Author: Connor Warren

“So, when are you gonna finish up?” An age-old question. It is truly the most consistent inquiry made to us “leftovers”—students who have stayed past the 5th year. And why not? What a fantastic question. Of course our friends, family, and colleagues would be curious to know the answer as to when our project will reach its fruition.

So are we!

If someone knows the answer, please feel free to email our team. In the meantime, we can try to answer another question. What is the meaning of our blog title?

I. Building Fulfillment –

The act of completing, or fulfilling, one’s architectural project to the best of their ability.

In effect, this is everything we do as leftovers. When we last wrote a blog post, we had just moved the cores into their final positions and craned our trusses into place. Since then, we have kept very busy. Our priority was to get the house dried in (sufficiently sealed) with ZIP System® sheathing to protect our beautiful cores. We had to install the blocking, place the sheathing, and tape and roll every seam and hole.

Once we had a dry space to work under, we were able to unwrap and resume working on the cores. We accomplished a lot off site, but there is still plenty left to do. We have been connecting all the water, electrical, and PVC systems to their respective outlets in our utility room. We are taking immense care to ensure that these systems perform as designed while looking as pleasing as they can. Having them exposed is an idea central to the cores themselves. The homeowner will easily be able to see when and where something breaks. That ease of maintenance will contribute to the longevity of the home, while also encouraging the homeowner to develop higher level of familiarity with such systems.

In addition, we have been working on the exterior of the house. We were able to install our windows recently. It’s a great feeling to use the windows as we intended, taking advantage of cross-ventilation on these hot days since we don’t have the A/C installed. We have also been busy layering on the insulation, battens, and flashing. All of this work is in preparation for, at last, putting on the final layer—the corrugated metal—which we hope to complete by the next blog post!

II. Building Fulfillment –

The act of building and the fulfillment it provides or the attempt to learn how to build a sense of fulfillment within ourselves.

In a blog post, we can only offer a snapshot into our daily routine of working and building. It’s difficult to convey in writing every decision made or every step of the process taken. To fully understand, you simply need to be there to see it for yourself. What we can convey is that being present and fully committed to learning how to build for the first time, and then actually doing it, is an incredibly rewarding experience. Plenty of stress and frustration balance the good times. No cup of coffee in the world will wake you up faster than the landing of a hammer when it hits your thumb instead of the nail. And coffee rarely results in expletives.

Every member of our team remembers moments on this project that were challenging to manage at the time. Many we tackled as a team. Others we entrusted to each other. But we managed them all. Once said and done, these moments and their solutions left us replete with personal satisfaction.

Personal fulfillment is a lofty goal, and difficult, especially when the finishing touches for our project are still a bit down the road a ways. One thing we hear almost as often as “So, when are you gonna finish up?” is the shared sentiment of past leftovers as they reminisce about their time at Rural Studio.

“Take your time to do things well, and enjoy it while it lasts.”

Thank you!

Before we leave, we want to give a huge thank you to those who have recently donated to us!

Thank you, Pella, for the windows and doors!

Thank you, Interface, for our LVT flooring (luxury vinyl tile!)

Thank you, ROCKWOOL, for the rigid insulation!

Thank you, FAKRO, for our skylight and drop-down ladder!

Thank you, XVentBox Ventilation Systems, for the ventilation outlets!

Thank you, Broan-NuTone, for the range hood, bathroom exhaust fan, humidity controller, fire damper, and inline fan!

A huge Thank You to all of you. And readers, check back with us soon!

Welcome once again to the CLT Core House blog. When we last left you, we had just finished pouring our slab, and were preparing the cores for their final moves! We have had some exhausting weeks, but finally seeing the pieces come together makes it all worth it.

The Pieces

Early in our design, we envisioned the day where all of our careful planning in pre-fabrication would pay off. Our prefabricated pieces were the walls, the cores, and the trusses. We wanted to see how having these pieces would change a typical construction process. How would it potentially help or hinder a small team of four?

The Walls

Since our project was about exploring prefabrication in a rural context, we wanted to apply that logic to our walls. The core is the star of the show, but if we had to frame an entire house after they were placed, they wouldn’t shine for very long.

We built 16-foot sections of the wall on our slab, sheathed them, and put on as many battens as we could. We then tilted them up onto a pressure treated 2×6 that had been nailed into the concrete, and we nailed them into place once plumb.

