There’s been a big push during the last week to get the roof finished so we’re ready for colder days ahead. Jeff, JR and Troy have hustled to get house framing done, breezeway trusses up, roof sheeting on and covered, and facia boards in place. Late Monday they nailed a product called Cor-A-Vent to carefully fitted […]
Blog
Weekend traffic
We expected a quiet weekend on the building site, cleaning and moving stuff to make it easier for Jeff and crew to get their work done. We did that, but though it started out gray, it turned out to being a sunny, social weekend, too.
We arrived early Saturday to meet Chad from […]
A community of doers
As Wisconsin Technical College (WTC) officials prepared to break ground for La Crosse, Wisconsin’s first Passive House on October 3, a squirrel scolded onlookers and ran from a tree shedding first leaves into the wet street. In this established neighborhood of modest homes the scene was quiet, but expectant. Onlookers who’d wandered from jobs and […]
From 2000 feet…
It was a perfect autumn afternoon to take flight—and so we did! The result was a birds-eye view of how the construction looks from afar.
We departed the La Crosse Regional Airport around 4:30, making our way west from the Mississippi River through the Root River Valley toward Lanesboro. Friends Drake and Carol […]
Recycling our water
Recycling plastics, aluminum, newspaper and more is top-of-mind for most of us; recycling our water is not something we typically think about. But when you stop to realize that there exists a finite amount of water and we’re constantly consuming it, washing with it, and flushing it down our toilets, only to be used again […]
House second floor takes shape
When I arrived yesterday afternoon, all but three house roof trusses were in place. I walked inside the first floor and all the way around outside, then climbed the ladder to the second floor, feeling the spaces. I saw in 3D what I’d seen on paper so often and felt the height of ceilings, the […]
Steady work and a new season
The season has turned, bringing cool evenings, warm days, and darker mornings. We stopped to talk with Jeff, JR, Troy and Tom this morning and it was strange to see them in coats and gloves after so many blistering hot days on this job. A soft mist hung over the meadow where the house stands.
The weeks until the […]
Framing, upward and onward
We’re really quite pleased with how the house is taking shape. This past week ended with much of the second floor roughed in and the first of the roof trusses being put in place.
From ‘inside’ the house, we’re increasingly getting a feel for the rooms, their sizes, and their window views; it was particularly […]
The second floor rises
“By the end of this week our house walk-through will be a little less imaginary…” Nancy closed her post a week ago with that line—and she was right! By the time the weekend rolled around a good share of the first floor was framed and floor boards for part of the second […]
Serious framing
Framing this house isn’t a quick job. It’s a puzzle with two layers: the exterior frame (going up now) and the interior frame, or Larsen truss, that will follow after insulation, vapor barriers and plywood are layered in to form the first floor. At the site yesterday it was clear to me that all […]
Lanesboro, Minnesota
Climate Zone 6 (cold/moist)
Latitude: 43° 44' 18'' N
Longitude: 91° 54' 48'' W
Net Treated Floor Area: 1,514 SF
Gross Square Footage (House only): 2,210 SF
Roof: R-99
Wall: R-61
Ground: R-53
Glazing: U-0.10 BTU / hour / sq. ft.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC): 0.48”
Frame: U-0.19 BTU / hour / sq. ft.
Specific Primary Energy Demand (Source Energy Demand): 12.1 kBTU / sq. ft. / year
Specific Space Heat Demand: 7.0 kBTU/sq. ft. / year
Peak Heating Load: 7,047 BTU / hour
Space Cooling Demand: 0.44 kBTU / sq. ft. / year
Peak Cooling Load: 3,625 BTU / hour
Pressure Test Goal: Whole House Air Changes Per Hour (ACH) = 0.4 ACH 50