My Really Green Renovation

Programs & Events

January 16^th, 2008

TRANSFORMATION

A lot has happened quickly over the winter break. The structural insulated panel (SIP) contractors worked fast and furiously right up until the day before Christmas and resumed the day after. Talk about dedication. Riverbend Timber Framing is in charge of the entire framing of the new addition including the interior. They also supply and produce the Insulspan SIPs. They are a terrific operation and I particularly love working with Dan Griffin, Riverbend’s representative. If you are considering SIPs (and you should) and you live on the East Coast, contact Dan (u-matter@timberframeservices.com). Tell him Anjali sent you. He has a cheery and calming personality and he makes sure things are perfect. You can see the extensive design engineering on the front end paid off with the quick and tight installation of the panels. Very professional and my house was framed up in a week! Unbelievable.

Because the SIPs are such an investment, I was not going to let just any contractor install them. There are some horror stories of people trying to cut corners and pay less after purchasing SIPs by getting amateurs or stick frame contractors to install them. This is an extremely bad idea. I had Riverbend install them led by Charlie Byrd who knows what he is doing. Earth Day TV filmed some of the panel installation. You can watch it on Earth Day TV, Greener Living Channel.

In fact, everyone on the MyGreenCottage team was so happy with the SIPs, that on the day the roof panels were installed, we had a little party. HGTV was there, MyGreenCottage’s charismatic producer Michael Ayala was there, along with various people interested in building with SIPs or just walking by.

We had a special guest appearance by Cerphe Colwell, 94.7 The Globe’s coolest DJ (those of you who listen in the Washington, DC area may remember him from his WHFS days). He had lots of fans on the crews and in the neighborhood. Charlie, my SIPs contractor, is a big fan and so I snapped a photo of him with Cerphe. BTW, Cerphe was instrumental in getting 94.7 the Globe to become the first green radio station. The station provides green tips throughout its broadcasts and uses wind energy to power its station and hybrid cars. Check out the Globe’s website for green ideas at www.947theglobe.com. Cerphe will also be at Earth Day on the Mall, Sunday, April 19, 2009, in Washington, DC. If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, come by and say hi to him and see the MyGreenCottage booth.

Coming up: geothermal system gets underway (check out this article on the Washington Post) and let’s finish this house . . . I am so sick of living in my temporary apartment!

Happy New Year,
Anjali Hansen

November 27^th, 2008

PUTTING HUMPTY DUMPTY BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

We have now finally completed the deconstruction of this house. There is no roof and most of the back exterior wall is gone, except for a narrow strip of brick wall. Only the chimney remains on the north side. Now we are beginning to build the house up again to make it structurally sound to support the new addition which will include a whole new third floor.

My contractors have done a fantastic job salvaging all of the brick from the walls that were taken down. We feared they would crumble and that it would be too time consuming to remove the old mortar. Luckily, almost all survived, and so we are reusing them to build up the second floor to reach a new, higher ceiling height of 9 feet (originally 8 feet). The contractor also used the salvaged bricks to build some of the porch piers, brick up the former front door entry, and create a window well for my basement fire escape window.

Since we still needed additional brick, I went to a local brick yard to find matching, new bricks. I never knew there were so many hues and varieties of bricks coming from near and far to choose from. As we all know, a major tenet of green living is to buy local, so I chose a brick style produced locally in Virginia. They are almost the same color as the existing brick which makes me think that they are probably the same variety used originally for this home, which was built in 1946. Each brick cost $.49, which was cheaper than some other brick styles, an added benefit of buying locally -- reduced transportation costs to add to the retail price.

We have now completely framed the interior of the exterior walls for load bearing support. The basement, which was completely gutted, now has a new concrete floor, plumbing and interior framing. My contractors worked hard and even in the bitter cold to get everything ready for our SIPs delivery schedule of today.

Most exciting of all, my structural insulated panels (SIPS) are delivered. The first phase of building the addition will be to lay the floor SIPs which are waiting on a truck outside my house. They will be installed on Monday. Earth Day Network will film the installation this coming week and we’ll post on Earth Day TV and link to this blog. The entire structure will be framed with SIPs before Christmas.

