Green Home

2009-08-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year: While I wish we had some visuals of the big completion, I don't. I think I just got too pooped with the big wrap up, the move and the baby on the way.

My mom moved in with us on January 13th and on January 22nd our second little boy, Marciano, was born. While designing and building our home was very exciting and something wonderful we were able to share with Gianluca, it was at times stressful. We know it wouldn't have been possible without God watching over us and help from our family. Thank you!

2009-08-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

Week of December 12, 2007: It seems like it's all coming together. We are moving into the house in three days. We've been cleaning like crazy and I've been trying to pack up the stuff that we used since May-clothes, food and toys...

We got the ducts cleaned. The guys basically hook up a big vacumn to the duct, and close off all the vents. A big swirly brush goes zipping along inside and voila!

The glass railings are installed on the December 22nd just in time for Christamas Eve dinner and Santa's arrival.

2009-08-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

Week of November 26, 2007: The stair has arrived! It's actually good that the stair didn't come. The paint would have been chipped and stratched within a day if all the contractors had been able to use it. And yes, the stair is green.

2009-08-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Week of Noverber 12, 2007: Appliances show up and luckily there is still a crane on site-because we don't have any stairs yet! All travel is up and down the ladders.

The delivery guys use these interesting straps that they attach to their shoulders and put under the heavy appliances like the fridge and like magic they can lift heavy things relatively easily.

The porcelain tile is being installed around the tubs and shower. It's a beautiful new design that comes in different patterns that resembles things like fabric and wood.

2009-03-07T03:29:00.001-08:00

Week of November 5, 2007: We're progressing on installing the kitchen and bathroom cabinets (no they're not blue, that's just the protective coating.

I'm still helping, this time painting the walls (w/ low v.o.c. paint). Thank God we didn't have to paint the ceilings!

As part of the awareness campaign associated with building a leed home is teaching the public. These signs along our property line were a great non-invasive way to generate interest and start the conversation about what we were building.

2009-03-07T02:58:00.000-08:00

Week of October 15, 2007: The roof top units have arrived and are being installed.

Since we won't have a crane or boom on site anymore and the weather will be getting colder soon, we get the concrete carport and driveway installed on a nice sunny morning.

Inside, we're heading down the finish line but there is still plenty of work to be done. Painting, cabinet installation, plumbing fixtures, bathroom tiles, lighting...

In my anxious state, I now turn to helping with the painting. The contractors have taped, sanded and primed. I jsut need to "dust" the walls and paint. We used a low voc paint and even to my hypersensitive state of smell right now, it was barely noticeable. My only problem with painting was getting up the ladder or scaffolding to the second floor because the stairs were still not installed.

2009-03-06T06:06:00.000-08:00

Week of October 7, 2007: We're almost 2 months away from move-in day which means about 3 months from Baby Peluso's arrival. About a month or so ago I ordered all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets from Ikea. Seeing as how Alphonso put me off limits to helping with siding - or anything else strenuous, I decided I would put all the cabinets together myself. Besides, there is still Gianluca I need to take care of during the day. So, Nana does her share of taking Gianluca for the day while I work in the Pheasant House driveway next door assembling cabinets. As anyone knows about assembling Ikea pieces, it's relatively easy. Throw a bulging belly between you and the cabinet.... and it's not so easy.

The rest of the household has gone a little crazy. Renzo still has a feeding tube in his neck and refuses to eat on his own. Sandy decided she wants to learn how to drive, Alphonso feels the need to put his leg in a hole and Gianluca just can't take it anymore!

But to be quite honest, I can't take it either. Living in the Pheasant House is not all the glamour it seems to be. The week before we moved in, I had visions of ripping out the original shag carpet and putting something new and inexpensive in. A fresh coat of paint in the rooms we would occupy, lovely evenings entertaining in the Family Room with the fireplace, backyard bar-be-ques..... HA!

In order to save money and the environment, we lived with plywood subflooring as our finished floor. (We could not find a company to recycle the Pheasant House shag carpet before we moved in so it ended up in the garbage. What would we do with new carpeting after we move out in seven months and start to remodel the Pheasant House? ) There's a reason you install sealed wood. The plywood would get so filthy and uncleanable! When you got out of bed, you'd better have your shoes right there - no slippers in this house! That concept was very hard for Gianluca to grasp. When we lived at the condo, I'd go nuts if anyone walked in the house with shoes on. Now I would scream if he walked in the house without shoes on! And not until you really live in a house do you notice where the previous owner's grime really built up. Which is why we lived out of our cardboard boxes for seven months instead of unpacking-except for the food. It doesn't make matters better when you're pregnant and every scent or odor makes you want to vomit.

While I'm ranting, the only other thing that threw me over the edge was the fact that the baby was on the way and the house was not ready. With only a month between move-in day and baby's arrival, the panic attacks started coming and I convinced myself I would go into premature labor, have the baby, and not have one article of clothing to bring the baby home in, let alone a carseat or bassinet. ( I had all of Gianluca's baby items stored at my mom's house since the condo went on the market.)
So at 6 months, I ran out to the store and bought a few outfits and a bag of diapers and kept them nearby.

Now that that is off my chest, I will move on.

2009-03-01T03:27:00.000-08:00

Week of October 1, 2007: A lot has been started. The cedar siding is continuing to go up. Windows have arrived and are being installed. All the windows are Pella's Impervia windows which are made of a fiberglass composite. They're quite heavy and it takes a good four guys to carry them. Deliveries still need to be made to the second floor so one window will remain off until all the big items are inside.

Alphonso continues to plug away with the sidingwhich at times seams never-ending. From certain angles of light, the stainless steel channels glimmer and look beautiful.

Alphonso has one of his classes make a site visit. (He teaches both at Columbia College and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).) The tour coincides with the contractors installing the blown-in cellulose insulation (recycled newsprint) in the interior walls. Unlike the foam insulation in the exterior walls, the contractors shave the wall while installing this insulation.

Inside, wood framing at the jambs are being installed in preparation for the steel door jambs. We are using a product that will blend the gypsum wall seamlessley into the door jamb. This eliminates the need for door trim later.

2009-02-28T03:12:00.000-08:00

Week of September 11, 2007: Now we're really getting into all the prep work for the cedar siding. Alphonso does a mockup on the front of the house. It turns out to be quite labor intensive. As mentioned before, there are wood furring strips every 18"o.c. that line up with the metal studs that are behind the rigid insulation. In lieu of the wood furring strips every 6' o.c., there are stainless steel hat channels. These will line up with the punched opening windows. So a few things to keep in mind: All the furring strips, hat channels and wood siding need to be pre drilled. The screws attaching the wood furring strips also needed to be layed out so they don't interfere with the exposed screws holding the cedar siding. (I think we ordered 2000 stainless steel screws.) Jigs become your best friend and then you get as many people to help as you can. Papa (Alphonso's dad) is a never absent volunteer who brings Dunkin Donuts for Gianluca and Sandy. He keeps his conversations short while working and plows away whenever he stops by. He becomes invaluable as Alphonso's go-to guy for some hiccups along the way.

Meanwhile, the spray-in insulation is being installed in the exterior walls. Once all the exterior walls are filled, the contractor comes back with a huge scraper and slices off the excess so the insulation will be flush with the face of the metal studs.

2009-02-21T03:50:00.000-08:00

Week of Septmber 4, 2007: Summer's over and it's Gianluca's first day of Preschool at the Bloomingdale Park District.

The roof materials have arrived and the white TPO (thermo plastic polyolefin) membrane has started to go on.

Inside, the spiral duct work is being installed. We will have radiant floor heating but we need the ducts for the air conditioning which we intend to use only occasionally. As with the concrete floor, many contractors are not used to having their product be a finished product; concrete usually gets a finished floor over it; ducts are usually hidden in the ceiling. Fortunatley, we have a good team that understands, "what you see is what you get". There is not a lot of redundancy in using additional finish materials to cover up the bones of the house.

Back outside, the furring strips are being put on the back of the house. All of these furring strips are located in line with the metal studs 18" o.c. The furring strips will allow the cedar siding to have an air space behind it reducing the chance of rot or mold.

The fireplace has arrived and is being installed. It is a completely sealed unit so that when it is in use, no air will escape from inside the home.

And the tubs have arrived...

2009-02-20T05:56:00.000-08:00

Week of August 20, 2007: Alphonso explains the value of board insulation to Gianluca. The exterior wall will consist of the rigid insulation on the exterior side of the metal studs, house wrap, wood furring strips and then the cedar siding. There will also be vertical stainless steel channels every 6' feet that work with the design module and frame the windows.

Inside, there will be open cell foam insulation between the studs and then drywall. Select interior walls will have recycled newsprint insulation between the studs for sound insulation.

The factory stained cedar siding and furring strips have arrived.

Window flashing and first floor windows start going in.

The plumbing work in the Master Bath continues.

2009-02-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

Week of August 13, 2007: The second floor exterior wall stud framing has started. What a cool view. Too bad we couldn't just leave the house like this.

Gianluca takes a break from working construction for a photo with Mom, who's now 4 months pregnant. We're definitely working under a deadline now!

2009-02-18T03:22:00.000-08:00

Week of August 6, 2007: We start laying the conduit, plumbing and duct penetration locations in the second floor. The steel mesh has arrived and is being installed in preparation for the concrete to be poured.

