Page 22 - ArchDC_Spring 2020

Kitchen. Living room.

board-formed concrete wall behind the fireplace stove, comfortable. Being on a ridge, the breezes tend to be
wood planks of the sliding cedar panels, the built-in a lovely feature of the site. We use our own well water
cedar millwork and sliding painted wood doors, and and have an AdvanTex septic system, an environmentally
the tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. The builder and sustainable wastewater treatment system.”
I spent a lot of time confirming joint lines and general The project’s biggest surprise “wasn’t the building
coursing of materials so that everything worked. He design, but the infrastructure,” Schmickel said. “We
and his wife both studied architecture at Virginia Tech, knew we needed to dig a well, get power to the site,
so he had great tolerance for—and a shared interest and build a septic system. We expected the biggest
in—the fussy details of an architect.” challenge was going to be power, but we were able to
In terms of sustainable design, “we met all bring power from a farm down the road. The power
applicable energy codes, but didn’t pursue LEED company was very helpful getting this done and it
certification,” Schmickel said. “The shed’s envelope is went off without a hitch.” In contrast, “water turned
well insulated and very tight. We have heated concrete out to be our challenge. We dug a well down to a
floors, but on days with sun, we almost never need to certain depth and didn’t hit water. So we decided to go
turn on the heat. Between the thermal mass of the floor deeper—and at 1,000 feet deep we stopped digging and
and good insulation, the cabin is very comfortable in moved to the next well site, which was about 60 feet
the winter. We use air conditioning in the summer away. Happily, we hit water there at 400 feet. It turned
on the hottest days, but if there is a slight breeze, out, however, that we needed to treat the water for
cross-ventilation aided by ceiling fans keeps the space sulfur and magnesium. The space needed for that kind

20 DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH