I believe it’s human nature to think this way. I have seen some designs that I wouldn’t want to live by, so a little consideration of your surroundings doesn’t hurt. You should also consider the fact that it’s your house. Far too often in home building, we get stuck in a rut. We build the same house with the same layout and exterior. Mainly in subdivisions, a house that’s built outside the box is ridiculed and scorn. HGTV had a show specifically dedicated to this called “What’s with That House?”

Why is it wrong for someone to build a house they love? Are people jealous they didn’t have the guts to do it, do they actually think it’s ugly, or is it like high school where if you were  a little different, you weren’t in the popular click?

My final thought – design a home you want, not what your neighbors want. If you don’t want them to ever talk to you, then make your exterior as wild and crazy as you want. Otherwise, pick something from normal-chic to crazy-modern.  The architecture in Topeka, Kansas can be monotonous. For our homes, we have used some classic architecture: Victorian, Cape Cod, Colonial, Craftsman, and others. This still sets your home apart without going to any extremes.

Below are the prelimanry renderings of our new home. The architecture is considered Modern-Shed.  The name is given because of the simple one sided roof-pitch. The roof trusses inside will be exposed. This will give us the wow factor we want without a lot of wasted space.        

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, the more flaws I found. Below are the two main reasons we are changing our design.

1. Average Design: The more I looked at it the more I realized how average the design was. While I was looking at another builder’s website, who was offering SIP panel construction, I came across a house that looked familiar, big gable porch, smaller gable beside it with another smaller gable projecting from the front of it. Boring, normal, average and standard Midwestern sub-division house came to mind. I instantly became depressed and excited at the same time. All the work we had done over the past 3 weeks was out the window. We literally were one day from sending bid request out. I had just met with Wayne, our salesman at Pro Build and he had already started doing a take-off for materials. It was not good timing. On the other hand, I knew that we were going to end up with an awesome house, and we will! Kyle is working this weekend to have plans ready for Monday. We will update the blog and website, hopefully by Tuesday, with the new floor plans.

A side note, I mean no offence to those who live in the house I described above, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. We have always been unique with ours houses and plan to keep stepping outside the box, building a showcase house that’s normal just doesn’t fit.

1. Wasted space: As I described in the last “Changing of the Design” blog, putting all the living space on the main floor, left a huge amount of wasted space in the attic. If we put the bedrooms upstairs, the stair placement became a problem. Also, in the main area I wanted a WOW factor since we only had 9’ exterior walls. To do this we would need to vault the area or raise the ceiling height. If we did this, it would make the upstairs unusable.

The house we are designing now fixes both problems. It will have 9’ walls, but will have an open truss, shed type roof on it. This will eliminate most of the wasted attic space while still giving us a wow factor inside.

The outside will have a simple, sleek, modern look. This takes care of the unique design part.

Though changing your mind half way through the building process is never encouraged, having your dream home is. Making extreme changes like this does come at a price and you should expect to pay for it with time and money. Having an honest designer and builder is important to ensure you don’t get over charged every time you make a change.

Plan as much as you can, have fun with your design, never settle for status quo, and keep an open mind. The rest always falls into place.

Footprint Construction

The appraisal on our house, which was based off our house plans, was $370,000. With a standard 80/20 loan, we could borrow $296,000. There are options now with energy efficient mortgages (EEM), which let you add some of the extra cost of energy efficient products into your loan. For example, if your maximum amount loaned was $296 but you were going to use a geothermal heat pump, which could cost an extra $10,000, before the 30% tax credit, using an EEM could raise your loan to meet this higher amount.  Go to the EEM Program website for more information on eligibility.

Our initial goal for our budget without land is $250,000. With a total loan of $280,000 for 15 years @ 4.875% or monthly payments would be $2,200. Since we plan on using the highest efficiency products throughout the house, geo-thermal, Sip exterior walls, and low-flo fixtures, we figure we will save around $2400 a year or $230 on utility bills. With this savings, we could spend an extra $40,000 and still have the same overall payments. This would make our end loan $336,000.  

If we used this method of thinking we would be $24,000 over our 80/20 loan amount. This is where having programs like EEM loans and EE tax credits make it a little more feasible to get your loan and be green. Also, if Appraisers were required to add value to houses that used EE products, EEM would not be needed. This is something the NAHB has been fighting for awhile. If a house used geo-thermal, that alone, with no other improvements, could save you between $1000 and $2000 a year. Doesn’t that make the house more valuable?

