The 12/23/08 issue of the Bozeman Chronicle's At Home magazine featured a cover story on our project. The article can be found by searching the e-Chronicle archives (you'll need their log-in password) www.bozemandailychronicle.com

Now that we've unpacked, we're beginning to really appreciate our new old house. From the outside, it's a cleaned-up, slightly expanded version of it's former self. Inside, it's clean, light, and modernist. Behind the walls, down in the basement utility room, and up on the roof, the active energy systems are working to keeping our utility costs at a minimum. The house is everything we hoped it would be... cozy, homey, comfortable and efficient.

One of the primary reasons to live in this neighborhood is to be within walking distance of our daughter's school. Longfellow Elementary is just three blocks from our back door, and we're really enjoying being able to walk with her, rather than drive her, to and from school each morning and afternoon. Since both Michelle and I have home offices, we've eliminated our daily car commute, and that's another big cost and energy savings.

One of the secret pleasures of building or renovating one's home is being able to show it off to one's friends and community. And so, on October 4th, fourty five people lined-up outside our front door to tour our home during Refuge's "Green Home Tour."

Three months behind schedule and having spent double our original budget, we moved into our newly renovated house. While still a dusty construction site, moving in was better than camping out in the backyard... only because the backyard was a sea of mud following a few torrential hailstorms. Bill and his army of landscapers from Greenspace first tore up, then replanted the grounds, installing a water-conserving drip irrigation system and planting native shrubs, trees, wildflowers and assorted grasses.

As the mud flew, Amy Purdie from Luminous Construction finished building our fence, specifically designed to discourage our rambunctious dog Rosie from blowing the joint and playing chicken with Willson Avenue traffic. The alley side of the fence repurposed left-over 2 x 2 cedar slats that had been weathering in the wood pile at our old place in the Paradise Valley since 2001. The ground squirrels who had homesteaded the pile chirped in panic when we unexpectedly upended their cozy home, not understanding who the patina of the sun-baked cedar makes for such a handsome fence. Per Bozeman Planning Department desire that we have an open fence, we used a few dozen rebar rods on the Willson Ave side, spaced at 4" intervals. Now Rosie can keep a watchful eye on the 'hood. Yes, it's only a fence, but it does looks amazing, and so far, has proved escape proof.

Brian Wagner spent the week installing the white painted (and formaldahyde-free) kitchen cabinets, followed by Mike Kelly who fabricated Refuge sourced "PaperStone" into a countertop and kitchen island. Travis from Christie Electric wired up the kitchen, and soon we were "cooking with gas"...errr, better make that "magnetic induction cooktop". The brushed stainless Energy Star appliances not only look great, they work better too. The induction cooktop boils water in about a minute, powered by photo-voltaic electricity. The bottom freezer fridge uses less energy, and has plenty of room for Farmer's Market bargains, the dishwasher runs whisper silent and steam sanitizes the dishes, the trash compactor keeps our garbage volume at a minimum, and the can-crusher from Owenhouse makes recycling them easier. The tour-de-force in the kitchen is the stunningly good-looking and EPA certified wood-burning stove from Rais, supplied by ShackUp.

The following week Michael Myers drove over from Missoula to install the colorful concrete and glass aggregate countertops he fabricated at his shop. With countertops installed, Brian Holloway finished up the backsplash tiles in the kitchen and bathroom. Because you just gotta' have "tunes," Billy Costigan, Rich and Chris from Poindexters installed the multi-room audio system so Michelle could listen to the BBC or NPR in her office, while I tuned into KCRW or KGLT in mine.

Shortly after Bresnan wired up our hi-speed DSL connection (both Michelle and I depend on the web to pay for all this stuff), NorthWestern Energy came by to install a "grid tie" meter which enables us to sell-back excess electricity generated by the PV system if our consumtion is low and the sun is high. In a 24 hour period, we produce almost as much electricity as we use. Downstairs in the basemenet, the gray water recycling system from Brac supplies all the water for toilet flushing. For some, saving water means "if it's yellow, let it mellow" but we can now flush guilt-free. Our house is the first in Montana to have a grey water system installed since the Montana legislature made them legal just last year. Meanwhile, up on the roof, the sun is heating our domestic water, which we can use for free hot showers, baths... even car washing.

