Green Building

The Green Movement has been building in earnest for many years now. Some simple steps were taken and demonstration homes were built 30+ years ago. Throughout time everyone has been working to build an energy efficient home in order to stay warm in the winter. Recently the global community has been rallying to mitigate the effects of what is now labeled global climate change which in and of itself would help make our winter warmth a bit easier to achieve. To that end home builders and community activists are pushing green building initiatives such as Green Globes, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and Earth Craft Home certification. These programs seek to achieve energy efficiency thru a variety of check lists and points system and rise to environmental stewardship as well thru the use of sustainable and recycled components. Many of these choices have been incorporated into homes by builders because they last longer and create fewer warranty calls for the builder to have to address. By doing so the building community has begun creating better products for the homeowner and is helping to make the environment better.

What do you want to achieve?

Environmental friendliness? Sustainable building materials? Less carbon footprint? Lower energy bills? Safe worker environment? Low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) allergy tolerance mitigation? These are a few of the areas where a green building initiative can come into play. You can do very simple things that will make the home energy efficient or you can do very invasive things that will go even further. It truly is up to you and making sure that you have a builder that is capable of providing this service to you.

I’ll write more on this subject in the ensuing weeks.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Please visit my website

www.cshadedesign.com

Email me if I can be of further assistance

Caring for Your Home

Most of us as homeowners would like to have a worry free home. There are many aspects of the home that we do not want to have to spend time on and therefore believe that our builder is responsible for day to day maintenance. Most of the large national and/or regional builders have a program to wean the owner from the builder in the first year. Yes it is customary for the builder to warrant the home for the first year but this usually has to do with major facilities of the home like heating and air, appliances, structural items, and overall performance. Because of the nature of a home that it is a living breathing thing sticking doors and settlement cracks are bound to occur. The builder will generally look at these items several times in the course of that year and make repairs as necessary. It is up to you the homeowner to continue this maintenance sometimes during but especially after this period. You need to walk around the outside, look at the caulk around the windows and doors, stick you head or maybe even climb into the crawl space. Look at the attic don’t just store you things up there, if you see a water stain do some investigation and see if you can find the source. Notice if water is ponding outside the home around downspouts or new plantings. Have the shrubs trimmed away from the house so the siding or brick can dry. Make sure the weep holes in the brick are not clogged. Take the time to change you air conditioning filters several times a year. I like to do mine in October, January, April, and July, you can adjust according to your climate but where I live we generally have one month a quarter where the air conditioning is little if any used.
Many a time I had a homeowner ask me for a maintenance free home. I asked them to leave a book of blank signed checks. There are many things that can be done to keep maintenance to a minimum but a maintenance free home is a fantasy. I’ll expand on this as we move forward together.

Thanks for reading and please visit my website

www.cshadedesign.com

I look forward to hearing from you…