week after our OAC meeting.

Take care,
-Scott

P.S. - Always browse through the Picasa account with more photos and captions since the beginning of the project.

Entry 24: First Sign of Cembonit

Hello reader,

Yesterday, I attended the bi-weekly morning OAC meeting to discuss the issues with construction and the project. The only updates I have for you as of now is the Cembonit exterior siding started to go up yesterday. It is a long and tedious process because each board must be pre-drilled beforehand. Ray, the site supervisor, expects it to be complete in roughly 3 weeks.

The First 2 Cembonit Panels!

Baker roofing was also finishing up the soffit work for the roof by installing the white large Hardiplank panels today. Check out the photo below:

Installing Hardiplank as soffit for the roof

I ventured into the basement on a site visit today and wanted to show you the solar thermal collection tanks. Each one holds 100 gallons of hot water.

Solar Thermal Collection Tanks

I also saw in the basement the Trane CleanEffects unit that we had recommended in Entry 16 from February. There are 2 units - 1 for each heat pump and it is installed within the ducts to filter air. The only maintenance is to wipe the collection filters clean when they are dirty.

Trane CleanEffects

Next Monday, they will begin spraying the dry wall insulation, Icynene, into the walls that are open on one side.

Today, Verizon came to visit to get an update on one of the other interns here, Jack Li, who is working on a project on social communication. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but we have another intern this summer from the far away lands of Ithaca, New York (Cornell). She is working on a cheap wireless power monitoring solution.

Check out the Picasa site for some more photos (26 in total from today's visit) and I'll be sure to write again soon.

-Scott

Entry 23: Senator Burr's (Assistant) is in town

Hello blog faithful,

Today, I went to the site to help with a tour for the environmental aid to Senator Burr, one of the 2 United States Senators for North Carolina. We talked about green ways of living related to the Smart Home and how to possibly create legislation.

Also, visitors from BRAE, the company installing our rain water harvesting system came down to the site discuss with Bovis specifics on their system for the home.

In construction news, check out the Picasa account for new photos. I want to highlight a couple of things:

1. The green roof is completely installed. everything has been planted and it will take some time for it to grow in, but check out some photos of it in the archive.
2. The bio-retention garden retaining wall is being constructed in front of the home
3. The outside decks and front ramp has begun work
4. Bovis is planning the process for installing the exterior siding product, Cembonit. It should begin going up soon and I will post photos of the builders working around the house.

Until next time,
-Scott

Entry 22: Welcome to the Summer!

Hello Smart Home Community,

It's that time of the year...summer and I (Scott) will be living in Durham for the next 10 weeks posting weekly updates to the blog to keep you up in the latest information with construction of our beautiful home.

Last week was my first week and it began with a visit from our sponsor, The Home Depot. We gave a tour of the home and brainstormed ways to strengthen our relationship. I think a really great thing that you should be aware of is their launching of the campain: Eco Options. They're really trying to make home owners aware of ways to save the environment and some money by investing in "eco" rated products. We also met with representatives from Philips and the home controls company, Life-Ware. I'll give you updates on what that might pan out to be in the upcoming weeks.

If you're wondering what the house looks like at this very moment, check out the Picasa account with pics of today's site visit. Newest changes are an actual staircase in the secondary stairwell and dry wall is installed on one side of each wall so that insulation (donated by Icynene) can be filled in and before new walls go up.

Today, was my first OAC meeting of the summer and here are some of the schedule updates:

1. 1 side of the walls are up, spraying Icynene next week
2. Footing for the deck will begin soon
3. Siding installation of Cembonit will begin next week and should last roughly 3 weeks
4. Green roof installation is complete

I'll get back to you next week with photos of changes to the exterior of the house.
-Scott

Entry 21: Siding Decision Made

Exterior Siding Decision Finalized!

Hey everyone,

I've got some news from today's OAC meeting. First, here's some construction updates:

1. The white metal siding on the roof is scheduled to go up following with the plantings for the green roof by the end of the month.
2. Wall inspections will occur in a couple of weeks after rough-ins are finished. See photos on the Picasa web album from today and the visit from last week. Note: I have now added detailed captions for each photograph of today's visit to help you understand the photos.
   
3. The Storm Water Permit for the Rain Water Garden is on hold from the City of Durham, but our landscape engineer, David Swanson, is working on the issue. The flow of water ideally is as follows: water fills up in the cisterns then moves to the basement storage tanks and ultimately fills the Upper Rain Garden.

Next, the big item that has been on many minds is what color/material will the exterior of the house be? It has been a big issue that has brought about great discussion at OAC and Friday meetings with Pratt. The final decision occurred today and it was largely based on product availability and the fact it is a fairly neutral color choice.

Here is what the house originally looks like from the main website and initial artistic rendering:

Here is what the house would have looked like in the color (Okker) had everyone agreed on it:

Here's what has been decided, the color Flint, by Cembonit (see colors by clicking link):


I want to thank Patty Boyle from Smith Group for making these renderings available. In my opinion, flint is a dark gray that looks nice and it is available immediately. The manufacturer, Cembonit, makes this fiber cement composite material that is through-color (if you chip it, the same color shows throughout the material) and a rainscreen. It comes in large panels and will require no maintenance once installed.

