Would Your New House Look Good in High Heels?

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Image borrowed from blog.armchairbuilder.com

I’m not talking about stripper shoes!  I’m talking about truss construction.  This is something we’re seeing and recommending more in new construction.  Installing a truss with a raised heel detail allows for more insulation at the perimeter where often the insulation is compressed or absent due to the proximity of the interior ceiling to the roof deck.  The detail to the right shows how a standard truss is built.  As discussed here before, venting and insulation is important to shingle life and to prevent ice damming.

Image borrowed from Building America Solution Center

A high heeled or raised heel truss (see left) is created with the equivalent of an additional wall section separating the bottom chord and top chord of the truss at the exterior wall.  This allows full thickness insulation to extend out to the wall and complete the protection of the building envelope.  If care is used in selecting your roof slope and eave extensions, this is never noticed as your soffit can be installed to return at the same height as the interior ceiling making the construction look like a standard cantilever truss.

When you’re planning your new home or addition to your existing home, make sure and ask us about this and other “Green That Save Green” solutions.

Grandma Murphy

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Many of you have given me your condolences on the passing of my grandmother.  Thank you.  I’ve been blessed more than most to have had my Grandma in my life for as long as I did.  Not many people live to see their 100th Birthday, which she celebrated in August of 2012.  Grandma had 95 very good years before her health began to fail.  Even at the end, she was able to smile and enjoy some of the things in life.

Wilma Murphy ObituaryThe family struggled to put together the obituary (see right); there is only so much that can be said in the limited space.  I have a wealth of stories I could tell about my Grandmother, so for those of you interested, indulge me in some rambling memories of some of our good times together.

When I was little, I would spend a lot of weekends with them in their home in Winamac.  During a lot of this time she was working at the bank, so Grandpa would entertain me Saturday morning (often watching Saturday morning cartoons with me) until she got home at noon.  She and Grandpa woke me in the middle of the night so I could witness some of the Apollo space missions live.  They taught me to mushroom hunt.  They taught me to fish.  Grandma Murphy was probably the only fisherman out on the lake who always had her hair done and was dressed in her good jewelry and full make-up!   That didn’t stop her from baiting a hook and taking her own fish off the line though!  Grandma had an aging uncle in Monticello she looked after.  Grandpa and Grandma would take me with them to do yard work for him on the weekends.  Grandma would direct the activities, but would also be right in there working with us.

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Shipping Container Living Space

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Credit: Urban Space Management (CONTAINER CITY) Ltd.
Credit: Urban Space Management (CONTAINER CITY) Ltd.

Brent Martin and I have had several discussions about using shipping containers as living space.  Apparently someone beat us on the implementation.  London-based developers Urban Space Management used shipping containers to create Container City, a 22-unit modular building.  I read about it in the April issue of Multi-Family Executive.  You can read the entire article by Linsey Isaacs on their site here.  I also read an article recently where Ball State University was experimenting with the idea as housing in third world countries.  Another million dollar idea lost to quicker minds…