Growing a Woodland Garden…One Plant at a Time

What was to be Upstate Woodland Garden started as nothing more than a tiny never-developed lot overrun with exotic plants and littered with decades of debris. However, thanks to some sweat and sore backs, the “garden” is beginning to take shape.

Enlisting a Small Army
Many months of pains taking one-man effort to clear the site and prepare it for a new life as a native plant garden got a great boost when more than 50 hardy souls spent two consecutive Saturday mornings in September grubbing out exotics and planting natives. The effort, coordinated by Erin Knight of Upstate Forever, was “manned” by a diverse group including students from Berea High School and Furman University, Pettigru neighbors, an eclectic mix of Upstate Forever members and a critical contingent of volunteers from the Greenville County Detention Center.

Today more than a hundred small and large plants (from oak-leaf hydrangeas to dogwoods) are visible. And, with recent fall rains, are beginning to get established.

Augmenting with Plants Destined for Destruction
Thanks to the efforts of the Upstate Native Plant Society, these “purchased plants” have now been joined by several dozen “rescued” Christmas ferns. On an early October Saturday, five volunteers dug the plants up on a site scheduled to be cleared for the next phase of a municipal landfill. As Attorney Frank Holleman and leader of the rescue effort says, “The ferns aren’t particularly impressive now, because they were cut over, and then rescued and replanted. This spring, however, they will frond-up and should create the structure for the garden.”

These individuals aren’t just investing in a small open-space plot or saving a stray plant or two from being lost; rather, they are helping others to understand the beauty and potential of native plants as a more environmentally-friendly approach to landscaping.

Early Results Coming In -- Paying the Energy Piper

Plans and prognostication are wonderful but we all want to see results. After living in Upstate House for a few months we're beginning to collect tangible evidence about performance -- at least as relates to energy costs.

Building for Energy Efficency
Upstate House achieved two certifications -- EarthCraft House and EPA's Energy Star. The first proof of the pudding that our investments in "getting the envelope" right to address energy issues came with the official EarthCraft certification. As a measure of overall "tightness," the house was subjected to a blower door test. The goal was to achieve a rating of less than 0.5 air exchanges. We came in at 0.14 -- well below the target (in this case it's a bit like golf, lower is better). If we had not already installed a fresh air intake as part of our central heating and cooling system, this superior tightness rating would have required us to do so.

Actual Results
While the blower door tests were positive and encouraging we knew that the real "proof of performance" would come in monthly energy bills. With five months of bills in hand we're getting more comfortable in saying that it is working. Recall that we are talking about a 2500 sq.ft. all electric home with all fluorescent lighting, multiple ceiling fans, Energy Star appliances, on-demand hot water with solar assist and a single 14 SEER Amana HVAC with zoned controls. That said here are the initial results:

1. March $58.50*
2. April $33.11
3. May $45.65
4. June $69.01
5. July $72.18
6. August $63.22
7. September $30.40

Our first month* was clouded by the fact that we still had a number of workers coming and going so we had limited control over things so we don't consider it representative. Too, April and May were very cool months when we used little air conditioning. That said, June and even more so, July, have been far hotter than normal and should provide a good read on upper limits for summer months. In fact, more than half the days in July were above normal for our area

In all we're VERY pleased at this stage of the game with this measure of effectiveness.

One foot-note (11.22.2006) we just finally got all of our certification in hand -- including our EnergyStar rating -- which will now allow us to qualify for a further 5% reduction in our rate for KWH used. None of the bills to date include this lower rate.

Nine Reasons You May Wish to Buy Rather Than Build

Building a house isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, I’ve determined that it falls squarely into the grouping of things we are told we should never see in the making – sausage and legislation. As the old saw suggests the process isn’t a pretty one. As a result of our experience I’ve developed nine reasons why for many people buying an existing house might be a more survivable ordeal than building.

1. Timelines are Mirages
If you are a Swiss train engineer or like to work with military precision, then homebuilding definitely isn’t for you. I don’t know how many people told me to expect a year-long project. But no, I really believed we could achieve success in the promised six months. If I had any doubts about horror stories shared by others, our second day into the project (See “Good Friday Surprise”) should have dissuaded me. We broke ground on March 27, 2005. As I write this on May 16th, the exterior painting is finally progressing fairly well and we’re down to a punch list of perhaps two-dozen items to be addressed. We’re now approaching 14 months instead of the planned six.

