As we put together the final pieces of our home, we were able to do a bit of last-minute design work for our porch. The porch was built to be enclosed with a screen--just like the original iteration of Dave’s Home--but we have chosen to leave it screenless in order to create a more direct connection to the eastern side of Spencer House. As a result, we had to create a new entry threshold, which meant that we needed to determine a method for integrating the existing sill plates into the revised porch design.

After a series of charrettes, we decided to open up the front (west end) of the porch by cutting back the sill plate. To complement the completely exposed and screenless facade, we chose to partially enclose the rest of the porch (the north and south faces) with benches, keeping those sill plates intact. After a mocking up a few bench iterations at Morrisette, we constructed the benches on site.

We’d like to thank everyone who helped us choose our final bench design by testing out our mockups! May you always find a comfortable place to rest your weary bones (and if not, you’re welcome to pop a squat on our benches anytime). 

Comfy and Yours,

We’d like to thank, yet again, the incredible Johnny Parker, without whom we would have a little more than an empty shell of a home. Last week, Johnny helped us put together our rainwater collection system, in addition to all of the electrical and plumbing help he’s already done for us so far.

The rainwater we collect will be used to flush the toilet, which could save us hundreds of gallons of water usage a year.

The system works as follows:

A gutter directs rain from the north-facing roof plane into a 600-gallon cistern, which sends water through PEX into a small pump box. Once in the box, water travels through a small filter, after which a meter records the amount in cubic feet of water passing through the pump. The rainwater is then pumped through a solenoid valve, which talks to a float switch that’s inside the cistern. The solenoid valve knows when the cistern is empty and when we need city water, as well as when the cistern is full and when use collected water.

As soon as our gutter arrives this week, we will be able to finalize the system and begin our water collection process. During the next four months, we will record how much water we actually saved by recycling rainwater.

Ready for April showers,

Toward the end of last week, we used the trencher and a couple of shovels, (ok, let’s face it, we mainly used shovels and a ton of elbow grease) to trench out for our electrical and plumbing piping. We ran wire from the electrical panel in the house to Spencer House’s main power box, PVC from the house’s plumbing fixture’s main drain to the septic system on site, and plumbing supply PEX from the house to Spencer’s plumbing supply.

We’d like to give a huge shoutout to Johnny Parker for helping us hook up our plumbing and electrical systems in one morning! Thanks to Johnny, we now have working lights and outlets and are one step closer to having running water and flush-able toilets in the house.

We’d also like to thank Mason Hinton for helping us connect the wiring in our electrical panel to power! 

Congrats Team Faunsdale!

While avoiding intermittent rain showers, we spent the past week fastening our metal siding to our ZIP-covered walls. To install the burgundy panels, we placed drip edges and j-channels around the edge of each wall and opening. Then, we screwed each wall panel into their j-channel frame, making sure to precisely cover our intra-wall sensors.

We also installed the final two roof panels, so our exterior metal--apart from a little touch up paint--is complete!

During the rain, we worked back in Red Barn, reliving our long days in the computer lab. We’ve been designing our porch entry sequence and organizing our final days on site. We have just a few short weeks left in our schedule until move-in day!

Jammin’ out to light-metal tunes,

At the beginning of last week, we divided and conquered: half of the team worked on site, finishing up trim work, while the other half stayed in Red Barn, researching wall assemblies.

We all spent Thursday in studio, prepping for Friday’s review with the Pete Landon of Landon Bone Baker Architects. Pete was our third and final reviewer before Pre-Stress Test, so we were anxious to receive feedback. Luckily, by the time Friday morning rolled around, we had just concluded our wall assembly experiment. We presented those results to Pete, and he shared his valuable expertise in affordable construction details. Pete also pushed us to select durable materials that will save homeowners in the cost of things like maintenance and upkeep. Because our 20Kv22 Home project focuses on decreasing construction and living expenses, we’ll need to study the the long-term consequence of each of our design decisions.

