The impact of the curve on the interior finishes is dramatic as well. The curved walls, handrails, cabinets, counters, and trim pull it all together. This was really a project that required a lot of “synergy”…and we’re all proud of the outcome! Click the image below to view a slideshow of the completed project.

Curved House Slideshow

I’m giving two and a half weeks to get the interior trim and stairs in. We’re simultaneously installing the ceramic tile and most of itshould be in at the end of this week.

We’re also templating for the granite countertops. The weather has been very cold but the kerosene heater inside allows us to continue staying warm and on schedule.

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The carpenter we have doing the interior trim is taking care of the stairs, too.

The handrailing mirrors the curve of the exterior wall. Lots of progress on the interior this week!

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Installing the pine decking on the first floor and the Trex on the second floor took more effort as well, not to mention the deck railings.

The mechanical, plumbing, and electrical rough-ins, however, didn’t have to put in more effort than usual, unlike what I expect in laying the tile and hardwood flooring as well as installing the interior trim. Next week we hope to start hanging drywall and we’ll be moving into the finishing stages. The owners are pleased and challenged to get us their finish selections in a timely way. There’s a lot of running around to suppliers on top of living a busy work life! But I think that by seeing the house being built, with quality and good subs, is invigorating despite the stressors.

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Hacienda Under the Oaks: Bold colors say ‘bienvenido’ at builder’s personal residence

By Sally Keeney
Correspondent

If you’ve ever tasted the mango salsa at Flying Burrito in Chapel Hill, then you know the intensity of flavors is matched only by the colors of mango chunks against fresh cilantro and sun-drenched tomatoes.

I had the same sensation when I stepped inside the southwestern/Mexican- inspired house of Tom Howlett. Wow! The great room pops with mango yellow walls, sun-dried tomato counters and an etched concrete floor with sunset swirls thanks to Chris Maestro of Classic Concrete Designs. Turquoise, sand-stone and adobe reds color the walls of bedrooms and baths.

The interior colors are all the more intense against the pale gray stucco exterior. Up the gravel driveway, tumbled glass serves as mulch in the xeroscape garden beds designed by Jonah Roberts of Lael Landscapes of Raleigh. Vines will soon cover the back patio pergola, providing shade in summer and sun in winter. A bank of wild flowers, drought-resistant plantings and ground covers will make “mowing the grass” somebody else’s problem, because there won’t be any at Howlett’s hacienda under the oaks.

“The whole idea of this house is ‘small is beautiful”, said Howlett, who is co-owner of Synergy Building Co. “My dominating intention is to keep the costs low and build this as affordably as I can”.

Howlett’s company has built many affordable homes for Orange County’s Community Home Trust. Cost savings on his own hacienda began with its size – 1800 square feet instead of the average 2,629-square-foot house being built in the second quarter of 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The one-story, three-bedroom/two-bath house has a passive solar design and south-facing orientation. The house has 9-foot, 4-inch high ceilings, wide exterior overhangs to minimize heat gain in summer, and a sealed attic with Icynene spray foam on the roof deck.

The long-run savings will be in energy use. Howlett chose a radiant heat slab on grade instead of a crawl space and Autoclaved Aerated Concrete block as his building material. AAC is a lightweight, precast concrete building material (sometimes called Autoclaved Cellular Concrete or ACC). It is one-fourth the weight of conventional concrete and superior as a thermal and acoustic insulator. It is also fire and termite resistant.

Howlett calculated his home’s AAC walls installed cost just under $7 per square foot ($9 if the square footage of windows and doors are deducted). Those prices include the cost of the block, labor, special thinset mortar, steel rebar and concrete (used to fill the core block and bond beams as well as the final top U-block course).

AAC is unlike many other concrete products because it can be shaped using conventional carpentry tools. But don’t let its light weight and versatility fool you. Anybody who wants to build an AAC block house should have experienced masons do it, Howlett cautions.

“It is a little tricky to do it right”, Howlett says. For a step-by-step look at his house as it was being built, log onto www.synergybuilding.com and click on “ Energy Efficient home, AAC block” at the bottom of the screen. Howlett used stucco on his exterior walls and drywall on the interior. “We glued and screwed the sheetrock to the block”, Howlett explained. Then, instead of typical straight-edged metal corner beading, Howlett used plastic, rounded, bull nose edge beading which gives arches, doors and window ledges that soft, southwestern look.

