NW Green Home Tour

The second day of the 2-day tour features 26 sites in north Seattle. (Saturday had 22 sites in south, central, and east Seattle.) I found 11 I wanted to see (the rejects were 100 year old home renovations, solar, and pre-fab projects), prioritized them, and spent 3.5 hours seeing them.

10719 1st Ave NW. Note recycled metal rain diverter over front door. Owner Dan Allison far right.

10719 1st Ave NW - SIP walls and roof, 550-gallon cistern, air-to-water heat pump by Abode Builders. It also has solar, but more interestingly, it has a Benjamin Obdyke rainscreen. It's a combination Tyvek housewrap and drainage mat that holds siding away, creating a water channel between the housewrap and behind the siding. "Slicker" eliminates the need for furring. Actually, they were advertising Slicker, but what I saw on the house was HydroGap drainable housewrap, which has little raised bumps on the wrap fabric.

Daikin Altherma heat pump

The owner, Dan Allison, reminded me of Leroy Miller, John Bleser's old partner. He showed me the 550-gallon cistern buried in the front yard--it's a recycled septic tank that was much cheaper per gallon than a "real" cistern would be. The gable roof has gutters down the sides which feed the tank and he has a standard septic system pump that lifts the water to the street level (where it is directed to the city-built rain garden on the next parcel). He plans to install a second pump and pressure tank that will bring the water inside for greywater use flushing toilets.

Someone asked Dan "so they put on the SIP roof and you call a normal roofer to put on the roof?" Dan said "First of all, the SIP panels weigh 650 pounds. We had a crane. And we put on the SIP roof and then I installed the roof. Sheet metal that will last as long as the solar panels on it."

The heat pump outside on the north wall was Daikin Altherma--heat pump, inverter, heating, cooling and DHW (domestic hot water). PEX (polyethylene) tubing is used for hot and cold water supply lines.

Dan keeps a blog, and so does the builder, apparently.

7703 26th Ave NW. Series filters convert stormwater to drinking water.

7703 26th Ave NW - The owner here, Jim Bristow, is a contractor and he just seems to like this stuff. He's got cistern tanks all over his backyard. At least two are hooked up.

In his basement, Jim showed off a filtration system that starts on the left with 25 micron (if I remember right), then 5 micron, then the 3 large tanks, and the shorter one that reverses the ionization (or something). The silver tube on the right uses ultraviolet light to kill any remaining organisms.

Sideyard cistern at 7703 26th Ave NW

Jim had his composition roof water tested, and he found only three contaminants--zinc, silica, and chorine (if I heard and remembered right).

At this house, I met green realtor Kim Mulligan. She said that insulation is the highest value improvement to a home, and she recommended a blower door test to provide a "before" baseline, so we have a story to tell when it comes time to sell.

2429 NW 61st St - 3-story, well-designed home with a roof deck. The basement is a separable apartment. Clever details--the raised wood porch has a metal grille inset to knock dirt off people's shoes--you can look through the gaps and see the ground 4' below. The side is cement board in an interesting horizontal pattern, smooth red panels, and high-profile vertical metal siding.

2429 NW 61st St "Plum House"

Sliding barn doors on sleek chrome rails are a repeating element. The dual-flush toilets (Caroma Profile Smart) are huge for some reason. The note says that the sink drains to the toilet tank, but that's hard to believe. The shower has no door, a soaking tub and just a small curb.

The interior door trim is what I was thinking: 1/2" x 3-1/2" on the jambs, 3/4" x 3-1/2" above, run 1/4" long on each side. A Blueair air purifier was running on the stair landing.

The sign in the basement said "The owners designed [this] apartment for flexibility of use. Currently it is used as an Airbnb rental apartment. Someday it may be used for aging parents or for extra space when teenagers want a little more separation from their parents." I noticed that they have a laundry hookup in a closet, as well as a more or less "full" kitchen. Stained concrete floor with PEX radiant heat, exposed concrete retaining wall throughout.

Step-in shower with soaking tub and no enclosure

The water heater is Navien, but they have ducting and something called Lifebreath Heat Recovery Ventilator.

515 N 61st Ave - An old bungalow with a very cool inglenook--a seating alcove off the living room with a fireplace. Not much of interest here, except that they heat the house with (3) Mitsubishi mini-splits, one in the basement, two upstairs. A heat pump unit sits outside the back door.

I met a realtor here who "invented" the idea of blower door testing. He said Kim Mulligan is a Jane-come-lately.

Heat pump serves three mini-splits at 731 N 72nd St (I think)

731 N 72nd St - Blurred in my mind with 515 N 61st Ave. The inglenook was probably 61st, while the Mitsubishi was probably 72nd. They were both old bungalows, and both sponsored by Neil Kelly remodeling.

103 N 73rd St - His and her art studio in the backyard--she's on top. The floor in both rooms are ACX plywood with a polyurethane finish and exposed screwheads. When they've stained and damaged the floor sufficiently, they will unscrew and install new.

The upper floor has an inspiring view of Puget Sound. Everything is white and they have four simple fluorescent tube fixtures that bounce light off the cathedral ceilings. The bulbs are special high-CRI (color rendition index) bulbs, though, and they didn't seem as cold.

They have a cistern on the east side (the gable ridge is e-w) and green horizontal metal siding everywhere. The two artists were there; both very pleasant.

His studio at 103 N 73rd St. 9' ceilings, north awning windows.

9100 15th Ave NE - Oddball place. Two stories over a basement, but only about 25' x 25'. Includes electromagnetic shielding so the harmful rays won't bother the sleeping rooms. There's a cistern-like thing on the east side that's meant to be filled with activated charcoal in the event of a nuclear war--it will filter the air. (You can't make this stuff up.)

Interesting stair design. Each tread spans side-to-side, so there is no stringer between. They're also legal winders to save space. The rope LED under-cabinet lights in the kitchen faded from blue to orange, then purple, continuously. The kitchen featured a miniature dishwasher by Bosch, 18" wide.

Basement at 9100 15th Ave NE. The activated
charcoal pit is on the other side of the wall
from the Heat Recovery Ventilator.

In the basement, a Whirlpool whole house filtration system was inline with the main water supply. They had an air-to-water heat pump, a Lifebreath Heat Recovery Ventilator, and a tiny water heater from Ariston.

8221 40th Ave NE - Waste of time. Nice example of a rain garden, but I can't have one of those. 420-gal. cistern on display if you like that sort of thing. Heirloom apple trees.

The cistern was from Ballard Rainwater Systems, 206.931.6345 (Robert Becker).