Park Passivhaus Blog

Got the Special Permit

2012-02-24T11:22:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a good day. We got the Special Permit decision recorded with the Registry of Deeds. So, it's official now!
What's next? Placetailor guys are chasing down all the signatures needed for the demolition permit (we have an old garage that needs to come down).
Once we get that, we can apply for the building permit with the town's Ispectional Services Dept. 'Permit set' is in the works and we expect to submit that in the next few weeks. Planned ground-breaking is in April.

Permitting

2012-01-27T13:50:00.000-08:00

Another exciting phase and a lot to learn. There are local zoning laws we need to contend with along with neighbor's feelings and concerns.
We are currently making progress in obtaining the necessary permissions from the town Planning and Zoning Board to build on this lot, in the way our design proposes to.
Our approach is to preserve all of the current green area of the lot and build on the footprint of an existing garage. Seems like the neighbors and the town officials like this idea. Few more steps and we are ready to proceed onto the Building Department to seek a building permit. Stay tuned!

Design Phase

2012-01-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

This was really an exciting process! We met quite a few times to talk about the ideal dream house, the lot, our life philosophies, preferences, principles, likes, don't likes, budget, etc. During each meeting, we kept the Placetailors energized with a constant supply of fruit cakes. The approach seemed to work.
Slowly from this 'psychoanalysis' a form of our house started to appear. Simon and other Placetailor guys did a great job of synthesizing all this information into a design we really like and they are willing and able to build within a reasonable budget.

Finding a Passivhaus Builder

2011-12-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

Oh yes, the search for a builder. How do we find a local, affordable, knowledgeable and somewhat experienced builder for our Passivhaus?

I read a lot about the Passivhaus standard from the magazines, web resources, articles, blogs, etc, but the builders that executed on these rare projects were really not local to us. A Canadian/Austrian company in British Columbia was very attractive and helpful, but their distance from us was going to be a challenge. There was one Passivhaus Architect/Builder team in the next state but they seemed cost prohibitive.

Just by chance, we ran into an article about a small design/build firm that has already built a Passivhaus in our metro area. They seemed as an ideal candidate for us!

We met with Placetailor folks Simon and Declan in a local cafe and spent few hours in a friendly conversation that often went deep into technical approaches and solutions. After seeing them ride off on their bikes, we were sure that these are the guys we want to work with! They were young, polite, knowledgeable and enthusiastic to work on our project.

We agreed to start with a Design Phase proposal.

Searching for Land

2011-12-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

The fist step on our journey to build a Passivhaus was to find a buildable lot of land.

The search was far from easy. We searched for at least 4 years. The ideal lot would be an empty urban infill parcel. The lot did not have to be big - building small was fine with us. Clear lots, in an urban setting, close to the metro area, with access to public transportation, opportunities for biking, walking and shopping down the street seemed as another dream.

In the process, as an alternative, we were shifting between finding a tear-down or a fixer upper. Neither made any financial sense to us. It was more expensive to acquire a tear-down, tear it down and build a new home then starting with an empty lot. So, clearly that was a preferred option.

So after 4 years of trolling the MLS, my wife noticed a lot I skipped over (thinking it is not in a very good neighborhood). We went to see it that weekend and she said - 'that is it'!

City officials seemed very encouraging in our investigative phase and all but assured us that a single family, 'green' home would be possible to build on this lot. We contacted our friend, an Eco-broker and few weeks later we were proud owners of a 4000 sq ft city lot!

Now, it was on to finding a suitable builder. Read on.

Welcome to Park Passivhaus Blog

2011-12-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

This blog is to capture our journey through a project of building a Passivhaus.

It all started with the advent of the 'Green' movement, and learning about a better way to build and live in more energy efficient and healthier homes.

When we learned about the German standard for building a tight, smartly built and well insulated homes, we felt that Passivhaus makes more sense to us then any other 'Green' approaches to building a more energy efficient and healthy home. Performance is what matters to us and Passivhaus offers around 90% better performance (in terms of energy consumption) compared to conventional, to-code built homes.

We are calling it a "Park Passivhaus" Project, since we really intend to build to German Passivhaus standards and guidelines. Certifying it with an official body is presently a secondary goal.

The journey has moved through few initial phases since we started in the spring of 2011. Follow next posts to see where we currently are in the process.