Mike and I picked up right where we left off by driving to Renaissance together. When we got there, we found that someone had left a trailer in the loading dock. We worked around it, but it definitely made things more difficult. We started with the truck on the far side of the parking lot but soon moved it closer to the door. To get the corner detail out, we moved the truck a second time to just outside the lobby.

Luckily we had good help. We enlisted Luke Schneider and Mike’s friend Bobby. Jim Clapper even came in on a Sunday to lend a hand. Aside from the loading dock fiasco, everything was unloaded just fine. The wall sections were in the lobby for a bit, but we later moved them up to the fourth floor. We also returned the equipment and scrap material to the woodshop.

The big project for the morning was to take apart the floor diaphragm. With everyone working on it, it was done before break. The rest of the morning was spent cleaning and organizing what was left. For instance, I used the magnet to pick up all the screws and nails from the floor. I also emptied out all the tool belts for inventory.

After lunch, Peter and Mike returned with the UHaul which we loaded with the things going back to Fargo. With everything wrapping up, we discussed how to get the UHaul to Fargo in time and load the rest of the stuff for Kjell. We talked about it for a while and heard opinions until it was decided to split into two groups. One would stay in Minneapolis and load Kjell’s things on Monday while the other would return to Fargo and unload the UHaul.

Mike and I got underway shortly after that. Peter gave me one of the time-lapse cameras and a crash course on using it since I’d be documenting the drive back and unloading. We stopped by Christine’s to say goodbye and pick up my stuff before doing the same at Paul’s parents’ place in Minnetonka.

Then we hit the road. Myself and the time-lapse followed Mike in the UHaul the whole way back. Mike kept the pace brisk – I think he enjoyed driving a truck that didn’t top out at 65. We got back to Fargo a little before 10pm and parked the truck. We’ll unload it at Renaissance in the morning.

We got an amazing amount of work done today. Nic, Dusty, and I started by taking down the loft. It came apart in three sections which we moved elsewhere. We removed the remaining columns and finally the dummy walls. That allowed us to get to the interior sheathing which came down without too much fuss.

After lunch, Nic and I used a scissor lift to take down the gables on the west side. Mike finished that work as we were reassigned to the south wall. The two of us plus Chris and Nick started by taking down the enormous header piece we had jacked together weeks ago. Then we turned to the cripples which turned into quite a job. They had been nailed in place (some with eight or more nails) so removal was tough. Luckily Nic is an animal with a pry bar – he unleashed all sorts of hell and made short work of it.

It took Brittany, Luke and I a few hours to build the top part of the southwest column; I took it apart in about five minutes. By that time, others had removed all the sheathing and the window headers on the south and west sides. We then began unfastening the columns and setting them aside.

It was getting late, but we decided to keep working and take it down to the floor. Lyle had already cross-braced the four remaining wall sections so we started unscrewing it. It went really well despite a few screwheads breaking or being hidden under cripples. The former issue resulted in Nic actually busting a sill plate with his pry bar; a ‘slow clap’ followed.

The forklift was a lifesaver since our goal was to keep the walls in big pieces. The biggest piece was also the last; we took out the north wall in its entirety. We temporarily attached 2×12 extensions which we set on top of two scissor lifts. Johnny and Nick were able to lift and drive the wall outside where it was passed to the forklift and set behind the building.

It was dark when we finished, but there was only the floor remaining. A few of us went out for food afterwards to celebrate.

I rejoined the team for tear-down this morning. I was simultaneously pleased and horrified with the progress they made. They had disassembled quite a bit already – a good thing, to be sure – but the lovely building that had been standing there when I left was literally in pieces. Most of the finish materials were bundled and stacked as was the shelving.

Chris, Nic, and I started by removing the floor sheathing from the loft. Then I started taking the gabions apart on the east and north side with Brittany and Melissa. With them out of the way, we could remove the furring strips and foam blocks. Others removed the cedar columns and took apart the ‘patio’ on the south and west sides. The roof sheathing and joists were also removed.