“I wanted to build as comfortable and affordable a house as I could,” Howlett said. “I have an aesthetic that would like nicer things, but want and need to buck the trend and go simpler.”

With that in mind, Howlett negotiated costs whenever possible. He says he saved at least $4,000 by choosing less expensive double-hung insulated glass windows. He also minimized glazing on windows on the north side of the house where weather isn’t as intense as other exposures.

He installed a truss roof instead of a stick-frame roof, which saved him about 20 percent of the roof cost. He chose 30-year architectural shingles as opposed to a metal roof, saving another $7,000.

The bathroom is an important room for Howlett. “I call it my de-stress room,” he said. “I have learned over the years – just a good long soak in the tub relaxes me completely.” He’ll smile every time he turns on the water and thinks about how he found a beautiful spout for his soaking tub at the Habitat Re-use Store. The spout cost $45 and had a few missing parts that he bought for $100 at Wilkinson Supply in Carrboro. Retail, the spout would cost $550, he said.

He also recycled beautiful wood kitchen cabinetry from the Re-use Store and had cabinet makers match fillers where needed. He found granite remnants for vanity tops.

Eventually the radiant slab heat will be backed up by solar, but he has deferred building solar collectors ($6,000 savings) and a detached carport. The house is all-electric because natural gas lines don’t run to his property and he doesn’t want the expense of propane.

Despite these cost-saving measures, creating a small house that lives big, green and easy, has cost Howlett $200,000-plus so far, and that doesn’t count his time as general contractor. Nor does it include the extra landscaping elements he and Roberts have planned.

Eventually Howlett wants to distract mosquitoes by berming and back-filling an area to create a running waterfall using recycled water. But until then, there’s always the soaking tub for relaxation.

                             See pictures here!  

There are many features of these homes we are building in conjunction with the Community Home Trust that contribute to their being a great example of affordable Green building. One that will no longer be evident after completion of the home is our employment of advanced framing techniques. Advanced framing (also called Optimum Value Engineering) results in lower material and labor costs and improved energy performance for the building, due to less conductive temperature transfer through the framing components.  Consequently,  effective use of  advanced framing techniques starts with a well thought out framing  design that considers common lumber and sheet sizes. This reduces waste, minimizes cutting and consequently your material and labor costs.  Architect David Ripperton’s conscientious design work was crucial in this effort to build with both energy efficiency and affordability in mind.

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There’s a long list of things to do and I’m going to pace myself. Life has been stressful and I’m going to find ways to relax. The landscape infrastructure is unique with gravel pathways bordered by site-made curbs in which tumbled glass found at the landfill got embedded. Site-made stepping stones are at every entryway and pathway. They’ve got embedded river stones and are colored to match the color of the exterior concrete slabs. River stone is also acting as mulch in the raised beds my son and I built. Down the road in a couple of months we’ll start putting in some plantings.

Clearing a lot and building from scratch means you sacrifice a mature landscape. Going into an older neighborhood and remodeling a house has its attractions. But this is out of town in the county. So I’ve got an energy efficient house in which I’m looking forward to experiencing the radiant floor heat. There’s also a wood-burning fireplace and the heat pump for backup.
The 9’-4” ceiling height, open floor plan, large south facing windows, all give a spacious feeling to the 1800 sq.ft. of living space. All in all it’s unique, special, creative, comfortable and enjoyable.

For a slide show of the construction of this home click here.

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The stucco is on and looks fabulous.  Jose was a perfectionist.  He started with a skim coat of portland cement and sand.  That was necessary to smooth out the imperfections of the AAC block work. Then the base coat was put on.  We used a product by MasterWall, Inc. It came in bags and got mixed with water.  The finish coat by MasterWall is a pigmented acrylic polymer.  I picked out a color that was easily mixed in and put into buckets ready to apply. But Jose wasn’t familiar with the product and that’s where I had to bring in an expert to help.  We rounded the corners of the house.

Once Jose and Mike started to trowel and float on the finish, they had to boogie to do the entire wall and continue beyond that corner to a break point.

