The timbers that hold up Underhill House were cut from trees on our 44 acres. We were looking for trees that had the right dimensions, interesting forking patterns and were too close to their neighbors or not doing well for other reasons. These “weed” trees made great timbers, but the […]
On Friday, the shortest day of the year, our solar hot water panels began to pass sun-soaked heat to the floors of Underhill House for the first time. The system awoke to a sunny, cold morning and began to circulate a steadily-warming glycol solution between the panels and our basement […]
Trying to build as greenly as possible means constant decisions. When we got ready to paint Underhill House, we had two basic questions. 1. What company to go with? We started out getting paint from Sherwin Williams because we were familiar with them and liked them. We got the paint […]
Remember the Beach Boys song In My Room? Underhill House is as small as we could make it, and that means our bedroom shares one wall with the main living area and bathroom and will share its other inside wall with the television in the den. The guest bedroom shares […]
Underhill House will be hosting an open house Friday October 26 from 4 to 6 p.m. 3487 County Road H, Ridgeway WI 53582 Underhill House in July. We’ve made a lot of progress since our last open house when the timbers had just been put in place last July. Unfortunately […]
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, properly insulated homes use half the energy of those without insulation. Underhill House is a blend of old and new ways to insulate. Over half the house’s walls is insulated with straw bales with an R-value of 30-45. The other half – that […]
The stucco finish on Underhill House has turned into quite a testing ground. The prep work and first coats began in July (See my post Underhill House Gets Plastered part one ). Finally in October is the end in sight. It usually doesn’t take so long to stucco a house. […]
We are going to get between our two floors on a winder staircase that Della designed. I was going to blog about the wonderful winder stairway at Underhill House today because the basic framing in was completed yesterday. Winders are nice because they minimize how much space the stairs take […]
Underhill House got a thorough once-over last week. Scott Godfrey, Director of the Iowa County Office of Planning and Development in Dodgeville, had asked if he and a group of other regional zoning/planning colleagues from surrounding counties, all members of the SW District of the Wisconsin County Code Administrators, could […]
This summer’s heat and drought are reaching record proportions in southern Wisconsin and across much of the United States. The disturbed soil around our building site has gradually turned into powder about 4 inches deep so that every step raised clouds of dust around our ankles. Every plant that we […]
Digging in the Driftless 