One of the lessons we will be learning from our house is what products give you the most return on your investment (ROI). If your goal is too purely save the environment then throw ROI out the window, there are thousands of products that have very little impact on the environment, unfortunately most have a big impact on your wallet. There are plenty of products that are green and save you green. This is what we will be getting from our house, the real world knowledge of the products we use and how they will benefit our customers.

We will talk over the next few month’s about the pro’s and con’s of the products and systems we use. I encourage anyone that is thinking of building or remodeling to keep updated on our blog, but also use the internet and other resources and study the products before you use them and pick out the right system for your needs and not your contractor.

 Have fun with all your projects, pick a contractor with your same goals and ideas, and try to be green, it usually won’t cost you too much.        

To see update plans of our Emerald House and other projects please visit us at www.stepoffthegrid.com

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 NGBS Emerald level home. This meeting will ensure all the criteria will be met, and that we understand every section. 

Most of the criteria is easy to understand and straight forward, examples are, low or no VOC paints and adhesives, properly sized Heating and Air ducts and Energy Star Appliances. Some of the criteria that gets more complicated or detailed are,  a Continuous physical foundation termite barrier, I believe this can be just plastic, but how the plastic is used I do not know, a minimum of 85% of material within a product group (i.e., wood structural panels, countertops, composite trim/doors, custom woodwork, and/or component closet shelving) is manufactured in accordance with the following.

• 901.4(2)Enter number of product groups where particle board and MDF (medium density fiber board) is manufactured and labeled in accordance with CPA A208.1 and CPA A208.2, respectively – 2 items
• 901.4(3)Enter number of product groups where hardwood plywood is in accordance with HPVA HP-1 and HUD Title 24, Part 3280. – 1 item.

This may/or may not sound confusing, but there is a lot time spent documenting and researching criteria like this one. This is where a good verifier comes in. After talking with Bruce, he assured my that any question would be resolved with our first meeting.

We are very excited about this meeting, it is the next step toward us becoming a more green company. It would be great to build all of our homes to this level of green, but we also know that the customers goals and objectives are also important, they may want a theater room instead of better insulation. This is where we will have an advantage over our competition. We will understand how green products work, the cost of implementing them and future return on investment. This way we could show them that the money they might save on Heating and Air bills will pay for that theater room equipment, over time of course.

Though I believe using a standard like the NGBS is very important to green building, using a verifier to simply test air leakage, should be done on every new and existing home. Doing this will not only save the enviroment, it will save you money.

Footprint Construction

Once they came in, I gave my spiel about how all the wood, trim, flooring, doors, and cabinets were all reclaimed. She looked around for a second and went back to her car. A few minutes later she returned with a very colorful and well illustrated children’s book.

  ”If this Old Tree could Talk to Me” is a book about a Osage Orange Tree and all the sights it saw. The story reminds you of how important a tree is and why being green is so important. If you take away the financial reasons, global warming, and all the environmental reasons to be green, you are still left with a basic principle, that we need to save this earth, if not for its beauty, then for all the stories it could tell.

receiving a gift like this, makes all of our hard work worth while. Besides character, the reason we use reclaimed wood is to preserve the trees we have, and keep the stories of the ones we use alive. Thank you again Jancy and Tom, it’s nice know to there are people out there, that really do care.

The story and illustration individually are very, very good. Together they make a great book, for kids and adults. Please take a moment to visit there website, www.happytalestoyou.com , or purchase their book at,  AMAZON.COM .

My favorite saying from Jancy Morgan and Tom Dunn is, ” Recycle Your Smile”

Thank You again to everyone that came through the parade.

Jason, Amber, Aiden and Jessa Droge, and Kyle Davis

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, more is better.  This is where I have to disprove the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. I will admit that I have not been very environmentally conscious. I know that right I am not doing everything I can to be green. This is where the NGBS comes into play. By setting green standards, they are essentially making you go green, by the way, the program is totally voluntary. This is great for someone like me, who needs pushed in the right direction.

Now back to the nagging voice in the back of my head that says I will hate low flow fixtures. Right now I am just ignoring it. I have to believe, and I do, that low flow showers won’t mean no flow and I won’t have to use a plunger every time I use the toilet. The little bit of reasearch I have done on low flow is they claim their just as good as the standard and some are not that much, if any, more expensive.