Surprise! Following an important discussion during Friday’s review, we’ve decided to consider Spencer House’s and Chantilly’s properties again as potential sites for the Revised Home. Tune in next week for an update on site selection and a surprise visitor.

Happy International Women’s Day,

It was a little touch and go there at first, but against all odds we survived last week. When Shane the Sheet-rockstar™ alerted us that he had finished his drywall job in Dave’s Model Home, we were ecstatic! Putting up the drywall literally defined the space more than ever before, and the half inch of dust sitting on the floor was quite the ground covering.

It took a whole day to sweep, wipe, and vacuum the place. The experience aged us, as evidenced by the grayed hair and aching muscles that plagued us by the time the sun set. We got our paint and rollers ready for the following day and made a monumental trip to Lowe’s to pick up everything we’d need for the week. Bundled up against the light drizzle that started and then never really stopped, we went wall to wall to wall to wall to ceiling: white on white on white on gypsum gray. Our first and second coats were punctuated by the arrival of some very special visitors…

Jake and Nicole!

These crazy kids from Seattle flew all the way down to our humble model home village to show us a thing or two (or million) that we never knew we didn’t know about how to finish a house. With astounding patience, they tolerated our typically dumbfounded yet amazed expressions and walked us through the proper way to “roll out” the site first thing in the morning, trim walls and windows, build and install IKEA cabinets and drawers, place Swedish marble countertops, and wear tool belts.

We worked together over the weekend on Dave’s, Mac’s, and Joanne’s. Steve Long and Mason Hinton stopped by often to work on their own projects on site, which made the Thursday through Sunday work session incredibly productive. There are still a few tasks we’ll need to accomplish before the model homes are complete, including completing trim work, installing sinks and fixtures, and finalizing the electrical and plumbing systems. The good news is that we’ve got Nicole and Jake on speed dial when the going gets tough. Until then, we’ll be in studio for a while, recovering and working on our experiments and presentation.

So long and thanks for all the Fig Newtons,

With July drawing to a close, our team is coming to terms with the reality that this phase of our project is also coming to an end. We’d like to celebrate the paths of each teammate as they move forward from the legacy that will be the 20Kv22 project, while also ensuring that our research and occupancy studies live on at Rural Studio.

Sarah has very recently been inaugurated as AIAS’s National President. She has already moved to Washington, D.C., where she will complete her year-long term as President. During this time, she will work to improve issues, programs, and policies essential to architecture and the experience of architecture students, while also traveling across the country and visiting dozens of AIAS Chapters. 

Chelsea will remain at Rural Studio and begin working as a Third-Year Studio Instructor, with Emily McGlohn. She plans to continue analyzing and living in one of the homes (either the Baseline or the Revised Home), while a future graduate student stays in the other. They will collect data from the homes and ensure that our team’s research is continued and utilized by future 20K projects. 

Kenny will join Community Rebuilds as an AmeriCorps VISTA. He’ll move to Moab, Utah where this group has been building affordable, low-carbon straw bale homes since 2010. As the new planning and development coordinator, he’ll help them evaluate their built houses, build new houses that meet the Living Building Challenge, and expand their work throughout the Southwest.

Michael is preparing to move to New York City and work alongside another Rural Studio alumnus, Lucas McCarrell, at the highly-praised, Manhattan based, architectural office of Cicognani Kalla.

We’re excited to see how our studies continue throughout the progression of the 20K Home, and we hope to see a change in the way homes are built and a decrease in the overall cost of dignified homes.

Please enjoy the following photographic tour of our project’s timeline:

These past couple of weeks, while we’ve been collecting and analyzing data, we’ve also been doing a bit of construction work. We built a stoop for the back entrance of the Revised Home!

The back stoop, made up of a wooden deck-board platform and a concrete step, helps bridge the tall transition from our back door down to the ground plane.

Construction for the stoop only lasted a few days, and we can now enjoy a safe exit as well as a nice place to rest behind our house.

Never leaving the stoop,