Current house

We purchased our new home after Christmas 2017 and started an ambitious remodel, completely gutting the basement to add a second master space and create a Data Center. We also elected to covert it to 100% geothermal heating and air-conditioning and install tankless hot water (to supplement the "free" geothermal hot water). geothermal is dedicated to the geothermal installation process and results.

Addition

We're building an addition onto the house as well as the remodel (below). Mostly we wanted some additional garage space, so we're mirroring the existing 3 car with an identical space - with my in-laws there are 4 driving adults in the house, plus lawn care equipment and workshop space. Because the existing garage has a small piece of house leading out to it, we also chose to miror this space, which will give us some additional living space we didn't really need, but it doesn't hurt to have. In the basement it will be a storage space with a walk-out to the back yard and steps into the new garage. On the first floor it will be a workout/exercise room, and an additional guest bedroom/suite (with kitchenette). There will be storage over the garage as well.

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  Getting ready, the parking pad will go away, and parking will suck for quite awhile

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  Topsoil stripped

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  This old sewer line will be moved back about 10', into the setback

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  The addition goes here

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  New sewer crock

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  The architect didn't get a real survey, with elevations, so I used my laser level to get a sense for how much the garage had to be raised to be even with the existing garage - 14" in front

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  22" in the back

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  Backfilling the sewer excavation-the foundation will cross over this...

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  Excavating the basement

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  Foundation drainage

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  Connection to the existing basement

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  Garage footer preparation

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  Foundation forms

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  Bridging the sewer excavation

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  The excavators nicked the existing driveway drainage... this will be rerouted around the foundation

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  Foundation wall prep

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  footer pour

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  Garage fill requirements now clear...

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  A good foundation

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  Annoying but inevitable construction yard damage

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  Using a rock-slinger to fill the foundation

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  Insulating the basement foundation

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  The existing roof drains ran across the new garage, so openings were left in footer wall for this drain pipe to carry this to the adjacent creek

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  Rerouting the driveway drainage and picking up the downspouts

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  Insulating the garage footers

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  Ready for the basement slab

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  This is the sewer drain for the garage, a direct connection. I'm not happy with this, but it works... strikes me as lazy on the part of my architect

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  Downspout connections

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  Basement slab poured

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  Ready for garage slab

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Basement Remodel

We bought this house to get closer to the city, but still have some property and privacy, and to move my in-laws in. They don't need help now, but they might someday, and my wife wanted to be able to spend some quality time with them as they enjoy their retirment. We wanted to get them single-floor living, so if they do end up needing surgeries or have any mobility issues it won't be that hard, but we didn't want to give up having our own very nice space either. This house provided that opportunity, it's large enough, and although it has a sunken family room and a couple steps to get into, is pretty flat with a first floor master, kitchen, laundry, and office for them. It also sits well up, so the base spacious basement is only about 3' under grade, so we were able to put in lots of windows and build a complete second master bedroom, bath, closet, full office, kitchen, and family room in the basement, in addition to a billiards room (it came with a table) and the Camp_Kiwi_Data_Center data center. It has 3 bedrooms upstairs for guests, and with the geothermal heating and air system we were able to zone it with 7 independent zones of heating an air so everyone can be comfortable (and we have tankless hot water for unlimited showering and laundry). When done it will really be extremely nice. One of the nice features of this home is every floor has a long, straight central hallway with stairs at both ends. This does make it hard to locate people, though, as it's big and they might be using the other stairwell.

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  It came with a fountain!

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  A light sensor for the outdoor lighting!

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  Existing layout upstairs

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  First Floor

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  Moving in

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  We gutted the basement and started from scratch

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  The existing shower will be replaced, and the geothermal lines will enter here

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  Shower room

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  Utility room, our laundry will go next to here

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  Laundry connections

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  These windows will get bigger, and another will be added

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  Master shower drain

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  Master vanity plumbing

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  5'x9' master shower with two 8' linear drains

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  the shower slopes to the linear drain side

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  Master Vanity with have a TV behind a 2-way mirror

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  We moved a post to make the family-to-kitchen opening larger, so we had to pour a new footer

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  Old post location, and new footer

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  Reducting to add zone control

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  Billards storage

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  Preparing for the data center

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  Data center will have a raised floor, partly to hide wire chases, partly to protect from water intrusion

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  Pulling cable to data center (cat 6a)

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  Split AC unit for data center

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  Data cabling in hallway

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  Temporary network

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  Data Center wall/door - an 8 footer!

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  Server power

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  Exercise equipment

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  Kitchen plumbing

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  Reframing

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  An angled hall will connect the master closet to the bath, so when one of us gets up we can close the bedroom off and move back and forth without distrubing anyone

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  This beam needs reinforced as we're pulling a column out

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  It got full-length 'C' channels on both sides

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  and the wood suport on this end was reinforced with steel

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  Before pulling the post (the wall will no longer be under this beam)

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  The beam on the other end of the master bedroom gets the same treatment

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  My office, these windows get bigger

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  Voila!

