Gottfried Green

I just ordered the flooring today. I really did look into all the affordable green options but in the end we really like the bamboo and feel that the interior needs a floor to anchor all the open space. Plus the decking will be dark and so the indoor to outdoor might flow better together. The darker bamboo sample I found online at Eco-Friendly Flooring. The lighter smaller bamboo was from Home Depot. I was shopping for price and color. Both of these came in at $4 sf but the one from ecofriendlyflooring.com had the darker color we liked. This was going to be an expense for after we moved in and caught up on cash but as with anything in building it is less of a hassle to have the flooring in now for when we move in our things. there is some criticism of bamboo as not being green. I pick my battles with the budget and resources we have available but we really think in this subtropical vibe down here the "wood floor" look still works. We'll shall know for sure soon enough.

Labels: cost, flooring, interiors

This is where it all started for us- The Florida House in Sarasota. This was my tenth post on Gottfried Green back in June of 2006 when I first read about the learning center online. We were still in Brooklyn and only just closed on the property. I remember that first on my list when we arrived was to visit The Florida House. It was 12 years old but still was packed with a lot of innovation. We tracked down the architect Osborn Sharp Assoc in Sarasota and they created this beautiful design that was passive solar and had a grey water system. My Green Buildings was bidding our project- who at the time were the only green builders doing more custom and remodel vs. a few builders who were doing model green homes (which after visiting a few I found it hard to see what was green about them). Everything would come full circle. Osborn Sharp and My Green Buildings met through the bidding of our project and now they are the dream, green team in Sarasota working together to restore The Florida House at its new location. With all the greenwash out there, I can honestly say that they are the real deal in green in FL. They really care about the design as the fundamental aspect of what makes a building green. Design is also half the fun of this whole transition into a new way of designing and building with all the common sense to back it up.

Labels: cost, design, Sarasota

The NYTimes wrote about a couple who suffered through some hardships building a small, second home in Hood River Oregon but not because of the reasons you'd think. I'm sure it didn't hurt to have backgrounds in architecture, sustainable design and to be building in Oregon (more progressive in this sort of thing?). They did run into similar problems that we found here in FL which surprised me. The county, the bank and the appraiser all had problems because their design wasn't big enough and Tudor style like the others near by and didn't have a 2 car garage. Our bank had a problem with no pool, no concrete driveway, only one bathroom and wanting to wait to add a cooling system. I have to admit I gave in a little more and sacrificed some of what I wanted (without the AC they wouldn't give us the loan and unfortunately for me they were the easiest bank I found to work with us on anything and have a decent interest rate). Without the architecture/green design experience it proved impossible to find all the knowledge and experience to build green in the way that I had hoped and so I am stuck with trying to keep as much of the project for later as I could. It's not saying what the building envelop is but some of their green ideas are in the article, "A KEY concept for the house was “to literally have no footprint,” Ms. Donohue said. The roof is engineered to sustain plants and soil to absorb rainwater. Planters with native grasses, which are embedded in the cedar deck and walkway, also help absorb rainwater while screen-covered inserts in the concrete storage units allow floodwater to flow in and out. “There’s the idea that nature is running through the building,” Mr. McKean said. Other features include tigerwood flooring certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a vegetable wax finish, a water-conserving toilet, an on-demand water heater and in the bathroom a solar tube — a type of skylight that intensifies natural light — to use in place of a regular electrical fixture."

Labels: cost, design, prefab

I just paid $6285 to the Englewood Water District for water and sewer hook-up. Believe it or not I saved $3900 because someone in 2001 paid that amount toward the cost. Yes, it would have cost around 10k otherwise to connect to the county sewer and water. Between this cost and the impact fees, I would assume the county is glad we came along. I think of Olga next door and her struggle with the EWD. They offered to hook her up for free at a certain point. My only thought is that they are still going to have to run the pipe from the road back to our house and they run it on the North property line which borders hers. I'll just have to keep an eye on the destruction. Read more about Olga's experience at the Link.

Labels: cost, permits, water

While I am on the Energy Star Site it's a good time to also bookmark the current energy tax cuts. There is a very clear chart with all the resources to select products, find out the amount of the tax cut, what receipts/proof you'll need and finally you can print the various tax forms.

Important to note: "Home Improvements
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has provided guidance for consumers: IRS Notice 2006-26.

Tax credits are available for many types of home improvements including adding insulation, replacement windows, and certain high efficiency heating and cooling equipment. See chart. The maximum amount of homeowner credit for all improvements combined is $500 during the two year period of the tax credit. This tax credit applies to improvements made to your primary residence from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2007.

If you are building a new home, you do not qualify for the tax credits for "eligible building envelope components" (windows, doors, insulation, roofs) or "qualified energy property" (HVAC & non-solar water heaters). However, the tax credit for photovoltaics, solar water heating, and fuel cells is available for homeowners building new homes."

