Now you can email me! :)

Phil's promise to see if his benchtops guy can help us prompted me to go looking for a email utility. And yee-ha! Not only did I find one, I managed to set it up and install the Java, all without instructions. I don't do the back end stuff, so I am feeling very proud.

If you want to pm me, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for the contact form. But I really appreciate people sharing information and ideas, so if you're not posting info you'd prefer to be private, then by all  means keep using the comments function.

When aesthetic values and ecological values clash

Sigh. I knew it would happen sooner or later. I have to decide between looks and eco-cred. Here's the abridged story. It might seem to branch out on several tangents, but stick with me, it will all come together at the end.

Our concrete benchtops dude has fallen through - going on a long holiday, not sure when he'll be back etc. (For which I bear him no grudge; we hadn't actually got as far as placing an order with him, just had a tentative price. Hope he has a nice rest and gets back to making his very cheap and quite good quality benchtops asap.)

So late in the piece, we have needed to arrange kitchen benches and tops and basins for two vanities. Frown.

This task was complicated by the fact that we had already chosen (though not ordered) our bathroom tiles: Ecotech. They're gorgeous, expensive ($100m2), have pretty good eco-credentials, but come all the way from Italy. See them here: www.floorgres.it/en/prod_z-p-1725.asp.

So I was resigned to getting an engineered stone bench top. There are some nice colours around, and they don't rate too badly on ecospecifier. The main problems as I see them are that the product can't be recycled, and that it's probably not that great OHS wise for stone masons (though if they take proper safety precautions, I don't think this is a huge issue). Oh, and I just discovered Caesarstone is made in Israel, which automatically precludes it on human rights grounds.

A while back, we found some alternative tiles, called Huestone, made in Australia, that claimed to tick all the boxes environmentally. Unfortunately, at the time, their marketing was crap and it just seemed too hard to go find them when we already had tiles we liked.

Over the weekend, Rodney (bless him) had another look at them and we decided that we couldn't in all conscience just ignore them. Took a while to track them down, but when we did, we discovered that they don't just have tiles, they also have benchtops!

So I spent this morning out at the Sadlerstone (www.sadlerstone.com) showroom deep in darkest industrial Footscray.

And now I have some decisions to make.

I like the benchtop enough to use it in the kitchen. There's basically only one colour that would work: a very light base with lots of quartz and a bit of marble as the agg, but that's fine. And the cost seems to be less than the other engineered stone products on the market. All good.

The benchtops and tiles are pretty much the same thing looks-wise. This means that we could have matching tiles and benchtop in our bathroom and get a really streamlined look. As a bonus, we could use an offcut from the kitchen, which would save us money.

The problem though is that as much as I don't mind the look of the benchtop, I don't really love it enough to want it on the wall of my beautiful bathroom.

To compound my confusion, the tiles are hideously expensive: RRP is $175m2 for tiles 300mmx300mm!!! We have been offered a considerable discount "just cos", and the area we need to tile is really small - only about 5m2. So the actual cost isn't that daunting. But we have selected most of our finishes on the basis of reasonable cost. We don't want to build a house that is so lush and expensive that it seems unattainable; we also don't want people to get distracted by the trimmings and ignore the core values of the house. And finally, we don't really want to showcase products that are beyond the reach of all but the very affluent.

Oh, and to be purely selfish about it, I am feeling resentful about paying a whole lot of money for something I don't love! It feels unfair. }:

I've been fretting all afternoon. Basically, I like what we had already chosen, but (a) they come from Italy and (b) I have to find a benchtop that would match. But (c) whilst they are expensive, they are not insanely so ... at least, not for a relatively small area.

For the bathroom, the dilemma boils down to this:

• Sadlerstone wins on eco-cred and convenience
• Ecotech wins on looks and money.

I have to decide immediately. Am going to talk with our site manager about whether I could tile the vanity top with Ecotech. That would take convenience out of the equation at least. And at this point in the build, I have a sneaking feeling that might actually be our tipping point. :)

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

Building materials

One of the things I have most wanted to write about in this blog is selection of building materials. There are so many materials that go into building a new house. I'm sure I won't be able to list them all, but I'll try to cover the main ones, especially those I haven't talked about in other posts.

