Going Platinum
As you’ve paged through this Great Homes issue of Smart HomeOwner, you’ve probably seen the word platinum used a lot. No fewer than four of the homes we’ve spotlighted in the preceding pages are certified at the Platinum level — the highest achievable — under the U.S. G...
What Makes a Home Great?
There are lots of ways to build a house — or remodel one. For proof, just page through this end-of-the-year issue of Smart HomeOwner, which we’ve dubbed our Great Homes issue. You’ll see a wide variety of homes in varying sizes, with different layouts and built in different styles,...
Florida Natural
Builder J.P. McClellan, based on Amelia Island in northeast Florida, recently completed construction on the first eco-friendly, Energy Star certified residence at the Amelia Park development, where he has overseen construction of more than 200 homes since the community’s founding 10 years ago....
EcoLumina Lights the Way
Many homeowners wish they could live in new dream homes equipped with the most advanced technologies, but Bert Jones has gone a step further — he helps create them. His house in Sandy Springs, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, has become a research lab for his unique hobby. “I’m a closet i...
EcoLumina Lights the Way
Many homeowners wish they could live in new dream homes equipped with the most advanced technologies, but Bert Jones has gone a step further — he helps create them. His house in Sandy Springs, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, has become a research lab for his unique hobby. “I’m a closet i...
Arizona's Green Adobe Home
Desert colors are still popular in the Southwest and other areas of the country, but so is green — the shade of green that equates with eco-friendly products, such as the adobe bricks used in the construction of a home in North Scottsdale, Ariz. Owned by Greg Hartman of FHP Builders, a Scottsd...
Sustainable in the City
Three years ago, Seattle-based builder and remodeler Sloan Ritchie founded Cascade Built, a green construction company, with the goal of creating contemporary, sustainable urban homes. After completing a town home project that was one of the first in the country to achieve Silver level certification...
Green Rebuilding in New Orleans
To get to the Lower Ninth Ward, you must successfully negotiate a series of obstacles. First, you have to figure out where it is. Second, you must drive east for a long time, keeping the river to your right as you move away from Uptown, through the warehouse district, past the French Quarter and int...
Clearing the Air
The quality of indoor air is a growing concern for many homeowners. Poor indoor air quality can cause a wide array of persistent health problems, including allergies, eye irritation and headaches, as well as asthma and other respiratory problems.Homeowners concerned about the quality of the air ...
A Minneapolis Green Remodel
Peter Lytle has always been interested in sustainable building. While growing up in the 1950s, he was inspired by the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. More recently, he founded Live Green Live Smart, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based educational organization that promotes green building practice...
Tap Into Water Savings
Saving water makes sense. That’s the concept behind WaterSense, an EPA sponsored program designed to help homeowners conserve water and reduce utility bills. WaterSense has partnered with bathroom fixture manufacturers to set water-use standards for toilets, bathroom faucets and showerheads. A...
The James Learning Center
On a recent weekend outing to Prescott, Ariz., I had the pleasure to tour the James Learning Center at the Highlands Center for Natural History, which turned out to be a wonderful learning experience. Located on an 80-acre site in the Prescott National Forest just outside of the quaint town of Presc...
Burnside's Inn: A Model Green Home
When it comes to building homes, Bob Burnside sees shades of green. “A lot of people say it’s [either] green or it’s not,” he explains, referring to today’s typical home. “Well, that’s not always the case. Let’s find incremental improvement. Let’...
Designing a Passive Solar Home
My new passive solar home, located in the community of Fly Creek in upstate New York, looks just like a traditional-style 4,000-square-foot house and costs about the same to build, but it uses 70 percent less energy to heat than a home of a comparable size. From June 2007 to June 2008, I spent about...
Recycling CFLs
You've probably heard about CFLs, those energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps that many (including us) regularly recommend as alternatives to typical incandescent lights. You've probably also heard that CFLs contain very small amounts of mercury sealed in glass tubing. The typical C...
