I have nothing to say, but feel obligated to post since I haven’t said much over the past few days other than movie posts and a couple “busy day” posts. How completely boring. Even I know that.
Tonight is band practice. Sunday is a big day at church – it’s “invite a friend” day and they are projecting the potential for 400 people in church on Sunday (up from our regular 150 or so each week)! So I know practice tonight will run late so that we can really have our songs down pat so that we put our best performance forward on Sunday. I also think we have to get there super-early on Sunday because the breakfast portion of the morning starts at 9:30 a.m. – which means soundcheck will probably need to be DONE by 9 a.m.
As for homebuilding, yesterday I sent a card off to the guy we bought the land from, telling him how excited we are and also filling him in on some of the specifics we had in mind for the construction of our home. I also hinted that we will be getting bids from other home builders as well. But the card was basically a “head’s up” on the fact that we want very specific things in our house that he might not be used to doing.
In other building news, I’ve fallen in love with the idea of having clerestory windows on the second floor of the house. Typically seen in large churches, these windows placed high on a wall allow maximum solar gain to the interior sections of the house. Regular windows on the south wall provide ample heat and light, but the clerestory windows allow the solar gain to go even further into the house. I had the thought that we could do a clerestory roofline on the south side of the house for the second floor, allowing the south sun to provide natural daylighting into the hallway and north walls of the two bedrooms. Also, since we’re going to have an open foyer, the clerestory windows would ALSO allow solar gain in the foyer AND enable even better airflow when the a couple of the clerestory windows are opened. I know Denis will take one look at the picture and say “that is ugly”, but those windows would not be visible from the street – it would be on the rear of the house facing south. All people would see from the street is a standard roofline.
In other news, a local radio station is giving away “Valentine’s dinner with JD Fortune“. How sad for him that this is what he’s been reduced to. *smirk*
In other news, I love Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Goin’ Down”. The same radio station giving away a meal with a Reality TV boy also plays this song with regularity. It’s a nice mix of agro with real musicality. Good tune.
I guess that’s it.
Clerestory windows facing south? The sun will pour right in. Can you imagine how hot it will get in the summer?
Uncle Bill, south-facing openable clerestory windows actually help COOL a house in summer and WARM a house in winter. The cooling effect comes from opening clerestory windows to allow the rising hot air to escape the house. The warming effect comes from winter daylighting which warms the thermal mass surfaces (tile/wood floors, finished walls, exposed brick) which radiates heat back into the rooms. Clerestory windows are highly recommended in passive solar homes. The key is to have the proper percentage of windows to thermal mass to avoid overheating. Example: a south wall with 90% windows will overheat a house in summer and lose most indoor heat in winter. See page 3 of linked document: http://www.p2pays.org/ref/32/31359.pdf
You realize you own that Fall Out Boy CD, right?
The look of the house is fine by me. I’m going to be spending most of my time inside the house, so I don’t mind. As long as I get my front porch (wrap around, ideal), I’m happy. My particular style runs towards Victorians and nothing else, but we can’t afford to build one of those so I might as well give into whatever you say is good for us. Just give me a big kitchen off a great room and I’m happy.
OK, I believe you.