Labels: appliances, cost, Energy, taxes

Energy Star Home Advisor offers a page on their website where you can enter your location and current energy uses to determine ways to reduce energy use and costs. It highlights the usual list for existing homes:

sealing duct work
more insulation
upgrade windows
upgrade HVAC
programmable thermostat

Energy Star requirements are really just a bare minimum for how far you can go with R-Values and SEER ratings etc. but it is a good start to see where you fit in with home energy consumption.

Labels: appliances, cost, Energy, taxes

At the LEAFHouse, they use tankless hot water for back-up. To get started we'll be only using tankless and install solar hot water later. FL is certainly ideal for solar water heating in general.

At the LEAFHouse, "[Their] system features a tankless water heater, the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 20. Maryland’s average yearly “insolation,” or amount of sunlight available to make hot water, is 3.98, which is a little low as compared to a sunny place like California at 5.4. This means that, especially during the winter months, when insolation is low, the backup water heater will be doing its job." This tankless cost $500.

Labels: cost, Energy, materials, water

I've chosen the LEAFHouse- to pick apart because the website offers many details including costs. For their graywater system, "The [graywater] is held in a tank, gradually filtered through a special planter bed, and used to irrigate the landscape around the house [and wash the car]." They also harvest rainwater as discussed in an earlier post.

Labels: cost, materials, water

I couldn't find a picture on her website of the bathroom but the bedroom looks almost exactly like ours will look with the high windows over our bed.

Eco-Friendly Bathroom Features:
- FSC certified wood cabinetry
"Not sure we'll be using cabinetry in the bathroom."

- Floor and wall tiles contain 55% recycled glass
"I think this is going to be Home Depot small, hexagon white tile on the floor. The recycled glass can be pricey."

- Eco-friendly plumbing fixtures, low-flow shower head, mixer, and dual-flush toilet by Kohler
"Yes."

- LED lighting
"Yes."

Labels: cost, interiors, materials, prefab

Eco-Friendly Kitchen Features:
- FSC certified wood cabinetry
"We're doing Ikea so it is what it is."

- Fly ash concrete, rice hull, and recycled porcelain aggregates countertops
"Looking into recycled counters of some sort but haven't decided which one."

- Eco-friendly/low-flow plumbing fixtures by Kohler
"Yes."

- LED lighting
"Yes."

- EnergyStar appliances
"Yes."

Labels: cost, interiors, materials, prefab

Interior:

- Sustainable layout for maximum cross ventilation and natural lighting
"We tried our best here but we think we pulled it off."

- No-VOC paint
"Yes."

- Interior sliding door panels comprised of 40% post-industrial reclaimed material
"Tough one but we'll see what's out there."

Labels: cost, interiors, materials, prefab

In thinking about how to do the best we can with what we have in terms of budget, knowledge, materials and subs who could work with those materials. I am going to throw all of that out of the window and look at what makes up the mkLotus^TM. We won't be able to do all of it now but maybe we could do some of it later: (The mkLotus^TM list is below with my comments for each in quotes)

- Green "living" roof
"The slope of our roof lends itself to the possibility of a few solar panels someday and also solar water heating. However, I have heard of green "living" walls although I don't know how practical they would be. There is the side of our house that will receive the most sunlight daily and with very limited windows. If it is possible I'd like to experiment with green walls on that side at some point in the future."

- 100% solar generator power
"future goal"

- Rain and groundwater catchment system
"We won't have irrigation needs because everything is going to be native. However, we will have a vegetable garden and so we can install rain barrels to catch water from the roof to use for this purpose. I am not sure if we'll ever have a cistern but we'll start with the obvious options first."

- Gray water system: collected water from sinks and shower is recirculated to toilets
"Should be able to integrate these options as I mentioned here in a past post."

- Exterior siding: low-maintenance, long-lasting integral color cement board and FSC certified wood
"For us this would mean Hardiboard and we simply can't afford it, we'll be doing stucco in gray."

- Sheathing and floor + ceiling framing: FSC Certified Wood
"Because of cost- TBD."

- SIPS wall assembly (Structural Insulated Panels)
"This one we couldn't navigate through or afford up front. It would have been a company called E-Wall.

- High performance, energy efficient spray-in open cell foam insulation
"I desperately want to use soy-based spray foam but once again the cost is a killer."

- On-demand water heater
"We'll be going tankless."

- Energy Efficient HVAC System
"We'll have this one covered as well."

- Double pane, Low-E, wood windows and glass doors with aluminum cladding
"We'll have impact windows with a gray tint to reflect the sunlight, Low-E pushed the windows out of our budget. However, we tried our best at passive, solar design."

