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Coolman Communities

Is it sheetrock or drywall?

Just depends on where you are from and who is supplying the product. Othernames include wallboard, gypsum board and plasterboard. Previously builders used layers of plaster on a lathe of wood to create the smooth wall surface. Drywall is not only faster but the instilation is ions faster.

Whatever you call it the boards are heavy. In the picture to the right you can see our delivery of drywall to the home. These sheets are 4' by 8' in size and vary in thickness. They can weigh anywhere from 50 - 75 lbs, making them not only heavy but awkwardly so.

In the matter of a day or two the hangers can . . .well. . hang (or nail up) the sheets of drywall. They are followed by the mudders who tape the seams and fill screw holes will drywall compound, also known as mud. It has the consistancy and look of a a thick vanilla pudding. After the mud is dried then the surfaces are sanded to a smooth finish in preparation of paint or other wall preparation.

With the hanging of the drywall one can feel the house, the size of the rooms and get the visual spacing that so many need to truly envision a home design.

NAHB Green Building Program

http://www.nahbgreen.org/

One way to get all the information you wanted to know on Green Buliding by the National Association of Homebuilders!

It's What's On the Inside that Counts!

This is a point that I cannot stress enough. Any builder can make a house look pretty. I quick trip to the mega hardware and home improvethat look good. Wall colors can be changed in a matter of an afternoon. Flooring within a day. Heck, even whole kitchens can be re-tooled in a matter of six weeks or so. It's what is behind the drywall and under that floor that really matters.

Ask yourself this question. . .would you rather pay towards the equity in a really well built and insulated home or would you rather hand your hard earned cash over to your utilities company? In these times of horrific heating a cooling seasons I can honestly say that I'm one of the lucky ones. One of my neighbors actually told me that they skip (yes I said skip) ment meccas will find you all sorts of things to the mailbox having moved into a Coolman Green Built Five star energy rated home, having moved out of a turn of the century Italianate.

Anyone out there know what an "R" value is? It's ok. I had to initially look it up in Wikapedia. It is a measure of thermal resistance used in the building and construction industry. The bigger the number the better the building's insulation effectiveness. We use blown in Nu-Wool insulation with an R value of 17 on our walls and R 40 on our ceilings. Any time a pipe or tube comes into the house the opening is insulated with spray foam.

Another question I am often asked is in regards to our Borg (Trekkie reference)/Matrix looking device. This is our water manifold. We use a direct delivery PECs system. It is a little more pricey, but the advantages are numerous. First, it gives you direct access line from the hot water heater to your apparatus. No more waiting ages for the hot water to appear. The lines are rated to freezing well below any temperature that would sustain life, so your pipes aren't going to freeze if you are away on va-ca in the dead of winter and the power goes out. Plus they have a little give with expansion and contraction, unlike PVC or metal piping. You can also turn off any apparatus, hot or cold, at any time should you have the need to.

Once again, we use a system that makes sense in our climate and for our home owners.

(A little more horn tooting to follow) Did you know that 10 of the first 100 homes certified NATIONALLY by the National Association of Homebuilders was a Coolman home? Here's the great part about that. When Coolman went to find out what we needed to do to become a builder of certified green homes, we discovered if we did absolutely NOTHING to our current standards that every home we built would be certified to the SILVER level. We were Green before it was trendy simply because it made good sense. We cared about what was inside your walls, because it is what is inside our own walls.

RAISE THE ROOF!!!!

By far the most exciting part of time of the build for yours truly is the framing. It is the time when you finally get to have a sense of the spatial dimensions of the space that has been developed on paper during the design process. No matter how many times I see it it still just puts a smile on my face. In fact, as a young child, we had a stick and frame climbing house in my back yard. So I'm certain that my proclivity to the framed home must be due to some nostalic underpinning from my subconscience.

What also amazes me is how incredibly fast houses can be framed. Most of my clients say the same thing. Suddenly there is a house, or at least the beginnings of a house, that they can physically walk through. Folks are all smiles.

Framing, depending on the size and configuration of the home can take anywhere from a week to ten days, again barring that the weather is good. We, that is Chris, Erik and Kelly keep a pretty tight construction schedule. Our summer builds take 90 days from time of frame and our winter builds are 120. Coolman carries the construction loan for the home. We guarantee our build times and (cross your fingers) we have never gone over our delivery date that we set on our purchase agreements. If we do then we pay you per day until we get 'er done. Like I said, we haven't had to do that in our 54 year history.

The walls and interiors are framed first and then the pre-fabricated, enginereed, kiln dried roof trusses are set. Plywood sheeting forms the outershell and the walls are Tyvecked for weatherproofing.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

We get a lot of questions about the kinds of foundations that we use and how they are installed. First, let me say that I am not the expert here. That is why I always throw the technical building questions to the builders, Erik and Chris. When they have a question then we go straight to the master of building the (retired?) Ron Fisher or to Bob Coolman.

Nor is this the most exciting time of the building process. Don't get me wrong, watching concrete being poured for the first time can be a wierd and interesting science lesson for all that have never seen it done before. Sandberg's do it so quickly and so professionally that it is over in a matter of hours and then it is simply a matter of watching concrete cure. Still, everything hinges on the soundness of the foundation.

For the most part we build either slab foundations or basements. The house's footprint determins the size of either. In this particular case you will see in the pictures the poured concrete footings in their forms followed by the underground utility work that is layed in gravel and compacted sand, prior to backfilling and the pouring the concrete slab.

This whole process takes about a week if the weather is nice.

The wise man built his house upon the rock, afterall. ..ours just happens to be a lot of little ones called aggregate.

