Everyone is invited to the Champagne and Cupcakes Ribbon Cutting of our new office!
February 4th, 2010 @ 4.00pm.  220 Lorax Lane…look for the cute purple and green building.

We’ll hear a few words from Gary Phillips, Weaver St. Realty and Board Member and Laura Lauffer, Sustainability Coordinator, CCCC.
Meet the Green Door Design Builders, Rebekah and Stephen Hren of Carbon Free Home and the Abundance folks.

(and eat cupcakes and drink champagne!)
Let us know if you are coming so we know how many glasses to have!  Email:  wow@theabundancefoundation.org

December 2, 2009
Sidewalk and Itemized Costs to Date
Total as of December 9, 2009:  $27,671.24 (-tax credits $3860.48)= $23,810.76
A special thanks to our landlord who also appreciates renewable energy, local, sustainable building materials and who we will be paying rent to for many years to come!!
Click here for itemized list of costs.

Click here for the awesome article on Huffington Post!!!

Ooops….well, we said we would report all mistakes and we didn’t realize we needed to pour a sidewalk…so, we did a very quick sidewalk to get to the ramp.  This is required to be ADA compliant.  AND we were able to add some sidewalk graffiti.  There is always a gift, eh?!  Stay tuned for final touches, certificate of occupancy and Champagne and Cupcake Ribbon Cutting in the new year!!!

November 7 & 8, 2009

I thought my board was crazy when they suggested doing a double solar workshop in one week-end, but it went really well!  We had husband and wife team Rebekah and Stephen Hren teaching and installing the Solar Air Heater as well as the off-grid PV system.  It all went up and besides a small bit of chaos, was loads of fun and by Sunday afternoon, we had heat flowing into the office and outlets that worked using clean renewable sunshine!  (A huge thank you to Stephen and Rebekah, Trace and Ian and all the participants!!)  Photos below:

October 8, 2009

Our footprint is 10 foot by 12 foot (see footing photo below).  The Green Door Design Build kept right on schedule.  We had a few surprises such as an ADA compliant ramp that we didn’t know we needed.  We wanted to keep the building materials as local and healthy as possible.  Building Inspections wanted a special engineering stamp for the local cedar deck and ramp that was built.  A little extra cost, but worth not using pressure treated wood on the project.  Back in 2003, the EPA banned the use of CCA in pressure treated wood.  CCA is short for chromated copper arsenate, yes….building with arsenic is not good for your skin, your lungs, your soils or your kids!  Todays pressure treated wood is made with CA (copper azone) and ACQ (amine copper quat).  Still toxic to produce, use and work with so we chose to go with our local natural and beautiful resource:  cedar!  Cedar is naturally rot resistant and we have lots of it in Chatham.  So, in order NOT to use pressure treated wood, we had an extra step and fee with Building Inspections.  Hmmmm….what is that all about??

September 24, 2009:
Insulation Step

The new Abundance Foundation office was just insulated using spray foam. This product beats the traditional fiber glass insulation hands down. It has a much higher R-value which will keep the new office cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. In addition to its great insulation qualities, it will also strengthen the walls of the building and help keep dust and pollen out.
Spray foam was the perfect fit in this situation since the building for the Abundance office was once a screened-in porch built using locally harvested rough sawn cedar boards. These boards vary in dimensions up to 3/16th of an inch. In order to seal and insulate this building properly we needed a material that would find its way into all of those cavities and gaps. We also think it’s totally cool to see how the liquid material grows into the space it’s meant to insulate.
Thanks to the folks at Spray Foam Insulation of NC for their handiwork!  When they were finished, they said we could heat the building with a candle!  (does that mean keeping it cool with an ice cube?)  We’ll see!!!

August 21, 2009:
Sometimes it is best to let things just grow organically and that is exactly how our new office has come into existence.  It began when Farmer Doug needed a place for the farmers to sleep during the dead heat of the summer.  So, Kim Bodis and Jeff Gannon and Ron started building a “Sleep Shack” for them.  Of course, things change quickly and Farmer Doug began finding housing within a few hundred yards of Piedmont Biofarm.  Sleep Shack was not needed.

We’ve got lots of requests for people that want to be inside the “bubble” or over at the Eco-Industrial Park.  So on one side of the park, there is an abandoned building and on the other side is a need for office space.  Lightbulb goes off in Lyle’s head:  Move the “sleep shack” over to the appropriate spot, finish it off with all local materials and talk to all of our board members about how to turn it into the most appropriate off-grid and functional office space around.  With the help of Maria, Bob, and David of Southern Energy Management and Rebekah & Stephen Hren of Carbon-Free Home, we are going to create the most amazing, off grid “office of the future”.  Jeff Gannon and his wife, Molly of Green Door Design Build will be trailblazing us through.   We’ll report our findings, tell you all of our mistakes and then workshop it in November.

Russell and Jeremy moving the “Sleep Shack” with the tractor and the Office of the Future near it’s final resting place: