Setsuzokuya

With our decision to switch to the Bellevue project, 'Taltree 4' no longer works as a name. As we pondered new names for the blog, we decided to come up with a name for our house, which we could then use for the blog.

The theme of our house is connection: we want to facilitate connection between our family and guests and the outdoors, between our family and the community, between our family and guests, between guests with each other, and between the family remembers living in the house. The idea is to design it in such a way that these relationships happen naturally, and are encouraged by the layout of the house.

We wanted a name to reflect this theme. A name should have a meaning, but it should also be a distinct identifier. Calling our home 'House of Connections' sounds a bit strange; it is more a description than a name. We decided to use another language, since we can use a word that has an appropriate meaning; but will not be immediately understood or interpreted by most people. We both have connections to Japanese, and will probably have some Japanese influences in our house, so it seems appropriate to look there. We found the word 'setsuzoku', meaning 'link, connection, union'. We appended 'ya' to that, which means 'house, shop' to get 'Setsuzokuya'. This has the same meaning, but sounds more like an appropriate name or identifier.

As you can see, the blog has this new name already.  The blog URL will be updated to reflect this on November 14th.  At that point, you'll need to switch your RSS feeds and bookmarks to point to http://setsuzokuya.blogspot.com.

Bellevue 41st

We're moving to Bellevue! We decided to buy the last lot in YS Development's Bellevue 41st project.

Location

We can give a list of place descriptors, but unlike Seattle or Kirkland where geographic labels mean something to us, we do not really know what these labels entail. The good thing is that even you folks outside of Seattle will have only slightly less understanding of our description than we do.

The site is on Somerset Hill (this one makes sense; it's a geographic feature), near the Factoria Mall (but what is the Factoria area?), but also in the Newport area (the high school and library near-by are named after this), in the south part of Bellevue (the actual city). One thing we know is that people react much more positively when we say "we'll be living on Somerset Hill" than when we say "we'll be living in Factoria."


View Larger Map

Basically, the site is just south of I-90 (major east-west freeway that heads west into Seattle, and east out to the Cascade Mountains and Eastern Washington) and just east of I-405 (major north-south freeway that parallels I-5 on the east side of Lake Washington — this is the main corridor for the Eastside).

This area seems out-of-the-way to someone who lives up in Kirkland.  From there, we rarely have any reason to go south of I-90 unless we're going all the way to the airport, which is another 10 miles beyond Factoria.  Shopping, stores, and most other activities we frequent are either in Seattle or in the Kirkland-Redmond-Bellevue (downtown) area.  We don't go down to Factoria regularly (we've probably been down there less than a half-dozen times). We only pass by it as part of a longer trip south. That makes it seem far away.

But in driving distance, it isn't far.  If traffic on 405 is good, we can make it down there in about 15 minutes; taking the back roads is maybe 20-25 minutes.  Coming from Microsoft, downtown Bellevue, or even downtown Kirkland is less than that. The only awkward part to the location is commuting by bus between there and Kirkland; which is, unfortunately, what Erika does (however, we've already discussed alternative options for her, so we can hopefully find something reasonable).

Project and Site

The project consists of five custom homes; the others are in the range of 2300-2900 sq ft. and $800k-$900k in price.  We're going to be coming in a bit below that at closer to 2000 sq ft. and a bit over $700k (which was the high end of the Taltree project).  The houses are arranged with a short driveway down the middle and two houses on the upslope, three on the downslope.

The houses will probably all be oriented toward the west to take advantage of the views — a few trees close in on the lot, then across Lake Washington to some hills in the south part of Seattle.  The upper floors should be able to see some of the lake, too.  This development won't have the same major community features as Taltree, but there is already discussion of putting in some shared amenities near the end of the driveway.  This development is well along; as of several weeks ago, the first house was fully framed; the second had most of the foundation laid; the third was in design; and the fourth is close to being sold.  I'm guessing we'll start design on a similar schedule with the fourth house.

