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Reply to: Here's a few list items you haven't asked for: STRUCTURAL QC - Had a trade contractor friend who moved to a part of TX where permits aren't required but there are big winds & lots of big entry structures that act like sails. Here's what we discussed: Have a geotechnical (soils) engineer test compaction during cut/fill, inspect footings & steel for any retaining walls as well as foundation. Have plans engineered locally to local wind, soils & seismic loads. Have the structural engineer of record inspect the home at frame, prior to covering (also called "sheet & shear" inspection). Its best to clear this list & get a letter before building inspector comes. Consider having your architect walk through a few times. Special inspectors look more carefully than most others with a specific level of knowledge compared to both a GC or building inspectors who are both generalists plus a single trade skill. Ask @Sam Biller but this is also typical of our more complex custom projects & even a few national tract builders use special inspectors for quality/liability. Sometimes the building department will require anyway but can make up for your lack of knowledge combined with lack of vetted/trusted trade contractors. Building inspectors are more concerned with fire/life safety and are too busy to do the GCs QC job and are not liable if they miss something. TRADES/SUPPLIERS My preference is to buy windows via the trade contractor installing. Same w materials for roofing, stucco lath & plaster, waterproof decks. Most of the critical waterproofing layers in these trades are not accessible to view by inspectors so its important you have skilled & managed labor. Start visiting job sites, calling suppliers for recommended trade contractors. That's a start. Check licenses, call references, view work as much as possible. Have signed agreements & insurance certs in hand before they're onsite. Acting as your own GC, you may be considered the employer of record responsible for workers comp claims unless you have these. This will help prevent having to enforce a contract after you're not satisfied. "Low bids" should not be your primary qualifier. Regarding suppliers - if you want cheap, go where the flippers go. If you want quality, don't. FUNDING - set aside $100-200K outside of lender control to pay deposits & keep trade contractors paid timely vs slow lender draws. If you're all cash disregard. Consider having your general liability policies beyond the value of the finished property. SELECTIONS - make your decisions prior to breaking ground if possible. There will be plenty of other things demanding your time. The supply chain is still a challenge. Last - a broom is a great way to get to know your project.

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Reply to: If anyone is interested, for a house designed and constructed by a home builder, I recommend the Owner-Contractor agreement form AIA 112 - Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Home Builder for Design and Construction of a Single Family Home.

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Reply to: @cpartist You're in a much brighter/sunnier area than us, so if you're happy with your 10ft overhangs in sunny FL, I bet we'll be miserable with 14ft overhangs in Portland OR. @Gargamel There is an online tool to look at overhangs (http://www.susdesign.com/overhang/), but it's for solar impingement and not for darkness. The two are related, but not directly. You can have two different overhangs with no sun impingement, but very different lighting into the house, like the picture below - the one on the left will always feel brighter than the one on the right. Deep overhangs cut down on diffuse/ambient light, in addition to just the direct sunlight, but I don't know how to quantitatively assess it. @WestCoast Hopeful And again, our overhang is 14 ft, that's a lot deeper than 10 ft. And presently it covers the entire back area, there is no place on the deck to go out and bask in the (limited) Portland sun. @ShadyWillowFarm Yes, exactly, that is my concern - not enough indirect light getting into the house. I know we can use lights, but I hate the idea of living in a dark cave! And your point is exactly right, how much time will we spend under the covered patio vs on a porch open to the sky (and as a third tradeoff, how important is a covered patio vs getting light into the house). I think that the balance is not good right now, it's 100% biased to the covered deck which we won't use all that often. @bpath That's what I'm thinking, break the fully covered porch into a covered area and an open area. I drew three versions below. The first is the current design, with the whole back of the house under the roof. Next is a version with a reduced overhang over the kitchen (left) and living room (right). And last is a version with the overhang reduced to just 3 ft over the kitchen and living room. I think the last version may let too much direct sunlight into the house in Sept/Oct. These irregular roof lines do make the roof framing more complicated that the baseline rectangle, but I think our longterm happiness is more important than saving some time/money on roof construction.

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Reply to: Something doesn't sound right with the OP's numbers. Our recirc is about 1/20th as much when running constantly. Also, how well your recirc pipe is insulated and routed can play a significant role in how much re-heating must be done. @David Cary, that's interesting about the stratification. I'd not heard that before. In our case we have an indirect water tank/heater off of our boiler but I'd guess stratification would be similar.

