I will admit, it is curiously difficult to find a building materials supplier in Maine who has any idea what a Termit Shield looks like, or a builder who ever installs them. Mainers are under the impression that they are unecessary due to the impression that termites seldom appear in Maine. Well that will change as they migrate north with population growth. However, we already have a severe problem in Maine with ants infesting homes and eating the wood frame of the house. What is traditionally called a “termite shield” will also work for ants. If you do not install one in your house, you are making a serious mistake. I found two companies online who supply termite shields. Print them and bring them to your builder or supplier and tell them you want these on your home. They are installed by laying them along the top of the foundation wall, under the sills. Here are links to their PDF brochures.

http://penciljazz.com/blogpdf/Flamco_termiteshield.pdf

http://penciljazz.com/blogpdf/Union_termiteshield.pdf

written by pencilman \\ tags: Termite Shields: Ant Infestation Prevention

Without going deeply into the electronic technical details, here is a diagram of the way the system components are hooked up. Ask your favorite solar system installer for his recommendations on particular manufacturers. The basic setup is really quite simple.

More describing the system concept.

written by pencilman \\ tags: Solar System Diagram components

Okay, it is difficult to achieve total green-ness in all appliances. The realistic goal is simple - minimum consumption of energy, adequate performance, and maximum longevity. The best buy is often different every year. I can’t keep up any more. But the folks who assemble this website, make an effort to give everyone a nice starting point.

EvergyStar Appliance List

If you find it here on EnergyStar.Gov, it is probably a good candidate for at least two out of three tests. It is up to you to research the reviews and statistics for the products individually and make the purchse that agrees with you. You could check it out on Consumer Reports, or Epinions.com.

Consumer Reports

Epinions.com

written by pencilman \\ tags: appliances

The fastest way to determine the cost of construction on a new home is to ask a local general contractor for the latest average cost per square foot of finish floor area. It won’t be accurate, but it is a good starting point. Two years ago, in my region, the answer was $150 per SF for a small, medium quality home, and an average of about $300 to $500 per SF for somewhat larger homes which tended to call for higher quaility as well.  It has risen substantially since then, and it will be different in every region depending upon the availability of certain materials, how much shipping is required, the geological conditions on the land, the cost of living for the builders, and a variety of other factors. Also, one cannot calculate the cost of construction purely based upon the square footage of the floor area. That number is very easily shattered by a simple change such as complicated site preparation, fancy floors, or high end windows, or greater attention to insulation or heating techniques that require state of the art components.

Instead of relying upon square footage to tell me if I have exceeded your budget, I have to make regular overall assessments as I proceed with the planning. Then if you say “granite countertops” and “touch sensitive sink faucet fixtures” then I am going to look around for something else to slice off of the house to make that affordable. It’s a balancing act. If you are wealthy, this topic will seldom arise because luxury will trump cost in most cases. But most people have a limited budget. My obsession has always been to meet that budget the best I can. Then again, many people don’t build the house until 2 years after I design it. When that happens, some bets are off. There is never a better time to build a house than right now. Waiting always costs more. I don’t like to seem pessimistic, but I have never seen prices go down in the 30 years I have been in architecture. They slow down, but they don’t go down.

written by pencilman \\ tags: construction cost