After lunch, Nick and I emptied all the rock from gabions. Then we began taking down the fascia and exterior sheathing in order to reach the main beam. We did that on both sides and attached some 2x4s so that the scissor lifts could be used to remove it. While the front fascia was being removed, I bundled and labeled the siding that Chris and Johnny took off the south side.

A number of us helped uninstall the windows and repack them in their shipping crate. The last thing to do was take down the main beam. I was able to watch it from below and, I gotta say, it was quite a sight! Two scissor lifts hoisted the beam out of its pocket using the 2×4 extenders and passed it to a third lift. That lift shuffled over and passed the beam to a forklift which moved it over and around the crate of windows. Safe and sound!

Today was the last day of the Fair. It was a long day, but fortunately not as busy as Sunday. Just before the exhibit closed, Mike and I savored the shading structure one last time – it’ll be a shame to see her go…

With the Fair over, I’d have to call the demonstration house a success. Those who bothered to read the boards or talk to a student left pleasantly surprised (or so it seemed to me). A lot of eyes lit up when we told them the cabin was designed a built by students. Others were impressed by the reduction in energy usage.

In all of those conversations – hours and hours’ worth – a few questions came up again and again. Naturally, that starts to where on a person. We managed to stay polite outwardly, I think, though our thoughts may not have been. Here are some of the questions I was most frequently and what I was thinking as I answered…

‘How much does that window cost?’ I honestly don’t know; yes, they’re expensive, but windows always are. I am not a salesman and this is not a product showcase. I’d rather talk about their role in the building’s thermal envelope. Windows are just sexier, I guess.

‘What’s with the rocks?’ They’re for shedding water. They’re called gabions, g-a-b-i-o-n. No, they’re not loadbearing; it’s a cladding. No, they’re not loadbearing, either. Please don’t kick them.

‘Is that how the walls are gonna look?’ Yes, this is the final finish; we will not be plastering. The slats are another of our cheap and easy solutions. They do help with air circulation, but they’re more a product of the clients’ request to be ‘rustic’. No, it’s not very private, but it’s a loft.

‘Are you with the U?’ Nope. North Dakota State, actually. But kudos to the U for their support.

‘How thick are the walls?’ About sixteen inches. It’s a lot, but it’s necessary to super-insulate the walls and windows to reduce our energy use. The 2×6 assembly defined in the building code is the minimum, but there are other ways to build a wall.

‘So you have a bunch of solar panels?’ No. Photovoltaics and passive solar are completely different things. PV may be a good option if you’re tired of big electricity bills (geothermal, too). But the point of this demo is to show just how little energy is required by a passive house. Unless you’re absolutely intent on a net-zero project, you’re better off investing in a passive design.

‘What’s the per square foot here?’ If I tell you, you’ll stop listening. Per square foot is not always a good way of comparing prices. Our design had an estimated cost that was very high per square foot, but it was complicated by a number of factors including small scale, donated labor, student labor, and DIY projects. Instead of talking about that, though, I’ll quote the 15% figure from PHIUS and direct your attention to the materials in the wall assembly.

Today was the opening day for the fair. I was worried about getting there on time, but Melissa and I used the park-n-ride service which was pretty painless. I think the exhibit was well-received by most of the visitors. Some weren’t interested or simply weren’t buying it, but many people seemed genuinely intrigued by what we had to say.

Pam, our media contact, and a crew from the NBC station stopped by in the morning. They asked me for a little 30sec sound bite which they ran on the evening newscast. Check out minute 7 – hopefully the link stays active for a while… KARE 6pm Newscast 8/25/11

Brittany and I presented on the Sustainability Stage in the evening. It’s hard to gauge exactly how interested people were – I suspect many of them were content with just resting their legs for a while. But if someone has an idea as a result, then I guess it was worth it. One audience member, an architect with Vincent James, seemed rather interested and visited with us for a while after the presentation. A few others stopped by to get a closer look at our concrete samples.

We weren’t expecting to do a great deal at the fairgrounds today. But like Monday, little odd jobs seemed to keep popping up. I spent some time with Nic and Dusty dressing up our solid-wood wall mock-up. I also cut and taped process photos to the shelving with Peter.

