The last window

Amanda and I went to the house around lunch on Friday just in time to see they guys put in the 12' window in our master bedroom. It took 4 guys to lift it in place and it made one future female resident very nervous watching. Once they had it in place all it took was some nails outside to secure it in place.

And here is the view from the street with the window in place. We love how it all is coming together. Inside, the HVAC crew was busy running a lot of duct work.

We took Amanda's folks out on Sunday morning in the freezing cold so they could look at it first hand. We are not the only ones that like how everything is turning out.

On a personal note, we would like to congratulate my sister Katie for graduating from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater this weekend. We are all very proud of her and wish we could have been there to celebrate with her.

Windows almost all in!

After a few delays due to the weather we finally were able to get the windows put in yesterday. The only ones that needed to be done yet were the master bedroom windows (second floor above) and the windows in the kids bath.

This is the view from what will be our back driveway.

A close up of a couple of the windows.

The view from the north side of the house.

The view from the South side.

We are using Kolbe and Kolbe (http://www.kolbe-kolbe.com/) classic series double hung and casement windows. They are all energy star rated windows which will help save money by reducing heating or cooling loss compared to standard vinyl windows. If you are interested in the technical details check out their website. I would like to thank Joe Aleto with IHP Windows and Doors here in Saint Louis. He walked me through all of our options and gave us some good recommendations. We are really excited for how they look on the house and can't wait to see how they pair with the brick and siding we chose.

The kids love the house!

Well since we are doing all of this for the two little Pocius' it is great for Amanda and I to see how excited they both are when we go and check things out at the house. The pics above and below are from our trip Friday. As you can see John already loves his backyard. They also both stood in the kitchen for the first of a million times.

This was the first time we let Big T down in the house since most of the materials were picked up. She loved it (as you can see on the left). The shot on the right shows the first time she set foot in her room. She actually jumped up and down...well more liked bounced a bit.

Work from Friday.

Hello again everyone. We went by the house yesterday again to see what was done on Friday. The roof was completed and we were able to see the whole thing without any footers. We love how it looks. From the front...






From the back showing our place and the quick progress of our neighbors abode. They are trying to get a lot done before the predicted ice storm on Monday. With our roof complete we should be in good shape. It might delay our windows again.








The side facing the garage.







They were not sitting on their hands inside either. The HVAC plans were put into motion and the floor cutouts for the vents and returns were opened.









And finally showing some plumbing work. They actually started to run some of the supply lines up to the second floor.

The Green Critic

It's official! Our architect is not just severely bald...he's also joined the ranks of geeky bloggers around the world. Welcome, Jeff!

When you get some time, check out his new blog at http://www.jeffdaygreen.com/. I particularly like his tips on "Tightening Up that Old House."

Big John is watching

Hello to everyone ...hope everyone is staying warm! We have had some cold wet weather around Saint Louis recently and that has slowed down the progress a little bit. Things are still moving along at a real exciting pace though. As you can see above the shingles on the roof are almost complete. We were hoping to get the windows put in this week but the weather did not allow for the roof to get done thus the windows are scheduled for installation next Monday. I thought I saw a roofer pull up as I was leaving the house today so hopefully it is now done. Even without the windows in things are still getting done inside. You can also see in the picture on the bottom, that our neighbors, the Baum's, have a first floor studded up.

The picture on the bottom shows the staircase down to the basement. This needed to get done so the plumbers could get down there and start the rough plumbing. I met with one of the guys today to go over shower head placement for the huge master shower. I will finally have a shower that I don't need to bend over to wet my head (plus each of us will have some body sprays...should be nice). The picture on the top shows one of the guys putting some drain pipe coming from the kids jack and jill bath. If you can believe it the 3 guys doing the plumbing said the 29 degree temp was not that bad. I was out there for 30 minutes today and my teeth were chattering.

As most of you know my Dad John was a master plumber for many years in Chicago. So I know he is watching over the job being done, and will make sure everything is up to his high standard.

That is all for now. Hope we can show everyone some windows soon!

12.8.2008 - Hard at Work in the Cold!!