Hooray!
Anjali Hansen

November 13^th, 2008

WHAT A MESS!

You should see the condition of the poor brick colonial house that we started with for this renovation. It looks as if it went through several bombing air raids. The roof is gone, the interior is gutted and the brick walls are broken through. It was great for Halloween. We stuck a remote control witch in one of the upstairs windows and made her cackle when the kids came by. And we had a creepy skeleton goulish guy hanging in the front tree and put lighted pumpkins in the windows. We scared a couple of little kids when they saw the roof was off and there was a witch up there! Some people go overboard for Halloween . . . .

Seventy-five percent of the existing house is going to be gone by the time we are through. I often have to ask myself why I didn’t just take down the whole house and start over. That is what the other builders around here are doing and it does simplify things. I had to find out the hard way that there was no interior wood framing along the exterior walls, which caused a considerable delay while we hired a structural engineer to come up with a plan B and get revisions reapproved by the city building inspector. Now the strategy is to take down most of the brick walls (leaving nothing) and then rebuild those walls with 2 X 6” wood framing (which we thought would be there in the first place!). We have to have such framing to attach the new structural insulated panels to, and we also need the framing to run electrical wiring and to blow in insulation.

Nonetheless, I said it before and I’ll say it again, I feel better that at least I’m not throwing an entire house into the landfill. We salvaged 25 percent of the structure and donated lots of materials to charity. It is the mess that it is and we are working through it with lots of adjustments along the way. The extra cost of framing the existing house has eaten into my radiant floor budget. Darn.

In a couple of weeks we will be ready to bring in the SIPs and it will finally start looking like a house again. Stay tuned for the magical transformation.

Take it easy,
Anjali Hansen

October 31^st, 2008

SIPS WILL HAVE YOUR HOME SIPPING ENERGY

One of the major components of my green build is that the entire addition is going to be framed out of SIPS (structural insulated panels). The SIP system consists of solid, one-piece, pre-cut units that are ready to install as wall, floor or roof components. Each consists of a core of molded expanded polystyrene insulation with oriented strand board laminated to the top and bottom surfaces.

The SIPs create the building’s structural wall frame and replace trusses on roof systems to form an extremely energy-efficient structural “envelope.” The LEED® for Homes Rating System now grants certification credits for the use of SIPs in home construction under the category, “Material and Resource Efficiency”. Since I’m attempting gold (and preferably platinum) LEED certification, I was happy to know I could get points for them. In the next few weeks, I’ll be preparing the registration process for my LEED certification. It is quite an ordeal. More on that later . . . .

I chose Insulspan, a leading manufacturer of SIPs, because they were rated by Sustainable Industries as one of the top ten green building products of 2007. Homes that utilize SIPs are far more energy efficient and also have higher resale value because of this fact. Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed an INSULSPAN SIP structure had 90% less air leakage than an identical structure built with 2x6" walls using fiberglass insulation.

It costs a little more to build with SIPs than to frame with wood. However, in my opinion, the result is so superior in terms of insulating properties, energy efficiency, and durability, it’s worth it. The SIPs I’m using meet the requirements for natural resources conservation because it uses engineered wood.

Based on my architectural plans, the company produced shop drawings of the SIPs which I had approved by the city building inspector. I had to get the shop drawings certified by a Virginia engineer to ensure they could handle the building loads. We are currently in the process of fabricating (cutting) my SIPs. My architectural blueprints for my home are loaded into the computerized factory equipment which will manufacture my SIPs to exact specifications. In about three weeks, they will be delivered to my site as a ready-to-assemble building system. This process takes more up front design time, but you save time on the labor side.

Earth Day Network will film the process and post it on Earth Day TV which we’ll link to this blog once done so you can see for yourself how it is done. I can’t wait to see them go up (finally!).