It's been a year since construction began, and there's still a lot of fine-tuning before we can really relax and kick up our feet. The shower door and mirrors arrive next week, the windows remain bare, the hot tub is slowly leaking (my "eco-poseur" indulgance... serves me right, no?), and dozens of boxes still to be unpacked. Overall, we're thrilled with the handsome reuslts of our renovation. Dick Pence's expert vision for the house was always on target, despite our occassional doubts. The house is cozy yet spacious, modern yet and historically accurate. NorDesign's Mark and Tucker did a skilled job of putting all the pieces together, and their attention to detail pays off.

Our 104 year old home's view of newly annointed Story Mansion Park inspires us every time we walk out the front door... but we're glad we're not the ones responsible for renovating its 8,000 square feet. The large back deck quickly became the favorite room in the house. My backyard hammock, hung under the shade of the three old growth pines is my new favorite summer place of refuge. Minna's cedar swing hangs under the old apple tree, like Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree", and Michelle loves her solar-laundry drying line. Summer nights sleeping in the house are wonderful... the cross-breeze complemented by the ceiling fan, the sound of barking dogs and trains in the distance, the light filtering through the windows in the morning. I've been lucky enough to have called some remarkabe places home... New York City, Mill Valley, San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Livingston and the Paradise Valley, but downtown Bozeman is the perfect place to raise our daughter. Now we can bike downtown, walk the dog on the Gallatator trail, visit new friends in the neighborhood, and drive 20 minutes for world class skiing.

Perhaps, best of all, our daughter starts kindergarden at Longfellow next week and Minna will be able to walk the 3 blocks to school.

On the 4th of July, the temperature hit 98 and Michelle and I spent the holiday cleaning up, breaking down cardboard boxes, stacking old wire and metal bits and getting ready to trailer it all off to the recycling center. On July 5th Sears delivered the new Energy Star appliances - bottom freezer fridge, dishwasher, oven, trash compactor and induction range. On July 26th, our kitchen cabinets are scheduled to arrive and we can start fabricating the Paper Stone countertops. Move in day... with the City of Bozeman's permission... July 31st.

After a few late sputters, the snow finally stopped falling, and Spring suddenly sprung into action with dark clouds and rolling thunder each afternoon, and every tree and bush in Bozeman all frantically popping out buds and leaves.

Over-budget, over-due and over-whelmed, this month's challenge was to knock off the hundreds of "punch list" items remaining before our July 1st target completion date and move-in. Mark and Tucker continued with interior trim and mouned the twenty painted doors and installed insulation panels on the basement ceiling. Somehow, Tucker (with some help from his wife) also had time to have a baby girl. Brian Hollowell finished up the beautiful tile work in the bathrooms, both featuring recycled glass tile. The boys from Carpet One put down the all-natural, jute-backed wool carpeting and also interpretted Michelle's color pattern for the Duro Design cork floors in the entrance foyer. To her delight, Minna's room literally bloomed in her favorite shades of yellow and pink with InterFlor carpet tiles in the closet, and cushy white puzzle flooring in the secret play space. The Closet Guy came over to help us design functional closet storage on our depleted budget. Changing hats, he turned into the Shade Guy and suggested some energy efficient window covering alternatives. The guys from Ramsey Wood clear-coated the old douglas fir floors and Jamie polished the ground concrete floors. Travis from Mike Christie Electric took over the job of hanging lights, ceiling fans, and light switch plates. Craig from Williams Plumbing hooked up our toilets and bathroom fixtures. Orion from Independent Power Systems climbed all over our roof to plug in the 3000 watt photo-voltaic system. Working alongside him was Todd Hoitsma of Liquid Solar Systems who is installing our solar water heater. Meanwhile, Ken Champion and his spirited and amiable crew of Ron Paul cheerleaders continued their excellent work of brushing and rolling out the finish colors on the interior. Michelle, Minna and I visited old friends up at Flathead Lake and on the way, visited Michael Myers in Missoula who had mock-ups of our concrete countertops to show us. Finally, Greg from BioSeal insulation accomodated us and sent his crew in to work after hours to spray down a few inches of attic foam and then cover it with 8 inches of cellulose paper insulation. July arrived sooner than expected, and we called our landlord to reluctantly ask him if we could rent for yet another month. It's now been a full year since we started the renovation, and we're more than ready to move in.

