Punctuated by winter days of snow, ice, and even spots of sunshine, the crew from Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity has been chipping away at the remaining parts of the Casita de Vida.
After Cozy Home Performance installed insulation in the roof, rim joists and basement walls, we had a stellar blower door test conducted by a BCT alumnus at Airtight Energy Consulting with just 0.54 ACH50 (air changes per hour at 50 pascals). For comparison, Passive House standards are set at 0.6 for the same metric. That puts our final HERS (Home Energy Rating System) index at 32 – well below the code mandated level required for new, all-electric homes in the area. We couldn’t be happier with these numbers as they stand testament to our students attention to detail and diligent taping of seams and any holes or utility penetrations they encountered. Amazing work!
Volunteer day with DOCYes, it’s winterPorch and Deck taking shape!
With the deck and porch taking shape as another winter storm approaches, the Casita de Vida is looking more and more like the students’ renders and getting closer and closer to being a home for Pedro and Damaris. You know it’s close when the mini-split heat pump is keeping it toasty inside and the toilet flushes!
A huge thank you to Louisiana Pacific and Bluelinx for supplying this year’s project with LP SmartSide board and batten siding. This is our second year using the product line and couldn’t be happier about this regionally produced, engineered wood product that saves us time and energy because it comes pre-finished and ready to install.
After 12 intense weeks of building, we wrapped up the summer sessions with a celebration of everything we accomplished. Our dedicated students stayed late on many occasions to finish what they were working on, and it shows. Sure, there are a couple more doors and some baseboard to install, but our 16 students BROUGHT IT.
*Plus they wrote me a heartfelt card with Casita de Vida hand-painted on the cover. It was a ton of work, but well worth it. Thank you UMDB2025!
Monday started off by sanding our first layer of dried joint compound to smoothly apply our next coats of “mud.” Hiding away the beige drywall tape and beginning to make the walls and ceilings as smooth as possible. Some rooms of Casita de Vida required more work than others, but our leader, Ben, spread us out to cover different areas and ensure this job will be completed with efficiently! If we weren’t dirty in construction before, there is no way anyone came out of work today clean. Mud and dust can get everywhere! Before that was finalized, we still had other work to do.
While some started off sanding and mudding, the cedar shingles on the exterior gable wall still had to be finished. Two of the crew got to work completing this task and the result speaks for itself! Finally, the roof of Casita de Vida has a personality of its own!
A highlight of the week is this new upgrade to our washing station outdoors! We are forever grateful to Ben again for repurposing the savaged sink for us and hopefully to future DesignBuilders if it can survive the New England weather long enough! (Yes, a proper p-trap is coming and it will be stored for winter.)
Significant progress in the bathroom this week! We modified a cabinet from the “bargain trailer” at Cowls Building Supply to fit in the limited space needed where the sink will be and added a color-matched end panel to complete the finish. We are leaning into shades of green for this house!
Bathroom tiling is coming soon for next week, so prepped the floor with the Schluter®-DITRA membrane for decoupling (crack prevention) and waterproofing. Seams were sealed using the KERDI-BAND and more mortar to ensure a tight barrier. Looking pretty good!
After many days of work, our first windowsill – crafted from locally grown and milled ash donated by the DCR – had its final adjustments and was fit to our Southwest living room window. More windowsills are coming through the production process of templating, cutting, adjusting, and sanding as the rest of the gang are completing the finishing touches to the drywall and exterior siding.
Final LP SmartSide panels of siding have been delivered to the site, and we couldn’t wait any longer to hang them all to completely cover the exposed weather barrier. Along with the final window trim and flashing.
For the final working day of the week, we applied a primer coat to the drywall. The bathroom was the first room to be primed. Testing to see any imperfections and look of the primer. When all looked great, we continued priming the main living, kitchen, and mudroom areas of the house until the entire house was primed. Finishing off with ceiling paint. Needless to say, even we are starting to feel at home with the clean, sharp, and crisp walls!
Pro tip: Wear old clothes and/or proper protection before priming. That stuff does NOT come off easily.
A busy week with drywall install, a visit from Saint-Gobain and a field trip to Rare Forms to see how they construct compressed straw panels (exactly like the ones they donated to our project).
