Part 3: Cochrane Home Update

If you've been following along for a while then you know our Director of Design, Breck Crandell is building his very own home here in the city of Detroit. 

The home he is building will be the proof of concept for houm, an innovative design approach that is revolutionizing the way we think about housing. 

In this episode Breck shares the latest updates on the Cochrane Home, including erecting "the shell" of the house as well as the core. He also shares the innovative way he is heating his house and why this is just the beginning for houm.

Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn: 

• Current project status of the Cochrane Home
• Design decision that will impact cost savings
• Importance of Breck building the proof of concept 
• Utilizing technology to stay one step ahead

Link to full show notes

Supplementary episodes:

Part: 1 Breck Building His Own Home

Part 2: Breck Designed His Own Home and Now He's Building It.

Follow houm on Instagram to following along with the construction of the Cochrane Home

Ready to move forward with your project? Contact us here and we will put you in contact with the right member of our team.

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up to date on new project releases, trainings, and more. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Innovative Real Estate Podcast with your hosts Leslie Horn, Brett Crandall, and Claire Olilla. We're here to make your life easier as a real estate developer and teach you everything we've learned about designing and building innovative homes, multifamily, and mixed use structures. On this podcast, we'll be giving you our best advice, trainings, and QA segments so you can learn from our years of experience and make your innovative vision a reality. Welcome back to the show, everyone. We've got part three today of a saga series, which, as you know, if you've been listening for a while, our beloved director of design, Breck, has been building a house alongside collaboration with home. You can learn more about that on previous episodes 28 for part one and episode 47 for part two. And today we're really excited to get into this episode because Breck has officially broken ground on this house. And in fact, there is a partial structure there now. So we're going to get into some of the highlights, some of the lowlights of this process. This is a model home, proof of concept for this new construction type. And so we're going to get into all of this. If you are looking to build your own home, if you are a developer looking to build a couple different properties or even a neighborhood of homes, feel free to listen in because there are going to be some really good takeaways from the actual real-world learnings throughout this process. And we're still going. So, Leslie, I think I want to pass this over to you just to clarify for anyone who knows us as three squared, the shipping container people, and you know why we're not why Breck is not building this house out of shipping containers and what is actually going on in this build.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, it's pretty exciting. I mean, I recall Breck, you came to me two and a half years ago, could have been three, somewhere around in that time, and you were just so excited. You're like, Leslie, I'm going to build my own house. And I know you all have heard this story, but imagine my thought process. Here we're we're a architectural firm specializing in cargo architecture. And I'm like, this is fantastic. Where do you want to build it? And um, it's out of containers, right? Like the brakes like went on super fast because he's like, No, I've been, you know, Scott and I have been working on this technology, and we're doing our proof of concept. I'm like, I don't get it. We're gonna confuse the heck out of people. This is gonna be terrible. These are all the thoughts that are going on in my mind. Like, man, how are we gonna explain this? Well, after I calmed down and started really thinking logical, you know, this fits perfect into our core values as a company, to be one step ahead and to be good stewards, and to you know, have all of the uh challenge convention and to take these products, you know. Brad has worked not just in construction, he's also, you know, of course, worked as an architect and has all these grand skill sets. And along with Scott from Lawrence Technological University, I mean they've really put their heads together, smashed them together, and now it's proof of time. And Three Squared is so honored and thrilled to be a part of this as their partner in architectural design and and making sure the permits get through and and really working side by side. It's it's exciting for so many reasons because we know this is going to be another game changer, not just in the way we