Then the radiant heating floor tubes get installed.

...And finally the concrete.

2009-02-15T05:19:00.000-08:00

Week of July, 22, 2007: The second floor steel deck goes up. Being on the reflective steel deck in the middle of summer feels like an ant might feel under a magnifying glass of some evil 5 year old... Carlo Battaglia of Battaglia Homes, Inc (shown in pic.) stops by to chat and helps lay out the walls on the second floor in the 100 degree heat. Although he builds traditional custom homes in Hindsdale, his expertise is something you don't want to turn away.

Then the roof steel steel starts to go up...

Gianluca in his usual "construction gear". Flipflops and socks.

And the first floor metal stud framing... This will be the playroom/office/exercise room. The opening in the ceiling is where the stair will eventually go.

2009-02-15T04:42:00.000-08:00

Week of July 15, 2007: Alphonso works late into (just about every) night working out details as needed, making orders, working with the bank....

Gianluca on the other hand takes a break at the Children's Museum at Navy Pier. http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/

We've gotten an early addition to our family, Sandy, the Golden Retriever. She was Alphonso's Grandma's puppy before she passed away. Given that the dog had to stay in the family, my Father-in-Law, Al held onto her. Since we were now going to have a house with a yard instead of a two-bedroom condo in the city, we were going to keep her. We figure, why not get the party started early? She can come live with us at the "Pheasant House" until our "Steel and Glass House" is done. This way Sandy can spend 14 hours a day outside being the site watchdog. (She watches for fallen donuts, bagels, sub sandwiches, fries, popsicles...)

And then that brings us to our cat, Renzo. He has decided he will go on a hunger strike again. He refuses to eat anything more than once and it's only one bite...and then he throws up that one bite. He did this a few years back and we had to have a feeding tube installed in his neck. The chances of having a cat that needs a feeding tube again is slim to none. Unfortunately we got the cat with those slim to none chances. I brought him back to Dr. B at http://www.burnhamparkvet.com/. He saved his life once and we needed it again. So the tube went in. I fed and watered him through the tube and gave him pills through the tube. Then it's just a wait and see game. We waited for about 3 1/2 months before he decided he would eat on his own again.

I, on the other hand have no problem eating. Even though I'm nauseous, I love food.

2009-02-15T04:10:00.000-08:00

Week of July 1, 2007: The second floor steel beams are going up. The large trees make it pretty hard for the erectors to get the beams to the site, but they manage to do it... with relatively few branch casualties.

What you see is what you get. This is the second floor perimeter beam and column connection that will be left exposed on the exterior. The holes in the column with no bolts will be for the cantilevered deck.

2009-02-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

Week of June 25, 2007: Alot of time has gone by but the 6 steel columns that hold up the entire house are finally ready for erection. One of our main ideas for this house is to use less resources for the construction of the house and to generate less waste during the construction process. By using steel columns and beams as the structure, all steel waste during the fabrication was able to be recycled by the fabricators at their shop rather than being thrown in an on site dumpster and eventually landfill as is normally done when traditional wood framing is used.

The house is based on a 30' structural grid and 6' design grid. This also translated into our metal stud wall framing being 18" o.c. (which works with a 6' grid) rather than 16" o.c. Following the module from 30' down to 18" also helped to reduce the materials used as well as decrease the construction waste as we'll see later.

These is a view from the street. Yes, the columns are there but so are the trees...

2009-02-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

Week of April 29, 2007: Fortunately, I recently earned my Real Estate Brokers License and was able to list our condo on the mls. Although the market was slowing, we had our first showing the next day. We closed on the sale of our condo within 2 months of listing it and moved into the "Pheasant House" next door over Memorial Day weekend.

It was exhausting but very exciting. I was born and raised in the city so it was going to take awhile to get adjusted to the quietness. It also turns out that the move was so exhausting because I was pregnant with our second child! (Although I didn't know it.)

This is one of Gianluca's last days at the condo.

2009-02-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

Week of April 15, 2007: The slab on grade has just been poured and the contractors are tooling the joints. As part of our concept to minimize the material resources used to build our house, this concrete will be our finished floor. Getting the subs to realize this takes quite a bit of effort. They are used to dropping tools, eating their lunches and leaving full coffee cups/ pop/ gatorade on the slab. Once the slab is sealed, I won't be so worried about stains.

Gianluca and I will spend the next week or so going out to the site to water the slab. Try explaining to a three year old why I'm watering concrete and not the grass.

2009-02-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

Week of April 1, 2007: The 1,750 gallon underground storage tank arrives via FedEx. It will be connected to our roof drains to collect the water that lands on the roof. We will use it for washing our cars and for landscaping needs.

Meanwhile the underslab plumbing continues.