The guys from Champion smooothed thing over with several coats of drywall mud, and then sprayed primer to all the walls and ceilings. Mark and Tucker finished up the Trex decks, nailed up trim boards, built a new railing on the front porch, hung interior doors, and began putting up interior trim boards around the windows and doors. Steve Little finished installation of the radiant pex tubing and the following week, 1-3/4" of concrete was poured over the pex. Once that was cured, Jamie ground down the concrete to expose the aggregate. The Ramsey wood refinishers sanded down 100 years of wax, wear and tear from the original douglas fir boards, revealing a beautiful floor beneath. The guys from Independent Power Systems began installing the guts of our solar panel system, and Brian Holloway's crew installed Minna's bathroom tile. Meanwhile, Michelle selected Greenspace to work with us on native planting landscaping, and Wagner Cabinetry for our bathroom and kitchen cabinets.

I (Michelle) was in charge of cabinets. I was set on white doors in the kitchen and I had seen a door style at Home Depot that I really liked, but it only came in melamine which I didn't want for the kitchen. So I started a search of every cabinet vendor in Bozeman to find a similar door style in painted wood. In addition, I wanted to use "greener" materials: plywood without formaldehyde, FSC certified wood, low VOC paint, etc. The finalists were a custom cabinetmaker, Wagner Cabinetry, and Bozeman TV & Appliance. We had to rule out the custom work early on (just too darn expensive). Wagner had a similar door style, but their cabinet companies hadn't gone the green route yet. They worked up a design and estimate for me anyway. Finally, I wandered into Bozeman TV & Appliance and spoke to Jana, the designer. One of their vendors, Crestwood, was doing green cabinets. And...they had a door style very similar to what I wanted. I was very excited and had Jana do a plan for me and order a sample door. When the door finally came, it had an extra detail in it that I didn't want - and to leave it out was an upcharge (even though it would have been less work). When Ron, Dick and I looked at the door in the context of the kitchen, we decided it wasn't the right way to go. So, back to Wagner, where I met with Steven and Constance. I asked them if Huggy Bear, the vendor with the almost-right door style, had any plans to go green. They called and found out that Huggy Bear was planning on doing it, but hadn't decided on which materials to use yet. But they really wanted to get started with it and I was happy to be the guinea pig, so they called Neil Kelly Cabinets and found out what they use. Then...we got to pricing. What I wanted was a bit out of our budget, so I sat down with Steven and Constance again and we worked out what I could live without. Constance and Huggy Bear worked out a way to get me green cabinets within my budget. It was amazing, really. I was so exhausted by the time I signed the order that I had to go home and have a glass of wine. Then I had to let Jana know that we wouldn't be going with Crestwood. That was the hardest part. I have to say that I got great customer service at both places. Jana and Scott from Bozeman TV & Appliance were very responsive and worked really hard for me to get things right and within my budget. Constance, Brian, Steven and Eden at Wagner went above and beyond to make it work out. It really came down to the door style that fit the best in our kitchen. Now...I can't wait to get them installed!!!

On April 1st, the exterior siding and shingles were finallly completed. Inside, the foam insulation was sprayed, and it was time for Steve Little to begin stapling down the pex tubing that would be the heart of our heating system. By the end of April, Champion drywall came in to hang sheetrock

With a typically snowy March, the siding and shingles took Dave and his excellent crew from Covers All Siding the entire month to install. The roofers struggled to keep snow and ice off the roof while they installed the composition shingles. But by the first day of Spring, the house was gift-wrapped in a handsome shade of gray/green. Mark and Tucker stayed busy framing the front and back porch. Inside, the plumbers plumbed pipes, the electricians pulled wire, and the insulators covered everything in a thick coating of lovely urethane foam. Meanwhile, Michelle and I shopped - sourcing bathroom tile, bathroom fixtures, kitchen appliances, cork flooring, wool carpeting, and cabinets. The light at the end of the tunnel was finally visible... while our bank account was rapidly disappearing.