think about construction, but it's staying a step ahead. Again, one of our strong core values. And so Brex had some huge milestones and some huge wins over the last couple of weeks. And we're like, this is this is time, this is time for us to start sharing all about why we're doing this. I mean, again, we've been known for cargo architecture, but man, now we're going to be known for innovation. And it's not just about, you know, it's a there's so many technologies out there, so many innovations, um, not just for custom single family homes, but also for developers wanting to make a shift and a change. So, Breck, let's um let's turn it over to you. We're so proud of you. And you know, we've seen what's been happening over there on that lot, that crazy lot. I get the extra special uh um honor of of just saying, hey, take it away. This is gonna be a fun call.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Oh boy, all right. Well, let me preface by um saying again that I've gotten uh a lot of my own medicine in this process. Uh anybody who's ever built a house, developed a project, or it's been in my shoes, I feel you because I'm in it with you. So, I mean, as much as I thought that my professional experience would somehow uh make this an easier or faster process, there's only so much you can do. Uh, there's a lot of things that are out of your control. So uh so I'm I'm dealing with you know the the act of building a house. Doesn't matter if you're an architect or the mayor, like building a house is tough. Um, but it's also arguably the most rewarding thing you could do um outside of maybe having children. This is my child for now. I'm gonna focus on this one.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Um, yeah, uh, who knew that we were talking about like the future of construction of buildings? And uh turns out the future of housing is foam buildings. It's just kind of funny. That's only one aspect of it. There's actually a lot of things that are pulling together uh in this project. But the last time that we checked in on this, um we were issued building permits and we were getting ready to start to break ground. And uh, since that moment, we've gone through a lot of the process, um, which started with we had to get a water and sewer uh department approval, which is a in Detroit, they separate these two building departments where you actually deal with the building department for the approval of your design and the issuance of your your actual building permit. And then you have to go through the city water and sewer department because again, what happens under the ground is just as important and sometimes just as expensive as what happens above the ground. The house is really the easy part once you have all the utilities plugged in. So I had a sewer uh on my site that was uh it's it's in I there's an alleyway on the back of my lot. So we had to connect to the sewer. So we had to dig down there and connect to a sewer line, to our surprise, was built out of bricks. Yes, you heard me. A sewer line built out of bricks. I did some sleuthing and our sewer lines in this historic neighborhood. Um, I'm building in a neighborhood called Corktown, North Corktown, uh of Detroit, which was the original Detroit settlement um from Irish settlers. And so it's one of the oldest areas of the entire city. So our our infrastructure is quite dated. So we had to connect to a brick sewer line, um, which was you know half full of rubble just because it's it's so old, uh, but it still works. So um we had to get approvals to connect to that, and then my water line was in the street on the opposite side of the street. So we actually had to get a big saw out, cut out this the surface of the road, the asphalt, dig down. And we thought we found a water line. Turns out that was a gas line. Good thing we didn't try to tap that. So then we actually found the water line, which was um quite a distance away. So there's just like there's a lot of lessons learned, and what's what's under the ground? You don't always know what you're getting into until you actually get into there. Um, so we got all our plumbing set up. Uh, and then the next thing was foundations. So foundations uh typically go down to what's known as a frost depth. That's when the when the air freezes during the winter, how much of the crust of the surface of the earth beneath you freezes, um, actually freezes with water in Michigan because that frost depth changes the colder you get, the more of the earth's crust freezes. So in Michigan, we have a 42-inch frost depth. Now, this gets interesting for this project because uh it's been a recent development for engineering and for code books to allow what's known as a shallow frost protected footing. That means that my entire building, my house, is floating on a raft that actually borrows