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Reply to: I am a CAPS Designer, and I have some concerns about your home plan. The first concern is translating a stock plan to a non stock site. The approach to the home, both the front door and the garage entrance, need to be assessed for elevation changes. That is a BIG issue when a home is not designed for the site on which it is built. This is where your architect or home designer needs the site plan showing the elevation changes, and then shows you how that will be handled regarding entry into the home. Ramps take up a lot of space because of the required rise and run. 1” per 1’. If there is 14” of elevation difference between your garage floor and interior surface, that needs a 17’x 9’ section just by itself, for the needed ramps, switchback platforms, and landings. That takes up an entire garage bay, and that is if it’s a traditional two steps into the home. There are platform lifts that take up less space, but they also need to be space planned into the home’s electrical etc. Getting into your own home, out of the weather, and with zero to minimal assistance is what creating a home that fosters independent living is all about. Your home should also accommodate visits from any friends and family who may also have mobility issues that could be more restrictive. That means assessing the front entrance as well. For the master bath, tall vanities are contra indicated. You need one at which you can be seated, with knee space, and scald protection. Since you are not seated full time, a split vanity with a taller one for your standing height, and the shorter one for a seated position are probably your best bet for varied abilities. The current plan with the toilet area has no room for a caregiver to assist. The shower is less than ideal as well. The entire master needs to be reworked. Definitely plan for a bidet toilet seat, plus room for an aide if needed. That clearance can overlap your shower area, and the clearance to turn with a chair as well. Combining needed clearances is how to keep the bath from becoming overly large, and still appear spacious and comfortable. Your closet should utilize the pull down double hung hardware available from many sources. I like Hafele. You need the 5x5 turning space in the middle as well, and a proper tall height mirror for seeing yourself standing and seated. Plan for blocking in all of your walls now, for potential grab bars if they are needed at a later time. Wet areas should have them now. They need not be unattractive and institutional. Many are available that look like towel bars and serve as that function. I’ve used them on ends of islands for those who may be just a bit unsteady, and they make great spots for kitchen towels. There are many ways to plan an accessible kitchen, depending on how you use your kitchen. If you cook, rather than your caregiver cooking, there are significant changes that need to be made to accommodate that activity, and I’d be happy to gone to more detail if you need. If you do not cook, and don’t plan to try, then a few smaller changes will allow you to be comfortably in the kitchen with the cook and your family. Widening the hallways has the unfortunate ramifications of taking space away from the already small rooms. I would suggest using the second floor space for the caretaker, as that would be much more private for them, and allow for better space distribution of the downstairs space to family space only. You could have less cramped rooms, and a better plan for everyone. I also have concerns about the designer that you are working with, and the obvious lack of experience in creating accessible space. I would suggest that they obtain the free Home Fit Guides packet from the AARP, as it is one of the best free resources on the market about creating an accessible home. https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/info-2014/home-fit-resources-worksheets.html  I’m concerned that your project may be moving faster than your design. That is a precarious and expensive issue, because it results in change orders. I’d suggest that you involve better and more local assets in the design process. There should be CAPS individuals there, and your Occupational Therapist should absolutely be on your design team. Good luck, and thank you for your service. Slow down to go fast. Get it right the first time.

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Reply to: It can be turned down to 1ml, but if your not using phase 2 then it doesn’t matter if water is in the bottle or not. 20 or so ml is about 2/3 of a tablespoon so it’s such a small amount that it’s not making any difference with dilution. Miele ultraphase 2 uses hydrogen peroxide as the main bleaching agent. The other ingredients primarily play a water conditioning role. The optical brightener sticks to your clothes. It absorbs UV light and emits blue which our brains think looks white. It is there to cover up stains so we do not see them. It serves no cleaning purpose. It is also considered a pollutant in many areas along with being an allergen for some people. On dark colored clothes it can make them look dull and washed out.