We are taking the fifth lot, which is closest to the (very quiet residential) road, but is at the western edge of the group (on a western slope, so there will be one house behind/upslope from us, but we shouldn't have anything besides trees blocking our view).  There is a trail that we are hoping the city will develop into real stairs that lead down to the Factoria Mall.  The trail goes right by what will be our backyard, and leaves a nice gap in the trees for the western view. We do have a view of the freeway, and there is some noise; but I found that as soon as you stopped paying attention it disappeared; inside it should be completely quiet.  There should also be enough flat space between the house and tree line to the west for a backyard, which will be below street level.

Design

What does this mean from a design perspective?  We're not as familiar with the lot yet (we'll be meeting with the architect soon for some preliminary layout); but a three-story house has been suggested to take advantage of the slope, with the lower floor being just one room; potentially a media room or guest room.  We're assuming that the entry and garage will be on the east side at the main floor, with the major social areas there; and private living spaces upstairs.

It will probably be mostly west and south oriented; since north is closest to the next house over, and east will be towards the driveway and another house.  West and south are more private, have good light, and have better views.  But we don't yet have a good idea of what the overall shape or layout of the building will be.  The backyard will be at the lowest level, which may be below the main social space, so we may have a larger deck off the main floor (one of the houses currently under construction has this setup).  Overall, though, we want the same functionality and general relationship between areas as we discussed for the Taltree project.  On the upside, now we will have a personal garage right next to our house, instead of a shared one in a different area of the site.

Personal Thoughts

In the end, how do we feel about this?  Well, it is a shame that the Taltree project wasn't coming together in our time frame.  While there is no hard limit in our current location (in fact, we've been quite happy here and could probably stay a lot longer), after more than nine months of waiting, we are very ready to finally have our project underway.  This has the best timeline and least uncertainty of all the options; and also gives us the best value — being part of a project that already has agreements with various manufacturers, we will get those same deals.

We are not familiar with the neighborhood down there, so that is a source of uncertainty.  We did a little bit of exploring, and there are ups and downs.  While it is considered very walkable (an 82/100 on WalkScore), that is pretty much all to the Factoria Mall.  This is not exactly the most pedestrian-friendly areas, but there is a good variety of businesses. Certainly more than Taltree which only had walking access to a (much smaller) strip mall. Being up on the hill is nice. It provides psychological separation from the mall even though it is only a short (though steep) walk away.

Jeff's commute will improve; he may not even need to drive to the near-by park and ride to catch a bus into downtown Seattle. If he ever ends up working on the Eastside, he'll be a short drive away.  Erika is not as happy, since the best bus is a route that takes about 50 minutes from Factoria Boulevard up to Google Kirkland.  On the other hand, she knows there are co-workers who live in that area which might make car-pooling an option; or if she is willing to drive, it will be fairly reasonable, even avoiding the freeway.  Certainly not as good as Taltree would be, though.

While the community will not be as extensive as it probably would be at Taltree, the existing members have formed a good community already, and it sounds like a nice group.  It is difficult to predict what will happen; but even at the other development, nothing is assured.

One disadvantage is that we'll have to change this blog name... (any suggestions?)

Overall, we're happy.  We've both decided it is the best decision; we are happy to be moving forward; and still happy to be working with YS Development.

Location & Site

Location

The location of the Taltree development is right on the border between Redmond and Kirkland.


View Larger Map

This land belongs to a small area that was only incorporated into Redmond a few years ago. The land lies right on the border between Redmond and Kirkland (in fact, the street and possibly the sidewalk are part of Kirkland), so it feels more connected to Kirkland than Redmond.

It is just north of Bridle Trails, which is a large park area that feels fairly undeveloped -- there are a lot of old trees lining the roads, and many of the houses are fairly secluded. It is also located just north of NE 70th Pl/Old Redmond Road. This makes the location well connected -- one direction will take you to I-405 and then into Kirkland; the other way will take you into Redmond.