heat from the ground. So once you get below that frost depth, the earth, as most people know, is a consistent temperature. It's between 55 and 60 degrees year round. That's why when you go underground, you're you're not as cold. It's a very consistent temperature. When you talk about geothermal technologies, all that's referring to is borrowing the naturally occurring heat from the earth in order to make a baseline temperature. So instead of heating or cooling from the outside temperature, which is, you know, in Michigan right now zero degrees, um, you're heating and cooling from 55 to 60 degrees. So that's what that means. So in a shallow frost protected footing, we're actually borrowing that heat from the earth so that underneath our slab and our foundations, the temperature is going to stay consistently above freezing, which means that I actually didn't build a foundation that goes down to frost depth. I built a foundation that is shallower. I only go into the ground about 22 inches, so half the distance that we needed to, which meant less concrete, less on-site labor, less framework for all that. Okay, so we got our foundations started digging, and we unfortunately hit the old foundations of a house that used to be on that site. Now, if you've if you've built anything in the city of Detroit, there's a good chance there's something underneath you. I think, I think most of the planet understands the history that that Detroit endured, um, which means a lot of houses burned down. A lot of houses were abandoned, a lot of them got demolished, and for a long time there, they would just knock the house in on its basement and plow over it. So that's what we had to deal with. Now, to our benefit, because we were doing a shallow footing, we only had to dig up some of that stuff that was on the surface, and we actually just floated our building on top of the rest of that foundation. Um, it's not a hazard, uh, it's not contaminated, it's just there's stuff buried underneath the house. So we put our foundations in, and the foundations go around the outside edges. And then I did a slab on grade. So that means the finished floor of my house, when it's done, is going to be a concrete slab. And that in that concrete slab, we did what's called radiant in-floor heating. So there's a bunch of tubes that run back and forth underneath the slab that uh are pumped with a hot fluid. Uh, it's either water or you can use a chemical compound. The system that I'm using for my house actually uses glycol so it doesn't freeze. Um, and the glycol-based system is going to heat my slab. So the floor of the home is what provides the primary heating element of the entire house. Uh, and so we got all that installed and then poured our concrete slab.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Greg, it's really interesting. Um, I mean, because we often don't hear about the radiant floor heating and heating your slab. Uh, what's the big number one benefit for that?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Uh the number one benefit is that it is a constant and consistent heating source. So most heating systems in houses, most people would be familiar with like a furnace. Um, there's two primary heating features. There's either you know, forced air or radiant heat. Radiant heat is from a radiator. You've got a boiler, puts hot water into the system, and then you feel the radiator radiate heat. Um, forced air, they're blowing air out of vents. You know, whether you've got duct work or you've got stuff in your floors or in the walls, like it's pumping hot air. Now, the major benefit of radiant heat is that radiation is not affected by airflow. So if you open your door and you get a cold breeze into your house, it's gonna push all of that air all over the place and it mixes it up. And so hot air is going to rise to the ceiling, cold air is going to sink to the floor. So if you get up on a ladder and you stand at your ceiling, it's gonna feel hotter than it does at the floor. Radiation is a more even consistent flow because it's it's truly that. It's radiating. If you've ever been in an infrared sauna, that is a radiant heat source. That's why it heats your body in a very different way and it's a very consistent temperature throughout that space. So that's a major benefit of radiant heat. Now, when you do an entire floor system through your entire house, you're getting that consistent heat through the entire home. If you have radiators, individual spots are heating your house throughout rather than having a consistent temperature throughout the entire home. So it actually, if you do the math and you run the numbers, it will save you money and your heating and cooling costs long term because of that consistent temperature throughout a structure.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

And Breck, you've had a couple of big wins um over the last couple of weeks. I mean, I if everybody knows right now, Detroit has not reached above like nine degrees over the last week. Prior to that, though, tell us a little bit about the progress that you've had because I it's it's truly amazing and why this would be so important to a homeowner or a developer.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah, well, a couple of things there. It's like my curse. I don't know why an architecture I for some reason end up designing all summer and then building stuff all winter. How many projects do we have under construction, right? Too many. It's so silly. Now we've gotten very, very lucky with weather this year. Um you know, it's a there's a downside to it and there's an upside to it. Like, yeah, we're definitely increasing the global temperature at large, so we're having more mild winters more consistently. Uh, if you're a skier, you're feeling my pain right now because there's only a handful of slopes that could actually stay open their entire season because there's just not enough snowfall lately. But if you're building a house, that's actually a pretty nice thing. I I personally am just convinced the calendar's off by a full month. Like it doesn't really get cold until January, February. So we had a pretty mild November and December, which allowed us to do our foundation work and get our concrete in before it really started freezing. Huge, huge blessing. Um, so we were able to make milestones there. So plumbing's under the ground. We've got all our stubs sticking up through the foundation, we've got our slab on grade that's covering up our radiant and floor system. So all those tubes are coming out of the ground, which will connect to a manifold system and that connects to the boiler that is pumping that hot fluid through the floor system. So then the next step is we got to build the actual house. This is the easy part. This is the fun part, right? And so last time we checked in, I had an epiphany where we were going to actually ditch the system that we were going to build the house with. I was pretty infatuated with a steel structure, basically an erector set that shows up on site and steel frames a house. Now, I learned a lot about those systems. I have worked extensively with steel buildings and we're doing some large projects with steel buildings right now. We last year completed a wedding venue in Ohio out of that technology. Um, right now we're working on a farmer's market in Detroit and an event center that's all out of steel. But when you squeeze that steel really tight and make it very slim and very tall, steel buildings don't like that very much. So putting a second story on a very narrow, long design was not meant for steel. And as we started running calculations with engineering partners, we found out that there's there's a lot of challenges that that proposed because of how narrow and tall that structure was. And that's about the time that I discovered um these modified SIP panels, which are they're an EPS. So that's expanded polystyrene, which is the only foam product on planet Earth that is 100% recyclable. And then they supplement that with steel studs. So instead of a wood stud that's framing your wall, we have much smaller steel tubes. They're about two inches wide and an inch deep, and those make the structure that's around a foam chunk. And that foam is your insulation and your thermal envelope for a building. So we have this foam envelope that covers five out of six sides of the building. If you think of a cube, all four walls and the roof are all foam, and the ground is concrete because that's what I'm setting those foam blocks on, and it makes a big open space. So we're referring to this as the shell of the house. So the shell is these foam panels that come, they're about eight feet wide and as tall as my structure is per floor. So they're about 10, 11 feet tall. And so you stand these up and you tilt them up into place and you lock them in one after the other. And so these big foam blocks arrive on a truck, and we were able to offload those with some equipment. And then with a crew of guys, we started putting these foam panels up. It took us about six hours to build the first floor of the house. Um, we had a crew of uh four guys on site that day, and half the day we were sitting around watching other people do organic, because you don't need that many people. Um, so that was a really, really fun process. Uh, so we got that that foam envelope half up. Uh, and unfortunately, then real winter set in. And real winter has been uh a bit of a hurdle. It's just this one week we've got this crazy cold snap that came through. Wind chill outside as of yesterday was about negative 16 degrees. Uh, and the problem is not really doing work on site. Um, if you've ever worked construction, once you get moving, you'll be sweating through your gear. It doesn't matter what the temperature is outside. The problem actually came in with the materials we need to put the pieces together. So for these foam panels, you have to glue the panels to the foundation and to one another with this adhesive. It's a foam, it's a self-expanding adhesive that connects all these pieces together and creates that airtight sealant between panels. Even that gorilla glue. It yeah, it's kind of like a glorified gorilla glue. Have you ever seen the uh Billy May's great stuff spray foam? Yes, like a professional version of that stuff. It's a very specific product, but the thing about it is it can't set itself up or like cure in less than 20 degrees. And so we have to wait until we get over 20 degrees before we can glue up the second story panels and the roof. So that's all we're waiting on there. Um, plenty of other stuff to work on and do. So we're still making progress. It's just that was the major hurdle, it was just weather, and that's just bad timing because I'm building in the dead of winter, right? But we prove we could still do it. There's just every now and then there is a weather delay that we have to consider.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Better for you than baking in the sun, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Uh yeah, I'm a winter spirit, so I'd much prefer negative 16 than 96.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Well, I think, you know, Breck, one of those other things that you did is um, you know, the the uniqueness of this house is that you, in addition to the first floor core uh shell, you've actually put in a core.