We launched BozemanHouse.com in late January, and at first the search engine robots couldn't find us. We continued to toy with the layout and design. When the 'bots finally began to visit, our ranking improved day by day. These days no website can survive without impressing the Google 'bots. Within a month BozemanHouse.com had nearly a thousand visitors. It's now ranking #1 for relevant search keywords like "Montana Eco Renovation" and "Green Countertops Bozeman."

Then, on February 20th, the Bozeman Chronicle ran a feature story about us in the Lifestyle Section. The next day, NewWest.net did a blurb. Not surprisingly, website traffic spiked as word about the site spreads. We're thrilled to see people interested.

Michelle spent days researching fixtures for bath and kitchen. She visited all the usual local plumbing haunts, and surfed the "PlumbingForLess.com" type websites, eventually selecting fixtures she found at Montana Tile and Stone down near Four Corners. With a limitless number of options to chose from, faucets, sinks and toilets are among the most difficult decisions one makes in the housebuilding process. While there's not much "green" in the plumbing sector, we did go with Toto's Aquia dual-flush toilet.

While cruising Montana Tile and Stone's showroom, I developed a crush on a glass shower door. This was not just any glass shower door, mind you. This one was the Jessica Alba of shower doors. Sleek and shiny with oversized brushed stainless roller wheels, the glass panel whispered open silently and smoothly... I wanted to shower with it every day... until I heard the price - $3,500! OK, so maybe that Andy Warhol soup can shower curtain from Target will be just fine.

With all the money we saved by not buying the Jessica Alba shower door, we could afford some nice bathroom tiles. While the final decision has yet to be made, we're leaning toward American Olean ice white 3 x 6 subway tile for the walls, and a Pinwheel pattern for the floor accented with colorful recycled glass "dots" from Refuge.

It was the kind of Winter native Bozemanites would consider typical, with lots of snow and numerous nights of subzero temperatures. All over town, people were turning down their thermostats, knowing $400 utlity bills would soon be arriving in mailboxes. Many mornings, Mark and Tucker needed to spend the first hour clearing fresh powder and ice. Progress slowed, but by the end of the month the rebuilt porch was finished. It was time to move back inside and get ready for the subcontractors.

After considering the alternatives, we chose James Hardie siding. Hardie Board is a composite mix of cement and wood byproducts. Nationally, Hardie Board is the best selling siding brand, but in Bozeman, it's only now starting to become popular. Hardie comes with a 50 year warranty and is available pre-painted in a wide range of colors.

We knew we wanted to hydronic radiant heat from the beginning. The type of equipment and the methods used to install them are critical decisions for an energy efficient home. To help us with those tough calls, we tapped Steve Little of Warm Floor Systems. Steve specified a Triangle Tube condensing boiler running at low temperature, and a combination mix of staple down imbedded in lightweight concrete, and staple under with aluminum fins to disperse the heat, plus a Myson radiator in one of the downstair rooms where access was limited.

For insulation, we selected Livingston based BioSeal using a water borne closed cell 2 lb foam.

When one applies urethane insulation to the envelope of a home, often the house becomes so air tight that one needs to install an air exchanger to remove inside air and bring in fresh outside air. A heat exchanger eliminates much of the heat loss during this air exchange. We asked Wayne and Ken from Baker Light Industries to install our heat exchanger system.

Christie Electric will be wiring us up and Williams Plumbing will hook up our bathroom and kitchen pipes. Williams will be routing the shower and tub drains so the water can be reused for toilet flushing. To accomplish this, we purchased a gray water tank from Brac, and ours will be among the first legal gray water system in Montana since the law was passed in 2007.

Orion Thornton of Independent Power Systems will be installing a 2 Kw Photo Voltaic Electric system on our roof, and Todd Hoitsma of Liquid Solar Systems will be installing a solar hot water panel. These systems promise to significantly reduce our electric and domestic water heating costs.