We did all meet as a group and review our concepts for a short time. I expected the meeting would be longer, but time was short. Brittany and I seized the opportunity to test our presentation slides. It’s a good thing since we found that the screen has a 16:9 format (I had assumed there would be a projector with a 4:3 format). It’s no big deal but it will require some resizing of our slides. I’ll try and finish the slide show tonight so we can rehearse the presentation a bit after our shifts tomorrow. I think we’re both worried since there really hasn’t been enough time to prepare a proper presentation, but I guess we’ll just have to roll with it…

Today was supposed to be so simple – just mop up the last few things – but it turned into one of our very longest days. Right away in the morning, Paul, Ty, and I installed the track and trolleys for the bathroom door. They Ty and I spent some time building a small, intermediate step between the shading structure and the pavers. It really turned out nicely with everything sitting flush with everything else. Unfortunately, it’s also hard to see so Nick will be adding an aluminum angle to make it more visible.

The biggest job of the day, however, was an unexpected one. Somehow we became responsible for building two ramps between the pavers and the concrete floor. Ty and I ripped a bunch of lumber down to the proper size and then built a jig to make the angled cut. Half the boards needed some additional trimming but we managed to get them looking uniform. Then we had to cut some blocking before finally adding the OSB.

The whole process was pretty involved and not very pleasant – not the ideal way to end work on the project. But now the cabin is essentially complete and looking awesome; it feels great to have been a part of it!

After working on gabions day after day, it was nice to tackle some other projects. Paul and I put the cedar bench together on the south side right away. It was really easy work since Paul had already cut and adjusted the pieces yesterday. We just glued the pieces together and fastened them.

The rest of the morning and afternoon I worked with Chris. We took little pieces of 1×1 which had cut to size and outlined the profile of the stairs. After lunch we made the final adjustments to the loft railing. We took the remaining slats off the front, cut them, and placed them on the backside to better display the floating burlap panels. We also added caps to the railing posts. It’s a simple gesture, but it mimics the language of the shelving nicely.

Ty and I were asked to trim the inside of the door which was the very last thing to be trimmed. The joint where the door’s rough opening meets the little electrical shelf is pretty odd, but I think we handled it as well as we could have. We also discovered an inexplicable wave in the siding which necessitated some re-cutting. Believe it or not, it was my first time truly working with richlite on the project. It’s a really remarkable material though not forgiving at all; I can now empathize with my classmates who have been using it for over a week.

The project is really winding down now. We had another great day of work from everyone; the whole cabin is starting to look really nice. Luke and I even got a little break from the gabions. Instead, we started by building a toe kick for the south side. We attached a piece of richlite to some otherwise unusable redwood and then nailed it down. Then Luke began adding rock between it and the windows while Mikey worked on trim. The richlite is pretty subtle, but should be enough to prevent any unintentional kicking of rock.

The rest of the day, Luke and I worked on finishing the gabions once and for all. He attached the cages to the north wall while I manufactured a new angled gabion. (The original was banged up on Tuesday, but we were able to salvage it and move it to the east side.) We didn’t have any more material, so I salvaged one of the badly damaged gabions. I cut it apart entirely and straightened the mesh as much as possible. After adding new edges to the metal, I began stitching the pieces back together which took most of the afternoon.

We finished attaching and filling all the gabions by the end of the day. They look very clean – much better than the first attempt.We also took advantage of the work being done on the north side window by realigning of the weather membrane to match the edge of the wainscoting. If you step back, it looks as if the gabions have been cut and peeled back along with the rest of the wall.

Today was the day that made all the work seem worthwhile. A lot of people’s projects are starting to really look nice: Brittany’s concrete bench, Ty and Chris’s backsplash for the dump space, even Lyle’s full-height wall is growing on me.

Today was also a major victory for the gabions. Luke finished forming the remaining gabions while I adjusted some of the shading structure’s hardware to accommodate the addition. He kept working on those like a champ while I fixed them in place and began adding rock. We planned on adding lids once the rock was added but later decided to leave them open except for a few rebar ties. The cages will still hold their shape, it’ll save us hours on stitching, and should make for a nice, uninhibited moment at the bench.