unknown 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

I gotta tell you, it's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

It's bigger than you thought it would be.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Oh my gosh, it was, I know. I wonder if people think it's like a rock climbing wall.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

I mean, it has been for me lately.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah, I believe it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Let's pause here. We'll talk about what the core is. So the way that we designed the Cochrane home, the project we're discussing today, um, is that there's a shell and a core. And that core is if you consolidate all of the expensive and complicated parts of a house to being in one place. So we took our bathrooms, our kitchen, our staircase, our mechanical closet and laundry, and we smashed them all together into a very efficient design that sits at the very center of the house. We built that off site. We prefabricated that as chunks, just like the envelope of the building, the shell. We built the core out of chunks that are about six feet tall and four feet wide. So two people can pick them up. Uh, and last week we installed the entire core, which was 18 pieces. We set that core in about three hours. Woo! Boxed that all together and it's all fastened in place. And now our plumbers, electrician, mechanical crew can come in and run all their systems through that core that's directly in line. Like your kitchen is right up against your bathroom. So they all share a single vent stack. Then the bathroom is directly over the lower bathroom. So we've got all of our plumbing and utilities line up directly. Directly with one another, and they're all sitting right next to the mechanical closet. So anything complicated in this house, got that all together smacked into this little tiny core that is the most efficient layout and use of space that we can have. Now, what that means is once you've got the envelope, we got our foam structure on the outside, you've got your core with all your utilities and expensive spaces. The rest of the framing is going to be a breeze. We're just tilting up some traditional walls and pulling a wire for your lights. That's it. That is the rest of the house. Everything that heats and cools the building is either in the slab or in the core. So it really simplifies our approach to construction through the design process that we had up to this point.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Super, super smart. That's all I can say. Um, Breck, you know, this is a model center, just like uh not, I mean, just like our our our office, which is made out of containers. Uh it is a proof of concept. Tell us um, is it going exactly how you expected, aside from weather?

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Well, I don't think anything ever goes exactly as expected. Um you're doing something new, and I'm not doing one new thing, I'm doing like 50 new things, testing them all together. Now, this has been in the works for a number of years. Sure. Uh but you are absolutely 100% correct. This is our proof of concept for new building technologies and new design processes. So, in the same way that you put your flag in the ground, Leslie, by building the three squared ink model center, the shipping container building, the first of its kind in the city of Detroit, I'm doing the same. Yeah. Uh, and we're building the first uh foam panel steel reinforced structured house with a core, with the shallow insulated slab on grade, with a radiant in-floor heating system. Uh, all of these things are pulling together to be a proof of concept. Now, it's my first time working with these foam panels. It's my first time working on site with the core. Are there going to be things that we will adjust on the second and third project? Yes. Are there going to be things that we completely and totally never do again? No. I think that all these systems are actually working together quite well. And the lessons that we've learned are going to be just procedural fixes.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Um, I'll give you an example. If you hire a plumber to dig all of their own holes for their runs and to fill those holes back in, um, they're gonna rent their own equipment, they're gonna do their own thing, they have to move their own dirt, and then they have to do the actual plumbing work and then come back. If I knew that and I did this again, I'd dig the hole for them and I'd keep equipment on site because I know I'm gonna have to move dirt lots of times throughout this project. So instead of them getting their own equipment and doing it themselves, I'd dig a hole, say, come to your plumbing, they do their plumbing, get the inspection, and then I'd fill it back in. A piece of cake. Um, another example. Uh, we had a professional surveyor tell us exactly where the footprint of the building was. Perfect, right? We know exactly where the foundations are gonna be. It's gonna be super accurate because the surveyor signed off on this. I did that before I started digging my foundations. So I have all these beautiful stakes and these nice straight lines everywhere. And then you get a crew of 15, 20 people out there putting concrete in. Guess what got moved? Those lines. So my foundation is not perfectly square. Lesson learned. I should have dug those holes because I knew generally where the foundations are gonna go, then had the surveyor stake those lines because then when they poured the concrete, it would have been perfect. Not huge hurdles, it's just like, I wish, you know. Darn it, right? Yeah, so you add up all those little lessons learned over time, and the next one's gonna be easier, and the next one's gonna be easier. We always know that the first time doing something different is gonna be a challenge. Oh, it's gonna take a little bit longer, you're gonna scrape your knees a little bit more, but all that considered, outside of building in the dead of winter, I say things are going pretty darn smooth, and I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

