SketchUp Model 2

Below are some SketchUp drawings of the second story bedrooms, bathroom, and closet space.

Fig. 1 Second floor layout

Fig. 2 Master bedroom and bathroom.


Fig. 3 Upstairs second bedtoom.

Putting on the Paint

VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are organic chemical compounds which can be offgassed into the atmosphere either through evaporation or through oxidization. Often times VOCs are found in common household products such as paints, paint thinners, and industrial cleaning products, as well as carpets and laminated furniture. VOC's can contiminate indoor air quality, potentially causing "sick building syndrome" which can have short- and long-term health effects in both animals and humans. According to the EPA, indoor air quality can be 2 to 5 times more contaminated with organic pollutants than outdoor air quality. VOCs may cause the following health effects: nose, throat, and eye irritation; headaches, nausea, loss of coordination; damage to liver, kidneys, and the central nervouse system. Some VOCs have been found to cause cancer in animals and others are suspected to cause cancer in humans.

To reduce the risk of VOC contamination, CHDC used both no- and low-VOC paints and primers for the interior walls of Greenth Street. To meet EPA standards, low-VOC paints and primers must contain less than 200 g/l. For all but one wall of the house CHDC used Sherwin Williams Harmony no-VOC (0 g/l) paint and primer; the north wall of the kitchen/dinning room was painted with low-VOC (43 g/l) Sherwin Williams Duration Home paint (due to the type of pigment used). Adding tint and pigment to paint and primers can raise the level of VOCs up to 10 g/l, which is still a very low VOC content.

The main wall and trim color in Greenth Street is Extra White; the bedrooms and baths are painted Mindful Grey and the north wall of the kitchen/dinning room is painted Real Red. See pictures below for a color sample.

For more information about VOCs and no- to low-VOC paint and primer, please refer to:

EPA's "An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality".
EarthEasy: Ideas for Environmentally Sustainable Living, Non-toxic Paints.

Fig. 1 North wall of the kitchen/dinning room -- paint color is "Real Red".

Fig 2 Downstairs bathroom looking into hallway --
wall color in bathroom is "Mindful Grey", trim and hallway color is "Extra White".

Fig. 3 Stairwell opening looking upwards to second floor --
wall color is "Extra White".

Drywall

12/22/08 -- The drywall is now up in the house and painting has begun on the walls. Below are some pictures of the drywall process.

Figure 1. First floor bathroom.

For the bathtub and shower surrounds, CHDC used Georgia-Pacific DenoArmor Plus High-Performance Interior Panel; a paperless drywall that has fiberglass mats on the front and the back and which is highly mold-resistant. Paperless drywall is required by LEED for Homes in order to reduce the risk of mold and mildew inn moisture-rich environments such as bathrooms.

Figure 2. Second floor bathroom.

3. Kitchen, looking north.

4. Stairway, looking down towards first floor.

5. Master bedroom on second floor, looking north.

Stonework and Insulation

11/25/08 -- Finishing touches are being put on the outside of the house, while on the inside the insulation is being installed.

Front facade: finished roof, siding, windows, decking and stonework.

Detail of the stonework (limestone).

The rain garden planter next to the deck.

Inside the rain garden planter --
this will eventually be filled with soil and plants to help divert rainwater from the roof.

Looking up through the open dormer above the deck.

The concrete pavers for the front and back walkways.
These will be set in place once the landscaping is ready to be put in.

Looking up at the second floor.

The tree in back was marked off to protect the root system during construction.

The garage pad in the back, off of the alleyway.

Insulation in the conditioned space of the upper floor.

Insulation on the stairwell wall, leading to the second floor.

Insulated water pipes, helps maintain water temperature and efficiency throughout house.

SketchUp Model

Below are some SketchUp pictures of the first floor of Greenth Street to give readers a better idea of the interior. Second floor pictures will be added shortly.

An aerial view of the first floor -- looking Northwest.

An aerial view of the first floor -- looking Southeast.

The first floor bedroom.

The first floor bathroom.


The kitchen area (with color).


The living room and kitchen area.

Framing It All In

Construction at 1347 Forest has been in progress for about a month and a half now. It's amazing how quickly a site can be completely transformed from a sparse patch of dirt and gravel to a fully-framed house. The following pictures show the framing progress:

Sustainably Harvested Lumber

Framing the First Floor

Looking Northeast

Looking North

Looking Northwest

The Reverse Open-Roof Dormer

The Kitchen/Living Room

Stairs Leading to the Basement

The Second Floor Bedroom and Bath

COSC Workshop: Basements and Foundations

The first public workshop sponsored by Center on Sustainable Communities (COSC) took place at Greenth Street on September 23, 2008. The workshop was led by Jacob Kvinlaug with input from David Downs, Greenth Street's contractor, and Shawn Pippert, CHDC Construction and Maintenance Director.

The first half of the workshop took place at the construction site, with a follow-up session and refreshments served at the Forest Avenue Public Library.

Below are some pictures from the event:

"Living Green"

To view coverage of Greenth Street by WOI ABC5 in Des Moines, please click the following Youtube link: "Living Green".

Got Foam?

Above are pictures of the house foundation being insulated with R value of 5, 1" insullation foam. This method helps prevent heat loss from the house's basement and provides a tighter seal.

On site changes to building plans are a common occurance during the construction phase as onsite issues arise. This is true of Greenth Street, as well. The architect and contractor originally intented to use a 2" layer of R value of 10 insullation with which to swath the foundation, but there were concerns that this thickness would not allow a flush and tight envelope between the foundation and the framing. There was also a concern about the insulation not being rigid enough from which to hang the house's heavy fiber cement siding.

