Bardin House

2009-10-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

10/2/09

10/2/09

10/2/09

2009-10-02T19:59:00.004-05:00

10/2/09 Testing the "air leakage" in the house for Energy Star.

10/2/09 My newest favorite part of the house--rainwater collection basins. Cylindrical basins catch roof rainwater from gutter spouts, then water is gravity-fed underground to large collection tank--Priceless!

10/2/09 Pre-pour forms for the basins.

2009-09-28T20:12:00.000-05:00

9/28/09

9/28/09

9/28/09

2009-09-19T17:28:00.002-05:00

9/19/09 Hallway

9/19/09 Banquette finished w/Stainless support leg.

9/19/09 Master bath (Lights are on but nobody's home--yet)

2009-09-19T17:23:00.002-05:00

9/19/09 Master tub

9/19/09 Master shower w/o glass enclosure

9/19/09 Shared Bath shower

9/19/09 Shared Bath toilet

9/19/09 Shared Bath sink

2009-09-19T17:17:00.002-05:00

9/19/09 MB office desk

9/19/09 Master Bdr media cabinet.

9/19/09 Master Bdr.

9/19/09 New Live Oak planted at the end of stepping stones providing shade for the "away room."

2009-08-29T13:33:00.000-05:00

8/29/09 Mud Room desk and (let's call it) shoe removal bench.

2009-08-29T12:54:00.002-05:00

8/29/09 Metal wrap around bump-out finished.

8/29/09 Our fireplace artists came back for one last touch-up. Felipe Landin Masonry.

8/29/09 The wood on the media cabinet will be finished out the same as the windows & doors.

2009-08-28T18:02:00.003-05:00

>8/28/09 The banquette is unfinished but it's in! The plan is to replace that post holding up the table with a stainless steel one.

8/28/09 More retaining wall installed defining a parking area.

2009-08-27T18:53:00.003-05:00

8/27/09 Most toilets and fixtures are wall-hung for easy cleaning.

8/27/09

8/27/09 Now all the door hardware is on.

8/27/09 The back is being regraded for planting.

2009-08-25T19:30:00.004-05:00

8/25/09 Directional Drilling was used for electrical, water, gas and sewer lines to minimize tree damage. The alternative would have been long narrow ditches for each line, severing more tree roots.

2009-08-25T19:08:00.003-05:00

8/25/09 This is the deck with the new rail installed. In the background is the small pool with the flagstone walls. This whole area, including the rocks in foreground will eventually be covered with topsoil and landscaped with native plants requiring little water.

2009-08-24T15:37:00.003-05:00

8/24/09 Fireplace rock is finished

8/24/09 Retaining walls consist of Oklahoma Stone 2'X2'X?

8/24/09 Each stone weighs an average of around a ton or more.

2009-08-10T21:05:00.005-05:00

8/10/09 Lights are up in carport.

8/10/09 Downstairs tile.

8/10/09 Master tile.

8/10/09 Master tile.

8/10/09 Wood portion of the deck is finished. Rail goes in this week. This wood is called Garapa. It's a very hard wood that comes from Brazil. It's responsibly harvested from managed forest and has the same fire rating as concrete--very long lasting and much cheaper than Ipe.

2009-07-22T19:23:00.002-05:00

7/22/09 One of the new light fixtures. No electricity yet, but the fixtures are almost in.

7/22/09 One of the two drawer pull styles we chose--very simple!

2009-07-22T17:45:00.002-05:00

7/22/09 JB's bath sink is in.

7/22/09 Master bath sinks are also in.

7/22/09 Framing of the deck is complete.

7/22/09 View back to the house from the deck. Photographer is getting vertigo!

7/22/09 From inside looking out at the deck.

2009-07-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

7/20/09 Setting soapstone in kitchen.

2009-07-20T20:46:00.006-05:00

7/20/09 Cutting the hole for the kitchen sink.

7/20/09 Guides to cut out one of the master bath sinks.

7/20/09 Master Bedroom progress.

7/20/09 Master Bath progress.

7/20/09 Away room progress.

7/20/09 Looking through the house toward the West out over the pool.

7/20/09 The beginning of the structure for the long narrow deck extending West toward the sunset.

7/20/09 We're about to regrade for the driveway so that required digging the dirt down around the trees to their natural grade--where the trunk starts splaying out into roots.

2009-07-13T19:35:00.002-05:00

7/13/09 Pomykal Painting--The guys doing the interior painting. Low VOC paint is used.

7/13/09 Lots of drawer insides to do.

7/13/09 Looking toward the kitchen area.