We finished and filled all ten cages well before the end of the day. I started working with Paul and Mike on the cedar bench which should be done by tomorrow. We even began adding rock between the gabions and the pavers of the ‘street’. From a distance, it looks as if the rock has suddenly been sucked up into a vertical sheet just in front of the cabin. As nice as the interior is looking, the shading structure is quickly becoming a very special space. Tomorrow we’ll add some more rock between the shading structure and the cabin to really make it pop.

It felt like one step forward and two steps back today. There’s not much to show for today’s work, but I think we’re in a position to make a lot of progress tomorrow. Luke and I began by emptying the rock from the gabions on the north side. Without the rock we could get a better idea of the damage. Paul and I managed to repair three of them (not counting the angled one salvaged yesterday), but two are seemingly out of commission.

Luke and I started working on the south side gabions as soon as Nick brought some 24in mesh. We resolved to build two gabions for each bay or ten total. We spent the rest of the day in manufacture mode. Luke would shape the metal which I would stitch together before adding a bottom. We had seven cages in various stages of completion by the end of the day.

We talked quite a bit with Mikey and Paul about adding the bench and the particulars of that connection. It looks like we’ll move the gabions in line with the center of the columns and then fasten two ‘T’s’ on either side to act as a bench. We’ll have to make a couple cuts in the mesh in order to fit around the columns’ hardware, but I think it’s the right move.

We got to work by cleaning the rock inside the gabions built yesterday. Once they had dried a bit, Luke and I brought them inside and tipped them into position along the north wall. The steel was mutilated. The rock that we used (crushed granite) was so heavy that any maneuvering caused the weight to shift and crush the thin steel mesh. They looked pretty good from a distance, but the damage was clear up close. The sight of the gabions (all that work!) being mangled left me feeling pretty distraught the rest of the morning.

Luckily Luke never feels distraught. While Ty and I washed the rest of the rock, he began prepping the east side for a second attempt. We fastened the empty gabions to the furring strips on the wall and tied them together. Then we began adding the rock evenly in all of the gabions simultaneously before stitching the tops. Success! By filling them in place, the steel remained intact and very crisp-looking.

The trade-off, of course, is that the gabions will be immobile and therefore more difficult to disassemble. But based on today’s lesson, it’s clear that we were wrong to ever consider them mobile in the first place. Rock that dense is just too heavy to move around once inside the gabion. Tomorrow we’ll begin work on the gabions for the south side which will be a different size. Hopefully there will be time to perform some repairs on the maimed gabions and refill them using the improved method…

Quite the day. We began by positioning the shading structure. It was already assembled and braced, but it needed to be moved to its final position. I took measurements while Nick used the forklift to coerce the structure into place; Ty used the sledgehammer for the fine tuning. The job was made more difficult by the exposed aggregate concrete on that section of the floor (it’s complicated a few tasks, actually).

I worked with Mikey for the better part of the morning adding the rest of the louvers to the shading structure. The rock was delivered in the afternoon so Luke and I began filling the gabions. I’ve been worried about the rock settling so we added the rock while the steel cage sat against a board with a curved base. As Luke added the rock, I shook the board back and forth so that the rock would settle more tightly.  We filled five plus the angled one which should be enough to reach under the window on the north side. We can wash and place them tomorrow morning.

By that time it was starting to get late, but we were asked to add blocking between the cabin, the shade structure, and the walkway on the west. Nick ordered everyone pizza for the extra effort. Before we called it a day, Dusty alerted me to an issue on the east side: an electrical box was installed a few inches off the ground exactly where the gabions would sit. So I spent the rest of the evening clipping an outlet-sized hole in one of the cages. I added some extra steel to direct the loads and (hopefully) prevent the steel from sagging.

I started up on the roof today. Yesterday, Johnny and Luke moved a number of the exterior SIPs to better cover the roof (since we don’t have enough for the entire area). So this morning we added some lumber to fill the gap between the SIPs. It’s a small deception which should be invisible once the final finish layer is added. Indeed, Johnny and Melissa started adding a building wrap and cedar siding in the afternoon.