Amanda hijacking again... The fellas are hard at work today in the cold temperatures, getting our roofing shingles on before tonight's rain. I'm glad it's them on the roof and not us! That's actually a guy all the way on the top of the roof. I'll stick to my desk job, thanks very much.

Come back later this week for another update - we hope to have the finished roof, and - fingers crossed - windows. Maybe that will be John's 5th birthday gift on Wednesday - a window in his new bedroom. Otherwise, the loot from his grandmas, grandpa, and friends will have to suffice.

More to follow!

The roof is up and shingles have started

Hello to all!

Sorry we have not posted in a while. Things have been pretty crazy around the Pocius house. Plus the weather has not cooperated with our building project. Although we have not gotten much snow, we have had enough rain and cold to cause problems.

Amanda and I had to decide the color of our shingle before Thanksgiving. We settled on a color called Weathered Wood by Certainteed. We got samples of our brick and James Hardie siding color to put next to a bunch of different shingle

types. We did not want to go too light (does not look good with the other colors) or too dark (creates a lot of radiant heat in the summer thus making the air conditioner work harder to cool).

I went out with the kids on our way home Friday and the roofers were out there still working even though it was after 4 and about 27 degrees out. My fingers start to hurt just thinking about it.

The weather is supposed to be dry (and cold) so the roof should get done early next week and the windows should be put on Wednesday (little Johnny's birthday).

We have a house next door that has started too. The Baum family is building next to us so the neighborhood will be quite different by the spring!

We have a roof over our heads (almost)!

First off Happy Thanksgiving to everyone checking out this blog. We in the Pocius family have a lot to be thankful for this year especially all of our family and friends.

So as you can see above we are very close to having a roof on the house. This was a short week, but the crew did a great job getting a lot done. As the roof is getting put on, the classic bungalow lines are really starting to show.

We were also able to get up to the second floor for the first time now that the temporary steps have been put in. John was so excited to see what his new room was going to look like he giggled almost the whole way up to look. Looks like a bunch of lumber but the first picture is a view from the top of the stairs into the master bedroom. The second one is of Johns previously mentioned room. He already decided to go with a Star Wars theme room. Like father like son...

I talked to our site supervisor, Jim. The crew is going to be really busy next week. Finish putting the trusses on the roof, lay all the shingles, and possibly get the windows put in. I hope they all get enough Turkey this weekend. They are relly hoping to get the house "sealed up" before the cold and sleet of St.Louis winter hits.

11.20.2008 Update

This is Amanda hijacking Adam's blog... I drove by before a lunch meeting today and snapped some pics. Now you can see how our back yard is shaping up (without that huge retaining wall). They're making great progress on the second floor as well. You can really start to see how the front will look.

Hope you like 'em as much as I do! that is, enough to take over my husband's blog...

A preview of what's to come???

The fine guys at Jeff Day & Associates were kind enough to send us the above Google sketchup of what our house will potentially look like when it is complete. Architectural Project Manager, Kyle Jones, of Jeff Day & Associates, produced the rendering of our home and we are very happy with how it looks. The fellas might have more sketches in the future and we will post them when we get them.

It is nice to have an architect that is almost as excited about the project as we are! I just hope my grass looks that green next spring!

We have walls!

Amanda went to look at the house today at lunch, and much to her surprise, nearly the entire first floor was complete. Here is a view from the outside. Jason with Sage decided to get the exterior walls made off site. This keeps them away from the elements (which we have had a lot of recently) and reduces waste. It also goes up a lot faster than if the carpenters had to do it at the site.

This is a shot of what will be our living room fireplace.

This is a shot looking into our kitchen and breakfast nook.

Here is John loving the new digs...

I think you all get the idea. Word is we are on pace for getting the second floor installed in the next day or so followed by the walls on the upper floor. If you love shots of lumber, check back frequently.

No more retaining wall!

Just a quick update...

The kids and I went out yesterday to look at the progress. We saw the huge pile of dirt had been cut in half...what we did not see anymore is the retaining wall in the back!

The top photo shows how the grading is going to what will be the entrance to the garage.

The bottom photo does not show much, which is good. Last week there would have been a 5' high retaining wall in the picture.

Deciding to fill that area in, is going to give us a much more usable backyard. It returns the land to its original grade so it will blend in a bit better with the neighboring houses. We are also going to use most of the dirt we excavated for our foundation which means less a dump truck needs to haul away.

Up next (hopefully) walls!

November 10, 2008

We've made some great progress in the last week!

Starting with the top picture, workers raised the height of the manhole cover for a drainage pipe in the backyard. Sounds terrible, we know - but this will dramatically improve the usability of our backyard. We can now have a level yard, instead of having a large retaining wall in the back. The other option: a moat. I'm sure the kids would've loved that.

As you'll see in the second picture, workers poured the basement and finished the base plumbing. You can see the rough-in for the toilet - we're not finishing the basement right away, but we have plans for when we do.

And in the third picture... Hooray! Our first floor! Now just imagine it with a whole house around it... Or just keep coming back to the blog and we'll show you. Eventually.

Stay tuned... next week, we should have walls, and the backyard should be filled in.

Laying the Foundation - Literally

On October 30, 2008, the cranes started placing our basement walls. The top picture is the "finished" basement, and the bottom picture shows a section of how the walls are "placed" - unlike traditional poured basements.

The system we chose to use is Superior Walls ( www.superiorwalls.com ). This is a system that consists of insulated pre-fab concrete slabs. At least, that's the layman's version of the product. I'm sure their reps have a better way of saying it. The product comes with a continuous layer of insulation that's bonded directly to the concrete - thus creating an instant R Value, and reducing the amount of energy lost through the basement walls.

One thing you'll notice about the pictures above: how clean the site is so far. Pre-fab means less waste overall, and no on-site soil contamination.

And the added bonus: The wall system is pre-studded and ready for drywall, just as soon as we're ready to finish the basement. So we'll save money down the line because we won't have to pay for lumber, and we'll be saving natural resources as well... Of course, we might want to finish the rest of the house first...

Plans for our Bungalow

Before we get too much further, we should probably tell you about the project. Our vision was a bungalow. We wanted something very traditional, Craftsman, and quintessentially American. Really, the perfect family home. And if the origins of the bungalow include the Sears catalog, we figured it was a good starting point.
We looked online for examples of modern bungalow floorplans and found one that loosely fit our desires. We took our ideas to our architect Jeff Day, and after he worked his magic, our vision was officially on paper.
The above picture is the front elevation. We don't want to share too much - after all, Jeff did copyright the plan! But the basics include:

• 2,500 square feet of living space
• Attached 2-car rear garage (so it doesn't spoil the front elevation)
• Breakfast nook in the kitchen, along with a center island
• Center split staircase
• Three bedrooms
• Three full baths - one on the main level off of the study/guest room, one jack-and-jill bath between the kids' rooms, and one master bath (including a 6x9 shower)
• Upstairs laundry

Sounds pretty inefficent, right? WRONG! We can do all of this, and STILL go for LEED Silver certification. It is absolutely a traditional house with modern conveniences, and it will be built with efficiency in mind.

If you like the look of our elevation and have specific questions about sharing the floorplan, we suggest you visit our architect's website: www.jeffdayllc.com . He's really great to work with and really embraces his projects.

Our First Entry!

Hello! Welcome to our blog! We are building an environmentally friendly bungalow in St. Louis. This has been quite a journey for us, and we only broke ground two weeks ago... We thought it might be fun to share the journey from here, on, with anyone that's interested.

Above is a picture of our vacant lot, prior to the ground breaking. We've had the land for about 6 months, and we've used all 6 months for the planning of the home. We are working with Sage Builders ( http://www.sagestl.com/ ), and our goal is an efficient family-friendly home. So far, we can't say enough about how great Sage has been to work with. When we started the process, we knew little about building green; we now can credit most of our knowledge to the team at Sage.

Considering this is our first post, I think we've said enough so far! Stay tuned for more info on the ground-breaking, plastic soil, and the setting of the Superior Wall Systems foundation...

Best,

Adam & Amanda