The Re-Development Group – Josh Dubach

Since the last post, we have been chugging along, in the cold, and now have the mechanical systems all roughed in. The HVAC (Heating, venting, & Air Conditioning) technicians and the plumbers are the first trades in. These trades, historically, fight for space in the walls and mechanical “chases” and need to be coordinated before they begin.  Their systems are largly comprised of rigid piping, but there are some adjustments and alternate routes that can be taken, if need be, for one anothers sake.  After they are complete the electricians and Alarm/AV techs come right in and begin their work.  They are always the last trades in before insulation,  as they have the greatest flexibility in the location of their devices and routes of their wires.

While this is going on the masons are on the outside of the home, reconstructing the original historic chimney.  There is certain criteria that is very important to the historic “value” of a home in a designated historic neighborhood…. Original materials such as wood siding and windows, roof lines and shingle type, keeping the window and door openings in their original place and size, and also the height, size, and shape of the chimneys.

This window location was in an undesirable location for the layout of a bathroom on the 2nd level. So we deleted it. We were able to win the case with IHPC (the indiana historic presevation commisssion), that the rear elevation of the home had been remodeled and was not "historic"

The original siding and chimney

Electrical installation

Recess lighting

New kitchen wall and wiring - notice the window beyond. It had leaded glass and was very important to the historic comminssion to keep. So we cleaned up the sashes and glass, and "blacked them out" from the inside. They will be insulated and walled over, and disappear for all intents and purposes, on the inside.

It has been a while since we have completed a full rehab. The green and energy efficiency movements seem to have directed home buyers to new homes, and that has been the main percentage of projects we have completed in the last few years. However, with relatively new and attractive bank packages, such as 203K’s, home buyers are enabled to purchase homes in need of work and acquire loans that are worth the proposed end result, rather than existing condition. This has helped the rehab market enjoy a small resurgence, and we are happy to be back in the familiar and historic neighborhood that is The Old North Side. A common misnomer, that may also have played part in the rehabs decline from popularity, is that you will still have an “old” home, after construction is complete. While aspects of that are true, what is left, is simply done so for historic requirements and charm. The home, when complete, from top to bottom will be as energy efficient as any our our new constructions.

Please check in on the progress of this home, as I plan to post updates during the mechanical installations, show you what we accomplished in the cellar, of course during the insulation process, and throughout the rest of construction. We go out of our way to ensure that when complete, our projects (whether new or rehabs) will meet high Green building standards, and be as efficient with energy consumption as possible! Here are couple of pictures that I took on a very dark and cold day. The quality is not outstanding, but they are of some of my most enjoyable parts of the framing process….Leveling the floors. You should have walked through this place before we started. Lets just say the some of the nastiest greens on Augusta couldn’t hold a candle to these floors! Just kidding, but you get the picture.

The blue tarp is where we removed the old brick chimney. This will be put back exactly the way it was, on the exterior only, to replicate the historic original.

A beam installed to keep the floor in its new (now level) loacation.

Once the floor below was leveled, the carpenters move to leveling and jacking the floor above

Our Carmel job is rolling along nicely. The exterior is mainly painted, and should be wrapped up by the end of the week. The inside of the home is prepped, swept, and ready for paint. After masking off cabinets and flooring surfaces, windows are taped off, and trims are then caulked and puttied. We are now ready to spray all of our trim work.

The painters work station seems untidy, but has all the tools needed to complete the job.

The doors are removed from the jambs and set in the middle of the room for paint.

It is a muddy mess outside this week, but the house is looking nice.

This is a bare cabinet that will be painted along with the wall trims.

Stabilized Cellulose Insulation

Cellulose insulation by such name brands as Nu Wool, is made mostly from recycled newspapers. In fact, about 85% of it’s make up is newsprint. The actual manufacturing process uses at least 10 times less energy than it takes to manufacture fiberglass insulation. In addition, cellulose Insulation will save as much as 40% in heating and cooling costs. By eliminating voids and air pockets common with other insulation materials, reducing air infiltration and increasing the “Effective R-value” of the wall assembly, cellulose helps control sound and thermal properties and is environmentally friendly.

The Product is spayed in place with mildew resistant tacifiers, and needs to dry over a 48 hour time period before covering with drywall. This also allows time to review the final dry product and ensure the there was, indeed, no sagging or voids. In most cases the product needs no further attetion, and the drywall process can proceed as planned.

The picture to the right is our insulator spraying in the product in a home we are building in old town Carmel, right now. Our insulation practices help lead the way for a comfortable conditioned space. Along with the spayed cellulose, we spray expansion foam behind electrical boxes, caulk or seal vertical and horizontal wood connections, and spray foam seal the floor and ceiling joist bays. The end product is an air-tight structure that allows vapor to permeate through the walls as required, but keeps the forced air systems inside.

After all of this is completed, we have a third party, energy star certified, company inspect our insulation package, to certifiy the home meets federal government standards for energy efficeincy. This helps us keep a sharp eye for detail, and ultimately our customers benefit from our willingness to spend a few extra dollars for a high performance, thermally insulated structure that makes them eligible for tax credits.

A Concrete Home that Delivers a Contemporary Punch to the Face

Eight months of blood, sweat and tears….well not my tears, have produced a spectacular home. About a year ago, The Re-Development Group sat down with a Demerly Architects design, two eager clients, and began to design-build the most complicated home we have constructed to date. The design emulates a west coast modern look with flat roofs, large overhangs, and over sized windows. The exterior cladding is comprised of raw concrete, metal “galvalume” siding, and Cembonit synthetic conctrete panels.