2. Budgets are Wishful Thinking
During the planning process we inched our “acceptable” budget up by $30,000. So, assuming that we were fairly comfortable with building a house that exceeded our budget from the start, then perhaps an additional $30,000 on top of that shouldn’t be too big of an issue – at least for folks with money. (Oh, I almost forgot, we don’t have money!!). I must say that with the exception of the “Good Friday Surprise” our builder did work extra hard to keep to our cost estimates wherever possible. Yet, our project commenced in one of the greatest run-ups in commodity prices – thus lumber, steel, concrete and just about everything else saw rapid price increases.

3. An Army of One
A former U.S. Army ad campaign spoke of “the Army of One.” We’ll while you might work with a single point of contact – your builder – the dozens of people who have a finger in your project (and a hand in your pocket) … and leave dirt on your floors … is staggering. I have no doubt that a good logistical mind could wring 75% of the time and significant cost out of construction with a well-executed plan.

4. If You Miss One Domino
When dealing with a mostly linear process where one thing must be done before another can begin, having one domino out of place causes the entire chain to come to a screeching halt. In a booming building economy like that in the Upstate of South Carolina, each crew has multiple options for work. Each, therefore, tends to make several more commitments than can realistically be met. Thus, the promised work that was to begin on Monday rarely is started before Friday (woops, I forgot few crews work Fridays) or perhaps the next Monday. That week’s time loss throws the entire “food chain” of promises into disarray and the schedule goes out the window.

5. It’s Tough Enough is you Speak the Same Language
In the U.S. we tend to think in accents. She speaks with a Northern accent or he has a distinctly Southern drawl. In the building trade the primary language isn’t English of any accent – it’s Spanish. Here the list of examples could grow quite long, but I’ll share just one. When my builder told the exterior painters, to “just paint this section of the house,” he meant that they could avoid painting the pre-painted lap siding. Fortunately, they did avoid painting the lap siding, but they also “avoided” doing anything else like using primer or caulking the major cracks between joints. One more call back and another delay.

6. Switches Everywhere Except Where You Need Them
If you buy an existing house, you take it as is. If the wall switch to the bathroom is inside the shower, you either move it or live with it. You’d think that one planning and building their own house would be able to clearly anticipate the placement of every feature in a way that best fits their use patterns. We’ll, perhaps that is mostly so at the planning stage, but then come the adjustments on the fly. On the plans we had a refrigerator in one corner, against a wall. Our kitchen planner rightly noted that the unit needed to be ”flipped” to the other end of the kitchen and moved at least a foot away from the wall. We liked that. However, we didn’t go back and change all of the wall switches accordingly. Thus, the natural “path” we had planned for the mid-night raids on the fridge, now must detour if you wish to have any light other than the bulb inside the box as the light switch remained on the wall nearest the original planned site.

7. Wallboard and Paint Cover a Multitude of Sins
When one walks into a newly finished home and sees the smoothly treated wallboard and the fresh colors it is truly seeing “only skin deep.” When you are engaged in the process literally from the ground up, you see every miss-cut board, each incorrectly driven nail and imperfections of every kind. Fortunately, most of these are just that – minor imperfections. But, some of the goings-on behind that beautiful top coat of paint do matter. For us one of the more noticeable was the fact that the water spigot outside our garage yielded not the expected cold water, rather scalding hot. This doesn’t do too much for landscape plants. When we looked into the issue, the plumber had pulled the source from the line exiting the solar panel – not the one entering it. Thus, we now have two large gaping holes in the garage ceiling.

8. From House to House to Homelessness
We thought we had a great plan when we opted to sell our house and move into an apartment as part of our building plan. The sale actually happened quicker than we planned, but we were able to find an apartment within two blocks of our building site and with a wonderful landlord who wouldn’t make us sign a long-term lease. Going from a 3600 square foot home to a one-bedroom apartment wasn’t too stressful for the first few months – especially the summer months when we could “expand our territory” by eating outside. However, as the plan stretched from six to ten, things began to get a bit cramped. Then when we gave our landlord two month’s notice of plans to vacate with full assurances of house completion, you might understand our concerns when we learned that the house would not be ready still. Homelessness was avoided by the generosity of friends who shared their home with us for two nights and an understanding building inspector who granted a temporary occupancy permit for a much unfinished house.