Right at 132nd Ave and 70th Pl is a small shopping mall -- it has a few small restaurants, Ace Hardware, Red Apple Market, Bartell's Drugs, Tech City Bowl, and other shops and restaurants. It should provide some good basic services within walking distance.

Site

The site itself is two half-acre lots that currently each have a small house on them. The rest is fairly wild. There are a lot of tall trees (hence the name), especially pines, and at least one mature oak tree. We also found some clumps of black bamboo, which is apparently somewhat rare. Overall, there is a nice diversity of plants, and a good selection will be retained once the site has been fully developed. Part of this will be a screen of trees and plants at the road to add some privacy to the site.

The site is moderately level, but slopes up from the street for a total rise of about 10 feet at the back. Since our house will be located at the far end, it will be raised up a good amount from the street, which should help to make it feel a bit more secluded.

The current plans for the site include saving a nice group of pine trees just to the north of our house, while the south will be a bit more open. However, on the next lot over to the south, there is currently a group of tall pines; hopefully these will provide us with a nice view, while still having enough open space to get some good southern light into the house.

About YS Development

YS Development is a small development company building modern, green houses in the Eastside area outside of Seattle (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond). Their website includes a nice page on green building. They handle the entire project from beginning to end — land acquisition, design, permitting and building. Not everything is done directly by them; they work with architects for the design, and of course the building phase uses various contractors. But they work to provide a custom-built house at a fixed price point, which is very appealing to us. We love the idea of a custom-built home; but everyone we know who has worked on a custom building has run into problems, cost overruns, financing issues, etc. YS Development should be able to help us with a lot of these issues; for example, they're dealing with all the permitting and details to get the property workable for the Taltree development.

Kirkland Duo

One of the showcase developments from YS Development is Kirkland Duo, which is two high-end homes near downtown Kirkland. These are both built for speculation (meaning there was no customer at development time — this is what most new homes are built as), but the finishes, layout, and overall design are good examples of the work YS Development does. They are fairly large (around 3600-3800 sq. ft.) and are well out of our price range; but we were impressed with the amount of care and detail put into these compared to most new homes we saw. Even before we met Yuval, the head of YS Development, and went on a house tour with him, we realized that he had really studied and implemented design at a level most spec houses don't have. For example, windows seemed to be designed to frame views appropriately. Windows were placed to avoid staring directly at neighboring houses. Windows were also used as a design element; instead of just sticking them around haphazardly, they were placed so as to benefit both the internal and external architecture. The homes have a lot of green features, such as a garage separated by a short walk-way to separate it from the house; a green roof in some areas; natural wool carpet; low-VOC paint; etc. One of the houses has sold already, but the other is doing regular open houses (check the YS Development home page for the schedule). If you are in the area, we recommend checking it out.

Current Projects

Currently, there are a couple community projects YS Development is working on. One of them is ours, Taltree ecoVillage, which is still early in the process. The other project is in Bellevue, and is further along. They are doing five single-family homes, each with their own garage and lot, which gives them a bit more flexibility in design, but may not provide the same kind of community areas as Taltree will have. The houses are also a bit larger and more expensive in comparison. For this project, they were working on submitting plans to the city for two of the houses about a month ago, so they are at least several months ahead of us.

YS Development also does one-off custom homes for individual customers, which includes finding the right site, custom design, and building. They work with the customer to provide this within the desired budget. This is a good alternative for those who aren't interested in one of the community projects, or have a different locaton and/or price they would like.

About Green Building: Costs and Benefits

Green building provides a lot of benefits for the homeowner. A green home will often be higher quality and more livable because of the intentional design. It should have cheaper (sometimes much cheaper) utility bills over the lifetime of the house. Residents should have a quality of life when they are not surrounded by materials that are leaking chemicals. For those who care about such things, living in a green home leaves you with the knowledge that your home construction resulted in less waste and likely used recyclable or renewable materials.

