Prototype Home Completed--Well Almost!

After many requests to update this blog, I have finally taken the time to do it. Between the months of July, August and September, I was putting in 16 hour days on a regular basis trying to hold down my full time job with Eco-Panels while also completing this prototype. I appreciate your patience as sleep became more of a priority. Althought the # of listed followers is small, over the last 6 weeks, I've had dozens of people ask me why I haven't updated the blog. I will do my best to catch everyone up to date on the protoype and the impressive test results it acheived. There are still many areas of the project that need to be completed like the landscaping/fruit and vegetable gardens and the driveway/carport/workshop to name a few.
While I am still working through the final costs associated with this prototype, I can estimate that the total cost per square foot is around $105. Although I didn't reach my goal of $100 or less per square foot, the combination of cost, quality and performance is the best I've seen anywhere in this region. Building on a crawl space as opposed to the original slab on grade, is partly to blame for the additional costs. Also, it was very difficult for me to stay on top of every detail during construction and instruct the contractors as to how important it was to reduce waste and pay attention to being extremely efficient with time and materials. Although a 60 day build time was aggressive, I feel confident that with the right team and proper planning less than 90 days from start to finish is easily achievable. Since this is a prototype, some learning curve is expected, but I also highly recommend working with suppliers and contractors that are committed (personal conviction) to always taking the extra time to stop, think, ask, measure and or read the instructions. Because of my background as a H.E.R.S rater, Healthy Built Home Certifier, working for custom and production builders and working for Eco-Panels, I was able to get all the really important aspects done correctly.