9. Living in Dust Isn’t Icing on the Cake
With few options and almost exactly twelve months since groundbreaking, we violated the cardinal rule of construction, and moved in with our temporary occupancy permit. If living with a construction project daily isn’t chaotic enough being in the midst of it 24-hours a day is true overload. The painters didn’t finish their touch-up for several weeks. Thus, we couldn’t move our furniture into place. In most rooms things were stacked in the middle. Top that with the fact that almost daily we’d have workers coming and going through the house like a bus terminal – and with just about as much concern about how they left it – and our marriage of 34 years and our patience were sorely tested.

All-in-all our experience has been a tough ride. I know that time heals most wounds and dulls most bad memories … I’m just wondering how much time. I’ve answered friends who would ask about progress with a quick, “a hundred years from now it won’t matter.” I really don’t think it will take quite that long.

Green Crossroads in Upstate House

We approached the Upstate House project with a commitment to several objectives. First and foremost was to build a more environmentally-friendly home -- one that would cost less to operate and maintain and that would also have less impact on the environment. As we’ve often said, our goal was not to be green for green sake; rather, to find that crossroads where more sustainable decisions were also economically viable. If green is to make progress then it must be price competitive – at least in terms of total cost of ownership (original purchase price + operating cost + life expectancy and/or maintenance cost).

Yogi Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Here’s a quick summary of the green crossroads that we “took” in this project.

Recycled Lot: The selection of our building site was perhaps one of the most critical of our green decisions. Rather than seeking to build on a virgin site, we opted for a recycled lot – a property that had once supported a house. Thus, the site already was supplied by the full range of utilities from cable to sewer. Another aspect of the site is location -- an “inner city” lot. By choosing to locate nearer services, we can literally meet many of our daily needs on foot. We’re less than a half-mile from a diversity of restaurants and even a small grocery store.

Open space conservation: We purchased not only the lot for the house but also an adjacent lot – the only never-developed parcel in the Pettigru Historic District. We intend to subject the property to a permanent conservation easement that will forever restrict development and turn the property into a public Woodland Garden.

Protecting Tree Cover: We worked with a certified arborist and sought registry under the National Arbor Day Foundation’s “Building With Trees” program to protect every mature tree on the property. Thus, even though the house is new, the grounds have an established feel and much shade. In fact, we don’t get direct sun until afternoon.

Aspect: We took a couple of pages from historical building practices. We re-oriented our original house footprint to take advantage of nature. We aligned the largest face of the house to the south and west to capture the afternoon sun.

Wide Overhangs: We are taking further advantage of the sun by having extra wide over-hangs – another historical building practice. Thus, when the summer sun sits at a higher angle in the sky, fewer rays enter the windows. In winter, when the sun rides a lower angle, more light (and thus warmth) is drawn into the house.

Shared Drive: The property adjacent to ours had been converted from a cute Sears Kit house to a commercial building several years back. To meet parking and other commercial codes, the owner built a large drive and expanded parking behind the house. We obtained an easement to allow the drive to be shared between the two properties. Thus, we didn’t have to add additional paved surface that would further exacerbate runoff.

Insulation: I’ve often been asked what “one thing” would you do to make your house more efficient. While the question is a difficult one, perhaps nothing yields more benefits for the investment than ensuring a sound building envelop. We opted to invest heavily in insulation. Here we got multiple benefits. Not only did we go with spray foam insulation for its superior insulating qualities but due to the fact that we used BioBased, we supported a product that replaced a significant portion of its petroleum base with soybean oil. The foam yielded a tighter envelope that also addresses allergens and dust as well as providing a superior sound barrier.

Windows: We opted for top-of-the-line double-pained/argon gas filled windows from Marvin. We also went with casement windows vs. double-hung ones because the casement ones provide a much greater seal against airflow. Finally, the exterior of each window is clad in aluminum to address the serious weathering and decay issues common to exposed wood on window seals.

Framing Lumber: All of our framing lumber came from suppliers who have been independently certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) Program Standard as being from forests that are well managed.

Engineered Wood Products: Our trusses were designed and manufactured, again using SFI certified wood. By using trusses vs. on-site building, we were able to ensure superior quality and reduced wood waste. We also used exterior Oriented Strand Board (OSB) and flooring that was SFI certified. OSB is produced from waste and/or lower quality wood yet yields a superior product.

Using Local Suppliers: Wherever practical we opted for locally grown and produced products to support the local economy and to reduce the cost of shipping and use of fuel in transportation. For instance our framing lumber and OSB both came from manufacturing facilities within a 50-mile radius of the house.