7/13/09 Sand Pad for 20K gallon Rainwater collection tank. This will add to our buried tank, the converted swimming pool, mentioned earlier.

2009-06-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

6/26/09 Today's drive up.

2009-06-26T15:31:00.003-05:00

6/26/09 Jeremy Delost and Jimmy Vaughan with Rainwater Harvesting Sysems, Inc.

6/26/09 A submersible pump for the underground rainwater collection tank.

2009-06-22T19:16:00.002-05:00

6/22/09 Joey Parks runs the stucco operation. He's been doing this for a number of years.

6/22/09 It's a very smooth hard finish with obvious mottling--not "perfect" like the synthetics.

6/22/09 Our LaHabra stucco starts with a metal lath, a scratch coat, then a brown coat. Then right before a final coat, they put up a fiberglass mesh to prevent cracking.

6/22/09The final coat has to be done all at once--at least one whole wall face at once. Otherwise just a little too much trowelling in one area will make that spot too much different than the rest and it won't look right.

2009-06-21T17:03:00.002-05:00

6/21/09 Shop exterior stucco.

6/21/09 Shop interior Durasol.

6/21/09 Shop interior Durasol.

6/21/09

2009-06-21T17:00:00.001-05:00

6/21/09

6/21/09

6/21/09

6/21/09

2009-06-18T14:20:00.000-05:00

6/18/09 Gerardo Martinez-One of the guys that makes that stucco happen!

2009-06-18T13:35:00.003-05:00

6/18/09 Stucco will finish up this week. This is the final color.

6/18/09 Obviously a lot darker before it dries--Here they apply the wet stucco to the North side of the house.

6/18/09 Here's the West side with the final color.

6/18/09 The pool rock work is coming along.

2009-06-14T11:16:00.001-05:00

6/14/09 Time to start think picking colors.

6/14/09

2009-06-12T15:15:00.000-05:00

6/12/09 Flatwork in back poured today.

6/12/09 Interior doors now being hung.

6/12/09 Carport poured today.

6/12/09 Carport

2009-06-10T17:15:00.001-05:00

6/10/09 Master media cabinet.

6/10/09 Master bedroom cabinets

2009-06-09T17:19:00.004-05:00

6/9/09 Pool rock work around top edge. That's a seat along the length of the pool.

6/9/09 The white paint is waterproofing.

2009-06-08T20:14:00.016-05:00

6/8/09 This is what the entry looks like today.

6/8/09 Oklahoma Flagstone delivered for pool.

6/8/09 Some door hardware installed.

6/8/09 Forms for backyard flatwork finished today.

6/8/09 Kitchen Island

6/8/09 Kitchen

6/8/09 Kitchen

6/8/09 Cubbies for coats & other things.

6/8/09 Kitchen cabinet drawers fill kitchen.

6/8/09 Away Room floor tile down.

6/8/09 Hardie Backer for Master bath before floor tile is installed.

6/8/09 Forms for step stones outside back door.

6/8/09 Shared Bath

2009-06-08T19:55:00.003-05:00

5 1/2 inches of open-cell foam in ceiling throughout the structure provides a virtual air-tight house. In our climate, the R-value is important, but not as important as preventing outside air from entering. Our A/C units are inside this climate controlled shell, as opposed to being in a hot attic. That means it doesn't have to work as hard.

2009-06-05T16:50:00.006-05:00

6/5/09 Kitchen/Living/Dining

6/5/09 Steps running East

Wayne Atkins - our builder - Anderson/Sargent Builders

Bob Fritts and John Hoffler - our cabinet builders - F&H Construction

Sam Miranda - our interior designer - Studio M

Floor Tile

2009-06-05T16:44:00.004-05:00

Floor tile in hall 6/5/09

Floor tile in hall 6/5/09

Floor Tile JB room 6/5/09

2009-06-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

6/2/09 Entry Foyer

6/2/09 Master

6/2/09 Away room

6/2/09 Laundry

6/2/09 Laundry

6/2/09 Kitchen

Cabinets

2009-06-02T09:12:00.014-05:00

6/1/09 Kitchen

6/1/09 Living

6/1/09 Living

6/1/09 Hallway

6/1/09 MB Office looking toward shared bath.

6/1/09 JB Bedroom

6/1/09 Kitchen

6/1/09 Master Bath

6/1/09 Master Bath

6/1/09 Master Bath

6/1/09 Master Closet

Flatwork

2009-05-22T14:08:00.003-05:00

5/22/09 Today we have wet concrete.

5/22/09

5/22/09

5/22/09

5/22/09

Interior Walls

2009-05-22T14:04:00.003-05:00

Cesar Medina, with PremRock Ltd. These guys are doing all the drywall and the American Clay plaster.

