Some aspects of a home that is just right for you are personal.
Homey personal elements can be symbols of places from your past- perhaps a childhood bedroom that was a sanctuary, a favorite collection of books, a photo of the front porch of your grandmas house, fabric from the first crazily painted freedom space of your young adulthood or a postcard evoking the shadowy memory of a glimpse of a perfect room in your travels.
The Heart of the Home
I’ve been curious about soapstone stoves for a long time, but had ruled out the possibility of owning one because I’d read that they were very expensive. Then, Lars and I walked through the doors of Kootenay Woodstoves. I saw the soft blue hue of the Hearthstone woodstove collection. And we discovered that the price tag for a small soapstone hybrid stove is the same as for a cast iron stove-between $2,500 and $3,000.
Exciting! Doable!
Our Mandala is 2,300 sq.ft. , but it is so well insulated,passive solar and energy efficient, we can use a smaller stove , the efficient Tribute, which normally heats up to 1,000 sq.ft.
Burl cork flooring
Your choice in flooring has a major impact on the use and feel of your home.
Think about it, you ‘interact” with your floor every day. The floor is what you feel under your feet when you step out of bed in the morning, it’s what you drag furniture across, it’s the surface that someone spills food on and you clean it every day. Plus, you constantly hear the sound of footsteps on your floor surface as people and/or animals move in the building.
We chose cement floors over a radiant floor heating system in the basement because we want to use that mass for a heat sink. We chose natural stone in the entryway and bathrooms for significant water resistance, ease of cleaning and the feeling of nature. And, we chose cork flooring for the main Mandala, kitchen, master bedroom, study, hallways, stairs and downstairs bedroom. There are many reasons why we went with cork. I list them below with accompanying snapshots.
“Meanwhile, back at the ranch”
There is a lot going on in the design room and the shop while the foundation is being dug and the walls poured.
Shop drawings of house components are regularly sent to the shop team, Shawn, Kevin, Bradford, Amos and Daniel (among others).
The components include all the the floor system (joists and pre cut plywood sub floor) the exterior walls (including insulation, windows, doors and siding), and the roof system (ceiling paneling, rafters, insulation, roof sheathing and shingles). Continue reading
“Form equals function and function informs the form.”
After the concrete cures in a couple of days, it’s time to remove the bracing and supports. Now it’s time to lay out the floor joists.
Our friend, the arborist, was willing to climb up the Ponderosa and snap a photo of the pattern of the floor joists from way up high in the tree. It’s not very often that you get this particular view of a home, so we’re tickled to see it. Continue reading
“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They
are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
We are fans of ICF’s (Insulated Concrete Forms).
ICF’s are large hollow forms or molds that are lightweight, easy to stack and pre-insulated. Continue reading