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  A lot of ductwork

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  Powder room plumbing

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  Cameras mounted around the house

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  Including Ring flood light cameras

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  And Ubiquiti UVC-Pro cameras

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  Basement kitchen island waterproofing

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  Starting basement tile

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  Multi-zone climate controls

Geothermal Installation

In 2017 there was still a 30% Federal tax credit for residential geothermal installations, and since we bought a big house with HVAC units right at the edge of their life expectancy my (accountant) wife talked me into replacing everything with geo.

We opted for the Climate Master Trilogy (Heat/AC/Hot Water) systems, a pair of 4 ton units, and a 3 ton split system for the upstairs - that's because there was no good way to get the geo piping up there, so we installed the heat exchanger/heat pump downstairs and reused the line set for the old AC system to take geo cooled refridgerant upstairs to a more traditional space pack, which has gas back-up heat.

We chose Gallagher/Hauser HVAC to do our installation, as the local company with the most experience. Their work has been technically quite good, but their customer service (for us) has been abysmal from start-to-finish, with scope creepy, cost overruns, and schedule delays at every turn so I would not recommend to anyone. For the kind of money we spent with them it's shocking how little regard they gave even the simplest requests.

The geothermal installation was really interesting to watch. First Jackson drilling showed up and installed 8 wells, each 300' deep. Each well provides 2 tons of heating/cooling capacity, through it's 600' of 1" PVC tubing, and there were two well fields installed in a line below our driveway to provide 8 tons each. The wells are 20' apart to allow them enough ground to extract heat from. The tubing was premade with a 'U' shaped connection at the tip. I think the holes are 3" in diameter, and the tubing is encased in Benseal (a bentonite mixture for casing the well) for heat dispersal. They liked drilling at our house because the asphalt made the process really clean for them, they could easily rack the tailing from the drill away and they had a nice solid base for thier rig, and since we have mostly shale and sandstone they were going through a 20' section of drilling pipe about every 2 minutes, or a well about every half hour. They made quite a mess, but the drilling was done in a couple of days. Or, rather, it would've been if they didn't break the bit on the next to last hole - and they didn't have a spare on this rig.

Drilling

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  1" PVC tubing

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  Setting up the drilling rig

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  The drilling started around my birthday and made quite a mess... I didn't like that, so Elizabeth got me a cake to ease the blow

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  The front wall by shower where the well field will enter the house

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  Tubing will route through here

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  Drilling

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  Sweeping the tailings away

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  Tubing installed

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  Adjacent wells

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  Bentonite has been pumped in

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  The white tube was used to feed bentonite

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  The last well on this field - this one is next to the gas line (but we didnt' know it)!

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  They typically use this pan for tailings, but didn't need to here

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  U bend at tip of tubing

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  610' of tubing per well (in a 'U')

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  The business end

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  Starting the second field

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  Benseal Bentonite

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  Benseal Bentonite

These were connected via a trench about 3' deep (pretty close to the frost line here in Cincinnati) manifold system so the could equalize the flow to each well in parallel and bring the cooling fluid (a mixture of glycol) into the house. The soutern field's last well was drilled without a boot's width of an unknown (and thus not marked by the utiltiy protection folks) of our neighbors gas line - which the ripped out while trenching. One field runs to the south end of the house into the front utility space and provides 3 tons of cooling for the front of the house through a Trilogy 45 unit service the the front of the basement and first floor, and a 4 ton split unit that feeds cooled fluid to a standand line set to the otherwise conventional HVAC unit for the second floor. The front Trilogy has cooling dampers and thermostats for the following zones.

• Basement Office
• First Floor Dining Room
  

The northern well field comes into the house in the full bath and routes up the wall and into the ceiling to reach the rear utility space where there is a 4 ton Trilogy 45 system for the back of the house - basement and first floor. In the ceiling is a T for the 3 ton HVAC unit for the addition. 1 Ton of excess capacity was planned. The rear Trilogy has cooling dampers and thermostats for the following zones.

• Basement Master Bedroom
• Basement Family Room
• First Floor Master Bedroom
• First Floor Family Room
  

Well Fields

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  The southern trench

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  Wells complete and trenching

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  The northern trench

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  Connecting the wells into a field

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  Pressure testing the tubing

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Each of the 2 Trilogy units gets added efficiency by using some of the excess heat from the heat pump and well system to heat hot water for the house as well. This makes it the most efficient unit you can get in the United States. We will use this hot water as preheat to a system of tankless (Navien) hot water heaters that can provide endless full-flow hot water, and the electric backup heat in the Trilogy tanks will be deactivated.

Heat Pump Installation

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  Geo piping brought into the house for HVAC installation

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  4 ton Trilogy 45

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  Trilogy connections for hot water and geo fluid

Data Center

See Camp Kiwi Data Center.

Pre-Purchase Pictures

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Older Zillow Pictures

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