How to Fall In Love with your Home Again.

Recently, I had the opportunity to  transform the way a lovely older home in the close-in Maryland suburbs function for a family of five.  As a refreshing change of pace,  it did not require a three stories addition or gobble up the back yard with an elephantine addition.  Instead, we reconfigured an awkward floor plan to create an efficient, spacious and highly functional home.

My client, Nancy, sums it up pretty well when she claims she's fallen in love with her house all over again.Moving and expanding the kitchen and moving the bathrooms wae critical to making it work. Here is a house where the circulation was very problematic.

This 40's vintage brick home had a two-story addition that included a second stair leading to the second floor.  That connection between the old and the new was very awkward.  As you can see in the 'before' floor plan, moving from one side of the second floor to the other you would have to walk through  children's bedrooms
.   
On the ground floor, there was no clear connection between rooms, making the kitchen feel isolated and the backyard (with a lovely pool) feel completely disconnected from the house.

By pushing out a mere 8 feet into the back yard and selectively opening walls, we were able to create a modified open plan first floor that affords connections and visual connections with all of the rooms.  In addition, the new spacious kitchen, provides plenty of windows and French doors onto the pool deck and back yard.
We also had the opportunity to incorporate a new mudroom/laundry and summer and winter cubbies for each family member's gear.

The transformation of the second floor included removing the redundant staircase, relocating the children's bathrooms, and the creation of a clear hallway connecting all of the rooms, including a reconfigured master bedroom, walk in closet and bath.

This project was very green, and included recycled materials such as the brick, low VOC paints, energy efficient
lighting,icynene insulation, underfloor radiant heat, and hardwood floors from managed forest.

Green design is ... meeting the needs of people today without destroying the resources that will be needed ... by persons in the future; based on long range planning and the recognition of the finite nature of natural resources...'

-from a United Nations Environmental Program Document

In the last newsletter, I discussed the health aspects of green design, and I detailed some of the cost-effective green elements that can be utilized in any renovation or reconfiguration project that would result in healthier indoor air quality. 

This article is devoted to the other two great benefits of building green: the opportunity to conserve natural resources (and save money on our energy bills) and to preserve the environment. 

Energy Efficiency

In the energy efficiency area, the options for new and exiting homes is exciting and growing every day.  In fact, it is now possible, without breaking the bank, to build a new home that is virtually energy neutral.  For purposes of this article, however, I will just touch on a few highlights that apply to either new or existing homes.

Every home has appliances that need to be replaced every 8 - 15 years, and energy-saving, Energy Star appliances are a no brainer and sold in every appliance store

If you haven't yet, then seriously consider making all of your future light bulbs compact fluorescents, even your recessed lights.  While compact fluorescents are about 3x more expensive than incandescents, over the life of the bulb, they save 10  to 12 times the cost.  Over a 10,000 hour bulb life, this translates to about $75 per bulb!  The next wave of energy efficient lights will be the (still expensive) LED lights, which should come down in price over the next several years.
Other great energy efficient options I have used in recent remodeling projects include light tubes to focus and concentrate natural light (you have to see one of these to believe the dramatic illumination, even on a cloudy day), on-demand hot water (a money-saving European staple for 60 years) and the revolutionary new closed-cell spray polyurethane foam (called Icynene) which creates an actual seal for your home. 

The Environment

When it comes to the environmental advantage of green building, trees and fossil fuels figure large.   A green architect can use new framing designs to dramatically decrease the amount of framing materials used in new construction and additions (this conforms to most local codes).  In addition, new prefabricated wall systems called SIPS can maintain structural integrity while saving trees.
Secondly, proper siting and design can maximize natural light and cut down on heating and cooling.  In practice, this means concentrating the windows on the south side of the house where trees will provide shade, and minimizing windows on the east and particularly west side of the house, where you get the most heat gain (because of the angle of the sun, trees can't provide shade). 

Other options include:

·        the ubiquitous solar panels (not always cost effective for residential construction)

·        using recycled materials such as tiles, drywall, composite flooring, countertops and carpet, woods;

·        reselling or reusing house parts like pipes, windows, joists, beams and wood flooring, and

·        using local materials (to save fuel for transportation) or renewable materials (like responsibly harvested wood).

 In the next issue of this newsletter (May) I will share some specific green construction recycling stories, with resources that you (and your builder, if you're remodeling) can put to use right now.

Helpful Links from this article: 

http://www.solatube.com/homeowner/

http://www.portersips.com/PANELS/introduction.htm

http://www.icynene.com/

http://www.gotankless.com/