Moving Dirt

I woke up last week to the sound of my five year old hollerin’ out the window, “Morning, Eric!”. I’m not only a project manager. I’m also a neighbor. I looked out the window and couldn't see a thing. So, I put my glasses on to read the blue glow of the clock. 7:13. Yep, that’s about right. I could hear the sound of Grandpa Coolman resounding in the recesses of my memory, “Get up! Day’s half over!”

We finalized selections and floor plans on this house a fortnight ago, certified those selections and plans, secured the construction financing and the building permits and on Monday, April 12th broke ground on our “Ashley” home.

A construction crew’s day begins at first light. So it was no surprise to look out the window to see the guys. These are the same guys that have been doing this for what seems like forever. Jack Lindy has been digging Coolman Community foundations and moving earth since, it would seem, the beginning of time. He can dig to the inch with a massive earthmover more accurately then the majority of us could dig with a shovel. To watch him maneuver is like watching a choreographed ballet.

Ron Fisher is on site with his tape measure, staking out the foundation of the house. He’s retired. At least that is what we were told. I was at the party. Funny thing about guys like Ron, retirement doesn’t really suit them. Even after nearly forty years at the company we still get the privilege of his expertise and his soft spoken, yet direct demeanor.

The tall blond holding the foundation plans is Eric Veldman, one of our Builders. Eric is that rare breed of employee that started out as the gopher laborer and just kept learning and working and learning and working and is now our senior Builder, supervising the construction and sub-contractors. Chris Byers is our other builder. You’d think they were brothers. Chris and Eric act as a tag team on all the various sites at the moment. They are the go to guys concerning all things construction related. Eric was here for the dig. Chris for laying the underground utilities and backfill. In the matter of a week we have dug, set our block foundation, backfilled and tied into sewer and water. HVAC and Plumbers were on site this morning to begin the layout of the undergrounds

That Young, Hip, Trendy Bunch

I think that in order to be young, hip and trendy, there cannot be any conscience effort to be so. I think that one just is or isn't. Pity for those that aren't or weren't or those that so want to be, but can never achieve that kind of "je ne sais quoi". So it should be no surprise that I, personally, was not a member of this group. . .more of the gatherer of the "cool".

If house buying needs to be "cool" then I suppose "Cool-man" should lead the charge. So in order to put the cool and hip back into home building I scoured the upwardly mobile, younger Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers for a collection of souls willing to let us pick their brains. All professionals. All in their mid 20s to mid 30s. Two married couples, one dating couple, one engaged couple. Who needs couples therapy when all you need are a few style magazines to see how in sync you are with your partner? I digress.

In a caffeine induced frenzy of glossy magazines, scissors and glue sticks four couples let us delve into their dreams, style, & tastes. What we found was chic baths, clean lines, hardwired, and open interiors fit for entertaining & contrasting visual elements. Green/energy efficient living was an assumption, a way of life. This lot had grown up green (hadn't everyone?) The needs were fairly straightforward: a house to grow into, without much maintenance, with a home office area, that is multifunctional, and functional

Interestingly enough while the interiors were modern, the exteriors were primarily traditional. . .and to our delight. . craftsman, which Coolman has been known to build ("toot, toot") pretty well.

So now we knew what they were looking for. Now the design team and the production team had to figure out how to package that into a product that met their needs and addressed the wants of this hip and trendy and ultra stylish "yuppies" (what is the new slang for that anyway?) at a price that they could afford.

Next time. . .the design, re design, tinkering, and tweaking of a floor plan. . .

The House That Coolman Built

It is a blustery winter afternoon in northwest Indiana. The sun has decided to show itself. Beams of sunshine filter in through the model home's southern facing windows. I am almost blinded as I look out upon the blanket of of alabaster covering much of the ground. The sun is a hopeful sign that soon the crocuses may burst through the frozen earth, as is the flash of cardinal red that catches my attention as it swoops by my window. Spring is coming. . . or at least that's the hope.

Spring, for me, more then any other season, exemplifies this hope. A time of rebirth and renewal.

In this quaint neighborhood of North Hampstead I sit (not so) patiently awaiting the change of season with baited breath. I am compelled to share this journey with you. This neighborhood is not merely where I work. It is where I live. Spring assures me that the tulips will sprout, the grass will green and that I will see the faces of my long lost, igloo-ed neighbors. I cannot wait to have a chance to catch up with everyone on our way to the mailbox, or on a stroll to the Evelyn Bay Coffee Shop.

I am also assured that, as a fairly young neighborhood, spring is going to bring additional homes to our little enclave. (helps to have an "in" with the builder) Coolman Communities has been diligently working these through these cold winter months. In a housing climate that keeps telling us that there is a glut in the housing market, Coolman Communities continues to defy the naysayers.

Am I here to toot the Coolman horn? Absolutely! Am I a wee bit biased? Probably. Am I gonna shout it from the rooftops? Well. . .maybe when the weather warms up. :-)

I digress. . . I want to show you how Coolman does this differently. I want to take you on this journey. You can then judge for yourself how different we are from the other guy. Building a home can be such a scary process for so many, especially if they've had a bad experience. . . and yet it doesn't have to be.

As spring approaches North Hampstead is introducing a new line of homes. It is intended to address a segment of the market - first time home buyer, young couples, professional singles, and starter families. Homes to grow into and set in a neighborhood that provides.. .well. . .talk-to-over-the-fence, sit a spell, meet at the mailbox, genuine neighbors.

So we brought together a group of "young, hip, trendy" 20 and 30 year olds in a focus group to pick their collective brains (figuratively speaking) and in response have retooled, reworked, reanalyzed, and honed this set of floor plans to create our Innovate series. I'm going to take you through the ins and outs of how three houses will be planned and built. I'm going to invite you into my neighborhood . . .