Cheers,
Anjali Hansen

October 16^th, 2008

What we are donating and recycling to keep things out of the landfill

Despite retaining and salvaging everything I talked about in my last blog, in our green renovation there are still quite a lot of materials that we are not going to keep. I hired a deconstruction crew that works for Second Chance, Inc. out of Baltimore, MD. Their model is terrific. Second Chance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to retraining workers who are homeless or jobless. They are trained in the deconstruction of buildings and also know how to salvage historic buildings. In exchange for a tax-deductible donation they brought in a crew on three different occasions, for a total of about 6 days. They carefully removed the back screened-in porch, denailed the wood, sorted, labeled and put it aside for us to reassemble in West Virginia. They also removed the ugly little side addition and completely gutted the interior down to the exterior walls.

Second Chance, Inc. then took whatever items I didn’t want to keep that they will be able to resell in their used building supply store in Baltimore. These items included a second refrigerator, washer and dryer, laundry sink basin, furnace, air conditioning unit, ductwork and windows.

If you are interested in learning more about Second Chance, Inc., go to their website at www.secondchanceinc.org. If you decide to use them tell Mark Foster, the president, that Anjali sent you. The Second Chance crew was very nice and professional and it was an overall good experience. They were filmed for my HGTV episode and hopefully will be on the show once it airs. To find a deconstruction firm in your region, go to www.buildingreuse.org/resources. There are also lots of firms that sell second hand building supplies to keep your costs down. If you google “recycled building materials” you will find an amazing amount of directories, tips on how to reuse all kinds of materials, and lists of recycled building suppliers.

Despite reusing, donating and giving away most of the deconstructed portion of the house, there remains quite a bit of unusable materials. For that I hired a special waste management company, Environmental Alternatives, Inc., based in Maryland (telephone 301-253-0001). They bring in a typical dumpster which you throw all of your construction waste into. Once full, you call them they pick it up within 24 hours and take it to a recycling center. They recycle metals and usable materials and, once again, you divert your construction waste from the landfill. It is a great service.

Enough for now. In future blogs, I’ll let you know what green products I intend to use in my home and how we are managing our little structural issue.

Until then,
Anjali Hansen

October 9^th, 2008

What We Are Keeping

One of the greenest things you can do is use what you’ve got -- whether that be your house, car, clothes, computers, ipods, etc. In my green home renovation, I’m minimizing construction waste, since construction waste takes up landfill space and spreads toxins. There was no way I was going to let my entire house go into a landfill.

Instead, I am taking everything from the existing house and reusing it for the remodel, donating it to second hand building supply stores, or giving it to friends. The existing chimney will be salvaged and built up one more floor. I’m keeping all of the pine wood floors, kitchen cabinets (repurposed for the laundry room), and the interior solid wood doors. The front entry door will be moved and used as the new mudroom entrance door. I am trying to talk my contractor into carefully taking off the front entryway portico and putting it over the new mudroom entrance. He says it will probably fall apart in the process but I’m making him do it anyway!

The other thing I am keeping is this ugly barn-shaped red shed that was left in the backyard. I’m going to turn it into a little green clubhouse for the kids. I’ll paint it white to match the main house and reuse a couple of the existing house’s little windows and shutters. The kids are going to help. Then we’ll decorate the inside in part with some leftover white tiles that I found in the basement. We’ll paint them and put them on the wall, throw in our old Ikea table and chairs and voila, instant playhouse/art project area.

We are also deconstructing and reusing the existing porch that the previous owner built onto the back of the house. We have a farm in West Virginia with a house that needs renovating too (another project for down the road). I am going to attach the back porch from our house here in the city onto that farm house since it is a better fit. All in the name of green!

Cheers,
Anjali Hansen

September 30^th, 2008

WASTE NOT WANT NOT

Well, I have had some unexpected developments in my green home remodeling project which has delayed my second blog entry. So sorry! I had to be available for two days of filming this week for the upcoming episode we are shooting for HGTV’s new show My Big Amazing Renovation. On Saturday, as previously planned, we took the family to film on the National Mall for the lifestyle part of the show.

