HEAT PUMPS FOR SPACE AND WATER HEATING Most people are familiar with heat pumps, though possibly not by that name. An ordinary refrigerator is technically a heat pump. So is air conditioning – it works by exactly the same principal. Heat pumps work not by creating heat, but by moving … Read More
“The rain came, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall, because it had foundations on the rock.” Matthew 7:25 While we’re not technically building on rock, we will have modern day rock, concrete, in thick liquid form, like a cold … Read More
NEWS FOR EARTH DAY – WE REALLY HAVE STARTED CONSTRUCTION Almost eleven years ago, we found a vacant lot for sale in Pacifica, having looked around for a few years for a place to build our own house. The price was right, we had the cash, and 478 Monterey was … Read More
No, this blog isn’t about the latest ‘green’ building material, or about Swiss Chalet style architecture. It’s about one of the newer trends in residential construction: air sealing for energy efficiency. Some years ago building scientists (yes, there is such a discipline) discovered that the greatest source of energy loss … Read More
One of our estate projects just got completed, a large main house with pool house, pool and landscaped grounds for a high-tech entrepreneur and his growing family. While the design of the exterior started with the inspiration of a particular house that the owners loved, it gradually took on a … Read More
As part of our commitment to the environment, it is important to regularly question the way that buildings are built and to reevaluate our processes and documentation to best benefit our clients and the planet. In many parts of the world, the Passive House movement is growing significantly. In Belgium … Read More
As the world is full of so much tragedy these days, seemingly one event after another of innocent lives being taken, debilitating and divisive racism, ugly, narcissistic and opportunistic politicians, I sometimes begin to wonder if I am better off climbing into a hole and ignoring the collapsing world around … Read More
We are finally ready to share our plans with you! Thanks to Terry and Gerry at Millennium Enterprises for working with us to establish a preliminary budget and brainstorm additional ways to simplify and save costs. We have made the decision to go ahead and finalize our construction drawings and get actual … Read More
As we announced when we started this blog seven years ago, we plan to build our own house in Pacifica. Some of our studious readers may have been wondering what happened with that project. Our intention at the time was that we would have moved in about 2009 … but … Read More
2014 and 2015 have been the busiest ever in our architectural business, so I have to apologize to our blog followers. We hope to have more time to blog soon as we really, truly are starting design work on our own Net Zero Energy/Passive House in Pacifica California and want … Read More