After being adrift for a while, the building project was back on course. It was almost a year to the date since I first met with Ron the builder about building a quaint little house in the woods. What a difference a year makes! After six aborted projects, I finally felt like the Rapson Greenbelt 2 was THE ONE.
Within a week of executing my agreement with Wieler, I started receiving stuff from Rapson Architects.
First was a personalized/signed copy of "Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design" coffee table book, which really drove home for me the epic magnitude of the man's work. Next were the stock blueprints, which were even better than I could have hoped for. It inspired me to think about all of the possible customizations/options I can tinker with.
MORE GLAZING THAN A CINNABON
After the initial novelty wore off, the details started to become a bit worrisome. This house has a lot of glazing. A lot. Five sets of sliding patio doors, twenty windows, two two-story curtain walls, two glazed gables, and a row of roof windows that spans the depth of the house. To make matters even worse, all of these components were of very odd/unusual dimensions, e.g., 2' x 9' windows, 9' tall patio doors, and almost randomly placed canopy windows embedded within the curtain walls. Needless to say, these will all need to be custom-fabricated. And then to pour salt into the knife wounds, the building codes in Long Island were updated in 2003 to conform with the latest international code, as well as the Dade County hurricane windzone standards (by the way, the last major hurricane to hit Long Island was back in 1938!). The result of all of this is that all glass utilized on new construction on Long Island now requires impact-resistant glazing. Needless to say, this essentially doubles the price and thickness of the windows.
At Nate Wieler's suggestion, for the roof glazing we looked into the possibility of using Polygal or some other polycarbonate material like Kalwall, which is typically found in large commercial buildings like school gymnasiums and shopping malls. It is a translucent material that emits a shadowless milky-white glow in daylight. The advantage to it is that it is great for daylighting, is very flexible, virtually indestructible, can be used in roofing applications, lasts longer than conventional windows or roofing materials, and has relatively high R-values. However, the downside is that it would prevent the benefit of passive solar heating (the row of roof windows has a direct south exposure on my lot/orientation), it looks a bit "chintzy" when placed alongside concrete and wood, and it is really, really expensive- on the order of $40+ per sf.
As for the curtain walls on the front and back sides of the house, I looked into the possibility of utilizing an aluminum extruded curtain wall system that is also typically found in commercial applications. I walked around the city for inspiration. Needless to say, this proved to be a disastrously expensive option. Various fabricators (and there are not a whole lot out there) were estimating the job to run between $80 to $120 per sf on the low end!
Fortunately Ron the builder has a working relationship with a custom window fabricator in Wisconsin called the H Window company. He had always maintained that they were the best windows he has ever seen, and after seeing some installations, I was totally in agreement. After sending them the front and rear elevations of the house, they proposed to cobble together the curtain walls using individual window panes that would be framed together by doubled 2 x 6 members. As a result, the mullions will be much thicker, but I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. In addition, H Window can fabricate all of the roof glazing components, including the end gables and rooflights. Needless to say, even using double-paned low-e hurricane glass (which will be 1.5" thick!), it will be expensive, but not nearly as expensive as the curtainwall and Kalwall options.
However, now we are still looking for good, well-priced, modern, low-e, impact-resistant sliding patio doors that come in a 9-foot height. Something like the Nana wall system or the Fleetwood door, but more reasonably priced! Any suggestions are welcomed.
TO BASEMENT OR NOT TO BASEMENT
I have never been a fan of basements. I do realize that basement technology is far more advanced today than before, but no matter what, I will always associate basements as dark, damp, moldy, clammy, musty places filled with cobwebs and all manner of pest and vermin. I simply have no desire to have one, period. As such, if I had my druthers, I would have a slab-on-grade foundation (with buried footers). Not only is this less expensive than a full basement, I can easily have polished concrete floors throughout the first floor.
Upon closer examination of the Greenbelt 2 plans, I noticed that it included a basement plan, but it didn't include an entrance to the basement from the first floor. This was fine by me; I figured that I could convert one of the first floor bedrooms into a utility room that would house all of the mechanical components. Who needs a basement anyway??
"I insist that you put in a full basement," insisted Ron the builder. "Why?" I replied. "Because it's just the way things are done around here." I remained unswayed by that line of reasoning and demanded more information about this. This shouldn't be rocket science- everything is built on slabs in the south. So why should my house be any different?
Bob the HVAC guy gave me a puzzled look when I explained that I wanted a slab foundation. He didn't object to it at first. He merely mentioned that he had never done HVAC in a slab house and that he had never seen a slab house on Long Island. He said that he would have to think through the logistics of putting ductwork under a slab. The plumbing contractor gave the same answer. The electrical contractor gave the same answer. In the end, all of the trades basically said that they could possibly do it, but they were not sure if they would be successful.