I, on the other hand, was pulled to work on the windows the rest of the morning and afternoon. We had a representative from H Windows present so we opened the crate (which included a mysterious extra window) and got to work. We started with the smallest one – the tilt-and-turn window on the west side. That particular product is pretty remarkable; I was mortified at least twice when I thought the entire window was falling down, but, in fact, someone had just ‘tilted’ it.

Next we installed the door. There is no doubt it is a foreign product – the handle is much higher and sits above the deadbolt. We actually found ourselves discussing which way was ‘up’ since it’s a bit out of the ordinary. Then we added the two south-facing fixed windows and, after lunch, the sliding door on the west side. The sheer mass of these things was amazing. Luckily we had a concrete floor, a forklift, and almost a dozen people to help when needed. I’m not quite sure how they would be installed with much less, but it must be possible.

I worked with Ty for a bit in the afternoon adding louvers to the shading structure. We’ll have to finish that work on Monday since Mike and Noor distracted us all with ice cream.

Ty and I finished the shelf on the north side this morning. I sanded the final piece which had somehow been missed previously. I cut the notches with the jigsaw and the two of us fastened them in place. The 1x4s were added later, so the entire unit is essentially complete. The only thing left to do now is suggest the missing stairs, which could be done easily and quickly some other time.

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on a prototypical angled gabion. A few of us had mused about the gabions being cut-away along with the rest of the wall assembly. A true cut-away of a gabion would be impossible, of course, but I figured one could be built with an irregular shape. It turns out that that is true; it just takes a bit longer to properly shape the metal. After I finally finished, I added the ties to the remaining gabions. There are now fourteen of that size ready for the rock.

I ended the day by cutting some sill plates for the windows with Johnny and Luke. The crate containing them arrived in the morning, but we’ll wait until tomorrow to install them.

More gabions this morning. Chris Nelson and I started by adding table legs to one of the template blocks I built yesterday. The added height made the shaping the metal way easier and faster. I shaped the whole 25ft roll – 7 gabions worth – before lunch. It took all day to match that total yesterday. Chris, Lyle, and Brittany worked on stitching at various times during the day. By the end of the day, we had nine completely done, four stitched but not tied, and one yet to be stitched.

After lunch, I turned to the shelving structure. I sanded the remaining horizontal pieces, trimmed them, and then used the jigsaw to cut notches for the columns and conduit. Ty and I fastened them and then added several of the vertical pieces. There are a few pieces needed to finish the north side, but the south side shelf is completely done thanks to Brittany and Chris who attached 1x4s to the backside.

The project feels like it’s finally coming together. The completion of the shelving (albeit one side) has completely transformed the interior.

Today was perhaps the slowest and quietly frustrating of the last week. Ty and I were tasked with assembling the shelving. We had to start by sanding the boards which slowed everything down. Some of the boards needed slight trimming to fit snuggly.

We started on the north side under the loft. We hit a snag when we moved away from the loft and found the second shelf to be wobbly. Chris Aldrich, Nick, and Johnny managed to solve the problem but they had the cut through the floor in order to re-block it.

When we started on the south, we realized that two boards were missing. I cut some pieces and then drove to Willy’s shop to join them. The biscuiting was fine, but I think the traffic doubled the length of the trip. I got back and we started on the south next to the loft. We finished that but called it a day after putting up the next post. The rest of the crew finished siding the west side – it looks fantastic!

Ty and I continued work on the shelving structure. We planed the rest of the 2x6s from Saturday along with some more cut today. We packed the whole lot in the box of Mike’s pickup and drove to Willy’s cabinet shop. We spent the rest of the day marking, biscuiting, and clamping.

We’ll begin assembling the shelving right away tomorrow morning. I, for one, am eager to get underway; we’ve now spent two days just doing prep work for this project. It’s refreshing to see other progress being made. The entire south side has been sided along with most of the west side. The interior sheathing has been taped and cedar cladding has been added to one of the LVL columns.