Recently Completed Projects

In the Walls & On the Roof!

A perspective view of the back of the house shows a row of scaffolding at the base of the roof and rectangles of insulation stacked halfway up the roof deck.

A new year and a reinvigorated energy for the Patriece’s Home team! In 2023, the home will all come together! The team was so eager to get back to work, they settled back into Hale County weeks before the semester started.

Plus, their insulation arrived. Thanks to a generous donation from Rockwool, Patriece’s Home, Rosie’s Home, and the C.H.O.I.C.E House will be filled with Rockwool fire and sound-proof insulation. These products are made from basalt rocks that have been melted down and whipped like cotton candy, and provide a more healthful insulation alternative. 

Because the trusses on Patreice’s Home are designed for 5 1/2” of spray foam insulation, the team developed a strategy to use 4 inches of Rockwool Comfortboard 110 on the exterior of the roof deck and Comfortbatt on the interior of the roof deck to achieve the necessary insulation R value. They also drilled holes in the roof purlins of the six-foot gap between the trusses so that vapor can diffuse across the underside of the roof deck through the port in the ridge. Thank you, Rural Studio 5th-,years for helping install interior insulation! The team edited the eave and rake details for this change and once the comfort board was stacked on the roof, they covered it in a waterproof plastic, purlins to screw the roof metal into and sandwiched all the layers together with 7” screw into the attic trusses! 

After the insulation was secure, the team finished placing the corrugated ash grey roof metal on the house in one afternoon! The first finish layer of the home is complete! 

Before they finish the other side of the roof, the team is going to duct three rooms upstairs to whirly bird vents on the roof to help ventilate the home in the hot Alabama summers. The students will have to drill though all layers of the roof sandwich and built hatches to the ducts, which can be closed in the winter and opened when it heats up. Team member Daniel built a mockup of the hatches and the team had another detail design meeting with their consultant Dan Wheeler!

Adam and Laurel also ran around the house installing an exterior hose bib, the hot water heater, and the shower controls to finally finish the plumbing. They installed two ERVs—one for each unit in the dividable home—to circulate fresh air and installed ducts the bathroom fans and kitchen range hood They cut the ZIP below the tall windows to secure the home’s through-wall unit sleeves.

Meanwhile, Lauren and Daniel have been tangled in the wires! Boxes were placed, holes drilled, and wire pulled to electrify the whole home. The electrical system is designed on two breaker boxes; when the home is devised into two units, the second unit can be hooked up to a second preinstalled meter box. These little details are part of the team’s adaptable design to allow the home to flex with as little effort as possible. Rural Studio’s own Mason Hinton helped them design and test the circuits and hook them up to the breakers and meter box outside. The team is also installing conduit to a low voltage box inside, so if the homeowner decides to change their internet or cable television service provider, the new cables can easily be routed into the home. 

With the last of the roof metal coming soon and final checks on the guts of house’s walls being done, we’re all ready to see this space filled with insulation and transformed by drywall! Read Patriece’s Home’s blog next time to see their spring progress in Greensboro!

Tripping Walls

And we’re back! After a very merry break, the team has returned to Rural Studio and we are ready to get the new year rolling. With little time to waste, the we finished framing the interior walls. Now, we can experience the living, sleeping, and bathing space live, in person, and in three dimensions. Exciting stuff! Once the walls were up, we went back and installed blocking. These small, horizontal pieces of wood placed between the studs will support things like grab bars in the bathroom and cabinets in the food prep space. We also added extra blocking in unit two so that C.H.O.I.C.E. can have two fully accessible units in the future if needed.

As soon as the walls went up, we turned our attention to the doors and windows. With some extra elbow grease from 5th-year student, Ashley Wilson, and a little bit of Steve Long’s Know-How, all of the windows and doors were fully installed in just a couple of days!

A couple more cans of window sealing foam and we’ll officially be dried in! And with that, we’re ready to start plumbing and wiring. Back at the drawing board, Davis has been working on some lighting studies to set the mood for our electrical plan while simultaneously putting plumbing in order with a shopping trip for supplies to follow soon after.

Next time y’all hear from us, we’ll be high and dry. Roof metal installation is coming soon! ‘Til then: keep making good C.H.O.I.C.E.S!

I’m Floored

It’s been a minute since you’ve heard from the Patriece’s Home team.

We last left them in the middle of their window installation, and since then they’ve finished! The fenestrations definitely gave the home its facial features and the wonderful Pella-donated windows filled the interior with beautiful light. 

The team also installed the Pella-donated exterior doors. The doors have integrated windows to give the home even more exterior daylight and now the team can lock up the house when they leave for the day. 

With such lovely natural light, the team met with designer Thomas Paterson of Lux Populi again to finalize a complementary artificial lighting plan. The group selected fixtures and bulbs that won’t attempt to replicate daytime light but give a different type of warm cast and task light for differing interior program.

With the stairs complete, it was easier for the team to bring tongue-and-groove plywood to lay the subfloor within their attic truss. 

Once the subfloor was complete, the team could then finally finish their interior framing! The upstairs rooms have taken shape, and the team got very excited about the possibilities for flexible room at the top of the stairs. 

They also put half-inch plywood along the interior walls of the stairs to later attach a durable layer of tongue-and-groove cypress boards. With a surface to cast light on, the team got even more excited about the exterior light from the windows at the top and bottom of the stairs. 

With all the walls established, the group began looking toward wall fillers in preparation to enclose them with drywall (and with endless miscellaneous blocking). 

We enjoyed installing the downstairs shower and upstairs bathtub base. From there, the team began fitting together the PVC drain, water, and vent system to the stub outs connections from the main drain in the concrete slab. 

With the chunky PCV filling the walls, the group began routing flexible PEX tubing through the house. These water supply lines connect to their various fixture stub outs in the bathrooms and kitchen. 

Then it was time for electrical boxes and outlets to find their place in the wall. With the supervision of some expert help, the team installed the two electrical units. These separate outlet boxes offer the opportunity for power to be individually accessed and maintained. With all the wire strung, the house is ready to be plugged into the meter on the temporary power pole outside. Just like decorating for the holidays. We might as well: the house is already green. 

Speaking of holidays, Soup Roast snuck up on the team so fast! The four tidied up for the visitors and started the special day’s project tour with a quick presentation of their home. The crowd got to wander around the home. It’s safe to say it was well received! 

The team has a lot to be thankful for in their second holiday season at Rural Studio. The opportunity to build, the wonderful community that supports them, delicious food, and a home now ready for insulation and drywall! Check back here in the new year for more big updates on Patriece’s Home!

We Don’t Want to Freeze

Around these parts, Kermit isn’t the only green guy movin’ right along! Keep reading to see how our team’s been preparing the units to leap into winter.

main units viewed from street

First things first—both the units and the third volume are fully sheathed! Having a fully enclosed “shell” to work in offers a couple advantages: As it gets colder, we can focus our efforts inside the units and away from winter wind.

In addition, we’re planning to take a couple weeks off at the end of the year to celebrate the holidays and spend time with family, so having a waterproof layer of sheathing protecting our wood framing offers some peace of mind during our hiatus.

We also had the privilege of receiving our first big group of visitors since last May’s Pig Roast. Each December, current 3rd- and 5th-years present their work to external reviewers for an end-of-the-year critique. To kick off the day, students, faculty, reviewers, friends, and family alike caravanned to our site for a quick look at our headway. Some of our visitors hadn’t seen the project since it was still on paper, so it was exciting to share our progress.

AC presents to visitors

Getting right back to work, we installed the fascia and wrapped it with metal flashing. The width of the fascia gives the appearance of a thickened roof plane or “hat” that reveals itself under the porch as an assembly of thin layers. How’s that for a detail you can hang your hat on?

Moving inside, we poured both units’ showers. With those last two pours, all of our interior concrete is done. That means as soon as we return in January, we can dive right into framing our interior walls. 

Now, the team is signing off for a much needed break. Make good C.H.O.I.C.E.s, and we’ll see you all in January.

holiday card from the team

Someone Get the Drill Out of the Rain

Howdy, folks. It’s time for another C.H.O.I.C.E. House roof raising roundup. Y’all know the drill, so let’s jump right into what we’ve been up to since our last post.

end of day site progress

It’s been a long time coming, but we are happy to finally report that trusses are up! Thanks to our friends working on Patriece’s Home and the expertise of “Crane Shane,” we raised all 25 trusses in one day. Everyone was pleased to see our 8:12 gabled roof make its way off paper and onto the streets of Uniontown as well as a first look at our big hit, the porch!

After truss day, we wasted little time moving right along to bracing and purlins. The bracing helps connect the trusses to each other and offers some more stability while sheathing the roof is in progress. Purlins are horizontal support beams that support rafters in the roof. We also installed hurricane straps as another layer of protection against future severe weather events.

Purlins were a multi-day adventure. For our readers looking to put up some purlins of their own, the process looks something like this. First, harness up (safety first!) Next, install the sub-fascia along the East and West ends of the units. Use the sub-fascia as the starting point for your first purlin. Make sure the purlins that are exposed under the eaves are painted gray before you install to ensure a coherent detail language. Alternatively, locate a younger student and hand them a ladder and a paintbrush. Begin moving up the roof! Adjust your harness as you climb. As you ascend, use the previously installed purlin as a step stool for placing the next one. Brace yourself against the wood to nail in the next 2×4. Take a moment to ask yourself: Why you didn’t wear knee pads? Finish nailing and make a mark for the next board at two feet on center. Repeat process until all purlins are installed.

On top of purlins, we also took some time to raise the trusses for the third volume with the help of Steve and the “Bob crane,” a.k.a. our Bobcat with a crane attachment. In the next few days, we’ll get the third volume sheathing going just like the roof of the main units.

Back at the main units, we’ve moved on to sheathing the roof. This team knows that the girls are capable of some tough stuff, so Hailey and AC have taken over the roof and turned it into a girls-only zone. Next time you see us, we’ll be dried in for winter, allowing us to frame up our interior walls without worrying about winter wind and rain. 

hailey and ac sit on roof

In the middle of all of this progress, we even took a day to dress up and check out the current 5th-year projects at Halloween Reviews. I guess you can say we think we’re hot (and spicy!) stuff.