Gas burning can be a deadly process

I am learning this firsthand unfortunately. Christmas eve an unexplained failure of the natural gas-fired boiler in our house somehow began an acute Carbon Monoxide event that culminated around 6am. We thought it was food poisoning for TWO DAYS while it abated. This made 5 adult family members, my baby and my unborn baby, very very sick -- for days now. We could end up regretting this the rest of our lives. Skipping the ugly and sad personal details, I want to emphasize how important it is to have a properly designed heat and gas appliance system. It seems stupid now, but we did not have a Carbon Monoxide detector in the house despite having a monitored security and smoke detection system. While that is the life or death difference, there is more to consider for indoor health here. I will suggest:

1. First -- make sure you install a CO Detector.

2. If you have natural or propane gas systems and wake up in the night or the morning with a headache or dizziness -- open a window first and ask questions later. Especially if more than one person in the house has symptoms. It sounds so logical now, but when you aren't sure what the affliction is, time is wasting.

All gas appliances are far from equal when it comes to safety, not just efficiency. We had a boiler that used inside house air and exhausted through a chimney, relying on heat stacking just like a fireplace does. Without explaining all the details I'll say that there are several ways this system can fail, and the consequences are huge if it is located in a room of your house. High efficiency units are available that bring outside air in for combustion, and expel clean air directly to the outdoors -- even a failure can't release CO into the house. With today's "tight house" construction techniques and materials there is great risk in relying on traditional indirect ventilation to ensure that a traditional gas appliance burns efficiently. Also, the indoor pollutants these "loose" systems can generate are bad for you even when they are not killing you on Christmas morning.

I wouldn't share this sort of thing on this blog if it was strictly a personal tragedy. It bears on design and construction in Davis. There is no code in our area, and no code enforcement that I know of. That means no inspection of systems by a qualified engineer. I have learned the hard way not to be AT ALL casual about systems involving energy. It is easy to get excited about good location, a good price, good design and energy cost savings, and sometimes a bit boring to consider the technical details of safety. Until you have a tragedy. And then it gets extremely "interesting." My commitment is that we will build extremely safe and well-engineered homes in Davis Riverwalk, per national building code and with well-reviewed systems and installation.

Have a great and safe New Year.

Carolling! Postponed!

Poor Mack Hawkins is sick - can't do it without him - and it's raining hard, so we going to postpone. We're looking for this system to turn to snow, and maybe thats the 26th????

Write a year-end check!

You can make a tax-deductible contribution to the Riverfront Park before December 31st! Thank you Uncky Sam! Just stroke that check and put "Restricted to Riverfront Park" on the Memo line. Send it to:

Davis Parks and Recreation Commission

P.O. Box 221

Davis, WV 26260

You will see big things happening in 2008!

Just got back from Park City

Where a town has done a good job you can clearly see its past while enjoying what the town has to offer, making the experience all the richer. In Park City, the Old Town is a celebrated neighborhood among many that are within a short distance of skiing. My friend Dave's duplex is right at the end of Main Street. There are about 176 Park City buildings on the historic register. As one brochure said, Old Town Park City is Where Skiing Comes to Town. At the base mountain lodge there were old photos from the beginnings of skiing incorporated into informational signs. When I was at Alta, the story of its founder, Norwegian Alf Engen (in photo) was everywhere. Even the mid-mountain lodge was named after Alf. There were old mining pics in restaurants, and remnants of mines on the ski mountain. Architecture around Park City is exciting and modern, while taking cues from the structures of the late 19th century mining boomtown that Park City once was. Davis has a very similar industrial history, and some great recreational history as well. We want to enjoy the best ski run of the day, a cool shop, a good dinner with friends, but we want to gain a sense of who and what came before while we're at it. Blackwater Brewing and Phillips Electronics among others have made efforts to share Davis' history with its patrons by displaying old photos. One of the two EastWest Printing buildings on William is actually new construction designed by an architect to look like its 19th century neighbor.

There are many ways to share history while making the future. The old stories and images belong to history and should be shared. The bold lines of Davis' 19th century industrial and residential architecture are central to the designs for Riverwalk. The industrial structures, the hotels, and many of the homes are gone, but their photos survive. And because they are so old, they are in the public domain for all to enjoy.

Major donation to Riverfront Park

Today I learned that an individual who owns in Winterset (Canaan Valley) has contributed $10,000 cash to the Davis Riverfront Park! Name to be published soon. This is the biggest donation yet. I am working with the Parks & Rec Commission for authorization to set up an online donation site for the Park. People interested in the development of the town park should know that the Town doesn't get much from property taxes, and certainly not enough to consider "luxuries" like this park. So, it comes down to tax deductible giving to develop a public project like the Riverfront Park. Plenty of folks in Canaan care about having Davis as their "town" to visit, and a few more might even choose to live in Davis. If you would like to support the development of the Riverfront Park (see previous posting), email me and I'll give the phone number for the president, Doug Martin.

Updating the Riverfront Park Plan

In 2005 the Davis Town Parks & Recreation Commission had Floyd Browne Engineering create a plan for the park. As you can see it did not include the Davis Riverwalk development, and it optimistically includes some "wish list" land east of the bridge. There has also been much work done to grade and develop trails, so these need to be reflected in the Plan. To win big grant money, we need an updated Plan! I have requested the files from Floyd Browne and if I can afford it, I will make a contribution to update the Park Plan while having the Riverwalk Plan redrawn. Riverwalk and the Town's P&R Commission are working together to make the park a reality. A base camp to the Valley's high adventure. A trailhead to recreation. A venue for community and entertainment. And one great place to take a walk with the family before dinner in town!