The house will have a modern look with this exterior siding and we think it is a good choice given the time constraints of the project. That's all the updates for now. This Friday, I will be attending a Interior Finishes Meeting at the Smith Groups site to go over basically every thing to that nature such flooring materials, side paneling, cabinetry, etc.

Take care and best of luck on your upcoming final presentations,
-Scott S. from the Construction Team

Entry 20: Regular OAC Meeting

Hey everyone,

Today's OAC meeting has left me with some updates that I'd like to share with you. First off, the highly anticipated HVAC equipment will be coming in this week, which will bring back construction including the rough-ins such as plumbing and electrical. This means that things will start to be exciting from a physical perspective, but people have been busy behind-the-scenes. Right now, we are currently working on finalizing a siding material for the outside envelope of the building. I believe that will be decided asap and once that happens, I'll unleash an artistic rendering of the home with that new color! Secondly, work needs to be done on the control system and the lighting fixture and controls must be approved. We are in the process of finalizing the kitchen appliances selection. I am involved in that area with the architects from Smith Group. Also, plenty of finalizing must be done such as the cabinetry requirements, interior paneling, and floor materials/colors. As things become finalized, I'll be sure to let you know what has been picked and for what reason.

As for now, enjoy the beautiful spring weather and check the Picassa acount after Thurs., March 29th because I will be making a site visit and will post new photos.

-Scott

Entry 19: 6 Items

Hey everyone,

The blog has been patiently at rest for a couple of weeks due to not much physical changes in construction. I thought though to share a couple of neat things going on discussed from the OAC meeting before Spring Break and a few visits from corporations.

1. Photos of the roof taken by me and by the site superintendent, Ray, are up on the Picasa account. Baker Roofing has set up the basic components of the American Hydrotech green roof system. Check out photos of the crew putting down the various layers involved.
2. We discussed at last week's OAC meeting the light situation, particularly in the Media room and outside path and spot lighting. Over spring break, there will be a product overview session from Clipsal Lighting, which unfortunately I will be unable to attend. There will be an owner training session later on, so it isn't a big deal (Plus, Tom Rose will be representing the students over break).
3. Wed. 3/7, there was a demonstration meeting to discuss upgrading the house lock's and experimenting with different technology such as biometric verification (fingerprint and hand readers) and electronic keypad locks by Ingersoll Rand's product line called Schlage. At the meeting, I was very impressed with the attendees: important representatives from DUPD, the Duke Card Office, Industry Relations, Ingeroll Rand, and the head of Duke locks. We saw various products, both residential and commercial that would be interesting to incorporate withing the home. It was a great opportunity to sit down and discuss these things, as well as share ideas and learn about the technology/terminology.
4. Thur. 3/8, was a Verizon visit day for Duke Smart Home. Representatives from many aspects of the company met for the day to discuss future collaboration with the company. Those who came were from Mass Market Innovation, Retail Services Technology, New Services, Customer Experience, and Broadband Solutions. We look forward to working with them on some undetermined project in the future.
5. BP anounced they will be donating 5 more solar panels to the home (from 13 to 18) making about 20% power for the home. This will give us 3 renewable energy LEED credit points!
6. Spring break went smoothly and the next OAC meeting is Tues. 3/27, so more updates should follow then.

Entry 18: Wrapping, Windows, and Green Roof

Hello friends,

This week has been in my opinion the fastest week of changes for the house. Just last Friday, the house was wrapped in the waterproofing material Tyvek. Also, the Anderson windows arrived and have been installed during the week. At the end of the week, the green roof installation donated by American Hydrotech should commence.

Photo of the outside wrapped in Tyvek.

In some behind-the-scenes news, the bi-weekly OAC meeting took place Tuesday morning and we accomplished a great deal of tasks. At the moment, there were 3 major sections of the agenda concerning the project status: HVAC, exterior siding, and metal roof color selection. The first is a redesigning of the HVAC system ductwork for two heat pump units and the Train CleanEffects air purification system (see the Entry 16). This is in the works and I will give an update, when I hear back.

Inside view of the first floor (note temporary stairs).

The exterior siding selection was a very interesting point of the OAC meeting. Patty Boyle, architect from the Smith Group, brought in samples, photographs, and descriptions of 9 different products to discuss. Patty had compared them ahead of time and graded each product based on the following categories: cost of material, time to get the product, installation, any maintenance required LEED/Environment, and a change to the aesthetics from the current design. We have ruled out 5 of the products and ranked the others in order of preference mostly based on cost and color selection and we should hopefully decide by the end of the week. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, when we have picked out a siding product, I will describe it to the best of my ability.

New construction sign with Jordan.