I bet you are. I bet you are. I know you keep looking at the at the weather reports. I mean, not on just on a daily basis, but like six hours times a day. Yeah. When can we do when can we set the second floor of the house? I know, I know this is awesome. This is awesome. It's really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

It's been a wild ride just following along this whole journey with you. And I know our listeners could probably say the same because they've, if they've been following consistently, listened to part one, part two, and now part three of this series and are going to continue on until this thing's completed. I want to know what are you most excited about moving forward through all the ups and downs, all the hurdles overcome. What are you most excited about in this next stage of the house?

SPEAKER_02 27:08

Well, moving in. No, I um I mean, it's been a running joke with you guys, is I I haven't allowed myself to be excited about this project because you know the trials and tribulations and hurdles. And you know, it's a financial burden uh to be able to pull something like this off, uh, unless you're just filthy rich with lots of cash sitting around. Like you do have to kind of establish boundaries and like kind of restrain yourself in some other aspects of life until you get this thing done, right? I mean, I think anybody who's ever built a project understands that and knows that. So outside of those considerations, the thing that I'm most excited about is really seeing the framing of the core and shell happen together. I mean, that is like that is truly the visionary aspect of this entire project is to just see the core and shell finished. And we're halfway there. So by the end of next week, I should have my second floor and my roof on. And at that point, that's when things get really, really exciting for me. So I've I've allowed myself a glimmer of a smile as of right now because you know things are happening. We're actually building it. But once we have a staircase that I could walk up to the second floor and look out that opening that will eventually be the window, um, that's the moment that I really think that this entire project shines. And what we've been describing over the course of these podcasts, it might be hard to picture in your head because we're doing so many unique things. You have to see it to understand it. And that is a moment where I'll actually be able to show people. And I think for a lot of people, you know, close friends, families, co-workers included, it's gonna click and they're gonna look at it and be like, that's what you meant. And I'll be like, yes. Once you see it, everything about it makes sense. So seeing the shape of a house not finished yet, I think is like one of the most glorious moments of construction. I actually enjoy that moment more than walking into a finished project. When you could see like the skeleton and like all of the inner workings exposed on a project, but you can also see the full vision of what it's going to be at the same time. That's my favorite moment of a project. So that's what I'll say. I'm most excited for.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Well, you have the neighborhood chatting quite a bit, as you know. Your contractors also know.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

We're putting a sign up on the site that literally says, Stop bugging my contractors. If you want more info, call me. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's weird. It's weird, and not a lot of people are building houses in the city of Detroit right now. So this is catching people's attention because they're like, ah, that's not normal, and this is really not normal. So people are constantly driving by the site, taking photos, videos, stopping us, asking us questions. Um, we've got a big sign with all the renderings with three squares information on it, with home's information on it, radon site, and people will still just be like, yo, what's going on? Let me forget this dimension I just had in my head to cut this piece of steel, and I'll come over here and talk to you for five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Like five minutes. Yeah, that turns into like you like 45 minutes. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Hey, but people are excited, and that's what's important because this is a proof of concept because we want to do this not once, not twice. We want to do this a thousand times.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

