SIPs House Portland

An update for the new year

With 2009 coming to a close we needed to decide what 2010 had in store for the SIPs house.  With funds tightening (both our funds and funds available from banks), we decided to pull the house off the market and our financing partner is moving into it.  I’ll follow with an update after they get a chance to settle in and get a feel for the house.

In the mean time, John Chilson from Builder News magazine put together a video of the house featuring Seed Architecture Studio principal Darin Dougherty.  The video footage was taken a month or so prior to the final completion of the house.

A big thank you to everyone who participated in the project and happy 2010!

We’re done, we’re done!!

Well, we’re finally done with the house.  We Past our final inspection, but we’re still pending our LEED status.  I thought it would be nice to post some recent images.  Unfortunately, we had to pull the house off the market due to the state of the economy and the ability for our developing partner to carry the finances.  Fortunately, the developing partner is moving into the house.  It’ll be very exciting to have someone close to the project move into the house and ‘tune’ it the way it was meant to be tuned.  Speaking of tuning, I was in the house taking the above images.  I noticed it was warm and comfortable in the house in socks, jeans and a T-shirt.  The thermostat was set to 60 degrees.  Not bad considering the low 40 degree exterior temperature.

Fuez concrete counters

Again – low rez camera phone photos, but here are some progress shots of the Fuez concrete countertops.  The kitchen counters are a gray color with clear glass.  All the bathrooms are a clean white with clear glass.  We’re pleased so far with our natural materials pallet of concrete, cork and bamboo – what do you think?

BIG Tour!

We’re very pleased to announce the SIPs house will be featured in the Build it Green tour of homes this September.  We were on the tour last year, but really only had the concrete slab poured and one wall installed.  We’re excited to show off the finished product.  See you on the tour – click here for tour information.

Keep it rolling

We’re about 2 weeks out from completion.  I’ll work on getting some decent images loaded, but the house is a bit chaotic at the moment with all of the subs trimming everything out.  In the mean time, here are a few images of another project we have in for permit.  This project incorporates many of the sustainable measures we learned on the SIPs house.  High five to Katie for the great renderings.

Wrapping it up and Tweeting

Well, we’re finally coming to a close on the SIPs house.  These week we’ll be buttoning up a lot of large items to prepare for the open house this sunday.  Seed will be there later in the afternoon and we’ll be updating via Twitter.  Follow us @seedarch.  I’ll post some interior images of the house soon.

Social Networking!

I’ll admit.  We’re a little behind the curve, but you can now follow Seed on Facebook – click the button below

A few updated siding photos

Here’s a few more photos of the exterior.  We started installing flooring and tile this week so hard to get in the house to take photos, but I’ll post soon.

siding update

barn wood siding

barn wood and corten

more barn wood and corten

Just a quick update on the project.  the siding is coming along nicely.  Hank is doing a fantastic job piecing the barn boards in place…it’s sort of an art.  The texture of the wood next to the steel is hard to capture correctly in a photograph, but it’s really turning out well.  The interior of the house is really shaping up as well.  In the interior, 99% of the painting has been completed.  Tile install started today.  We started to install some light fixtures, but the two linear pendants that hang over the kitchen islands are the wrong fixtures.  Our lighting supplier worked hard today to come up with a suitable solution so we’ll get the fixtures replaced very soon.  In the next couple weeks, we have flooring, cabinets and electrical and plumbing trim out.  Exterior patio, entry porch and landscaping will also be taking place.  We’re working on scheduling an open house…when I have the exact dates, I’ll post them in here.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

more barn wood

Turns out a lot if he or she could.  We realized fairly early on in the wood siding process we weren’t going to have enough barn wood to do what we needed to do.  Luckily, here in the Pacific Northwest we have a fair amount old barns laying around, so we picked up another one.  This should do the trick.  Thank you Craig’s list.

While this is a relief, we were struck a blow from the LEED rating system this week.  Turns out the wood paneling we put on the entry of the house will need to be removed and replaced.  This is unfortunate as it’s a waste of time and resources.  When we found the plywood, we were told it is ‘domestic’ mahogany.  We thought all mahogany was considered tropical, but the salesman was sure it was domestic so we jumped at the deal.  After further investigation, we found the wood may be produced domestically, but the veneer on the face is actually Meranti coming from trees considered ‘tropical’ by LEED standards.  LEED considers any wood grown between the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn as tropical.  LEED does allow tropical wood to be used as long as it is FCS certified, but we decided early on to try to avoid tropical wood all together.