The folks from Cornerstone Construction came out to start the dirt work and dug one fine hole – complete with an extra deep portion under the front of the house where the Geotech Engineer determined that extra structural fill was going to be necessary.  Unfortunately the original assessment of 2 – 2.5 feet ended up being 4.5 feet.   Dan was able to re-direct some of the excavated topsoil (sandy & some clay) to someone on Craigslist.  The remaining clay soil was hauled away.

On Friday January 9th, 2010 ground was broken for the first home attempting Passive House certification in Seattle. Dan Whitmore of Blackbird Builders, llc, a recently certified Passive House consultant, is building the house and was very excited to finally be breaking ground after weeks of delay in permitting. He was able to get his design that includes a fully insulated slab AND footing set on rigid foam insulation approved by the city of Seattle. This was a key step towards the project being able to meet the energy requirements of a Passive House by eliminating thermal bridging between the foundation and ground.  Here are the details about the house as Dan describes it:

Passive House construction has come to the Pacific Northwest. It is a very energy-efficient and environmentally conscious building method that has been in use in Europe with more than 15,000 buildings built or retrofit to its standards over the last decade.  A few Passive houses have been built in the United States, with some projects already started in Oregon, but a project in Seattle has just broken ground on what is hoped to be the first certified project here.