The MCNZH foundation. The rectangle that's jutting out is the cold room, located under the front steps/landing.

A frequently asked question regarding the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) is: "Why didn't you use Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for the foundation walls?".  The short answer is: "using traditional concrete forms and innovative insulating techniques, we can achieve a much higher R-value for less money".  read more... »

The best two things a home builder/renovator can do in the name of energy efficiency is to insulate and seal a house. It's almost too bad, what with our culture's obsession with everything high tech. When people ask me about the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH), they're often expecting to hear about technology's magic answers. When I start talking about insulation levels, eyes start to glaze over, but the truth is that 75% of the difference between this house and a conventional one is that it's sealed as tight as a plastic bag and it's super-insulated.  read more... »

We tore down the house at #### - 84 Avenue about 45 days ago, and Peter Amerongen and Habitat Studios have made a lot of progress since.

The very beginning was quite stressful due to some difficult neighbour relations, but we go through that (for now). In the meantime,  our foundation is poured and backfilled:

and the framing is well underway:  read more... »