Additional subcontractors will be chosen in the weeks to follow.

The new Pozzi windows came in shortly after the New Year, and the guys installed them in a week. Next, they poured new concrete footings out front, and began the process of reconstructing the house's most dominant feature - the big front porch. The house was starting to look like a home again.

With exterior framing nearing completion, it was time to call in the subcontractors, starting with the siding. We knew we wanted to use fiber-cement board siding and we settled on James Hardie because of it's reputation for being a "green" material. But what color would the house be? What size siding exposure works best? What type of trim and shingles looks good? And most importantly, who should we hire to install the siding? To be continued...

The house now looked embarrassingly naked, it's private parts exposed for all to see. Inside, enough studs, ceilings joists and roof rafters were missing, cracked or sagging that the thought of an 6.0 temblor made us wince. It was time to call in the professionals.

Dick Pence sent his son Mark and co-worker Tucker to begin the business of repair and reinforcement. For much of October, November and December, from the outside, the house looked as if it had been abandoned after some unknown disaster. But unseen progress was being made inside and out back. Excavating and concrete trucks came and went. Massive "Glue-lam" beams were inserted to strengthen the joists and roof truss work. Rows of 2 x 4 studs were nailed into bearing walls, replacing and reinforcing ones that had been weakend. By the time the first snow fell, the framing of the house was done, strong and straight. The house was now ready for another hundred years of providing shelter. Finally, Mark and Tucker began constructing our new addition, the place where we would soon sleep and shower, our plan to add 1,000 sq. ft to the original 1,900 finally taking shape.

With the house now down to the studs, we moved outside to continue the de-evelolution of 810 South Willson. The wood siding was looking questionable. The paint was flaking off in places, and an unsightly cottage cheese texture product had been sprayed on to extend the life of the siding. On close inspection, it was evident the house had been painted so many times that the paint would no longer stick. It was time to pull it off life support.

In a week, we had the siding removed. The wood skip sheathing was punctuated by rows of 3 inch holes where insulation had been blown into the walls from the outside. With the trim now gone, we pulled out the single pane, double hung windows, most which were painted shut and inoperable. We also unhooked the old furnace, water heaters, dishwasher, range, fridge, washer dryer and assorted cabinets and countertops, hoping Restore, the Habitat for Humanity recycled building materials store in Belgrade, could use them. "We'll take windows and doors if they're in good shape, but we can't use your appliances unless they're pretty new... but our insurance liability prevents us from taking anything that runs on gas." They scheduled a truck to pick up the windows, and we dragged the rest out onto the front lawn, a "FREE" sign hastily scrawled, giving permission to driveby scavengers. Within days, nearly all had found new foster homes.

In May, our renters notified us they were moving out. We called Dick to let him know we were ready to start. Unfortunately, Dick wasn't ready for us. He and his crew were in the midst of another project, a large stone house on the outskirts of town.

One afternoon, eager to get started, not wanting to wait for our builder to finish his last project, I grabbed my Dewalt and began drilling out the long galzanized deck screws from the back porch, which had alwsays seemed awkward to us. This is where our family room would soon be built, and it had to go. Michelle and our four year old Minna caught builder's fever and came over to pitch in too. Ever mindful of doing her part to save the earth, Minna scoured the ground for loose screws and tossed them into a coffee can. Michelle carried planks of Doug Fir deck board and stacked them by size for future reuse.

It took us the rest of that day to disassemble the top section of the multi-level deck, and when darkness fell, we stood back to admire our handiwork. Like our Montana forefathers, pioneers of the frontier, we were a hardy, self-sufficient, determined bunch; our sweat and a few rudimentary tools were all we required. We swelled with pride at our accomplishment of the afternoon.

The next morning, my left hand swelled with pride, and the blisters and splinters in my right hand nearly prevented me from picking up the phone to beg Josh and Ethan to to do a little construction work for us.

