Archive for the 'Building Materials' Category
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Admittedly my last few posts have been long in promise and short on details. You see, there’ve been a lot of big happenings behind the scenes at Live/Work and between these developments and running Kinesis, updating the blog has taken the back burner. BUT, don’t despair…we’re making important changes, all centered around the theme of [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Green Building, Suppliers | Comments Off
Monday, January 19th, 2009
I’d like to send a quick shout-out to the Massachusetts Super Insulation Project. These guys are going all-out to make their home as energy-efficient as possible. Kudos!
Posted in Building Materials, Glossary | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
One of the “issues” we have in the pacific northwest is water intrusion. I recently removed some drywall in my home to reveal dry rot and mildew. The replacement window (installed sometime in the 80s, I’m guessing) had leaked. Fine Homebuilding has a good article on “best practices” for installing a replacement window. Since I’ll [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Glossary | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 26th, 2008
Found this very interesting product this afternoon – 100% recycled brick pavers made from shredded tires and plastic bottles – Made by Vast. Seems like a great alternative to poured concrete or traditional brick. I’ll look into pricing to see what it might cost. One of the most exciting features of this product is that [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Glossary, Green Building, Landscaping, Suppliers | Comments Off
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Well, we’ve officially moved into the painful, “lose the frills” phase of the project. Because the cost of the project exceeds our lender requirements, we’ve started hacking and slashing to cut costs. A big portion of these costs? Windows. Here’s how the math works out: Removing 8 windows saves us a total of $2400 in [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Financial | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Well, to placate the city, we’ve removed our glass roll-up door. While a bit of a hit for the design, there are some functional benefits. Namely: Standard French doors are more energy efficient It would be easier to convert the lower level to a living space at some point in the future. It will help [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Good Design Ideas, Shop | Comments Off
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
Check out what can happen when you’re committed to good design on a realistic budget ($51 per square foot!): As part of my never-ending quest to find affordable housing options, I stumbled across this interesting article in the New York Times. Here’s a brief excerpt: Mr. Flueckiger chose to build with industrial materials in homage [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Financial, Good Design Ideas | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
* Please Note: Live/Work has moved! We’re now located at Portland Built. Please click here to see what it’s all about!* Here’s a great guide to designing a rainscreen system. Kudos to the guys at Build Blog for assembling the info!
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Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
I’ve always been a fan of Marmoleum. Not only is it a “green” material, but it’s incredibly durable and forgiving. We’ve got two dogs, and with our wet Portland winters, it makes a great buffer between our living space and the outdoors. Here’s a couple of neat options I just found on the web…can’t recall [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Glossary, Green Building | Comments Off
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
* Please Note: Live/Work has moved! We’re now located at Portland Built. Please click here to see what it’s all about!* I’ve been working with a new builder to develop a more accurate budget for the ADU project. One element of the design that accounts for a HUGE percentage of the overall cost is the [...]
Posted in Building Materials, Design Plans, Financial, Green Building | 3 Comments »