Labels: building envelopes, cost, design, materials, prefab, water

Not only stating her case but the video also highlights something we got into back in the early days with our first architects. You can use Google Sketch Up to place your home in its actual site and see how it fits in. My old architects were able to pick a time of year and a time of day to see how the sunlight ran across the house to better plan the passive solar design. I haven't yet been able to figure that one out and it may only be available on the paid version. Visit Google Sketch Up.

Labels: cost, design, prefab, siteplan, software, water

We will be closing on the construction loan this Thursday. Over the past month, the bank caused one of my other worries to come into focus. Most of the home building in this area are model homes where you pick your own specific interior features or layouts etc. They all have the overall same look which is pictured above. Once you make your selections the contractor and the bank would build your house for you and you'd get keys once it passed inspection. The local bank I used described our project as "a bit unconventional". This comment was based on the fact that we wanted to do a small amount of the work ourselves. Also, we weren't going to have a concrete driveway and it will only have one bathroom and no pool. Well we certainly were never going to have a concrete driveway and other things could be decided down the road as space was left for them. Because of our experience renovating we had always imagined having someone build the shell of our home and we'd complete the rest. With the bank involved this wasn't possible because we aren't licensed contractors. OK, that was fine but then things got complicated based on doing our own interior painting and flooring?! In the end it was worked out but between Sarasota County's strict C of O requirements and the banks preferences we started to feel trapped into building a house for them vs. ourselves. Our house isn't going to be close to the green dream I'd hoped for but this was always going to be a learning experience. We even wanted to wait to get the AC installed so I could take my time and do more research into the systems available. Although the AC layout would have been in place, the bank said they wouldn't close the loan unless the AC was installed during the construction phase. Basically, I've been forced to get an AC installed. If I was paying out of pocket I'd have more freedom of course but what if I was really hardcore and never planned on adding an AC? I guess I couldn't stay here in FL.

Labels: cost

I somehow fell out of posting because a few of my potential worries came into fruition. One was the final budget from the contractor would come in above our 300k mark. It may seem unrealistic to expect things to stay within budget but at this point they have to... we've already spent/wasted money for 2 designs we couldn't use. As these things go, the budget did come in over and so I passed it over to Mr. Gottfried because if the budget couldn't be reduced I wasn't going to build the house. We are stuck in a bit of an issue with the market value of our total project- land and building. We have to stay in check with the current market down here to some degree. In order to do this we've cut out a lot of extras that we can do at anytime at our own expense and labor. We did oversee the gut renovation of a 150 year old townhouse in Brooklyn, NY. I think we can put up some shelves and also, we are going to do the interior painting. I picked up this book at the thrift store published in 1961 about how to build a high-quality house at low cost as some sort of validation about the process of getting all the ducks in a row. I think the most expensive house budget in the book was around 35k.

Labels: cost

We locked in our construction loan to close within at least 45 days. Also, we should be submitting the building permit this week or early next week hopefully. At some point in September, we hope to be breaking ground... I guess we'll see if that comes to pass. These next few weeks will tell us more. In the meantime, even in this extremely hot weather, the evenings on Gottfried have been so pleasant with a nice Gulf Breeze coming through. We've been enjoying some nice sunsets as we try to picture how the lot will feel with our house on it.

Labels: cost

So in the end the Rocio Romero prefab will not out for us. After a hefty non-refundable deposit we received the general plans and the materials list. Since we were customizing the design by using the larger house and the smaller studio together, I was feeling pulled back into more time and money reworking the design, plus their structural engineer working with the ground level all from a distance. We've already spent a lot of time and money working with an architect without being able to afford to build the house. I somehow thought the prefab would be the best solution because it was all right there. Funny thing is I never heard from anyone at the company since I sent an email explaining my decision not to continue. I found this to be very unprofessional and rude. I certainly gave them a lot of money for the time they put in and being in this business surely clients change their mind for any number of reasons. The materials list also caused me concern. It wouldn't be the most efficient or cost effective house for us. We know enough after our 2 attempts getting a handle on a design we like, we are going to go straight through the general contractor and his draftsman. As we layout the floor plan and decided on the "look" we'll know as we go when a budget buster comes up and we can change accordingly. After renovating a townhouse in Brooklyn, NY and dealing with the NYC building dept, I never would have guessed how complicated and extremely expensive it is to build here in FL.

Labels: cost

We don't even have an official address or a home for that matter here in Sarasota County but we've definitely paid our share in property taxes. That was one reality we struggled with when we first realized our taxes quadrupled after our purchase. We've come to terms with that only to get to the county's impact fees. Any new build here should expect to pay a one time fee of 19k by this time next year. This is up from 10k currently. Somehow I'd hope to have our building permit submitted in time to pay the current impact fee but who knows. I guess if we miss it by a week it will cost us another 10k. I feel like the county should just have my PIN number to save me the trouble of writing all the big checks.