The concrete slab floor was finished last week. The process we did is not for the faint-hearted.  The final result is dependent on the concrete itself and the installation of the concrete months ago.  It is unpredictable how the final finish will turn out.  I went along with the recommendation from the subcontractor.  First was a complete cleaning of the slab, which was tricky since this house doesn’t have a baseboard. Then the floor got stained with the dye.  Following that were two sealant coats and lastly were four coats of wax.  The result is unique.

The drywall came out very well.  We glued and screwed it to the exterior AAC block walls.  Bullnose corner bead went everywhere:  at the windows, doors, arches, and passageways.  What I didn’t anticipate was the interior door openings narrowed due to the bullnose corner bead being attached (with adhesive) directly onto the door jambs. The sheetrock mud on it not only narrowed the openings but covered the hinge mortises on the jambs.  Consequently, we had to rip the poplar doors in order to fit and I hung them by securing the hinges directly over the bullnose finish.  In other words, we didn’t mortise for the hinge but it made for easier hanging and the effect is fine.  I am looking forward to putting a stain on these interior doors and a luxurious red on the outside of the exterior doors!

Next week the countertops are going in.  The kitchen gets laminate with a wood edge.  There’s so many interesting finishes on laminate I have no problem going with it in the age of granite and solid surface.  I like saving money there.  The vanities will get granite, however.  I found remnants for $25/sq.ft.  And for the built-ins next to the fireplace, I had wood tops made that have been painted the same luxurious red that’s going to be on the exterior doors.

The ceramic tile is in.  I did something different with the master shower.  I put a rust-colored metal edge on in lieu of bullnose tile.  It looks real good. We ordered the appliances and plumbing fixtures this week, both within budget.  Shopping was made easier by setting up times with salespeople I know and trust.  The time was well spent and very helpful.  And I got some good deals.  Again, I hold the intention to stay within budget.  In these areas, as in so many areas of construction, you can go crazy spending money.  There’s no substitute for a good salesperson working for a reputable supplier.

Interior painting has started.  I got help picking colors from my artsy friend.  I had my own idea of what I wanted but it’s her eye that I needed.  I definitely am not playing it safe.  I really don’t know how it will all turn out but I’m feeling confident.

Landscaping is starting tomorrow.    We’ll start with the infrastructure and wait for the plantings until later in the Fall.  We’re going to have to get creative to find a way to accomplish the water element inexpensively.

To read more about this project click here!

This is an 1800 sq.ft. 3-bedroom, 2-bath solar-oriented, energy efficient house built with AAC block (Autoclaved Aerated Concrete). This 8” thick lightweight solid block has a high insulation value and is fireproof and is an affordable alternative to wood framing.

In addition to a radiant heat slab-on-grade, the house will have wide overhangs to minimize heat gain in summer and a sealed attic with Icynene spray foam on the roof deck. We are looking forward to putting on a stucco exterior finish and give the one-story interior spaces a southwestern feel with bullnose returns to all windows and doors. We even plan to eliminate baseboard, as well as casings, and put an exquisite stained finish on the slab floor. Interior doors are 3’ wide for handicap access. The master bath has a curbless shower and a soaking tub for de-stressing and relaxing. A wood-burning zero-clearance fireplace supplements the radiant heated floor and heat pump. The 1.8 acre lot is 5 miles out of town with plenty of quiet. The 9’-4” ceilings and open kitchen-living-dining allow for a spacious feeling with lots of south-facing light.

Plenty of rain this winter and spring has meant construction is taking 6 months vs. the 4.5 months we originally thought. There were snow flurries at the time we started laying the AAC block. But the lot has been cleaned up, we just drilled 260’ to put in the well and are getting 12 gallons/minute, and we’re leafed out in the past month and looking forward to putting in a water element in the front of the house. Most of the landscaping will have to wait for Fall however. We’re going to avoid putting in a lawn by doing ground cover and water-resistant plantings, mulch, and some hardscapes.

Coming up next week is the spray foam and drywall.

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The adjoining landscaping posed a significant challenge as well.  Jonah Roberts, owner of Lael Landscapes in Raleigh, NC created a landscape design that not only addressed the structural elevation issues of the property, but did it in a way that provided a striking balance of function and beauty to the  project.
The retaining walls he created can be seen here in the background.

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