Slab:
Our slab has a high proportion of recycled aggregate and uses Boral Envirocrete 60% Slag/Flyash with 100% recycled mesh. This is the kind of stuff that would never have occurred to me and probably wouldn't occur to anyone except a dedicated green builder. Score 1 to Positive Footprints. Creating markets for recycled products is a huge part of closing the loop. Given that about a third of waste in Victoria is construction waste, it's great to know that our slab is partly made of concrete that might otherwise have ended up in landfill.

Timber:
The structural pine we are using is treated, but not with CCA. It's something else, but I have no idea what. :)

Cladding:
I have just been reading Linda Woodrow's permaculture book, and I've been chuffed to learn that plants really dislike the heat that radiates out of buildings that have a high amount of thermal mass on the outside. I can afford to be chuffed, because we have none! We chose lightweight cladding products for many reasons:

• Radial sawn timber and Ecoply for their relatively low embodied energy
• Zincalume for its zero maintenance, long life span and recyclability (in facilities that exist even now, not just in some hypothetical future).

I do love mud brick and strawbale, but the former was beyond our budget, and the sheer square metres taken up by the latter just wasn't going to work on a block of 363m2.

Wall insulation:
Tontine Thermal & Soundbatt R2.5; CSR Bradford Enviroseal Breather Foil. I particularly love the clauses in our specifications that say things like:

"Batts to fit snugly between framing members with no holes or missing sections. Batts not to be compressed. Any batts removed during construction to be replaced."

Maybe that language is standard in any building contract these days, but with our builders, I can feel totally confident that these provisions will be observed.

Ceiling insulation:
Tontine Insuloft R3.5; CSR Anticon 55mm (R1.5) foil backed blanket.

I also like the bit in our specification that says, "During construction the Builder is to limit any thermal bridging between inside and outside as far as is practical." (Thermal bridging is where heat from outside can get transferred in, or vice versa; aluminium window frames are the best example of these).

Windows:
Our windows are from Mouldright. Crap name, beautiful windows: www.mouldright.com.au.

All of our windows are double glazed, most have low E glass.

Almost all of our window frames use finger jointed hoop pine. Finger jointing is basically a way of creating incredibly strong joins between pieces of timber. It means you can make quite long pieces out of many shorter ones and so is a very good way of making trees go further. This was the most affordable timber option for us, but while I love finger jointing, the fact that it is hoop pine does represent a bit of a compromise for me.

Hoop pine is plantation grown. Lots of people might think this is preferable, but personally, I've walked through hoop pine 'forests' in Queensland, and I would prefer well managed, selective logging of native forests over a monoculture every time. Here's a nice article that gives some background to explain my preference:
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0919-plantations_hance.html

External doors:
Also by Mouldright. Ours are made of recycled Karri. They're gorgeous.

Other timber:
We are using American off-cuts from another job for the timber nosing on our stairs. Our bannister will be recycled jarrah.

Paints:
See my post of 16 August: http://buildingour9starhome.blogspot.com/2010/08/paint.html

Roof:
Colorbond, same qualitities as zincalume. We would have used zincalume, but didn't want to reflect that much sunlight into our (hypothetical) neighbours' eyes.

MDF:
E0 wherever it is used.

Stairs:
E0 MDF is also being used in our stairs. I don't know if Jeremy found these folks on the basis of doing the right thing, or whether he worded them up. Either way, it's great to know that there are people out there doing stuff like stairs with VOCs and recycled materials in mind.


Plumbing stuff:
We've relied on WELS ratings here. We have installed a hot water diverter to reticulate the warming-up water, but apparently they can all be a little glitchy so they've been installed in ways that are easy to get in and fix. We haven't installed a first flush diverter on the rainwater tank, because Jeremy says he's never found one that really works.

Thanks to PF really caring about the little things as well as the big ones, we are using recycled crushed rock as bedding for our sewerage and stormwater pipes.

Decking:
Modwood. See www.modwood.com.au


Phew. That's all I can think of for now.

As I said in my last post, I'm running out of topics. I do want to post on the different options we had to choose from to boost our house's thermal performance. And I want to write about what this place is actually costing us. I was also thinking that I might go into the design side of things a little more. So that's three more posts!

But my statcounter seems to suggest people are actually reading this blog, so if any of you have questions or things you'd like me to write on, please let me know.



Thanks for reading.

e.