Allegheny Highlands Trail to Davis

You may know about the Allegheny Highlands Trail, a rails-to-trails project being implemented by the WV DOT in relation to Corrodior H. This trail will be a combination of cinder and tarmac, and will be used by cyclists to make long tours from Elkins to Parsons, Hendricks and along the Francis Grade to Douglas and Thomas. The planned trail (yellow on map shown) then goes right past downtown Davis. With the help of Blackwater Falls State Park and Tucker County Trails, it seems certain that connectors will provide riders with access to Davis via the existing trails in the State Park. Next, we need to be sure that riders can safely access downtown Davis from the section of the AHT that will parallel WV93 and the Davis-Bismark section of Corridor H. To start, I have written the Allegheny Highlands Trail Foundation to inquire about what is being planned by WV DOT for our safe access from Davis. Imagine the importance of this trail to Davis....With the right signage and loop connectors, riders will be encouraged to plan interesting side tours of the Blackwater Falls State Park and historic Davis. Davis B&B's such as Bright Morning Inn and Meyer House, and our restaurants, would undoubtedly benefit from overnight trips from points east and west. With the connectors, this trail would provide a well groomed trail to Thomas as well.

Top Outdoors Town - again!

The complete article at MSN City Guide

Davis, West Virginia
Davis may have a diminutive population—624, at last count—but its dedication to the outdoors is gargantuan. Blackwater Bike Shop (304-259-5286), a local outfit owned by West Virginian mountain biker Roger Lilly, services some of the country’s top riders, and will also happily rent rookies their own fat tires, and point out top trails including the 28-mile Plantation Trail. Blackwater Brewing Company (304-259-4221) keeps bikers, hikers and skiers stoked with burgers, bratwurst and craft beers while the Bright Morning Inn (304-259-5119) lodges travelers in a former 19^th-century boardinghouse and saloon. And yes, there are skiers here; 150 inches of snow fall on Davis each year, creating scenic and surprisingly steep trails at Timberline Four Seasons Resort (866-438-7259) and Canaan Valley (800-622-4121). Crowds and lift lines are a rarity here.

Excerpt from AIA article

AIA HOME TRENDS DESIGN SURVEY: THIRD QUARTER 07
Households Look for More Activities Integrated into Their Communities
Traditional neighborhood designs, and low maintenance and durable materials preferred for home exteriors

by Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA
Chief Economist

Summary: With rising energy costs and longer commutes, community and neighborhood design trends are favoring greater diversity of land uses and increased accessibility to transportation and commercial opportunities. Homes are being designed to encourage more neighborhood interaction. Households are favoring exterior materials that require less maintenance, as well as those that have sustainable characteristics.

These are some of the key findings of a recent AIA survey of home design trends dealing with community and neighborhood design issues. With the overall weakness in the housing industry, residential architects are reporting declining business levels. Particularly hard hit are speculative home building projects, as custom home building has stabilized, while improvements to existing homes are generally showing healthy conditions.

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Growing popularity of mixed-use facilities and infill projects as owners look for greater access
As major metropolitan areas across the country are becoming more built-out, thus forcing new development at the urban fringe, households are facing longer commutes and less accessible commercial opportunities. As a result, residential architects are reporting continued strong interest in mixed-use facilities within developments; that is, projects where residential uses are integrated with retail and other commercial activities. They also see increasing interest in infill housing to take advantage of more desirable locations. For both mixed-use facilities and infill development, almost two-thirds of residential architects felt that these trends were increasing in popularity, while hardly any felt that their popularity was declining.

Additionally, households are looking for communities that offer more recreational opportunities integrated into the development, and better access to public transportation opportunities and alternative transportation systems, such as bikeways and walkways. Traditional neighborhood design—with smaller lots where homes are close to the street and typically emphasize porches and sidewalks—is also growing in popularity. With these smaller lots, there is growing interest in having more communal open space available. Providing affordable housing in developments, where costs may be subsidized by the market-rate housing provided, was reported as having mixed popularity.

Traditional design with a low maintenance twist
Homes with a traditional feel are maintaining their popularity at present. Greater use of front and side porches are seen as increasing in popularity by more than half of the residential architects in our survey, while few saw this trend as declining. Respondents were about evenly split between those seeing contemporary (as opposed to more traditional) home styles and facades growing in popularity as those who saw them declining. There was a consensus that nontraditional window shapes and sizes in homes, as well as simpler detail of home exteriors, were not picking up momentum. However, single-story homes are gaining popularity, likely in part due to the preferences of an aging population for easier access around the home.

Along with the preference of traditional home designs is the growing popularity of durability and low maintenance in exterior materials. Over three-quarters of residential architects surveyed (78 percent) indicated an increased popularly of low maintenance exterior materials (e.g. fiber-cement, stone, tile, natural earth plasters), while fewer than 4 percent reported a decrease in the use of these materials. Many also noted an increase in the use of sustainable roofing materials.

Despite the downturn in the housing market, there continues to be strong interest in selected upscale exterior products. Both exterior accent lighting and upscale entry doors were seen as increasing in popularity by close to half of residential architects. However, there are limits to homeowners’ interest in upscale features: heated driveways have limited interest, with more residential architects reporting them to be declining in popularly as are reporting their popularity to be growing.