The second day of filming this week was unexpected. We just completed the internal deconstruction/demolition of the interior of the existing brick house (to be greener we are using as much of the existing house as possible) and were very surprised to discover that there is absolutely no internal framing. The roof and second floor trusses are resting on the exterior brick and block walls without any other support. This poses a challenge since we were planning on removing two exterior walls and using the internal framing to be part of our support system for the new roof trusses, etc. If we take down the back exterior wall as we were planning, the whole house will fall down! Of course, this was of great interest to the television producers who love to see the challenges homeowners face in their remodels. This makes for great t.v., especially if they can catch the homeowners crying.

They filmed us for half the day during which time we had four different contractors discussing options and solutions. We are still not sure yet what we will do, but it looks like we’ll either use the existing back block and brick wall and reinforce it or we’ll build a new support wall. I am proud to say I did not cry! My contractors are so great they said they would find the least expensive way to fix the problem and are already working with the city building inspector.

I have always known that using the existing structure would entail more creativity, time and money than tearing the house down and starting from scratch. This week has proven the point loud and clear. The question is how much more expensive? I still don’t know. Nonetheless, I am still glad we chose to go this route and remodel the existing home because it is far less wasteful.

More next time on things we are keeping in the renovation.

Cheers,
Anjali Hansen

September 16^th, 2008

We are starting with this typical WWII-era brick colonial

Now I know what Kermit the Frog meant when he said his famous line, “It’s not easy being green!” My story is about embarking on a VERY green renovation of an ordinary two-story 1940’s brick colonial outside of Washington, DC. But I’m not a green builder. I’m a mother of three kids with a background in international trade law and policy. When my family expanded and I needed a larger home, I really wanted one in keeping with my belief in the environment. I looked but was unable to find any green homes in the area – nor could I find any green expertise among local builders. I realized if I were going to make my dream of a green home a reality, I would have to fill in the gaps. I am pleased to report my home renovation is finally off to a successful start and I have a great team of builders and green experts that are helping me achieve my goal!

Since so many people are curious about how to do a green renovation without being a builder or architect, I decided to blog about it. I’ll give you lots of tips and resources that will help anyone – regardless of whether you’re interested in renovating, building green, or just greening up your existing home. I’ll also show you how to do it in the most affordable and beautiful way using eco-friendly, sustainable and non-toxic products. I'm really trying to minimize all waste during construction, since construction and demolition accounts for an incredible amount of landfill waste and water pollution.

Another topic I’ll cover is how I am ambitiously attempting a gold and possibly even platinum LEED home certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. No easy feat, believe me! It is one of the hardest green building certifications to attain. I think it will be worth it, so I'm going the extra mile.

Stay tuned if you want to learn how I'm doing all of the above. You can learn from both my experience and mistakes!

One of my favorite aspects of this renovation is that it led me to an enterprising and admirable new national green building company, MyGreenCottage, endorsed by Hollywood’s greenest man, Ed Begley, Jr. Together, we are teaming up to use the home as a show home and an educational tool for students, emerging green builders and anyone in the general public interested in cost savings and eco-friendly building. MyGreenCottage has stepped in with an incredible amount of expertise and enthusiasm for the project and, very importantly, is helping me source products to keep costs within my budget. MyGreenCottage and I are also going to host fundraisers at my home and other green show homes across the country. The proceeds will benefit Earth Day Network and its green schools initiative.

On a fun note, the progress of the home is also being documented for a new HGTV series that will begin airing this fall called My Big Amazing Renovation produced by High Noon Entertainment. My home renovation is featured in one of the 24 episodes and won't air until next year upon completion. Thus far it is the only green renovation being produced for that series. I'll reveal a couple of funny things about being on a home "reality" show, how we ended up on the series, and what it is like behind the scenes.

Cheers,
Anjali Hansen

To learn more about this project, visit mygreencottage.com and click on the link to the "Green Living Show Home Project" page. Inquiries regarding prospective green building and renovation projects can be sent here. Perform our Green Home Audit and we’ll direct you to the resources to make your house greener.