I’ve received a few comments about why we did this or didn’t do that and how could we make the building science mistakes we’ve made (when I clearly know better). Unfortunately life isn’t always so simple.

I also know two others who’ve faced this same issue and I’m sure there are more so thought I’d share.

We planned to build a very energy efficient home, somewhere between passivehaus (PHI) and PGH though likely short of PHI and closer to PGH. This was my number two priority for our new house, second only to Health/IAQ.

This was not entirely new to me. When we built our current house in 1987 we included numerous things that at the time where considered quite progressive. We foamed the rim joists, wall to roof junctions and other bits. The interior vapor barrier (this was 1987) was taped at all seams, around all electrical boxes and plumbing bits. Wire entries in electrical boxes were foamed. We had considerable extra insulation blown in our attic. Structurally we built to what was then called Code+ so we also had larger floor and roof joists than code, plywood sheathing, etc.

Finally, we ran a full day of blower door tests (it was handy having Minneapolis Blower Door just a few miles away). Not only CFM50/ACH50 but I wanted to know how much numerous things pulled so we turned the water heater back on to measure it, then the furnace, bath fans, clothes dryer, central vacuum and built fires in our fireplaces (a roaring fire was pulling just over 1100 CFM!). 

So going in to this new project in 2013 I was somewhat familiar with energy efficiency, IAQ and building science. Far from an expert but ‘knowledgeable enough to know better’. I’d also followed GBA since its inception.

We were not able to find an energy architect that had built anything close to the very traditional 200-year-old aesthetic we wanted so we decided to go with a team approach. The architect we wanted to use was not strong on the energy side but agreed to our plan of hiring a good building science architect and expressed excitement about learning more about this.

Our first energy architect was extremely good on the energy side. He’d worked with Wolfgang Feist, has designed numerous PHI homes and retrofits, and was enthusiastic about our project. He quickly proved a bit too rigid though (anything less than full on PHI was a real struggle for him) and other team members asked that we not continue with him which we agreed with.

Our second was the charm – Rachel Wagner of Wagner-Zaun. She’s well regarded in the energy and building science world, understood and even agreed with our design choices from an aesthetic and lifestyle standpoint, and is super fun to hang out with. 

All went well for the first several months. Further in to the project however, our architect choked on the wall (and roof) structures that Rachel suggested – standard 2×6 w/ exterior foam. They said that they would not sign off on them and Rachel could not sign off on plans done by another architect.

To give a sense of one key meeting. Our architect had agreed to this over a year prior and were now reneging on that agreement which itself did not sit well with me aside from energy/sustainability issues. This both due to the money already spent on their and Rachel’s time to achieve an energy efficient home and the integrity issues this raised. 

My wife loves the houses designed by this architect (as do I), had not been able to find another architect she liked as much, and kind of sided with them during this meeting to get me to give up my desire for an energy efficient home. To put it mildly this put a significant strain on our relationship (and quite frankly that meeting and the hours following still leaves a huge knot in my stomach).

In hindsight I think that my wife and our architects did not fully grasp just how important energy efficiency, environmental issues and other related bits are to me and have been throughout much of my life. I know someone will want to say that we must not have a very good marriage if she didn’t know that but I know that in even the best and strongest marriages there are many areas that we don’t fully grasp about our spouses. Two of my best friends are psychologists who do marital counseling and we’ve talked about this dozens and dozens of times. None of us is perfect and none of us are able to really fully know our spouse no matter how much we might want to.

My wife and marriage are far more important to me than energy efficiency or holding an architect accountable for their prior agreement so if that was what had to happen then that’s life. It hurt, a lot, but was not worth damaging my marriage over.

We did look at having Rachel act as the principle architect but her designs lean a bit contemporary for my wife’s tastes and she was concerned that the house might end up too contemporary even if Rachel focused on keeping it traditional. As well, our principle architect refused to work as the ‘design architect’ with someone else as principle.

We searched for another architect who could satisfy aesthetic and energy requirements but at the time were unable to locate one.

So… The result was dropping energy efficiency (and improved building science in general), and largely trusting our architect and builder on these. Our architect actually drew up a new contract that specifically prohibited energy efficiency being a component of the design.

Our builder stated that, while not to the PGH or better level I desired, his houses were much more energy efficient and with better building science than average. So this became our direction and we moved forward.

In this aspect the construction process has been quite painful and draining. I see so many things that I know aren’t done the way they should be and could easily have been done correctly. Studs and jacks that I know will be huge thermal bridging issues (and made worse since so many are bright red along their edges so stood out against the sheathing almost like they were screaming at me that they were there and ready to suck energy out of hour home) and that should have insulation outside of them. 

The ERV’s tied in to return ducts when they should be sending fresh air to bedrooms (and they should be pulling stale air from baths or other places). Roof trusses telegraphing through snow within 24 hours of every snow event because they were insulated so poorly and I know are leaking air. A loft (finished attic) that is massively bigger than it needs to be and is open to below. A bit of the porch that intrudes in to what should be a clean rectangular and more energy efficient box.

And on and on.

I sometimes think that it was irresponsible of me to have proceeded like this and think that we should have worked harder to find another way and create a more energy efficient home like we’d planned. But my marriage and family is intact and strong and that’s much more important.

All in all it would have been very helpful to have had a much stronger building code. I cannot express how draining it is to continuously fight the ‘it meets code’ mantra (along with the ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ mantra). And then to have roof insulation that does not do what it is intended to do (and very easily could have) and that clearly does not even meet code be proclaimed OK by the state’s top code and energy person.

Perspective is always important and throughout this process I’ve had to continuously remind myself that my marriage is far more important than the poor building science we’re paying a gob of money for.  And that will continue for years to come – every time I’m reminded of how our house was built and how it should have been built. 

So this post is more statement than question but I’d welcome others thoughts and experiences. Criticism of my wife or marriage for not being as energy efficient as I’d like to have been are however not welcomed.