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Reply to: Miele has a sensitive Ultraphase 1 and Ultraphase 2. These have no perfume or dyes and remove the optical bleaching agents from the peroxide bleach in phase 2. They are not available in the USA yet. Look on page 58 of the 2018-2019 Miele Germany catalog: https://m.miele.de/media/ex/de/prospekte/2018_10/Waeschepflege_Premium_10_18/pdf/Miele%20D%20Waeschepflege%20Oktober%202018.pdf The empties from Europe won’t fit in the USA machines. I already bought them and tried. Miele shortened the cartridge slot so they won’t quite fit. If you notice the new cartridge design has indents on the top and bottom of the cartridge. This is so they will fit in the USA machines. The “spout” or “port” where the detergent come out is just spring loaded. I refilled mine by purchasing a small plastic funnel set. The funnels should have an angled tip. I usually fill the bottle half way with water and swish it around to clean out any residual detergent once the bottle was empty. then drain by just holding the plunger in with the funnel and letting it drain out. I do this three times for a triple rinse. I then fill fill the bottle half way with water and reinsert it into the phase 1 slot. There is still detergent in the tube inside the machine and I like to use it all up. I get anywhere from 4-6 more washes before it’s used up. After that go to settings and run the maintenance cycle on Twindos agent 1. This will pull a bunch of water from the phase 1 bottle to flush out the line. Next remove the phase 1 bottle and empty any remaining water. Refill with your agent of choice. Dont full to the top. There is a one way air vent in the bottle and it needs some room to allow air in. Compare against a full bottle. Once full, reinsert the bottle and tell the machine you refilled (it will ask on the screen). The machine will then load enough detergent fill the line. You may notice the first load is a little sudsy. I think it loads a smidge to much. Thatbis how I refilled my factory Twindos bottles when they were empty. If you do phase 2, make sure to wear nitrile gloves. The bleaching agents are 10% hydrogen peroxide and alcohols. They burn if you get any amount on your skin. Do a Triple rinse again and repeat the maintenance for phase 2 the same as above. I refilled phase 1 with Tide PurClean. Works fine, but is a tad more sudsy than the Miele detergent. For the oxygen bleach we are trying the seventh generation oxygen bleach liquid. NOTE: NEVER FILL ANY TWINDOS BOTTLE WITH CHRLORINE BLEACH. it will destroy the internal hoses. Detegents should be on the runny side. Similar to the consistency of water. Don’t put the thick ultra concentrate in the bottles. It won’t pump well due to its thick viscosity. If you have a standard option and an ultra concentrated option, get the standard. Hope that helps someone.

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Reply to: @Thierry Miele added two plastic bars at the back of the TwinDOS slots in the washer. If you look near the top you will see them. This prevents the "official" refillable containers from just working in the USA machines. A dremmel or similar tool can be used to remove these "speed bumps". The refillable cartridges will then insert properly. OR You can just wait until you have used up the free phase 1 and phase 2 cartridges and then refill those. There is a plunger in the spout of the TwinDOS bottles than can be pushed down with a funnel. You can then pour in whatever detergent you want in the Phase 1 bottle. The Phase 2 bottle is ONLY for oxygen bleach. No Chlorine Bleach, No Fabric Softener. In the USA machines there is no way to select anything other than Mile for the "Agent" in the phase 2 bottle in the washer settings. In Europe you can select fabric softener, a different detergent, oxygen bleach, etc. Oxygen bleach and fabric softener would be dispensed at different times in the wash cycle. That is why you can not fill the phase 2 bottle with anything other than liquid oxygen bleach (Hydrogen Peroxide) in the USA models. There is no way to tell the washer there is anything other than oxygen bleach. Fabric softener would normally be dispensed in the final rinse. Oxygen bleach is dispensed in the main wash when the water is heating (Heat is needed to make Hydrogen Peroxide more effective). In our house we refill the phase 2 bottle with Ecover Zero oxygen bleach. It is 8% hydrogen peroxide instead of the normal 3-4% that most other oxygen bleach options use. We purchase it our local co-op, but whole foods sells it as well as many online retailers. If you keep an eye out you can get a case of 6 bottles for about $3-4 per bottle. if you don't need that much then buy a single bottle as you need it. Usually sells for $5-6 a bottle in a retail store. A single bottle will refill the phase two bottle full once and then get about another 1/3 refill after that. We use Tide PurClean in the Phase 1 bottle. You can use whatever you want, but if you switch up detergents you really should do a maintenance cycle on the washer inbetween. This would flush out any remnants of the previous detergent before adding a new one. This would prevent any congealing of detergents if two different ones are mixed. If you stick with the same type and brand and just change scents then no flush would be necessary. We use unscented, but that is just a personal preference.

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Reply to: The cleaning cartridge is just water. In Europe they don't use a "Cleaning" cartridge. You have an empty twindos bottle you fill with, wait for it ........ water and use that to clean the system. Since Miele doesn't offer an empty bottle in the USA they sell a bottle of water and call it a "Cleaning" cartridge. Just save an empty twindos bottle and refill it using a funnel with water. Now you have your own "Cleaning" cartridge for a much better price. And if you still don't believe then here is the washer asking you to fill the empty twindos cartridge with water to do the maintenance cleaning cycle:

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