Woodstove: The fact that we’re on a heavily treed lot made the decision to go with a woodstove a natural one. We sought one of the most efficient models made – Jotul of Norway, where heating with wood isn’t something taken lightly.

Natural Lighting: We wanted to pull natural light into the house wherever possible both to reduce energy needs and to benefit from the therapeutic effects of natural lighting. We put Solatubes in the office area and Velux operable skylights in the dining area. The operable nature of the skylights will allow us to vent warm air in summer and take advantage of natural air flow on spring and fall days.

Wallboard: Thanks to advances by Georgia-Pacific, we were able to choose drywall without the traditional paper face. This product offers superior resistance to mold and mildew growth.

Flooring: Our choices of flooring offered a multitude of environmental as well as health gains. We opted for hard floors throughout to reduce allergy issues common with carpeting – both the dyes and glues in the carpet and the dust and other allergens that they harbor.
· Once that decision was made, we decided to go with different flooring types in different areas. In the two guest rooms, we went with bamboo flooring. The product offers an attractive look and extra hardness from a rapidly renewable product.
· For the office area we featured a product developed by the US Forest Service and manufactured by Oaks Unlimited from recycled wooden pallets.
· For the living floor we decided to showcase Lyptus, a new product grown on old farms in Southern Brazil. The wood, produced in 14 years, shares the qualities of mahogany or North American hardwoods that take 80 years to grow.
· All of our flooring came in pre-finished form, thus eliminating the need for on-site finishing and associated volatile organic compounds.

Roofing: We wanted a roofing material that would have exceptional life and that would also mimic the slate roofs of several of the more prominent structures in the greater Pettigru Historic District. We found it in CertainTeed’s lifetime warranted Centennial Slate that also contains copper to impede algae growth.

Hot water: We made two decisions that should augment each other in reducing energy demands required to heat water.
· Solar Hot Water: We installed a 50-gallon roof-mounted solar hot water heater.
· On-Demand System: With the solar tank serving as the hot water tank and pre-heater for an on-demand whole house system by Eemax, we avoid the need for a traditional hot water heater that runs 24-hours/day.

Insulated Concrete Forms: The house foundation and basement walls were constructed using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs). These “Lego-like” foam blocks speeded construction but more importantly yielded a sound foundation with an R-50 energy rating.

Gutters: With a heavily-treed site and an exceptionally tall roof line, we chose to eliminate gutters completely. This avoids the issue of clogged gutters that require frequent cleaning as well as the problems associated with rot so common on fascia board behind gutters. With gravel poured around the foundation of the entire house and the extra wide overhangs, runoff will be directed away from the house.

HVAC: After making the envelope as tight as we could, we were able to go with a single 3-ton system as opposed to two smaller systems. We specified an Amana 14-SEER efficiency system with zoned controls. With a single super-efficient system rated higher than current regulations (10-SEER was required when the house was planned; 13-SEER became the new standard on 1/1/06), we have less equipment to maintain and a system that should take us many years into the future.

Paint: Sherwin-Williams’ new family of GreenSure paints offer exceptional durability with low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and fumes for interior paints.

Appliances: All kitchen appliances are energy efficient models made by Whirlpool. Each promises at least 30-40% greater energy efficiency than standard models as warranted by EPA’s Energy Star program.
· We also went with Whirlpool’s Duet® Washer and Dryer because they not only offer greater energy savings but also substantially less water usage for each load. (We’re very pleasantly surprised and pleased with how clean our clothes are and how much less wear and tear they are exposed to with the more gentle, non-agitating system).

Decking: The screened porch, front porch and small deck are all made of ChoicDek®, Weyerhaeuser Company’s engineered product comprised of wood fiber and recycled plastics. Not only does ChoiceDek offer a lifetime product but it additionally eliminates the annual waterproofing treatment necessary for traditional treated wood decks.

Native Plants: All plants for the Upstate House landscape plan are native to the Upstate area. Thus, we’re addressing two issues – avoiding the introduction of invasive exotics and using plants acclimatized to our weather. We opted not to install any irrigation systems, further reducing maintenance needs and water use.

Siding: We wanted an exterior siding that fit well with other structures in the Pettigru Historic District and that offered low maintenance. We opted for board by James Hardie an engineered product comprised of wood fibers and cement. The new generation of Hardie, ColorPlus®, comes pre-painted and offers even lower maintenance.

Bathrooms: It seems that modern houses are vying for at least one & one-half bathrooms for every person who might ever visit. We purposefully designed for two bathrooms to meet both the needs of residents, guests and clients who might visit. By so doing, we not only avoided additional high-cost items, but more importantly, lessened the long-term problems associated with slow leaks so common in rarely-used toilets and sinks. We also specified Toto toilets for their superior construction and flushing capacity using very low amounts of water.

Fluorescent lights: With the exception of emergency floodlights on the exterior, all interior lighting will feature new generations of compact fluorescent lighting – operating without giving off unwanted heat, but also using far less energy and providing longer life per bulb.

Conditioned attic and basement spaces: Through the beauty of ICF’s as the basement walls and BioBased spray foam insulation in the roof trusses versus the ceiling, our attic and basement are conditioned space. Thus, in summer our attic will be only a couple of degrees hotter than our interior. Likewise, all ducting is in spaces that are conditioned and therefore don’t serve to counteract the heating and cooling systems.

Art & Recovered Wood: The front door was custom-designed and crafted by Bob Ripley from heartpine recovered from an area textile mill. It is truly a recycled work of art.

California Corners: Traditional building techniques in the south (and perhaps nation-wide) have two two-by-fours arranged perpendicular to each other at corners. This construction technique leaves a gap that no insulation can adequately fill, thus leaving multiple places for potential air infiltration. Simply by placing the two two-by-fours in tandem the gap is eliminated.

Cultured stone: We used stone accents for three columns on the front porch as well as for a decorative barrier and thermal mass behind the wood stove. In both cases we specked “cultured” or manufactured stone. The product is made of recycled rock and cement to form a more uniform material that saves significantly on installation.

Concrete: We studied both super high ash content and pervious concrete for our two concrete applications. We reviewed the potential for high ash concrete (currently most concrete contains 25% fly ash from coal fired plants) for the foundation and ICFs. However this would have required the addition of cement thus increasing costs and off-setting gains. Additionally, as we opted for standard impervious concrete in the small section between the current shared drive and the garage as the location would not have benefited greatly from a pervious surface.

Recycled concrete and stone: Wherever practical on the site we reclaimed rock and concrete for use in retaining walls, landscaping and/or to serve as water management devices. Too, for all our decorative stone needs -- wood stove hearth and three front porch columns -- we opted for manufactured stone. Manufactured stone is comprised of waste product from natural stone and cement operations and requires about 60% less labor to install.

Building standard: Underlying all of our decisions was a commitment to build not with just a few “green features” but to build a truly “green home.” We wanted neither to reinvent the wheel nor keep our learnings and savings to ourselves. Therefore, we used the Upstate House project as a lever to help bring the EarthCraft House Standard to South Carolina. Currently homebuilders in both Charleston and Greenville are piloting the standard for the entire state. Our greatest hope is that others – especially those building for low-income individuals (Habitat for Humanity, public housing) – will adopt the standard for its gains to society as a whole and because of the energy savings as well. We are especially appreciative to Southface Institute in Atlanta and the South Carolina Energy Office for making the adoption of EarthCraft House possible.

Wrapping the Structure in Beauty and Durability

In choosing an exterior siding we wanted something that would not only meet our sustainability goals but that would also fit the character of the surrounding structures in the Pettigru Historic District. A combination of materials from James Hardie met both needs.

Low Maintenance and Long Life
We found the perfect combination of low maintenance, long life and beauty in exterior siding products made by James Hardie®. We opted for a mixed media look that has stucco around the foundation, topped by lap siding around the first floor, and capped by shingle and vertical panel with battens above and for accents.

All of the Hardie products are made from a mix of cement and fiber that yields a natural wood look with superior durability. This yields a non-combustible product with a 30- to 50-year warranty, depending upon the product.

Lap Siding
For the lap siding that looks like individual wood planks we went with the new Hardiplank® Lap Siding with ColorPlus® technology. ColorPlus comes pre-painted along with a 15-year paint warranty. We chose the Select Cedarmill ® of the four texture options for the slight weathered look.

Shingle
For the decorative cedar shingle look we used Hardishingle® siding in the Straight Edge Panel. The shingles have a 30-year transferable warranty.

Vertical Siding & Battens
We used the Hardipanel® Vertical Siding to top off the mix along the upper portions of the house and to accent two “bump outs” on either side. Here we used the Smooth panels of the four options along with battens to cover seams and add depth. The vertical siding is backed by a 50-year warranty.

Results
While we are building a new structure in a very old, well-established neighborhood, we wanted to blend in rather than stick out. Hardie was the perfect choice! We are very pleased with the final look of the Hardie products. But more, we’re encouraged by the promise of low maintenance and long life – two of our sustainability goals. Finally, we’ve had lots of positive comments about how well the Hardie fits the character of the surrounding Pettigru Historic District.

All Solid Floors are not Created Equally

While we knew that we did not want any carpet in this house (see topics on allergies/health), we did want some variety in our choice of flooring. We found it in a mix between an eclectic recycled product and two very different rapidly grown, sustainable ones.

Walking on Used Pallets
I’m a sucker for innovation. When I read about the work that a friend with the U.S. Forest Service was doing with North Carolina State University to create a high-value product from recycled wooden pallets, I had to learn more. Phil Araman, the Forest Service scientist behind the innovation told me how Joe Pryor and his family-owned Oaks Unlimited in Maggie Valley, North Carolina (just over an hour and a half from Upstate House) were attempting to take the product to market.

Each year the U.S. uses and disposes of an estimated 170 million wooden pallets. Pallets consume almost 40% of all of the hardwood lumber produced in the country. All-too-many find their way into landfills while others are recycled and still others are burned for fuel. Oaks Unlimited, a hardwood lumber manufacturer, figured that getting into the niche market for specialty hardwood flooring wouldn’t be too much of a stretch from their traditional work.

We decided to give the product a try in the “office” portion of Upstate House. Each plank is slightly thinner than traditional hardwood flooring and shows the old nail or staple holes from the portion of life as a pallet. Another difference over traditional flooring is that the wood isn’t from a single species of tree. The roughly three-foot planks come from red oak, white oak, yellow poplar and even sweetgum, yielding a much more diverse and random look. The eclectic nature of the look and the fact that scientists and entrepreneurs are finding ways to convert erstwhile waste to a high-value item made the product a natural choice for Upstate House.

High-Quality from a Plantation Wood
On the main living level, we specified a new product developed by Aracruz in southern Brazil and now marketed via a joint-venture by Weyerhaeuser Company to the rest of the world. The product – Lyptus® wood – uses the wood of eucalyptus trees grown in short-rotations (typically 15 years) on old farms. The tight grain and clear wood yields a stunning product in just a fraction of the time that it takes to grow quality hardwoods in North America. We chose the pre-finished product in “Fire” – a look that rivals rich cherry.

Lyptus® is the product of a cross between two of the world’s more than 600 species of eucalyptus -- in this case Eucalyptus grandis and E. urophylla. Lyptus wood is so beautiful and so workable that it is finding its way into a range of products from fine furniture to cabinets as well as flooring. With a long list of environmental benefits -- among them, the fact that the wood comes from a rapidly-renewable forest, that it provides a new product for farmers, that it comes in pre-finished options so there is no need for surfacing or use of VOCs on site, and that it possesses a hardness rating greater than white oak, jatoba, mahogany, red oak, hard maple or beech – combined to make Lytpus® a very easy choice.

Rounding out the Choices
For the two guest rooms, we went with another “hardwood” or in this case ¾” bamboo. Another rapidly-renewable product, bamboo offers a slightly different look with all of the long-lasting and durable benefits of the strongest hardwoods. Too, the pre-finished version met our desire to limit on-site finishing and treatment to only the stairs.

Adding Color – Green+

For the first time in our "home building years" we have a house with color. Like many we have always built knowing that at some point we would be relocating so we would go with neutral colors to enhance resale. As this is our last house this side of the nursing home, we did not feel those constraints. Too, it offered the first chance to use the new generation of paints that do not come with the terrible off-gas issues common with traditional paints.

Interior -- The Goal is Beauty and Air Quality ... The Wide Spectrum of Green
We opted to use one of the best-known names in paints, Sherwin-Williams. Their new line of "green" paints --Harmony® Interior Latex (http://www.sherwin-williams.com/) -- can be mixed to match any palate. Yet, more importantly they have a low odor and no volatile organic compounds (the traditional smell of paint). The base formula comes in eg-shel, flat and semi-gloss. Harmony also is a good combination for our paperless wallboard in that the paint has anti-microbial properties.