This is what makes our project so exciting, we are real life guinea pigs for all of this new, and sometimes never used, technology. Until you actually use the products, it’s not fair to say they won’t work. So as we progress through all the phases of construction, and after completion, I will try to report any pro’s and con’s on the products we are using.

If any one is wondering, my business partner has no hesitation with going green. He would install composting toilets throughout the house if I let him. Since my family will be living in the house, I like to take baby steps when it comes to some green products.

Any suggestion on products you have used and like would be great.

Jason Droge

Footprint Construction __  www.stepoffthegrid.com

NAHB National Green Building Program __ www.nahbgreen.com

This time “Green” is green. With the addition of a breeze way/enclosed walkway, to the detached carriage house, we are planning on putting a flat green roof or roof garden on the breeze way. Yes there might actually be green grass on our roof and no you do not necessarily have to mow your roof. There are usually ideal vegetation to grow on a roof,  with the right set up you can grow the same things on the ground, on your roof.

This is one of my favorite examples a green roof.

Some benefits to a green roof are, increased insulated values, they last longer, the surface below the soil, mats, are never exposed to the damaging effects of the sun, and they can be visibly appealing, especially if there used as a deck type area.

Our roof will only be 12′ x 16′. You will be able to access it from the carriage house loft and possibly a small potion of the house loft. The energy efficiency of super insulating a small breeze way may be small, but every little bit counts. Also, if your home is unique, and green, why not. Theres nothing wrong with having fun with a design and saving the earth.

Footprint Construction = www.stepoffthegrid.com 

 Ask your builder to GO Green. www.nahbgreen.org

The only problem is there will be no finished area upstairs now, this essentially becomes wasted space, in my mind. We will have to get all the estimates to see the cost difference. It should cost more because there is more finish on the outside of the garage.

The advantages are larger bedroom, detached garage, which is green because there is no chance of car exhaust coming into the house, it also decreases the chance of fire spreading to the house.

The before plans

Here is what we have so far, the detached garage breeze way will extend from the mud room.

Unless we go over budget with this design, I think we will keep it. It will be nice having all the bedrooms on the main floor and I can have a larger garage, there is never anything wrong with that!

Our detached garage, aka “The Carriage House” will look similar to this. We plan to use the stone on the front corner of the house on the front og the carriage house.

Footprint Construction – www.stepoffthegrid.com

For more green info www.nahbgreen.org and www.thba.com

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 our office. This will allow a full access pass to all of our methods and practices we are implementing. I will update the status when we hear from them.

The NGBS has optional and mandatory points given for each phase of construction. These are in main categories, secondary categories and subcategories. I made a list of these criteria and divided them into thier appropriate construction phases, design, plumbing, paint, etc.

This week I will start to make documents, PO’s, and notes on each phase. This information will be noted in documents for the verifier, notes for sub-contractors and on the design plans.

The first section is design. While Kyle finalizing the plans, I will be giving him info on things he needs to note on the plans and verifying our design meets the NGBS criteria. 

Items like roof  flashing detail, landscape plan, were driveways will go and if they will follow the lands natural grading will all have to be noted on the plan.

Some of the decision we will be making are were to place the house, driveway, work zones, and landscaping on the site. We will take grades and inspect the natural vegetation and decide what options have the least environmental impact. 

 Footprint Construction = www.stepoffthegrid.com

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 and sub-chapters on the online scoring tool to make sure we meet the Emerald level. There are 5 chapters and well over 150 criteria to earn points. This process is tedious but informative at the same time.

Here are some decisions we have made recently,

1.  SIPS’s panels for the wall and possibly the roof, we have also considered Insulated Concrete Forms, ICF’s. I believe ICF’s main advantages are strength and sound control, possibly R-value, or Performance value would be greater. SIP’s seemed like the middle choice between wood frame and ICF’s.
2. The house is on a slab, we were going to use radiant heating in the floor, mainly for comfort, but decided if we insulated the slab from the outside and from the footing it would eliminate thermal bridging(direct transfer of temperature through an object like concrete).  We are planning staining the concrete for the finish, but if we ever added carpet, wood, etc this would make the radiant heating extremely inefficient.
3. We are also thinking of designing the house as a Passive house, a lot of the elements of a NGBS home are the same as a Passive house. Being in the mid-west it might be difficult to have a home completely Passive but we will still use some of the ideas in our home.

For more info on green building and the new  class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”new “>NGBS guidelines go to www.nahbgreen.org

For more information about us please visit us at www.stepoffthegrid.com