And if there's anything that tells you that I believe in this, it's that I, as an architect, am building this as my own house.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Yep. Yep. Dude, I can't wait in like four years when you pull me aside and say, Hey, I'm gonna build another house. And I'm gonna ask, well, is it out of containers? No. I said, Well, is it gonna be out of a core and a shell? Uh no. And you're gonna guys are gonna come up with this whole brand new concept that's going to just continue to stay one step ahead of technology.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Yeah, well, any any mistakes made. Well, that's what I tell people. I mean, we are we are actively working on the second and third homes right now. Yeah, of course. That are using this same exact core and the same shell technologies. We're putting it all together. Um, the next one's gonna be in Fort Wayne. Uh, we're breaking ground on that within the next month, which I'm really, really excited for. Um, but I I tell everybody that wants to work with us, let me be the guinea pig. Let me make that mistake so I can tell you to avoid this or to change this, so that every project we do from here on out is gonna be that much better than the one that preceded it.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yep. Lessons learned, lessons learned. It's a it's that experiential learning model so we can improve on it and um learn about the mistakes. Uh, it's it's it's a perfect model, Breck. It really is. Uh, any final words you want to share about all of this?

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Come along for the ride. I mean, uh, we are we are actively documenting this every step of the way. I I'm very blessed because uh I am temporarily living right up the street from where we're building. So I'm on the job site almost every single day. So there is nothing that's going to happen in this process from the first shovel we put in the ground until the last nail we fasten into this building. You will see every step of the way. Transparency is our policy here at Three Squared Inc. And so if you want to know what mistakes I've made, if you want to know what the highlights and the low lights are of this process, ask us because I'll tell you. And I'll tell you if there's something. But as of right now, I couldn't be more stoked to see this thing come together. Um, and it's been an incredible team of people that have contributed to this project. Um, from this three-squared team to the efforts that we were collaborating with, um, with multiple individuals leading up to this moment. Um, I'm I'm gonna have a big thank you for everyone when the ribbon's cut and we all get to see it. But hang along for the ride, watch the process. It's gonna answer any question you could possibly ask. And uh, you know, challenge me. Tell me I'm crazy and tell me why. And let's have a discussion about that after the fact. And I'll tell you what the what the benefits and downsides are going to be. But with this technology, with the envelope being um an unbroken, fully sealed thermal envelope, there are no air gaps in this process. Um, and I'll also contribute that there's there's no waste on the job site because if that panel didn't fit, you're in trouble, right? So, like it's not like we're having stacks of wood and piles, and I haven't had a dumpster on my site yet. That's crazy at this point in construction. But that thermal envelope with the heating and cooling systems that we're using on this project. Uh, we run an we ran an energy report. Uh, we actually energy modeled the entire building and worked with uh with an energy supplying company. And it's insane to me how much I'm going to be saving on my heating and cooling cost months to month. Maximum in the dead of winter, when it's negative temperature outside, my max heating and cooling bill for a 2,400 square foot home is not going to exceed $75. Crazy. So, I mean, it was a it was a slightly more expensive unit to do that within three and a half, four years, those savings just in heating and cooling cost pays for itself already. So it's a no-brainer. So, I mean, the efficiencies of this home, um, the all the new construction types going together, and the incredibly talented crew that we have both in the design, the drawings, and my crew on site. You know, I can't give enough thanks to all the guys that we have on site right now and girls, because the crew's changing constantly. But um, Ty, my general contractor, uh, he's he's been involved since day one, and he's really excited to learn these new technologies as well. Because again, we hope we're doing a lot of these, not just one.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Yeah, crackett's amazing. Well, I can't wait for us to to to fill in part four um and really get into some nitty-gritty stuff. I think this is really an amazing, so super proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Thank you. You guys know I couldn't do this without you.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

So team effort all around. Hey, if anyone is listening, if you want to see the actual footage that Brex talking about, all this documentation, we've got a story highlight series on our Instagram. Um, so if you go to at ThreeSquared Inc. on Instagram, you can go to our Instagram story highlights and look at the Cochrane home. You can see this progress every step of the way and see visually what we're actually talking about here, and we'll continue to add to that over time as well. So thank you so much for listening to another episode. If you want to connect with our team, please go ahead and check out the contact link below, and we will catch you in the next episode. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you found it so valuable, you want to connect with us one-on-one, click the link in the description to tell us all about your project so we can help you get started. And to get notified on the next episode here on Innovative Real Estate, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes so you never miss a beat. Get out there, put today's advice into action, and we will see you in the next episode.