Deep Green Builders

A couple of things have happened recently to make me realise the incredibly important role that truly green builders play in building a sustainable home. So this blog is, in part, to tip me lid to our builders: Jeremy, Chi and Grant at Positive Footprints www.positivefootprints.com.au. They are truly awesome.

I need to start off by acknowledging that:

• there probably aren't enough green builders to go round, especially if you happen to live outside a major city and not in a place like Byron or Castlemaine
• it's critically important that mainstream builders start to move towards even a very light shade of green if my son and his friends are going to have even the remotest chance of any kind of decent life on this planet, and
• if builders were mandated to use the kinds of materials and approaches that we are using in our build, all buildings would be more or less sustainable and I wouldn't need to write this post (instead, I'd write one on closed loop water systems, or roof gardens, or going beyond 9 stars ...).

But with those caveats in mind, I would still always suggest if you can find someone who is really, properly green, go with them (unless of course they have a reputation for being dodgy or bodgy!).

If they're more expensive than the next gal, build a smaller house, save up for the solar panels later, or skip the polished concrete floor. That's what we've done, although in part that was to pay for our great indulgence: five round windows on our street facing side. (At this point in the build, our window makers must be wishing we'd chosen the solar panels)

We chose to build with PF because it seemed from the very beginning that we were on the same page. They, unlike most builders, had a deep understanding of our value statement, and even had a matching one of their own! The fact that we could afford them was a bonus! :)

We have never once regretted our decision. I reckon building with them - rather than building with a conventional builder - has probably halved the amount of research and thinking I've had to put into this build. It has meant that I have been able to focus on questions like the layout of the kitchen, rather than insulation and windows.

In our experience, having builders who start with a principled environmental stance means that:

• they are incredibly well informed about current product options
• they have a network of tradies who either work within the same building paradigm, or at least are willing to fit in with it on green jobs
• they are willing to work with the 'green' expectations of clients, but also knowledgeable enough to challenge them (for example, we started out wanting a waterless loo; Jeremy convinced us there were far better ways to spend our money)
• they will build everything with principles like low embodied energy in mind.

As I said at the beginning of my post, a couple of things have made me appreciate the importance of green builders all over again.

The first of these was last week, when we decided to get the builders to just bung in a cupboard rather than have it made by a cabinet maker. Jeremy said, "So we'll just get some E0 mdf for the doors". It was that easy. I love it that E0 is a given, not something I have to specifically request (over and over and over again).

The second was today, when I was sitting on the train writing my next post, on materials, in my head. (I'll put it up in a day or two). There have been so many aspects of the build that I sincerely doubt any but the most committed sustainable builder would think about. Put together, I suspect that our house will have - for a new dwelling - significantly less embodied energy than most other houses being built in suburban Australia today.

Of course, there are people building all kinds of wonderful places out of town, using all manner of building materials, but when it comes to building on small block in Preston, we simply couldn't have achieved anything like the ecological values that we're having if it hadn't have been for our green builder.

Just to finish up, I want to suggest the things I'd be looking for if I were starting my search for a green builder tomorrow. There is of course the Master Builders Association Green Builder certification, but for me, that would be the elementary qualification. I'd also be asking about:

• Skills - is there good evidence that the builder really knows their stuff? Do you see evidence of attention to detail in the houses they have built? If there appear to be things that could have been done better, can they explain why they are as they are, and/or what they would do differently next time?
• Knowledge - Can the builder talk knowledgeably about the range of products that is out there? For example, can s/he tell you what building materials are preferable in terms of their embodied energy? Do they seem to have a really strong attachment to one style of building or one product? (If it coincides with your interest, that might be a good thing, but if they feel they've found 'the best', it might be that they've stopped looking at alternatives)
• values - what evidence is there that the builder really cares about environmental matters? For example, how has green building influenced how they live their own life? How sustainable is their own house?
• Understanding - what evidence is there that the builder has thought about the complexity of issues that need to be considered in sustainable building. For example, what do they think of plantation versus logging native forests? From memory, I think Jeremy and I don't exactly see eye to eye on this, but he knows the issues, and that's what counts.
• Networks - does the builder have a network of similarly minded and skilled tradies? How does s/he manage when tradies are not on the same page?

Okay, that's it for now. I'll post the materials blog next. After that, I will have exhausted most of the topics I wanted to write about when I started blogging. Am open to suggestions for future topics! Bring 'em on.