The metal roof color selection was probably the easiest decision from the OAC meeting. Due to uncertainties in the color selection, we had to decide upon a color that would go well with most. White was the unanimous color of choice because it is has a clean look, is very energy efficient by cooling the house due to reflection of sunlight and would be a nice accent to match with the white windows. In any case, most of the roof space is green roofing and some solar panels.

Second floor atrium view of windows and secondary staircase.

On Thursday afternoon, a couple of us walked through the house and inspected the rooms. We noticed that the windows are so large that they begin at floor level. The nicest bedrooms in the house were the two back ones on the second floor because the roof is at such a steep angle that it creates almost another story of space. This made those two rooms feel larger and more open than the others.

One of the second floor back bedrooms!

That's all for now. Be sure to check out the new web-album link on the right hand panel for up-to-date photos from our weekly visits.

-The Construction Team

Entry 17: Picasa Web-Album to Host Archived Photos

Hey friends,

I've just created an account with Google's photo software, Picasa, to host all construction photos since our team's first visit to the site. The link for the website is on the right hand side. Feel free to browse through hundreds of photos at your own leisure.

Enjoy!

-Scott

Entry 16: Trane CleanEffects

Hello Reader,

During the past week, the construction site has been fairly quiet. However, there has been quite a bit of behind-the-scenes action. First, we have a schedule update:

1. The frame has been completed, ahead of schedule, but the house still needs to be waterproofed.
2. Windows are expected to arrive on Thursday from Anderson.
3. Utilities will be installed next month.
4. The in-wall inspection is scheduled to occur in mid-April.

From last Tuesday's OAC meeting, we anticipate an excess amount of lumber, mulch, and other construction materials. Therefore, we have contacted a representative from Duke's Habitat for Humanity chapter to discuss a donation if the opportunity becomes available.

Due to the removal of the skylights from the building plans, there is now an open space available on the roof. A member of Bovis Lend Lease mentioned the potential for Smart Home students to use the space for experimentation. For example, students have used the roof of Pratt's Hudson Hall to test their recently developed solar tracking unit and the patent-pending "solar-thermal hybrid system." In order to gain access to the roof, we needed to consult the building plans. Ultimately it was decided that we want to place a removable ladder on the second-floor patio from the unique section that extends perpendicularly out from the house. See the photo below.

Potential location for removable ladder to roof.

Last Friday, a meeting was held to discuss our LEED status, in which we assigned responsibility for each section of the LEED certification. At this time, we are targeting the Silver level. See entry 6 from September 7th, 2006 for more information on LEED.

Finally, Scott Harvey, a member of the construction team, conducted research on a new sophisticated air purification system called CleanEffects by Trane. For more information, you can visit the following website by clicking on the link of "CleanEffects."

Trane CleanEffects Unit

We are currently redesigning the HVAC system to accommodate two heating units. Based on our findings, we recommend that CleanEffects be incorporated into this new design because it had great reviews by users and that it cleans air extremely well in residential homes.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading this week's entry, and be sure to check back next week with more updates and some great new photos of (hopefully) windows in the house!

- The Construction Team

Entry 15: A Roof Installed

Hello reader,

We've made two visits to the site this week and surprisingly a great deal of changes have taken place. Last time we wrote, the first floor had been framed. Since then, the second floor has been framed, the roof was put up on Thursday, and the cement wall for the basement was waterproofed and the ground surrounding it was filled in.

One comment that we've felt from physically standing on the site is the shear size of the house. It feels like the house stands high up from its surroundings. The 2nd story seems like it sits well above the Freeman Center (and we can't wait until the upstairs deck is completed so we can enjoy the view).

Here are some photos from the week. Be sure to click on them for an enlarged viewing. Also, there has been a live webcam set-up on the site that is updated every 20 seconds ( see "Smart Home Links" on the right hand panel).

Waterproofing the basement wall.

Crane putting up the roof trusses.

View from corner of Faber and Powe.

Entry 14: After Winter Break

Welcome back to Duke!

As you can see from the blog prior to this one, the construction has been flying through the winter break. I've also decided to change up the layout a bit and recolor the site. Some noticeable improvements are a new chronological directory of posts on the upper right hand corner (the blog is getting long) and I put up some links to the Mainpage and Wiki.

Returning back to business, according to Ray Pruitt, site supervisor for Bovis Lend Lease, we are right on schedule. The recent changes have been flooring and walls put up for the 1st floor. Ray took Jordan and me around the first floor and into the basement. There are plenty of cool pictures below from the trip (remember to click to enlarge the photos), but for some reason, the camera refused to take shots in the basement. From my point of view, it was cool and damp while the rooms are quite large (bigger than I had imagined).

Classes begin tomorrow so I want to wish everyone a great spring semester and be sure to check out the blog for future entries keeping you posted on the construction of our future home!

Take care,
-Scott

View from the front left corner of the house.

View from the front right corner of the house.

Ray walking into the house from the side.

View entering from the left side of the house.

View from the front right corner face of the house.

Temporary stairs to the basement (the real one going down will be on the other side).

More framing material.