After some consideration (I really, really wanted polished concrete floors!), I decided that I did not want to fund the experimentation of the trades. At the same time, I did not want a basement, even if there was a way to figure out a basement entrance. Ultimately, I decided to go with a crawlspace with an exterior entrance only. It is a compromise- the trades can run their ductwork/pipes through the crawlspace, it is less expensive than a basement, and I don't have to worry about creepy things getting into the house. So unless I can figure out a cost-effective way to create a floor system that can support a concrete floor above grade, I will probably have to go with a conventional wood floor. Ugh!
SETBACKS: A POTENTIAL SETBACK?
Finding a house design that fits within the setbacks on my lot was a bit of a challenge. My lot is 124' wide by 100' deep. The setbacks on the front and back sides must be at least 30', whereas the setbacks on the sides need to add up to at least 25' with a 10' minimum on one side. As such, I had quite a bit of flexibility with regard to the building width. But the depth of the house could not exceed 40'. As much as I liked the one-story Greenbelt 1 design, it simply would not have fit on my lot.
The Greenbelt 2 did not fit either; it has an overall depth of 44 feet. However, upon closer examination, I noticed that each modular component of the house was 38 feet in length arranged in a staggered "Z" formation. In effect, I proposed changing this:
to this:
So the end result was that I was able to conform with the setbacks by sliding one "box" up four feet, and the other box down four feet. The Rapsons felt that this approach was fine. In a sense, this is truly a "glide house."
DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?
The most glaring omission from the stock plan is a garage. Admittedly, the garage is sort of the bane of McMansions. But at the same time, it can be a necessity, especially in areas with harsh winters like Long Island. Additionally, in my particular case, in the absence of a basement I do not have lots of storage space.
I toyed with the notion of adding a single car garage, but decided that it would be out of proportion with the rest of the house. It needed a double-wide. Ralph Rapson suggested putting in a semi-detached garage that could be accessed via a breezeway or walkway. He felt that having an attached garage would have made the house seem too monolithic. I agreed, even though I realized that having a semi-detached garage meant having to spend more money since it would not share a marriage wall with the main house. But I suppose it is all for the best since now the rumble of the garage door opening will be completely isolated from the rest of the house.
CODE DEPENDENT
From the very beginning, I understood that whatever plans we came up with ultimately had to be reviewed and stamped by a qualified engineer. I had assumed the engineer's main purpose was to review the building materials, the dimensions, the tensile/elastic strength of the building materials, loads, etc. It didn't occur to me that the house would also be reviewed for its conformance with the energy codes; that compliance will be determined based upon the house's projected heating and cooling needs. The East End of Long Island is considered to be a 6000-degree day area, so energy compliance is relatively tough to achieve.
Ron the builder, who has been working with the local Southampton Town Building Department for decades, has a good understanding of what is needed for obtaining a building permit. In a nutshell, in order to pass the energy code, a single family dwelling cannot have more than 15% of its walls comprised of glazing. At least this is according to the Southampton Town officials. The Rapson Greenbelt 2 was way over this limit- it was around 27% glazing. I was ready to start eliminating or resizing windows to meet this standard. Ron the builder said this wouldn't be necessary; we could include the garage wall area to the overall denominator by considering it part of the conditioned space. Although I certainly have no intention of heating and cooling the garage, he said that we could probably get away with this.
This wasn't enough for me. Upon doing some research on the internet, I came across a valuable resource on energy codes at the U.S. Department of Energy building energy codes website. After some exploration, the most important thing I learned was that the 2004 energy code was drastically updated to simplify the energy compliance calculation. And most importantly, rather than relying on the outdated percentage of glazing as a rule of thumb, the new code takes into consideration the overall R/U values of all of the building components. As such, if your walls have minimal insulation, your floors and ceilings must have super-high R values in order to compensate/offset the lack of insulation in the walls. In my situation, in order to pass the test with a lot of glazing, I have to make sure that the glazing is double paned and low-emissivity, and that all of the other building components are super energy efficient. Additionally, I have to make sure that the HVAC system energy efficiency specs are higher as well. There is a great online calculator on the energycodes.gov website called "REScheck" that helps to determine whether your house in your state will pass the energy code.
In any case, calculations were performed, and the engineer saw fit to give it his stamp of approval. Who am I to question his assessment??
A SITE FOR SORE EYES
Without further ado, this is the proposed site plan. In reality, the pool will be much smaller, as well as the garage. It appears that there are lot coverage limitations that stipulate that the dwelling plus swimming pool can only cover up to 20% of the lot's square footage. This is actually a good deterrant against McMansion-like developments. However, I won't be able to swim long laps!
PICS AND PLANS
The following plan not only adds a semi-detached garage, but it also adds a proposed roof deck over the walkway/garage that would be accessed by a second-floor bedroom. I know it seems rather eccentric to have a bedroom that has both a private balcony and access to the roof deck, so I will have to think about how best to pull this off.
First floor:
Second floor:
After several months of effort, the building permit application was finally submitted last week. Now it's just time to wait, pray and prepare for the best!
NEXT... Will the building permit issue??
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