Here are some tips for making your home more accessible and safer if you plan on living in your home into retirement. It can also be useful if you are planning a home where your parents will live in or for making their home more accessible and safer. It's helpful to think ahead when [...]

Is Green Building Too Expensive? By Kevin Ireton Editor, Fine Homebuilding My wife and I decided not to have children. We just couldn’t make the numbers work. From prenatal care through college tuition, we were looking at half a million dollars. Minimum. And it would be 25 years before that investment would even begin to [...]

As with many green trends, momentum for the Passivhaus movement began with homeowners willing to invest a little more upfront to build sustainably and create durable, healthy homes that would continue to preserve the environment for decades to come. Today, however, the good news is that passive houses are not only sustainable, but they’re also [...]

When most people think about sustainability, they usually think a “sustainable builder” has to specialize in building new, modern-looking homes. What’s interesting is that sustainability has long been a core principle in the preservation of older homes. Jean Carroon, chair of the AIA’s Historic Resources Committee and author of Sustainable Preservation: Greening Existing Buildings, points [...]

As a custom green builder, I know for a fact that the savings of living in a green custom home can be considerable.  Just how considerable was pointed out in an article I recently read that explored the connection between green houses and mortgages. The article was based on a new study of 71,000 home [...]

We all know that over the long term, sustainable building pays you back by saving water, energy and – ultimately – the planet. But what about those upfront costs? Don’t you have to pay a lot more? The fact is, sustainable building doesn’t have to cost more. That surprises many people because [...]

As a green custom home builder, we’re often asked how custom green building differs from traditional home building – and how green custom homes themselves are different. The best way to illustrate what’s different about building a green custom house is to take you through a very basic version of the checklist we use [...]

“Green building” is a popular term these days. But what does it really mean? When it comes to green home building or remodeling, it’s important to remember that you’ll see the best results by working with an experienced green builder who knows how to make a variety of eco-friendly, energy-efficient products and systems all work [...]

With a Passive House able to cut 90% of a home’s traditional energy costs, no wonder we’re starting to hear from more homeowners who are interesting in learning what’s involved in building or remodeling a home that meets Passive House standards. But along with that interest, we’re hearing a few misconceptions about Passive Houses. We’d [...]