We've been in the new house for almost seven months now and WE LOVE IT! Everything we designed into the house works. The dogtrot design was wonderful this winter and spring - we had the house opened a lot and the breeze through the living/dining room was just as we had hoped. We also used another concept that is found in houses built before electricity and A/C - they are called breeze rooms. My wife's grandmother's house had a breeze room that she loved to sleep in during the summer. A breeze room is a room on the second floor usually over a porch that faces east and has windows on three sides. By facing east, the breeze room doesn't get hot with the afternoon/evening sun as it sets in the west. With windows on three sides there is always a breeze blowing through the room. During the hot summer months, everyone in the family would go up to the breeze room and sleep - it was always the coolest room in the house. We have two breeze rooms in our design - but we had to put them on the first floor. The master bedroom faces east and has windows on three sides - the breeze through this room is wonderful. The other breeze room is the music room and it faces south - which means it has one window facing west. But this window is under our ten foot porch and only gets a little direct sunlight late in the evening (we were hoping for no direct sunlight in the west windows but we missed on our porch legth calculations by a few inches). We also have opposing north-south windows throughout the house - both upstairs and downstairs. Even with a slight breeze outside, we have such a strong breeze throughout the house that we have to have door stops so the doors don't slam shut.
The three foot eves all around the house also has really made a difference. This is one thing our architect really push as being important for two reasons - 1. to shade the house as much as possible to reduce the direct sunlight and 2. to minimize the splashback on the house when it rains. Long term, most rotting comes from the splashback on a house. You can see houses in nearby subdivisions where the builder cut costs by having one foot eves and the houses have all sorts of rotting along the eves. The splashback will also go through the brick and start rotting anywhere moisture can get to wood.
One thing that surprised us was how cool the limestone stays even when the sun is low and shines directly on the house. As an example, when the west sun gets low and we get direct sunlight on the west porch, the bottom of the front door (fiberglass so it won't deteriorate) gets so hot you can't touch it. But the limestone right next to it is cool to the touch. I haven't seen any studies on limestone, but I have to guess it has something to do with the high level of silicon in the limestone that allows it to dissipate the heat from the sun so well.
We absolutely love the cork floors. While the best cork is imported from Portugal and has a high carbon footprint due to the long distance shipping, cork is really one of the best green flooring options because the cork trees are not harmed. The cork is the bark and only the bark is harvested - the trees are not cut down. The cork bark can be harvested every seven to eight years without harming the tree. Don't by cork from China or other places because its not as dense and won't last as long - get the stuff that will last - cork from Portugal. I would highly recommend Amcork - http://www.amcork.com/. They import their cork flooring directly from Portugal - we purchased the cork from them and they did the installation - they did a great job. We even have cork on the stairs - its beautiful. What's special about AmCork products is they have no VOCs in their products. Other cork floors from some of the major suppliers have VOCs in the engineered wood part of the cork planks. AmCork's products are certified safe for even hospitals. The cork is cushier to walk on than any other floor we evaluated - great for the old back. Cork tile is a little different looking, but most everyone has like it. Its been very low maintenance - just sweep or vacuum with an occasional damp mopping. The cork has shown no signs of wearing or scratching - even with a golden retriever running through the house. One thing to watch out for is the installation of the cork flooring. Make sure the installers are away from the house when they are sawing the cork planks. When cut with a saw, cork planks create a super fine dust. Our installer was outside on the balcony on the south side and the cork dust blew into the house - it took us two months to get the cork dust vacuumed out of the house.
The slate is also wonderful. We got it directly from Camara Slate - http://www.camaraslate.com/ . They mine the slate themselves and they gave us a very competive price. We got the unfading green color - we love it - very earthy. It is very dense and has not create any dust - its pratically indestructible and too easy to care for - just mop it occasionally. Slate from other parts of the world (China and India) is not nearly as dense and will wear and create dust - plus the carbon footprint is much greater due to the shipping - slate is very heavy. We especially like the slate when the kids come in from the pool dripping wet and we don't have to worry about the floor at all. The kids also got a kick out of the occasional piece of gold in the slate - fools gold that is - pyrite.
The StegoWrap really worked as planned. As you can see from the pictures below, last summer was the wettest summer in 65 years in the Houston area - we had +65 inches of rain! All of the flooring guys were surprised that we had NO moisture coming up through the foundation. I would highly recommend using StegoWrap for any new building project.
Here's some things we did differently than originally planned.
We decide to go with the Rinnai tankless water heaters because they are clustered together - if one can't handle the load then the other kicks in to help out. RACed water heaters - you got to love it.
We didn't seal the limestone. A quick over with a power washer and all of the stains from dirt/sand came right off.
We didn't use Tyvek because I found a forum where a builder had problems with water getting behind the Tyvek and causing rotting on OSB plywood - which is what the SIPs are made of. It turns out Tyvek allows water waper through - but not water. If water gets behind the Tyvek it can't get out and will cause rotting. Before you put up brick or stone, you have to nail brick ties to the house. Each brick tie is a hole in the Tyvek and a potenial spot for water to get through. So we used a fiberglass impregnated tar paper that should last 30-40 years to seal between the SIP panels and the stone. Tar paper is self sealing when you put a nail through it.
My wife decided she like Moen fixtures instead of American Standard. Both are good quality products.
Soundproofing - after further research I found that fiberglass insulation has about the same soundproofing qualities as cotton batting - and its much cheaper. So we used Johns Manville fiberglass insulation because it has no VOCs.
For soundproofing the main wall between the living area and the sleeping area we used two techniques. First we made the wall the width of a 2 X 6 , but instead of 2 X 6 studs we used two lines of 2 X 4 studs offset from each other - effectively making two independent walls. This way the sound vibrating the wall on one side is not transfered to the other side of the wall. We also used two layers of 1/2 inch sheetrock on the living room side with a special sound deadening glue between them. This is really neat stuff - its called GreenGlue - http://www.greenglue.org/ . Its viscoelastic technology for sound isolation and vibration control - and it really seems to work well. Between the offset wall and the GreenGlue, the kids can be having a great time in the living room and I can barely hear them in my home office right down the hall.
Now for the final test of our new green architecture house - our energy usage. We've had a very hot summer so far compared to last summer's constant monsoons. Compared to our old house built in 1988 with 2,200 sq ft, we are using less electricity in the new house at +3,500 sq ft - and we now have an electric pool pump. I'll put up some numbers on electricity and natural gas usage later...