The clients have ultra modern taste, and wanted to see the evidence of the construction techniques in the finish of the concrete. That was easy. Form, pour, strip, right?

Well maybe not easy, but the look is raw indeed. Concrete has and R value of 1.85 per 16 inches of wall thickness so, we had to deal with the lack of insulation value. Therefore each wall system ended up 19″ thick. 8″ of concrete, 3″ of rigid foam (R 16), and then 8″ of additional concrete. At approximately an R 18, the wall systems of this house actually perform better than a standard 2×4 wall system (R 13). Looks and performance, what a beauty.

Notice the 35′ high free standing 19″ thick wall in the middle…..yeah.

A house this unique has a certain “wow” factor. The clients also invested in a very powerful home automation package that can allow them to adjust the temperature of their radiant floor heat, geo thermally assisted forced air heating system, one or all of their roller shades, turn on their TV, adjust the lights, or even flush their toilet all from their home, China, or Outer Space. Well, maybe not flush the toilet.

One of my favorite aspects of this home is that it is now finished. That is to say, the finishes really brought the project together. The landscaping has a very natural feel, that compliments the topography of the 1.5 acre lot. The appliances, bath fixtures, electrical fixtures, along with their decorating have all made this home very stunning. There will be finished exterior and interior photos coming soon!

The smartest phone I have owned

Blackberry 5720, Treo 700wx, Samsung Ace, Motorola Qc3, Samsung Instinct, HTC Touch, HTC 6700, HTC Touch Pro: These are all the smart phones I have owned (that I can remember). Some may be so bold as to call me obsessed with technology, instant gratification, or just a nerd. I prefer to think that I am simply driven to maintain an efficiency that resides on the razor sharp edge of technology!

My current mobile multitasking solution is the Palm Pre. Sometimes I make wild claims like “I invented pants”, or “Bigfoot resides in my tree house”, but believe me when I say that this device has changed my life. Now that I have firmly established myself as one who is sane, and an expert of mobile phones, let me tell you why.

The phone multitasks like no one’s business, has an amazing camera, has the fastest Internet on a phone available in America, syncs content wirelessly with google (or Outlook with a 3rd party app), has universal search, and a full physical QWERTY keyboard. There are some other really cool functions and developments of the phone, but you can check here for further information.

Specifically, for my day to day use, the instant email functionality has been nice. Since our small company doesn’t run an Exchange server for our e-mail service, we have always relied on IMAP and POP3 accounts. The blackberries could “push” the mail to the phone, but for a price. All the subsequent Windows Mobile devices I had could only “pull” emails via timed downloads to themselves. In both cases, however, the email on the phone was a duplication of the Outlook email client on my desktop computer.

The Pre offers real time syncing with Google, and after some fineageling Outlook as well. Well, I switched to google a long time ago (for my main email solution), so I have really been emailing more efficiently since I purchased this phone. Basically, if I send an email from the phone, or vice versa, it is in the sent folder on the computer and the phone. That is sweet.

The contacts, and calender sync wirelessly and instantly as well. What else should you expect?

The crisp 3.2 mega pixel camera has really been such a useful tool, that I can no longer function without it in my pocket at all times. Now that my jobsites are spread out further geographically, snapping pictures to disucss site conditions and workshop solutions has become significantly more important. Clients who live a great distance from their home in progress, or have very busy schedules can be updated with pictures as often as I am there taking them.

Boom goes the Dynamite!

This Picture was taken with the Pre, and is the finished product of the Concrete home that I promised.  Still, more to come, but I thought a little taste was in order.

Well done Palm Inc. You have pulled yourself out of the ashes, and made the first real competitor to the iPhone. Also, you have stream lined this mans day to day work and personal life. Applause is in order. By the way, my wife has an iPhone and I can officially say the Pre is better in every aspect that is important to me.

The Lighter Side of Building

Residential infill building in challenged or up and coming neighborhoods, has certain nuances that aren’t always for the weak hearted. I have learned over the past years that the permanency of job site materials, tools, and supplies can be fleeting. Without having to strain my brain more than I usually have too, I can recall at least seven separate instances of theft our company has experienced in the past three years. That, along with the fact that I also live in a challenged neighborhood and have experienced some theft of my personal property, has really helped to make me thankful for all the times that my property doesn’t get stolen! That may seem a little backwards, but I have tried the other disposition after theft instances, and that, frankly, is no fun.

You can probably imagine that I was not overly shocked to receive a call from the Carmel Police Department on Sunday June 28th. Apparently some watchful neighbors witnessed some perpetrators roll up on our job site in old town Carmel around midnight the evening before. They had one purpose, and that was to steal our portable toilet. Now I have heard of some crazy shenanigans before, but this was definitely a first for us. I was a little confused why someone would want our stinky job site toilet. However, I must say that this was the nicest toilet I have ever used or seen since the last time I visited the Speedway, so maybe that had something to do with it? I digress, anyway, I called the portable toilet company to inform them of their loss. I figured they would have been equally as shocked, but they brought me up to speed with their industry standards and expectations. Apparently, toilets are a hot ticket item around holiday party weekends, and they assured me that this was nothing to be upset over, and would bring a new toilet out right away. After all, once you have a full toilet in your yard for a week or two after the party, you are going to want to call the number on the unit and have them retrieve.

Well, I thought all of this was funny. I thought the whole situation even more funny, when I received a return call that day from the portable toilet company. By noon on Monday, they received a sheepish call from a fella who had too much to drink on Saturday evening, and thought a prank on his buddy was in order.

Nothing says “got cha”, like walking out of your front door and seeing a portable toilet on your porch. Cheers guys! Thanks for the laugh!