Some of this may come at a cost — wool carpet is more expensive. Low-VOC paint may cost more because it is less common. However, other choices, such as choosing bamboo flooring over exotic hardwoods or choosing local manufactured stone, may save money. Labor costs may be higher for new construction techniques, but money is saved when less material is wasted. High performance windows may cost more, but your energy costs are much lower over the lifetime of the home (plus, you will be less impacted if energy prices rise significantly).

Green building does not have to cost more; but in practice it is rare enough that we are still paying a premium due to the limited sources of green products and the limited number of workers trained in the proper building techniques. If nothing else, most green buildings probably have more time and effort put into design than a standard home, and that will increase costs. However, we think the cost will definitely be worth it for a better home in the end.

About Green Building: Design and Energy Use

A green home is designed to use much less energy than a standard home. Some of this is related to construction techniques -- a tighter seal and better insulation all around prevents heat loss (or heat gain in the summer). With a heat-recovery exchange system you can still get healthy ventilation without losing all the heat from your house. Similarly, using very insulated windows with heat glazing can help keep out the sun when it is hot and keep in or out the heat from leaking through.

But a lot of the energy efficiency comes down managing solar energy as well as possible. In the winter, you want to capture as much sun as possible to heat your home naturally. This means taking advantage of the fact that the sun is higher in the sky in the summer than in the winter. In many locations, a green home will be built with south-facing exposure to capture the sun the winter sun. To prevent the higher summer sun from entering, a green home can have eaves over the windows at the appropriate angle and extent to block most of the sun in the summer. Clerestory windows and light shelves help bring light deeper into rooms to avoid using electric lights (and without transferring all the heat in the summer, too).

Bedrooms can be put on the east side of the building to take advantage of the morning sun (although around here, that needs to be balanced with getting sun too early in the summer). Rooms that you use at the end of the day, for example, the dining room or office, can be put on the western end of the house.

Proper orientation with respect to sunlight is probably one of the biggest advantages for the homeowner -- having the right light in the right room at the right times of day can make a home feel very livable, inviting, and comfortable. Getting the layout right requires more thought than a cookie-cutter plan from a book, but the resulting home will likely have a better layout and be more usable.

Of course, you can also analyze the suitability of your site for wind power and photo-voltaic array. A green home can be pre-wired for solar at a minimal cost (hundreds of dollars added to the total cost of the home). Even if solar power isn't economical now, it may be in 5 or 10 years as prices on PV cells come down; being able to install them and connect them to existing wires will be much cheaper than trying to retrofit the wiring.

About Green Building: Materials

Green materials are usually natural, made from renewable resources, or use low-energy manufacturing techniques. Some people consider materials sourced and processed locally to be more green than those that are not. Some materials combine these properties, but not all of them do. For example, bamboo cloth is made from a natural and renewable resource (bamboo grows very quickly), but it requires a lot of nasty processing to make it into suitable cloth.

For wood, this usually means avoiding exotic woods that are from endangered species, or have to be shipped from far away. There is plenty of nice renewable hardwoods available from the US. A green home can use salvaged wood (e.g., from old buildings) that has some interesting character to it. Salvaged woods do not need to be harvested, and salvaging saves them from the dump. However, some sources of salvaged wood may have toxins, so it should be obtained from a reliable source.

Marble or quartz is not very renewable, but many manufactured stones are made from recycled materials. Paperstone is made of recycled paper bound together with resins. NovuStone creates counter tops from recycled glass; the glass is sourced and processed in the Pacific Northwest.

A green home would avoid most synthetic carpets. These carpets are made from petroleum producs and use nasty treatment chemicals to make them flame retardant. Natural wool carpets provide a green alternative, and they are naturally flame retardant.

Green homes avoid using paints with lots of VOCs and use low-VOC or zero-VOC paints made from plant oils or natural minerals instead.

These materials often provide benefits for the home owner as well as the environment. Low-VOC and zero-VOC paints improve air quality -- the air is cleaner from the beginning, and you don't have to worry about any possible health effects (VOC concentrations can be up to 10 times higher indoors than out). Wool carpets also reduce the amount of VOCs in the air. They can also be more durable, more stain resistant, and are less prone to collecting dust mites. Plus, they often feel a lot nicer. Of course, this comes with a cost. Wool carpets are significantly more expensive than their synthetic counterparts.

