This is just a short note to remind you all that we’ll be showing The Commons on Portland’s Build it Green Tour. Get your 2010 tickets here.

Dustin got a fancy new phone which he’s going to try to post more regular updates with. Here’s the first:

Our friend Tara brought over her eighth grade class for a little tour of the house. The class was kind enough to send a bunch of thank you cards, we thought we’d post some of them for you all to see (click on the images to see the originals).

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Since our last update we’ve made some significant progress on the house. After being set back over a month by Reserve Steel (they took our money and ran), we’re finally getting somewhere. In our down time we did some redesigning of the wall system; we’re going from a double stud wall to a single with insulation hung on the exterior. This should decrease costs and actually improve performance, a double win. So I guess with lemons we make lemonade.

Anyway, we’ve got a second floor and even a roof (ok, it’s only plywood so far). All very exciting. It’s amazing how much the look and feel of our project has changed. It certainly feels much more tangible now.

This picture is about a week old, we’ll get some new ones up soon.

We’ve also been attempting to deal with some privacy issues. A few of our neighbors have voiced concern over our second story looking into their backyards. We have no desire to look into their backyards, so we thought this a wonderful opportunity to use a light shelf. The idea is that windows can be frosted, or somehow obscured without cutting lighting below the eye level. At eye level, a shelf can be hung on the exterior of the building making it so you can’t peer over the shelf. We then paint the shelf white and more light reflects into the building. Yay, for double wins.

Remember to check our photostream, it’s updated far more often than this blog. We’ll try to keep posting as changes happn.

Some anonymous benefactor has uploaded the segment from Renovation Nation that we were on to YouTube. I’m not sure how long they’ll last, so check it out while you can:

Throughout the process of building this house Dustin and I have continually confirmed the old adage that building things take twice as long as you expect them to. Often, it takes more than twice as long. We have found this especially true when relying on others; it’s been extremely difficult to keep timelines because we’re often stymied by external factors such as waiting for forms to be put in place and concrete to be poured.

So one lesson is simple: you’re going to be wrong about your estimates of time (at least until you’ve done this many more times than we have). It can be pretty painful when you’ve told someone you’ll get something done by a certain time, and someone else is holding you up.

Another lesson: write time lines into agreements with contractors. It can be hard to put penalties for not reaching goals, especially because you don’t want them to hurry up a job cutting corners, but at least writing down goals can give both of you a place to reference.

With all of that, there is an upside to being slowed down, it has given us the opportunity to work on other projects. Dustin is working on creating a little art studio in the shop. He’s had fun being able to do some finish work and also built some cool stairs / storage area. The whole process has been an exercise in using space as efficiently as possible (for example, we have one door which functions for either the shower or the toilet, whichever is in use).

I’ve been working up the gumption to post about a home automation system that I’ve been building in the hopes of reducing energy usage and collecting data (such as the water level in the cistern). I haven’t posted about it yet because I wasn’t sure that it would ever come to fruition. However it’s starting to progress despite my woeful lack of electrical engineering knowledge. So with that said, I’ll hopefully be posting a little preview of it soon. Until then, here’s a picture:

Dustin is getting knee surgery today. He hurt it a few months ago while climbing. Hopefully this will get him back to full health! Anyway, everyone wish him luck.

Oh, and don’t forget to check us out on the Discovery Channel’s Renovation Nation at 9:00 tonight.

Update: Also it appears as if the show is on at 9:00 PM ET which would make it 6:00 PM PT

Update: It looks like we’re not going to be on the Discovery Channel, but Planet Green, a Discovery subsidiary (the channel finder below works).

As mentioned previously, we’re going to be on TV! And Soon! The show will be airing this Friday July 24th at 9:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM PT on the Discovery Channel Planet Green (find out what channel it’s on). Here’s what they say about it:

Portland, OR: Salvage Brothers

Steve helps the Moon brothers build what they hope to be one of the greenest homes in the country. Steve will help install steel walls, reclaimed wood from shipping pallets and even check out a composting toilet.

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I thought it might be interesting to you all to see some of the process that went into creating The Commons. With that in mind I am publishing here the paper I wrote while finishing school and working on The Commons project with Dustin.

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So we’ve hit two major milestones in the project in the last week.

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