Neighbors, Should your Design be what they WANT? November 19, 2009

As I am writing I know that our next door neighbors, who are also friends and clients, might be reading this. If you are, I hope you like the design!  One of our, mainly my wife’s, concerns with designing a Modern house was the neighbors. Would they like it, think it was hideous, never speak [...]

Changing of the Design, Part 2 November 15, 2009

In home building, there are those dreadful clients that are always changing something, from design to on-site visits, there never satisfied. We have one of those clients, unfortunately, it’s us. Once again we have changed our mind, this time not just the floor plan, but the whole exterior. The more I looked at our plan, [...]

Green Building, the Intial Investment November 11, 2009

This week we will be getting estimates for all the phases of our project. With our personal homes we have a lot of sweat equity. This skews our numbers quite a bit. When I talk about our budget, I will be using real numbers, instead of what it is actually costing us. The appraisal on [...]

Third Party Verification November 5, 2009

Third party verification is required for National Green Building Standard. The detail and verification on our house will be more extensive then what most houses require. This Friday, November 6th we will be meeting our verifier, Bruce Chyka, of Performance Plus Homes, to go over line by line all the criteria needed to build a [...]

Thank You – 2009 THBA Parade of Homes November 1, 2009

I would like to give the Topeka Home Builders Association and all the visitors to our Valencia House Thanks. We had a really good turn-out both weekends. We received positive comments from everyone. The best  compliment we received was from Tom Dunn and Jancy Morgan. Once they came in, I gave my spiel about how all the wood, trim, flooring, doors, and cabinets [...]

NGBS says Low Flow, Showers, Faucets, and Water Closets October 30, 2009

I say, do I have to? There are many points in the new National Green Building Standard for low flow fixtures. To reach the Emerald level you need to get a lot of these points.  For myself, I have been struggling to keep an open mind on low flow. When it comes to water, I have had an old school philosophy, [...]

Green Roof’s Green Design Green Building October 29, 2009

Who knew Dr. Seuss was so innovative, Green Eggs and Ham. Now days, green is more than just the color of your eggs. The ”Going Green” movement is comparable to the start of the computer age, nobody wanted to buy one because it was to much of a hassle, it cost too much, and it is just a fad. Obviously they [...]

Changing of the Designs NGBS Emerald Home October 29, 2009

Yesterday we decided to change the interior layout of the house.  We were having problems with head room at the top of the stairway, the storm shelter was making the master bath to small, and the whole master suite did not seem to master like. All the loft  bedrooms  moved to the master area, the master moved to the [...]

NGBS Emerald NAHB Reasearch Center October 26, 2009

This week we will continue to work on design and document details of the National Green Building Standard ( NGBS ). www.nahbgreen.org Today we will be submitting information to the NAHB Research Center, www.nahbrc.com, for consideration of a case study or basic research on our house.  The home we are building will be my personal home and [...]

NGBS – Emerald Design and Documention October 23, 2009

Footprint Constructions Green Home. This week and probably the next couple of weeks we will be working on designing and documenting how we are building the house green. Kyle is working on getting the basic structure designed, then he will start incorporating some of the details the NGBS requires. I am currently going through each chapter [...]