Consumer E-Newsletter - 03/20/2007 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball: The Financial Benefits of Homeownership
Finding Your Perfect Builder
It IS Easy Being Green — Simple Household Products to Green Your Home
The New American Home 2007 Showcases Cutting-edge Green Technology
Piece by Piece: How Homes Become Green
The Home of the Future: Looking at New Homes in 2015
The Victorian: The British Contribution to American Architecture
When Renovating, Take a Simple Step to Reduce the High Cost of Heating and Cooling Your Home
You Think You've Got Problems Now? Home Headaches You Can Easily Avoid
How Much Can You Expect to Recover From Your Remodeling Investment?
What’s Hot? The International Builders’ Show Had the Scoop
The Vernacular Architecture of the American Southwest
Builders are Bringing Green to the Mainstream
Photo Gallery: Go Green
Blast from the Past: Vintage Bathtub Folds Up Like a Murphy Bed
Did You Know? The Good on Green
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Photo Gallery: Go Green

If March had a color associated with it, it would be green. It's the color of choice for St Pattie's Day celebrants across the world, it's the budding plants and greenery finally peeking from the winter's snow. And NAHB holds its annual Green Building Conference, this year in St. Louis. So it only seemed fitting to continue the theme in this month's Photo Gallery. In our next issue — mark your calendars! — in June, we'll be looking at the best of outdoor spaces.

To submit your home's outdoor space (patio, outdoor kitchen, etc.) for consideration, e-mail nclark@nahb.com and include the subject line "Photo Gallery: Outdoor Spaces."

Green doesn't always mean solar panels and straw bales. This home, built in Chapel Hill, N.C. by Chandler Design Build, took a more subtle approach, focusing instead on using the most energy and resource efficient systems to build a home that is sustainable for the environment as well as for the pocketbook of the resident family. An Energy Star® Home, the home was a finalist in NAHB's National Green Building Awards and followed the NAHB’s Green Building Initiative Guidelines.

The Galleries at Turney, built by Modus Development of Phoenix, Ariz., features eight detached residences. In addition to high-efficiency Bosch appliances, the homes also utilize low water-use plumbing fixtures, low-emittance windows and doors, high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, and low volatile organic compounds (VOC) paint. Innovative design features include a “rainscreen” façade system of corrugated zinc paneling and a fiber-cement skin that “floats” over the home and shields it from the harsh effects of the sun.

Waldsee BioHaus, an environmental living center at Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji, Minn., is the first building in North America to be certified as a “Passive House,” one of the world’s toughest energy standards, by Germany’s Passivhaus Institute. Germany’s Passivhaus standard is the world’s leading criteria in energy efficient construction. The center uses 85 percent less energy than comparable U.S. buildings by using innovative and broadly applicable, insulation, heat recovery, air exchange systems and high-quality windows and doors with low-E (emittance) glazing.

This Albuquerque, N.M. home, built by the Strosnider Company, is designed to maximize living space with elevated ceilings and abundant natural light throughout. Features include engineered lumber, blown-in insulation throughout, low-E windows, Solatube skylights, foam-seal air filtration package and Energy Star® digital auto programmable thermostats. As a result, the home's air quality is improved as well as having an average of 30 percent reduction in utility costs, and a significant reduction in water use.

An important aspect of building green is incorporating an environmentally-friendly lifestyle for residents. The “Pull-a-Part”™ Townhome, designed by national architectural firm BSB Design, does just that. It's a townhome-style structure pulled apart with just enough spacing between units to give both the homeowner and builder the privileges of a single-family home, abating the insurance issues that come with an attached product. With a long, 40- to 50-foot-wide stretch of a communal front yard, or paseo, and private backyards in each of the homes, the community is nestled in an environment that promotes walking to retail locations, schools and recreational facilities, and as as result increases affordability, sustainabilty and vehicle migration.

This home, located in Paso Robles, Calif., and developed by Estrella Associates, Inc., is an example of how the production housing market is addressing green building. Built using PolySteel insulated concrete forms (ICF) rather than traditional wood-framed construction, this innovative practice reduces reliance on lumber (sustainable building), improves energy efficiency and soundproofing, and increases resistances to termites, water intrusion, and seismic forces.

This home located in Pacific Highlands Ranch, San Diego is built by Pardee Homes of Southern California. Pardee has been a pioneer in green building in Southern Nevada, and was the first regional builder to commit to building only Energy Star® homes that can save homebuyers at least 30 percent in energy costs. Pardee’s innovative LivingSmart® program, which encompasses a comprehensive array of green building standards, plus multiple, user-friendly ways for buyers to expand their choices, is offered at several Pardee neighborhoods in Las Vegas.