Part of the Team!

2009-05-20T18:41:00.005-05:00

Toby Velasquez (l), with PDC, Inc.-- the person in charge of all the flatwork, and David Hocker (r) with Hocker Design, the company doing the landscape design.

Flatwork

2009-05-20T18:39:00.002-05:00

5/20/09

5/20/09 Forms for the carport.

Flatwork

2009-05-20T18:36:00.003-05:00

5/20/09

5/20/09

5/20/09 Putting up the forms for the walks.

Publicity

2009-05-11T14:28:00.006-05:00

5/11/09 We were happy to have GreenBuildingAdvisor.com visit our site to check in and see how our project was coming. They are interviewing Wayne Atkins.

Fireplace

2009-05-05T20:48:00.003-05:00

5/5/09 Fireplace surround moving ahead...

Exterior Walls

2009-05-05T20:42:00.005-05:00

5/5/09

5/5/09 Brown Coat finishing up & Narrowing down colors for final stucco.

Photovoltaics

2009-05-05T20:29:00.009-05:00

5/5/09

5/5/09

5/5/09

5/5/09

5/5/09 There are two arrays like this one with 6 panels.

5/5/09 Here is the other. Those two in the back are for solar hot water.

Our Builders

2009-05-05T20:23:00.003-05:00

Solar Power Cells

2009-04-29T14:21:00.005-05:00

4/29/09

4/29/09 Photovoltaic installation began today. Twelve solar panels will be installed on the roof and will provide 2.7 KW of power. That means a system that size will produce 2.7 Kilowatt Hours of energy every hour under full sunlight. This electricity will be fed back into the electric grid thereby erasing an equal portion of whatever it can produce from our monthly electric bill. Factoring in our weather here, it should produce an average of about 300 KW hours of power per month.

Interior Walls Moving Along

2009-04-29T14:07:00.004-05:00

4/29/09

4/29/09 Interior Plaster and sheet rock continue to proceed.

Exterior Walls

2009-04-29T14:03:00.006-05:00

4/29/09 Brown Coat Stucco going up today over the first Scratch Coat, although it's hard to tell the difference in the photographs. Next will be the final coat with color.

Exterior Walls

2009-04-26T13:59:00.003-05:00

4/26/09 Scratch Coat

Exterior Walls

2009-04-26T13:58:00.003-05:00

4/26/09 Scratch Coat

Exterior Walls

2009-04-26T13:57:00.002-05:00

Scratch Coat

Exterior Walls

2009-04-26T13:54:00.003-05:00

4/26/09 Scratch Coat going up now. Next comes the Brown Coat, then the final Stucco.

Interior Walls

2009-04-26T13:52:00.002-05:00

4/26/09 Living Room

Interior Walls

2009-04-26T13:49:00.002-05:00

4/26/09 Drywall going up inside

Rainwater Collection

2009-04-26T13:46:00.003-05:00

4/26/09 Rocks cover Rainwater Collection. Dirt will be next.

Rainwater Collection

2009-04-17T12:51:00.017-05:00

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09

4/17/09 Curved bottom of the old pool is leveled with rock and prepared to receive the milk-carton-like boxes. The boxes fit together. The entire assembled unit of boxes is then wrapped in water-permeable cloth, put in place and filled in around the sides with aggregate then covered with the geo-grid mesh. It's already collecting rain before it's covered with topsoil.

2009-04-17T12:44:00.004-05:00

4/16/09

4/16/09

4/16/09 Assembly of interior structure of pool cistern, the aggregate to surround it, and the geo-grid to cover the entire structure dispersing weight. Everything will be covered with topsoil and when finished it could take the weight of a truck.

2009-04-17T12:39:00.002-05:00

4/14/09

4/14/09 Getting the old pool ready to capture rainwater and sealing it.

Solar Hot Water Heater

2009-04-17T12:37:00.002-05:00

April 14, 2009, The solar hot water heater is installed. The water heated by it will be stored in a Hot water tank in the house. If the water temperature gets too low it will be boosted to the right level with a whole-house-on-demand water heater to get it just up to the right level. The goal is to never need to use the on-demand heater, or to just use it to bump it up a few degrees.