Later in the week, the underslab peagravel, vapor barrier and rigid insulation are installed.

The inslab radiant heating tubes are then laid out and the stub-ups are left in the soon-to-be mechanical room. Unfortunately, even though it's almost the middle of April, we get a light dusting of snow!

2009-01-31T04:18:00.000-08:00

Week of March 26, 2007: Alphonso and I come up with the brillant idea to sell our northwest side condo and move into the "The Pheasant House" so his commute won't be so long in the mornings when he has to meet the subs at 6 am. We "stage" our condo for sale and put it on the market. Meanwhile Alphonso and Gianluca practice their boxing "guard" position.

2009-01-31T04:06:00.000-08:00

Week of March 19, 2007: Backfilling around foundation wall done. Alphonso and I locate where the interior first floor plumbing walls will be so the plumbers can lay in their pipes.

Underslab plumbing walls:

2009-01-30T03:52:00.000-08:00

Week of March 5, 2007: Things are moving quickly. The excavation has been done, the footings and foundation walls have been poured, and the formwork is ready to come off soon.

2009-01-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

March 1, 2007: We've spent many weekends since purchasing the property coming out to the site to study how our home would be orientated on the property.

Given that the site is a corner lot, it is somewhat triangular and of course filled with trees. We wanted to take advantage of the sun for its heating benefits in the winter but also wanted to avoid the direct sun in the summer. We wanted to use the trees as a natural shading element. Removing as few trees as possible was high on our list of priorities. The least amount of land that we disturbed, the better. There's nothing worse than destroying all your grass during construction just to have to install new sod (or seed) when your done.

Once we finally figured out where the house was going to sit, we staked it out. The sub contractors were given a 5 foot offset around the footprint of the house to work in. (As construction progressed, the 5 feet grew but we still tried to keep it to a minimum.) Then the silt fence went up, the one evergreen tree and brush were tagged for removal by a landscaper, our drawings were submitted to the Village awaiting our Building Permit, we were getting pricing on materials and shop drawings for the steel were being started.

We couldn't wait to get started even though the weather was not quite ready for us to start digging a hole. One weekend we were out at the site and Alphonso decided he would get started on removing some of the brush. With no tools with us and wearing a suede coat, he used a hacksaw to cut a small tree down and took about 2 hours. Needless to say my two year old son and I couldn' t have been more bored. Five minutes later the landscaper shows up with his chainsaw and equipment and is done in about an hour-with everything.

LEED Home Marks One Year Anniversary

2009-01-23T07:22:00.000-08:00

We have now been living in our home for one year. It earned the distinction of being "Illinois' First LEED Detached Single Family Home" in May of 2007. We still get a lot of questions about the house so maybe this can answer some of them. If there are still more questions anyone may have, feel free to ask.

Both I and my husband are architects and what better fun can an architect have than getting to design and build their own modern custom home! It was a long time from finding the right lot up to move-in day but well worth it. There have been pros and cons and I'll let you know about those too.

Back in the middle of 2006 we were lucky enough to find a half-acre lot for sale in Bloomingdale. http://www.villageofbloomingdale.org/ (Actually a pretty savvy Realtor called us and let us know about it.) It was undeveloped land with roughly 25 mature trees on it ranging from ash, honey locusts, maple and a variety of evergreens. Even though it was undeveloped land it was in an established suburban setting within walking distance to a multitude of amenities-a park, school, shopping, dining, etc.

One caveat to buying the property was that we had to buy the adjoining 1 acre lot. That lot had a home on it that was built in 1974 with all the original finishes still in place. (If you love flocked wallpaper, mirrored walls, multi colored shag carpeting, orange counter tops-think Brady Bunch, then you would have loved it.) It was (and still is) a great home with good bones that just needed a face lift. We affectionately named that house "The Pheasant House". There willbe more about that later.

We went in with the plan that we would design and build a new LEED home for us on the half-acre lot and do a LEED renovation/addition of the existing house on the one-acre lot and then sell it.

The only thing that made us nervous about the purchase was the fear that the Village would not let us build our home with the design we wanted-a modern home with a flat roof. Prior to finding this lot we had been looking for a piece of land (within our price range-and specific requirements like not next to the highway, no well and septic, walking distance to amenities...) for about a year. Then we stumbled upon a lot in a neighboring town that met our requirements and were soon under contract. Luckily, we went to the Village and the seller (who happened to live next door) to let them know about our plans for doing a green home and showed them renderings of our proposed design. Who knew flat roofs could cause such a commotion! After months of discussions, the Village was not about to grant a variance for our flat roof and the seller decided to not sell the property. What a God send we never made it to that closing table! So when this property in Bloomingdale dropped out of heaven, we knew this was where we wanted to build our home and raise our family.