Then we framed the only interior walls for our house: the bedroom and closet walls that, together, form the bedrooms. The only walls we didn’t place were along the length of the front porch. We needed that space open to place the cores. But, we still built them and had them ready to be craned into place by the same crane that would move the cores.

The Cores

The heart of the home. With our slab ready, all we needed to do to complete the cores was to finish tiling. As we prepared the site, whenever it would rain we would go and tile. It was a nice change of pace from hauling wood around! The cores were then prepped to be picked up by our good friend Shane and his crane.

The cores were then prepped to be picked up by our good friend Shane and his crane.

Finally moving the cores was so exciting. If there was any big moment for the project, it was this. Things went as smoothly as they could. The cores are resting perfectly level, and they are aligned with each other. With those components in place, we placed the final walls.

After the kitchen core was placed into the slab depression, the green room walls quickly went up, just in time for the arrival of the bathroom core.

With those cores in place, we placed the final walls, enclosing our finally assembled house.

The Trusses

Most of the trusses were not altered. However, a question was raised. Could we finish the gable end truss with the proper sheathing and framing before it was craned up? So that’s what we did, making the assembly much easier and helping minimize time spent working on scaffolding which is always a good thing.

We learned a lot from this process. Many elements went to plan, and some didn’t, but everything was very informative. If anything, it was amazing to see these pieces assemble over three days and immediately have them present such clear image of the house. You can feel the spaces now as you walk through the house. Of course, now that we can see them, we are already altering the designs. That’s the beauty of design-build.

Hello again, and welcome back to the Core House Blog! We have been working hard since our last update. Soon after our latest blog, we broke ground on our project both on and off-site. The balance of on-site and off-site work has been interesting, but they often work hand in hand, informing each other throughout the process. Let’s get into it!

A Tale of Two Sites

First and foremost, we needed to build the floor system that the CLT (Cross-Laminated Timber) would be built on. We altered this design from our experience in the mock-up to create a much stronger connection. Next, of course, are the CLT panels themselves.

Cutting, moving, and installing these panels require a lot of planning. We carefully measured out and triple-checked every dimension, but that doesn’t reduce the stress of making the final cut. After we had the panels, we had to cut out the doorways. All the doorways are routed along the edge to match the routed edges of a CLT door. That way, when the doors are closed, the core will appear as a uniform mass of CLT rather than there being a disruption.

It takes a village to move the panels by hand, but with the help of hydraulic forklifts, you only need two people. However, we did have to get creative and build a jig because the forklifts are not designed to move panels. But they are perfect for moving our cores. We can move the fully assembled box using only them and two people, that’s over 7000 pounds!

To tilt up the panels we used old reliable, manual labor. We often needed help, and our peers were incredibly generous with their time and effort to help us. The panels would not have even gotten them off the ground without their help. We also had our friend Shane and his crane help us install the bathroom roof.

Look at that skylight!

With the loss of the Fabrication Pavilion roof temporarily, we were able to test whether our recently constructed cores were mobile as well. After disassembling the walls connecting the kitchen and bathroom, we wrapped up the cores and used the hydraulic forklifts to move them to the end of the pavilion, the core’s final placement before being shipped to site.

It Was The Best of Weather, It Was The Worst of Weather

Enough about the cores. Onsite, despite the winter weather trying to slow us down at every turn, progress has been steady.  The earthwork on our site was fully completed thanks to our amazing landscaper Tyler. With the dirt provided it is up to us to make something of it. So, we set up our batter boards and began digging.

And digging…

And digging…

But! Digging with purpose. First, we dug out our utility lines for water, power, and waste. Then, we dug out the trenches for the first slab we will pour. We then took about a week to glue our waste line so that it didn’t leak. Trust us, it’s harder than it seems. It only took us four tries, so we are practically professionals. With the waste line properly sloped and buried and all the stubouts in their perfect locations, we were able to put in the formwork for the slab.

As of today, we have dug the trenches for our first pour and second pour. We are nearly prepared to start pouring the concrete, all we need to do is lay a vapor barrier and rebar. Next Tuesday, we will likely make our first pour. Then the following Tuesday will be the main slab, so stay tuned!

For all your plumbing needs please call the Core House ™, there isn’t a single leak we can’t fix after four tries!