2009-04-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

April 14, 2009, Frame for new pool

2009-04-14T13:03:00.000-05:00

April 14, 2009, Preparation for Stucco Application

2009-01-29T15:59:00.001-06:00

January 29, 2009 Looking Southeast

2009-01-29T15:55:00.001-06:00

January 29, 2009

2009-01-29T15:54:00.000-06:00

January 29, 2009

2009-01-29T15:53:00.000-06:00

January 29, 2009

2009-01-29T15:52:00.000-06:00

January 29, 2009

2008-11-16T15:47:00.001-06:00

November 16, 2008. The house is all one story except for this little dug-out portion. The final finish on the walls will be stucco. The blue house wrap was used because the foundation underneath is waterproofed down below ground level and up a couple of feet above that (check out the black stuff). If water were to somehow get underneath the stucco into the Durisol wall it could seep it's way down and be trapped inside the waterproofed portion with no place to go. That would not hurt the Durisol, but it would not make for a good situation to have water in there. The house wrap, which repels water but still breaths, provides an "apron" overlapping the waterproofed portion of the Durasol Blocks enabling any water that did happen to get inside the final stucco exterior to run down outside the wrap and the waterproofing. It just provides extra insurance against trapped water. Black tar paper and metal lath will go on next and the stucco will be applied after that.

2008-11-16T15:42:00.000-06:00

November 16, 2008. Long overhangs all around the house to block direct Texas sun. Final finish will be stucco.

2008-11-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

November 16, 2008.

2008-11-16T15:34:00.000-06:00

November 16, 2008. Energy efficient windows--all operable and screened for cross ventilation.

Carport vs. Garage

2008-11-16T15:24:00.003-06:00

November 16, 2008. The Carport.
Fumes from an enclosed garage will eventually seep their way into your house if there are common walls. We didn't want that, so we chose a carport. The covering is all we really need anyway.

2008-11-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

November 7, 2008. This is what you see when you enter.

2008-11-07T15:43:00.000-06:00

November 7, 2008.

2008-11-07T15:35:00.000-06:00

November 7, 2008.

2008-11-03T15:34:00.000-06:00

November 3, 2008.

2008-10-31T15:30:00.002-05:00

10/31/08. Fireplace innards going up through steel roof trusses.

2008-10-31T15:18:00.000-05:00

October 31, 2008

2008-10-29T15:37:00.001-05:00

10/29/08

2008-10-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

October 19, 2008.

2008-10-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

October 17, 2008

2008-10-17T15:31:00.001-05:00

October 17, 2008. Beginning installation of steel roof trusses.

2008-09-24T15:33:00.000-05:00

September 24, 2008.

2008-08-31T15:45:00.002-05:00

August 31, 2008. All the trees around the house were protected.

2008-08-31T15:38:00.000-05:00

August 31, 2008.

2008-08-26T15:28:00.001-05:00

August 26, 2008.

The Outer Walls

2008-08-06T08:34:00.003-05:00

8/6/08 The exterior walls are made from these building blocks which are called Durisol http://www.durisolbuild.com. They are made from recycled waste wood that has been "mineralized." That's a layer of rock wool you can see on the outside portion of the inner cavity of the block for extra insulation. The blocks are dry-stacked up a few courses then filled with concrete. They have an R-rating of 14, which doesn't sound like much, but the number is deceiving. Typical insulation may have a higher R-rating but that doesn't take into account the wood studs every few feet which significantly lower the overall wall's R-rating! Additionally, a Durisol wall will hold it's thermal mass which regulates temperature flows. Foam ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) blocks do not do this as effectively.
Our Durisol blocks even go down below the dirt level to insulate the slab edge. The rock wool, however is not used below ground because of water considerations. The blocks without the rock wool provide an R-rating of 8 to the slab. Most slabs have no insulation at all.

2008-07-29T15:27:00.001-05:00

7/29/08

2008-07-29T15:25:00.001-05:00

7/29/08. Rows of Durisol are dry-stacked then concrete is poured inside to make the wall one monolithic structure. Rebar comes up through the center for reinforcement.

Foundation Poured

2008-07-17T14:52:00.003-05:00

Old swimming pool in foreground. 7/17/08

7/17/08

7/17/08

July 2008 foundation is poured

2008-07-01T15:07:00.001-05:00

July 1, 2008. The pool from the old house was saved. It will be a cistern holding rainwater for irrigation. The plan is to create a void with plastic milk-crate-like stackable structural cubes, then cover the entire group with material allowing water to collect and be retrieved.

New Foundation

2008-06-03T14:48:00.002-05:00

6/3/08 Piers were dug

Demolition

2007-02-18T14:44:00.001-06:00

2/18/07

The Old House

2006-09-24T14:36:00.002-05:00

9/24/06 The old pool--our future rainwater cistern. (looking North)

9/24/06 From North end of old house looking South

9/24/06 Facing West from down the hill.

9/24/06 Looking North--The entry.

9/24/06 This is the house that we demolished.