Labels: cost, permits, taxes

Although we feel that our first design wasn't that over the top at 2200 sq ft, it was just too custom to make sense in cost. With a prefab you can have more control over cost as what you see is what you get and also everything comes with the purchase price. I should be getting the standard set of plans in few days. We will only be making minor changes to the standard layout. The other issue is the required elevation of the building. These pictures are of the first LVL home built which was named Luminhaus by its owners. Rocio Romero is the architect that created the design. You get a lot at 1453 sq ft... It sounds small but the layout has 9ft ceilings throughout and we've come up with a perfect solution to add some extra space
as well. Hopefully this will be the one that works out and we'll finally have a place to call home.

Labels: cost, design, prefab

Labels: cost

"Michael Strizki heats and cools his house year-round and runs a full range of appliances including such power-guzzlers as a hot tub and a wide-screen TV without paying a penny in utility bills." This is a great story but it still feels a bit out of reach considering the solar/hydrogen set up was provided mostly for free as part of NJ's attempt, "to have 20 percent of its energy coming from renewables by 2020". Set up as a prototype... "In the summer, the solar panels generate 60 percent more electricity than the super-insulated house needs. The excess is stored in the form of hydrogen which is used in the winter -- when the solar panels can't meet all the domestic demand -- to make electricity in the fuel cell. Strizki also uses the hydrogen to power his fuel-cell driven car, which, like the domestic power plant, is pollution-free." All this can apparently be had for 100k. See full story at the Link.

Related:
Free Solar Panel...Sorta - energyrefuge.com
Florida groups push energy bill - newspress.com

Labels: cost, Energy

Due to some technical difficulites I've been out of commission so to jump back in here's a great story from grist.org.

NYC ex-pats like ourselves cashed out and dedicated their winnings to build green in Woody Creek, CO. Although, I would have assumed it was straw bale country out there, they went with a similar building envelope to ours. For us it's because of the climate and hurricane issues here in FL. What's great about the story is the frankness of the writer about building green within a budget. It lists some desired solutions and then what they actually ended up doing. The owner Daniel Shaw writes, "Our house is exposed, and we wanted wood siding. Reclaimed wood, of course. That nixed straw-bale insulation, because apparently the only guy in the world who can successfully attach wood siding to straw-bale walls lives in New Zealand. We decided to spend the money elsewhere, not on flying the Kiwi back and forth. So much for our utopian vision of getting all our friends to come stack straw bales in what has become the equivalent of a modern-day barn-raising in these parts. Compromise No. 2." Read more of their guilt free green building at the link.

Labels: cost

We are getting more into the idea of going off the grid. We'll be connected but mostly rely on solar. We'll look into a net-metered situation with the utility company as one option. You can buy electricity for use at night and then sell back any extra solar energy you've generated during the day. Basically breaking even.

"SuvivorMan" Goes Off the Grid [Treehugger]
Getting Off the Grid [energyrefuge.com]
The New Energy Companies [Joel Makower]

Labels: cost

The NY Times explains similar insurance woes in the coastal Northeast, as to those here in FL. Either you pay the increases or just get dropped completely. From the article at the Link, "Mr. Mills, the insurance superintendent, recommends a couple of relatively inexpensive improvements that homeowners can make to try to reduce their insurance costs. Roof clips, which securely connect a house’s rafters to its roof, cost about $30 each, and hurricane shutters run about $10 to $50 per square foot."Fortunately, we can build from the start above standard codes which should help. However, I will still have to take the house plans to insurance companies to make sure we won't have problems once it's built.

Labels: cost

greener Miami was nice enough to send along this think to The Florida Solar Cracker House. It looks like they did what we want to do although we don't know how far off the grid we can go. We also like much of the look of the house. Elizabeth Seiberling, the owner speaks about the house. "The house is not connected to the utility grid. We have a Clivus Multrum composting toilet and are not connected to a public sewer or septic tank. Although we used well water, we have built a 3000 gallon cistern which can be used to collect rainwater for all household water needs. Why did we do this? Primarily, we hoped to demonstrate that humans can live in a comfortable and pleasing home while attempting to minimize their negative impact on the earth. The design and building of the home was an exciting challenge that was in progress for over 10 years." Have a look at the Link.

Labels: cost, design, websites

I unfortunately missed some of these on Thirteen here in NY but hopefully they will run again soon. What does Brad Pitt know about sustainable Architecture? After narrating a six part series entitled e2, the Economics of Being Environmentally Conscious, more than we may have thought. From the stars own mouth: “By employing the intelligence of natural systems we can create industry, buildings, even regional plans that see nature and commerce not as mutually exclusive but mutually coexisting.” Who knew?

Labels: cost, design