Cheers
e.

PS I just realised that I don't think I've said anywhere else that Positive Footprints also designed our house. More on that in a later post. :)

Plans and elevations - finally

Okay, so I finally found time to clean up the plans and elevations so that they are fit for the general public to see. I just scrapped a lot of the technical stuff with a quick once-over with photoshop. Hopefully they're comprehensible. And hopefully, this works!

e.

Officially in debt

One of my aims through this whole building process has been to be up front about money matters. Today I specifically want to talk about mortgages. When I'm at my other computer, where all the spreadsheets are (!), I'll write about money, or specifically, how much money various aspects of the build are costing us.

We are soon to be officially in debt. I suppose to many people, it's incredible that we have managed to get this far without borrowing. I guess it is. We'd saved quite a bit between us and we live a pretty modest lifestyle. We're incredibly privileged to have skills that are well paid.

Our loan is coming from MECU: a credit union (see www.mecu.com.au). We choose to use credit unions rather than banks because they fit better with our broader ethos about how to live:

• Profit is not their primary reason for existence.
• They are more accountable to their members.
• They often tend to be more socially and environmentally progressive.

From a consumer perspective, they tend to be less punitive, offer competitive rates and to have lower fees. Ours also offers options such as:

• an 'ecopause' (where we can take a break from repayments to assist with the purchase of energy and /or water saving devices such as rainwater tanks, solar or grey water system)
• a 'family repayment pause' when one income earner is on maternity leave.

Of the six or so credit unions we considered, MECU clearly fit best with our values and needs.

Of course, all money and all financial decisions are ultimately part of the global financial system. We are under no illusions that our individual choices will make a difference. Nevertheless, it seems to us to be a contradiction to borrow from a big bank - which has its tentacles in all manner of unsustainable and unethical industries around the globe - to build a 'sustainable house'.

Some people's financial circumstances mean that they really, really need to pursue a lender that can undercut others by point something of a percent. But many people are not so greatly constrained.

Arguably, for these people, including ethical criteria in selecting a lender should be seen in the same light as any other cost:benefit analysis aspect of sustainable building. I'm not convinced that double glazing paid for with a loan from the ANZ bank is better for the environment than single glazing paid for via a loan from MECU.

(Important note here, I have absolutely no idea what the current difference might be in the ultimate financial cost of loans from these two institutions. MECU might even be cheaper!)

The profits that our loan yields to our lender will be significant. These profits can be used wisely and accountably, or they can be spent further plundering our planet's scarce resources. We know which we prefer.

A lot of people have never thought about these issues, and I don't blame them one bit. It's not in brokers' interests to flag them, the big banks are full of greenwash, and credit unions just don't have the profile. I hope this provides some food for thought for those of you who are yet to find a pot of money to build your sustainable home.

e.

Indoor air quality

I posted some of the info here on a recent post in the homeone forum http://forum.homeone.com.au/ and I thought I would post it here too.

I had flagged my blog on our low VOC paint, and somebody pointed out - quite rightly - that paint is only one of a number of things that can pollute the indoor environment.

So here's the list of the other things we are doing to try to keep our air as nice as possible:

• very low VOC kitchen
• as low VOC carpets as we can find (and only in two rooms), with E0 underlay (rubber, by Bridgestone)
• no plastics on light fittings
• Marmoleum on the upstairs floor
• all fans ducted to outside
• blinds not curtains
• wardrobes from Ikea, so E1 but better than the alternatives.

I think we are going to recover our old couch rather than buy a new one, although if I could find a new one that was E0 and comfy and under $2000, I'd buy it in a minute. (Any leads on this topic very appreciated)

And most of all, we're ready for new mattresses (ours have been trampolined beyond everyone's comfort zone) so will buy latex ones complete with pillows and have them delivered straight to the new house. The rental place we are in now is a cesspit of mould and dust, through no fault of ours. I want to leave the spoors behind! :)

Trouble spots: we want wallpaper in a few spots, and the options for low VOC are so fugly they aren't worth the effort of sticking to a wall.

And I can't seem to get a clear answer on house plants - some researchers say they clean the air, others say that potting mix and damp are inherently evil. My compromise at the moment is to have a few, but not a whole conservatory full.

What have I missed??