Synthetic and manufactured stones often come in a wider variety of styles an colors than natural stone. Some can be made to custom-order. Some types of manufactured stone counter top can be created as a single slab (which makes cleaning easier).

About Green Building: Construction Techniques

What does 'green building' really mean? There are certifications that describe this in more detail: LEED is a common one, though early on it was more targeted towards commercial buildings; BuiltGreen is a standard aimed at residences in Western Washington. But what does green building entail, and what does it mean for the home owner?

Green building aims to reduce the impact of a house on the planet through construction techniques, material choices, and building design (particularly related to energy usage).

Not everything described here is applicable to every development; in particular, not everything listed will be used for the Taltree development. This is more a general overview of the types of things available for green building.

Each area will be considered over the next several posts.

Construction Techniques

Green construction techniques try to cause the least possible disruption of the site and avoid wasted materials. For example, for the Taltree site, the builder wants to save as many of the existing trees as possible, especially the important trees and tree groups. In today's standard development practice, the land is cleared entirely, then completely replanted with grass and a few new trees. The Taltree site has a lot of really nice, older trees. When possible, these trees will be left in place. If there are mature, healthy trees in planned building areas, the trees will be carefully moved to a new location to keep them alive. This avoids throwing away a lot of cut-down trees, avoids the need to buy a bunch of new trees that will take years to grow, keeps around trees that are comfortable in the native climate and so don't need a whole lot of work to keep them healthy, and provides much nicer surroundings from the very beginning for the residents.

There are a variety of techniques for cutting down on wasted materials during construction. One example is using pre-fabricated panels called SIPs (structural insulated panels). These are used for the wall, and are fabricated to spec in a warehouse; so they are manufactured to the correct size, and they are assembled just like a puzzle on site. This means no cutting boards down to size or anything like that, which results in very little waste.

Advanced Framing is an an alternative to SIPs. This framing technique reduces the amount of lumber used, achieves the same strength as standard framing techniques, and increases the thermal efficiency of the home.

Introduction

We are involved in a custom-designed, green-built community called TalTree ecoVillage by YS Development. It will be nine houses on a one-acre lot, with shared community house and underground parking for residents. Each house will be custom-designed and built to the specifications of the owner; and the whole community will be focused on green-built techniques and technologies. There will be efforts to preserve a good number of the existing trees, especially significant trees or important groups. Each house will be a single-family unit, ranging in size from roughly 1600 to 2400 square feet. It is located in Redmond, on the border with Kirkland. More details can be seen at the official site, linked above. We have unit number 4, which is at the bottom of the U, as seen here (PDF).

Currently we have put down a bit of earnest money and have an initial unit reserved. The general process is that once we have quorum on reserved units (at least half), we can start the official design for both individual units and shared features (general landscaping in the center, community house, and parking garage). That process will probably take several months; once it is completed, we will have a contract with a fixed price and complete design and feature list. Once we sign that, we'll be committed and work on financing the full price. Then the designs will go in for permitting and city approval, which will take several months, or more. Once those are approved, construction on our new home will start. Right now the goal is summer of 2011 to move in.

This blog will be about our process of design and building. We've already spent time talking through initial ideas and seen the site; we'll try to summarize some of those things in more detail soon. Now that we're getting close to starting the official design process, we'll be posting more detailed information on how our design is coming along, but also inspiration from other things we've seen or read, and ideas we might like to see, such as thoughts on particular parts of our house or garage, and what we're aiming for. So expect to see posts with links to pictures, more analytical thoughts on what we want for ourselves, and general status updates on how things are going. Once design is finished, this will be mostly status updates -- pictures and descriptions of how the infrastructure and community features are going, and then pictures of our house (and possibly the other units). We'll try to find as much time in our busy schedule as we can to provide a record for others, and for ourselves of this project.