Clintonville Passive House

You wouldn’t know it from the massive lapse in my posting timeline, but the house is finally done! Mostly. I still have a small punch list of largely cosmetic items, touch-ups, and landscaping to keep me busy for a bit, but the house is substantially complete and livable. And according to the local building authority, all you really need to start living in a place is a successful final inspection. Well, that and the 8 permits, 15 separate inspections, and lots of fees. Anyway, here it is in its essentially finished state—I even have a couple flowers out front.

And on the eve of my final inspection, I had the honor of meeting a distinguished veteran of the sustainable building community, Jon Alexander. What a pleasure to have such an influential builder and leader visit my house. You see, Jon is the President of Sunshine Construction LLC (www.sunshineconstruction.biz) and has been a Certified Passive House Builder in Seattle since 2013. He is also a founder of one of the oldest green building organizations in the country, the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild (www.ecobuilding.org), and after being a general contractor for 40 years is now working as a green building consultant, educator, and mentor. He’s specialized in green building for the past 30 years and enjoys helping builders, designers, and home owners learn more about highly energy efficient & healthy homes throughout the country. What a great coincidence that he has family in my neighborhood and heard about my project.

The thought that Jon might have anything nice to say about my build when he got there was a hopeful cherry on top. After all, the man has built some seriously sweet houses. Jon was very kind and generous in his assessment of the Clintonville Passive House.

Thanks, Jon, for visiting and allowing me to pick your brain on topics we’re both passionate about. There’s always so much to learn, and though I’ve spent a lot of time with my nose buried in online articles and books, I’m most grateful for these chances to learn directly from people who have been doing this work. That’s irreplaceable.

Well, the inside spaces are functional, the ventilation system is adjusted, and the heating and cooling system seem to be keeping up nicely. But I’ve got lots of trim work to paint, stain, and fill, plus a few small checklist tasks to complete before I can get Clintonville Passive House officially certified.
In the near future, I’ll be writing more about my reasons for building “passive” as well as how I get along with the solar PV array scheduled for installation in the next month or so. And to be sure, I’ll be serving up a deep dish of lessons learned through designing and building my own passive house. While I get working on all that, here are a few photos of the nearly complete house to tide you over.

Thanks again for sticking with my slow trickle of blog write-ups. Until next time, stay well.