Introduction

Welcome to the Beagle Brook blog! Aspen Design Inc. is a custom home design/build company that focuses on design that appeals to the style and taste of our clients while maintaining a sustainable and green approach. We invite you to join us on the journey as we build the “Beagle Brook Farm” home, a passive solar structure in Northeast Ohio. The goal of this blog is to accomplish three things. First, we want to introduce our company and the service we provide to our readers. Second, we want to share our passion for building a more sustainable future, and third, we want your feedback. We look forward to reading your comments and questions, so please share them with us.


Wikipedia defines a passive solar building as one that aims to maintain interior thermal comfort throughout the sun’s daily and annual cycles while reducing the requirement for active heating and cooling systems. Our main objective in designing Beagle Brook was to produce a passive solar home with a thermally comfortable interior environment that expends minimal energy to support the mechanical heating and cooling systems. Healthy indoor air quality and reduced utility bills are important to the homeowners. Working with them, we determined that the direct gain system was the best approach for Beagle Brook. The main principles that are incorporated with the direct gain system are:

1) Allow maximum solar radiation to reach the interior during the colder months.

2) Shade the interior from solar radiation during the warmer months.

3) Use thermal mass to control and disperse the solar radiation, and

4) Design a well-insulated structure to control the different interior and exterior environments.

During our Beagle Brook journey, we will explain how these principles guided our design decisions and highlight some of the special details and features we are using to create a well-insulated structure.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Exterior Finish




Beagle Brook is well on its way in the finishing stages. We have started to installed all the trim, fascia and soffit material and are about half way complete with the siding material. We choose Azek for the trim and soffit material. This is a PVC composite and is has no need to be painted at all. It also has a high endurance to the weather so the durability is excellent. The siding is a combination of Hardy material ranging from horizontal shiplap siding to vertical board and batten on the gable ends. This siding was chosen for its durability and maintenance free life span. The siding and trim is all placed on 3/4" furring strips over the rigid foam which acts as the rain barrier so there is plenty of space for any water that penetrates the siding to run down the plane and exit out the bottom.
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