Waste Management Plan

'Waste not the smallest thing created;
For grains of sand make mountains,
and atomies infinity"
--E. Knight

The adage runs: out of sight, out of mind. It’s a very apt adage when it comes to the topic of waste removal. We empty our dumpsters and the waste company hauls it away to be buried or burned – out of sight, out of mind.

Part of the green build process is to make people think about waste. It does this in a couple of ways. One, by encouraging contractors to employ build techniques that reduce waste, such as advanced framing. Second, green build experts recommend on-site source separation of waste materials. This means that each recyclable material (e.g. metal scrap, cardboard, framing remnants) is sorted by type into a separate, clearly labeled roll-up container or bin. Each type of waste material may then be weighed before it leaves the work site or as it arrives at the appropriate processing site. As much as possible, the material is diverted from the landfill to recycling centers, is reused in other building projects, or is renewed (turned into another usable product). In order to keep track of all this waste, how it will be separated, and where it is being directed to, a recycling coordinator may be assigned to the project to develop a Waste Management Plan. This plan is shared on a regular basis with everyone on the construction site from the workers to visitors. Communication is key to making sure that the Waste Management Plan is carried out properly and that the process is accurately documented.

It seems like a lot of work for waste. Indeed, for a step that is normally straight forward in the construction process, this step caused us some serious frustrations. These frustrations generally centered around finding the appropriate recycling centers in the area to take the kinds of materials that Greenth Street would be producing. In addition, the main company that we originally intended to use for most of our recycled material closed its operation, requiring us to start the process all over again and find separate centers for each type of waste material. We also had to decide how many bins and roll-up containers we would need for each type of material we could recycle (plus one container for non-recyclable material going to the landfill). Fortunately we had some help addressing these issues from Waste Management, Metro Waste Authority, and Iowa Waste Exchange.

Some people might think that with the extra work needed to reduce, reuse, recycle and renew it is not worth the effort. However, the alternative – that is, sending all waste material to the landfill or incinerator – adds to a waste stream that is rapidly overflowing its banks. In 2006 the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the U.S. produces 251 million tons of municipal solid waste – approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per day per citizen1. That’s a lot of waste to ignore. And the expense to keep it hidden and contained from contaminating soil, water and air resources can be high. For instance, in 2004 the average tipping fee for landfill waste in Iowa was $32.42/ton and the rate of waste was 6,000 tons a day – a total expenditure of $194, 520 per day just on landfill waste.

Waste management planning for a green, LEED certified project such as Greenth Street, is not always easy, but it is worth it.

For more statistics about waste material production in the United States go to:
The Clean Air Council
http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): -- http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/index.htm

For the Best Practices Manual: Waste Reduction Construction and Demolition Debris, sponsored by IOWA Life Changing, Iowa DNR, and Iowa Waste Reduction Center go to: http://www.iwrc.org/downloads/pdf/BMP_C_and_D.pdf.
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1From the EPA’s website: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/facts.htm
2 From Solid Waste Digest, Vol. 14 No. 6.

Photo: Image #1077158 from stock.xchng.com

Location, Location, Location

As any developer can tell you, it's all about the location.

Greenth Street's location is indeed a bonus. For one, the new house site faces South, rather than East, allowing more sun exposure for the front porch and minimizing heat-loss during the winter. Second, the site is adjacent to both the Des Moines Forest Avenue Public Library and Evelyn Davis Park. It also sits along a main public bus route, offering an affordable mass transportation option to the house's owner. The house is also only a few blocks from Drake University and is about a mile north of downtown Des Moines.

Fig. 1 1347 Forest Avenue: the property line lies between the
pink post on the left and the middle of the driveway on the right.

Fig. 2 Forest Avenue Public Library

Fig. 3 Kids playing in the fountain at Evelyn Davis Park

Another sustainable feature of the house location is that it is an urban infill site. "Infill" is a term used to describe land that was previously developed for residential or commercial use. By building on an infill lot, virgin or undeveloped land may be saved for agricultural use, wildlife habitat, or public green space. Developing blighted infill lots also helps raise adjacent homeowner's land values. In the case of Greenth Street, 1347 Forest Avenue was previously home to a building which the City of Des Moines demolished due to poor structural integrity.

CHDC believes that the location of Greenth Street truly enhances the sustainability of the project.

Growing Forest Avenue: A Groundbreaking Event

CHDC broke ground for Green^th Street on September 9, 2008 at the building site. The event was a double celebration for CHDC as we were also breaking ground for 1622 Forest Avenue, an energy-efficient, HERS-certified affordable home designed by students at the College of Design at Iowa State University. The two houses are being built just a couple of blocks away from each other, giving us at the CHDC a fun and unique chance to watch the houses grow the neighborhood.

About 50 people attended the morning event. Speakers at the event included Mayor Frank Cownie, mayor of the City of Des Moines; Jamie Malloy and Zach Zielonko, architects from Wells + Associates; Nadia Anderson, lecturer at ISU College of Design and Ryan Larson, one of the architect students who helped design 1622 Forest Ave.; Karen Jeske, CHDC executive director, and Heidi Wessels, CHDC associate director.

Following the event a small celebration and review of the design plans was held at the pavilion in Evelyn Davis Park, across the street from the groundbreaking site. CHDC would like to thank everyone who attended and helped make this event such a wonderful occasion!

Meanwhile back at the building site, the construction crew held their own groundbreaking event as they commenced work on digging out the foundation for the house.

See pictures of the event below:

Groundbreaking site for Greenth Street: house foundation is marked out in white

Mayor Frank Cownie, City of Des Moines and Heidi Wessels, CHDC Associate Director

Heidi Wessels, CHDC Associate Director, and Mayor Frank Cownie, City of Des Moines