After Josh and Ethan disassembled the rest of the deck, we moved inside and probed the 103 year old plaster and lathe walls. With a claw hammer and assorted implements of destruction, we hacked into the interior walls... intially because we were curious to see what lay behind. Later, because it was fun. Plumes of dust spilled from the windows like a house on fire. Celluose insulation, made from shredded 50 year old Bozeman Chronicle, spilled from behind the lathe. Asbestos wrapped heating ducts were revealed like mumified Egyptian royalty. Porcelane nob and tube wiring strung from joist to stud threatened to electrocute us. Chunk by chuck, the plaster walls fell, revealing the true skeleton of the house. Osteoperosis had surely settled in. The need for a more aggressive renovation strategy was becoming evident. It seemed clear we'd be reinforcing the bearing walls and replacing old plumbing, electrical and insulation to current day standards.

The living room ceiling seemed sligthly exhausted have done service as the bedroom floors above, came out next. When the dust settled, we discovered that the ceiling joist beams were spanned to the point of cracking. With a lust to modernize during the 1940's, a prior owner had installed central heating ducts, sawing out several critical load bearing studs in the process. With walls and ceiling plaster now largely gone, it seemed ludicrous to try to save the remaining walls covered with yellowed and curling wallpaper over cracked plaster. Several dump truck loads of debris later, we were past the point of no return. It pained us to send so much home sweet home to the landfill, but it seemed unavoidable.

We never really noticed the house that would be our home until after the "For Sale" sign appeared on the lawn. Our daughter attended pre-school right next door and we had walked past it many times, but we had somehow missed it. The house was understated and slightly anonymous in the procession of beautiful and stately historic homes on Willson Ave. Partially hidden behind tall bushes, it's unadorned profile and faded beige siding paled relative to the charasmatic SAE frat house just across the street. Yet there was something about the house that felt like home.

For several years, we had been waiting for something we could afford in the Southside historic district to come on the market. The subdivision we lived in was very nice and well mannered, but we felt slightly isolated there.

We wanted to live downtown.

The house was a short bike ride to our jobs and Longfellow School was only a few blocks away. When we walked up the front stairs, the hanging porch swing and creaky screen door reminded us of a favorite song:

"The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays"

We hired the home inspector, the radon tester, the tree people and the Roto Rooter guys. Other than some typical asbestos wrapping a central heating duct and the sagging living room ceiling, the house seemed in good condition. We weren't ready to move in yet, so after closing, we rented the house to four engineering students from MSU.

A quick trip to the historic preservation archives revealed the centenial timeline of 810 South Willson Ave. The house had been built in 1904 for Robert Black, a bookkeeper with the Golden Rule Store. Only a year later, Mr. Black flipped the house to Robert Cooley, a zoology professor and head of the Biology Department at what was then known as the Agricultural College. In 1909, the professor installed newfangled indoor plumbing and connected the house to the state-of-the-art Bozeman central sewer system. Professor Cooley eventually became the State Entomologist, and he spent the rest of his career searching for a cure for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Subsequent owners included Dr. Andrew Kelly, a physician, Walter Teslow, the founder of Bozeman Feed and Grain Company, Keith Brown and Vivian Bridaham, owner of Sotheby's real estate agency. We bought the house from Vivian in April 2006.

Above is a "before" photo of our house. Looks charming, no? Why on earth did we start messing with it? Well, though we believe in the ideals of living in small spaces, we had been ruined by our 4 bed/3 bath subdivision house with the 2 car garage and bonus room. Condensing down to the 3 small bedrooms and 1 bath was going to be challenging. There would be no room for relatives who came to visit, and we really didn't want to share the one bathroom with Minna. Our king size bed wouldn't fit in the master and a the closets were small. The kitchen was in need of updating, with it's big wood burning stove. The mortar and lathe plaster walls bulged from behind the faded wallpaper, and the house smelled musty.

We started asking around for a builder familiar with renovating older homes. We heard about historic home specialist Richard Pence of NorDesign and hired him to draw up plans for a remodel and addition. We defined the scope of the work and our budget. Dick estimated 6 months for construction, starting in the Spring. We'd envisioned Minna opening presents under the tree by Christmas! So naive we were.