We were very pleased with the quality of the paints and the great covering capability. But, we were most impressed with the fact that even while painting was in progress, there were none of the noxious fumes that often lead to headaches and allergic reactions. In the past we have often had to sleep with windows open for days or even weeks before the smell would diminish. With Harmony you can change your room color and enjoy the comforts of your room immediately without problems. While we chose a range of colors from Adobe (brown) to CityScape (blue/gray), all of the interior colors are truly "green".

Exterior -- The Goal is Low Maintenance
For those areas of the exterior where we need paint, we stuck with Sherwin-Williams. There we went with their Duration ® Exterior Latex Coating line. We were not concerned with off-gassing; rather the issue was durability. The advanced PermaLast(R) technology promises durable, long-lasting paints that are self-priming and promise no blistering, peeling and low maintenance.

Choosing the Right HVAC System

All-too-many people focus on the heating and cooling system (HVAC) without putting first things first. We’d like to believe that we kept things in their proper order by first addressing the building envelope before deciding on the proper unit.

We had originally hoped to install a geothermal system to establish lifetime low maintenance and operating costs. However, our small lot, steep slopes and heavy tree canopy all served to thwart horizontal fields for necessary underground coils. The option to drill wells for coils proved cost prohibitive. Therefore, we turned our attention to creating the best overall fit for our site.

Calculating – Not Guessing – About Unit Size
With proper framing techniques, the best insulation and top-of-the-line windows – “Creating an Energy Efficient Envelope” – we then turned our attention to the proper HVAC system. We opted for all-electric split-system heat pump (even before the run-up in natural gas prices in the winter of 05/06) because all other appliances and our on-demand water heater would be electric. Our electrical engineering and construction advisors completed a “Manual J” (Air Conditioning Contractors Association of America) calculation to determine need. As a result, and with a zone control, we were able to go with a single three-ton HVAC system versus traditional recommendations for two two-and-one-half ton units of cooling capacity.

Amana – The Right Choice
We opted for Amana – one of the best known names in HVAC – now owned by Goodman Manufacturing (http://www.goodmanmfg.com/). We looked first at the then-current code requirements for a 10-SEER (Standard Energy Efficiency Ratio) system. With units now being manufactured with SEER ratings of 18 or more, we scoped the spectrum of efficency versus cost and arrived at a 14-SEER as the optimum decision. As the project took six months longer than originally planned, code requirements as of January 2006 required 13-SEER systems. Thus, our original plan still proved appropriate. The 14-SEER Amana also has an ultra-high rating for heating capacity of 8.5 HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Rating). HSPF ratings range from 7.0-9.4.

Easy Facts
For a great resource on how to go about choosing the right HVAC for your project, see http://www.southface.org/web/resources&services/publications/factsheets/1heat_cool.pdf

Using the Power of the Sun

We tried to use the power of natural lighting and take advantage of sun-power wherever possible. In addition to the therapeutic gains from natural lighting already mentioned – “Attacking SAD With Lights On” – we worked to take full advantage of the sun’s energy.

Passive Heating
We re-oriented the footprint of the house to align the aspect so as to “manage” the sun. The orientation means that the largest “face” of the house is oriented toward the sun. The extra wide overhangs will serve to block the hot afternoon summer sun when it sits at a high summer angle but will let the light in during winter months when it rides a lower angle. Even though we have high-efficiency thermal windows, the natural sun that penetrates in the winter will help warm floors and other surfaces.

Solar Water Heating
Traditional Hot Water Heaters are Full-time Energy WastersThe traditional 30- or 50-gallon hot water heater is always on. Whether you need hot water only for your morning shower or even when you head to the beach for a week and don’t need any at all … your hot water heater is steadfast about its task of heating and re-heating that water should you ask for it. It’s that full-time 24/7 heating that accounts for one of the most easily identified sources of wasted energy and added cost in the average home. We knew we could do better.

We added a 50-gallon passive solar panel on the roof (www.solarcart.com). Water “pre-heated” by the solar system will then go directly to a whole house “on-demand” water heater manufactured by Eemax, Inc.(www.eemax.com) Doing away with the traditional hot water heater means that we’ll only use electricity to heat water when we need it, not 24 hours/day, as is true with traditional systems. Additionally, the pre-heated water coming from the solar system means that the on-demand unit will have limited work to do to bring the water to the desired temperature.