The Mclennan Family would like to welcome you to this site which is dedicated to sharing with you the inspiration and ideas that led to the creation of Heron Hall, our Living Building home on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

On this site the background history of the site, design ideas and philosophy related to the architecture of Heron Hall are provided to help share the knowledge and experience of this unique and leading edge green project.

Welcome,

The McLennan Clan

HERON HALL NEWS

2016 End of Year Preview of Heron Hall

Moved in!

Its been awhile since the last post- because we’ve been very busy!  The McLennan Clan has finally moved into Heron Hall!  There are still a bunch of miscellaneous projects to do inside and out - but we are loving the new house very much.  We have been giving quite a...

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Gearing Up for the Final Push!

The Smallwood team is working hard to get our occupancy permit and complete a bunch of miscellaneous things as we enter the final push. Last week the beautiful Bainbridge Island wide-board cedar was installed in the stair tower and final room paneling (for the...

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Power and Shit!

Over the last few days a couple more exciting things happened.    1. Our composting toilets arrived - with Glenn from Phoenix who has installed several systems into Living Buildings including the   Bullitt Center!  We likely won’t get them fully online until later...

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Floors, Counters, and Appliances!

Continued Progress on Heron Hall as the new year begins.  Our Flooring crew has finished installing all wood floors on the main level and are now working their way upstairs with our stairs and upstairs flooring. Ryan worked hard over holidays to get all our counters...

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The Age of Solar

As 2016 comes to a close we are so excited to be getting closer to moving into our Living Building House.  This week we were thrilled to have our wonderful photovoltaic array installed by Frederickson Electric’s great team.   The modules come from the State of Oregon...

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Pre-Christmas Update

Big Changes are happening every day on the project at this point and its exciting times at Heron Hall! Inside the big hall is now revealed and nearly complete!  The beautiful interior is on display showcasing rammed earth, local urban salvage wood and beautiful...

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David Trubridge Light – Time Lapse Assembly

We are thrilled that our Trubridge Lights arrived for Heron Hall! This is the only product in the house that I imported!  These beautiful lights come flat packed and minimal in shipping. They are beautiful and low impact.  David is a visionary product designer and...

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Post Thanksgiving Update

It feels like the light is finally at the end of the tunnel now at Heron Hall - even though there is much to do.   Painters are whitewashing interior wood, Ron is finished with all tile work - including beautiful Earth Measure Linear Series Tile in the entry by Cold...

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A Metal Roof to Meet the Sky

A big shout out to Metal Sales, one of our great corporate sponsors, who worked with me to debut the new Standing Seam Metal Roof with the new Valspar Fluropon Pure Coating that is free of PFOA, hexavalent chromium, lead phthalates and bisphenol-A - a DECLARE listed...

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Let There Be Heat!

Last week was another cool milestone for the project - Michael installed our new Daikan Altherma - a highly efficient air to water heat pump that provides all of our domestic hot water needs as well as the heating for our hydronic - radiant heating system in our...

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Flying High!

Heron Hall’s progress continues which our drone shows off nicely!  Fall is in full force on Bainbridge Island and the rains are starting to arrive. Outside our siding crew is down to their last two weeks as they put up the burnt wood siding on the second floor.  Our...

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Inside + Out!

Lots of work going on at Heron Hall both inside and out these days.  Cedar Siding is being installed and progress is being made rapidly out the outside of the home.  The crew has even started burning some of the siding for the black burnt wood finish! On the inside -...

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Porches and Shed Update

Heron Hall’s South facing porches were built last week by my good friend Clemente Ramirez and his team at Green Bridge. Eventually the porches will have sustainably harvested juniper boards as the surface, but for now its good to have the structure built.  Even more...

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Finish Work Begins!

The last week of August marks another important milestone in the project.  Last week the Smallwood crew finished all of the interior plywood and began work on interior wood siding - finish work is now beginning!   The first room to get finished is the guest bathroom -...

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Knauf Insulation Process

Knauf Insulation is great!  It was our product of choice to insulate Heron Hall and meet our goals of a healthy, toxic free home in accordance with the ambitions set forth in the Living Building Challenge. We're excited to share some photos and descriptions of the...

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Busy days at Heron Hall!

While summer is in full bloom, so is progress on Heron Hall.  Knauff insulation is being completed and Smallwood erecting plywood right behind them. The west side screen porch has been framed using beautiful, salvaged headers.  The south-side open cistern was built...

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Rain Baby Rain! Cistern Installed!

We are incredibly excited that our beautiful water cistern is now erected at Heron Hall - by RainBank Rainwater Systems. This 15,000 gallon silver beast, a Contain Steel Water Tank, will hold all of our water - and get us through our dry summers in particular.  Heron...

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Shout out to Frederickson Electric!

Hans and team have done a great job doing electrical work for Heron Hall and rough electrical is now nearly finished!  Thank  you guys for getting the house ready for insulation which is coming next!!!  

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Knauf Insulation Shout Out!

This week Knauf Insulation worked hard to do an air sealing demonstration at Heron Hall - using its great product - EcoSeal  to show how greater energy savings are possible through addressing unwanted infiltration.  Rick and team applied the product and taught staff...

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Sirewall Back in Action !!!

Recently Sirewall came back to Bainbridge Island to build two more beautiful rammed earth walls at Heron Hall that make up the framework for an amazing entry car court experience.  Joss and Vince were in town and led a great rammed earth workshop.  The rammed earth...

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