Perry Road House photos

Some photos from the Perry Road project which is sitting empty and unfinished and for sale UPDATE: SOLD!- (It's hard for people to earn a living around here so the owners made the decision to move to where they could work.. for money)

This is a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP)house on and Insulated Concrete Form foundation (ICF) The windows are Marvin Integrity - there are a lot of them although they seem all very logical and needed. Too bad they are not triple glazed. The basement slab is piped for radiant heat, there is an air exchange system, two bathrooms, (plumbed for a third) up to 5 bedrooms, porch and sleeping porch. There is also a lot of land with a stream and waterfall.

Perry Road House for sale

Perry Road House for sale - see April 11 blog post on Vermont Architect.Note: it is unfinished - Folks moving on in search of greener pastures

4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, super insulated, all on 70 acres with 2000' of Green River frontage on one edge of property and a brook with over 100' of cascading waterfalls in the middle, perfect for micro-hydro system. Heated it with 3.5 cords of wood and the sun. Old foundations on property. Nice sunrise view down the valley.

Perry Road Porches

I have started working on the Perry Road porches. Freezing my butt off and that sort of thing. But it is fun to do a bit of carpentry again. I will post pics here as things progress.- - - - - - This is yesterdays (1-4) photo. I spent today finishing up details before metal roofing goes on. The whole thing is solid and straight. One of the things I like about carpentry is the problem solving aspect. I like to figure out the whole enough to know I won't get into trouble on a detail later on. There is an aspect of improvisation to it. When I built my fern house, there were no drawings. I sketched out enough of the whole to understand that the details would be easily solved as I went along - and they were. I suppose this is not very architecty of me but it works out fine. I think this is what separates good carpenters from the rest - the ability to look ahead and work with all levels from the whole to the minute details simultaneously. I have often seen carpenters do what seems easy or logical at the moment only to get boxed into a bad detail resolution later on because of the inability to conceptualize the whole. Much of my detailing as an architect is just enough to guide a builder along a path without them getting boxed in but allowing room for improvisation and improvement. - - We got the roofing on last week in time for the big snowstorm

Perry Road Update

here are a few pics from this morning at the Perry road project.  It is an owner-build project so it is slower than normal for those of you who have been watching.  They are currently wiring inside now.

Perry Road Valentines day update

I do have a thing for black houses.

Perry Road Update - Shell

The Foard Panel SIP shell is complete on the Perry Road house is complete. It is fun to start to feel the internal spaces as well as how the house relates to the site and how the windows frame the views and light.

Perry Road update - foundation

Here is a rendering of the Perry Road project for the press.

The ICF foundation is in and the slab goes down thursday.  The plumber is putting the drains in to the septic and roughing for a future basement bathroom. We used Nudura ICFs which have 2 1/2" of foam inside and out.  and a footing form that stays in place as a footing drain inside and out.  We are putting 4" of foam under the slab and radiant tubing in the slab (in case we need it someday)

Composting Toilets in Vermont

With a title like this I'll probably get lots of google hits and lots of spam. An interesting note: We had intended to use composting toilets in the Perry Road Project but in Vermont this allows you to reduce the size of the leech field by only 25%. They also require you to have the septic folks take your compost away every year. Another factor in our decision not to use composting toilets is the cost. This is a very low budget house and composting toilets are pretty pricey. We will probably go with Toto low flow toilets. These have a very good reputation.