The Incredibly Green Home Blog

A couple of weeks ago, while browsing various green building blogs, I came across a site published by O'Malley, Miles, Nylen & Gilmore, P.A., a green law firm based here in Maryland. A green law firm? That's right, they specialize in environmental law, green building and construction law, land use and zoning, and other building disciplines. Several of their attorneys are LEED APs, including Megan Reuwer, publisher of the website, buildingagreenmaryland.com.

One of Megan's most recent blog entiries compared LEED vs NAHB/NBGS, and as Bethesda Bungalows had the unique experience of going through both programs for The Incredibly Green Home, I asked if she might want to come out to the home to share some insights.

So last week, she stopped by for a tour and we chatted, which she summarizes nicely here. Thanks for the coverage, Megan! If we need any green legal services, we know who to call.

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I am extremely proud to announce that The Incredibly Green Home of Chevy Chase has been awarded an NGBS Emerald certification by the National Association of Home Builders. Emerald is the highest level of achievement set forth in the National Green Building Standard.

The award is the culmination of a year-long team effort that challenged all of us at Bethesda Bungalows to rethink how our homes are built. Going through a certification path like the NGBS forces you to re-evaluate just about every aspect of the building process. And it really makes you emphasize the Integrated Building Design concept.

Peter said, "Wow, this is amazing. When I set the goal last spring, I knew Emerald was going to be a stretch. The whole crew pulled together, went thru a huge learning process, and came through it all by reaching the highest level.  Going this route takes a home to an unbelieveable level of quality and detail.   I want to thank my entire team for their hard work and dedication."

Bethesda Bungalows also wants to take this opportunity once more to thank all of our sponsoring partners, without whom this award would not have been possible.

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Bethesda Bungalows is currently featured alongside Sarah Susanka on the HGTV Pro website, in a video highlighting the trend toward smaller, upscale homes. Produced by Jeff Bankert of HGTV, the piece includes a nice interview with Peter in front of his home discussing how the trend has brought the "Not So Big House" concept to the forefront of our long-term strategy. Christian Gladu just happened to be in town at the time and makes a cameo appearance.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to Asa Foss of the USGBC, as his footage got left on the cutting room floor. He really was here for the shoot, as the pic below proves. Maybe next time, Asa!

Click here for a link to the video.

Peter under the bright lights of stardom.

Asa Foss inspecting our super tight ductwork.

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Mark your calendars! On April 3rd, 2010, the Green Building Institute will host a Green Evolution Tour of Bungalow Row.

The tour will be co-hosted by Dave Woolley-Wilson, Executive Director of The Green Building Institute, and Christian Gladu, home designer extraordinaire.

The tour will follow the development of the 8 homes making up the Bungalow Row enclave.  The homes are a microcosm of the green building movement, as each subsequent home incorporated additional green features, culminating in The Incredibly Green Home of Chevy Chase.

The tour will start at 5120 Fairglen, a home currently under constuction that features SIPS panels and vertical ground loop geothermal HVAC.  The home is slated to be LEED certified. 

We've set a date of April 3rd, (hopefully) at the peak of the cherry blossoms.

Space will be limited so click here to register.

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Last Friday, I met with George Snyder of Home Technology Architects to discuss the various low voltage systems going into the latest custom home we are building here on Fairglen Lane. We are getting close to drywall, so some important decisions needed to be made by the owner.

From the outset, the customer made it clear that he wanted a "smart house", while not going overboard with costs. Towards that goal, we suggested he go with a Control4 system as the core of his home automation.

The client happens to be a fan of Mac gear, so when the iPad was introduced last week, the first question that came to mind was whether or not we could use it as a replacement for the Control4 7" Portable Touchscreen that was originally spec'ed. After speaking with George, it appears that it (most likely) will work just fine. Of course, there's always a chance of some trade-offs in, say, reliablity, but that's to be expected when you add a bunch of functionality to a given product. With the cost of a full blown iPad about half the Control4 touchscreen, the customer is going to get 2 iPads - one for the dedicated theater, and one for the main floor. 

The subsystems tied together by the Control4 system will consist of distributed audio, multiple video systems (two with surround systems), and security. We are going to hold off on the lighting systems for now, and if Control4 ever releases their EMS100, we'll tie in the energy monitoring. Because the Control4 thermostats don't currently deal with humidity sensing and control, we will be sticking with Honeywell thermostats.

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Our friend Michael Kiefer of Green DC Realty recently wrangled a nice piece on some of the green projects going on in town, and it mentioned The Incredibly Green Home.  Thanks Michael!

DREAMING OF A WHITE (and GREEN) CHRISTMAS “Environmentally friendly housing” once conjured images of dwellings with oodles of solar panels, no electricity, and maybe even an outdoor privy. Times have changed. Drastically. Local developers are still building green homes that save energy, but don’t skimp on aesthetics. Think tree-huggers in Chanel! Here are a few homes that may be green, but definitely aren’t gauche.

NOBLE NET ZERO: Marcie Meditch and John Murphey of Meditch Murphey Architects designed, developed and sold 6201 WEST HALBER ROAD in the Bannock Burn neighborhood of Bethesda for $1,795,000 with the help of Michael Kiefer and Fritz Hubig of Green DC Realty. The house is classified as a “net zero” home because on an annual average basis it produces as much energy as it consumes (read: zero-dollar energy bills). Nash Construction included all the typical luxury amenities you might expect as well as such “green” features as geothermal heating system with energy recover, solar electric and hot water systems, rain barrels, low-flow toilets (yes, there are high end plumbing fixtures that meet this criteria), and a green roof. Interior finishes include many recycled, reclaimed, and sustainably-harvested local materials. The buyer, Ann Luskey, an interior designer and noted environmentalist, serves as a trustee of the City Kids to Wilderness Project and the Whaleman Foundation. The house will be submitted for LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of “green” from the U.S. Green Building Council

INCREDIBLY GREEN: Bethesda Bungalows, a custom builder specializing in energy efficient Arts & Crafts and Prairie-style houses, recently completed 5133 FAIRGLEN LANE in Chevy Chase. The five bedroom, five and a half bath property known as “The Incredibly Green Home” is listed for $1,895,000 and showcases the latest green technologies and building methods. It combines the aesthetics of both Frank Lloyd Wright and Asian design to achieve a Zen-like effect. The Christian Gladu-designed house boasts a unique mix of luxury amenities, and also features like Enviroshake recycled composite roof shingles, Forest Stewardship Council-certified Brazilian cherry floors, Teragren bamboo builtins, and Icestone recycled glass counter tops.

ECO-GORGOUS: 1310 CALDER ROAD, the first carbon neutral dwelling in downtown McLean and one of the most environmentally friendly structures in the country, was recently delivered by GreenSpur Inc and West*Group. Currently listed at $2,395,000, it was built as the first carbonneutral designer show house on the East Coast, and is a fundraising project headed up by CharityWorks. Barry Dixon did the interior design on the 4,200-square foot Craftsman-style house, which features such luxurious green amenities as a salt water lap pool, a passive copper wine cellar, three ethanol fires places, and a LED high definition golf simulator theater.

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A slow morning here at Bethesda Bungalows with all the rain and the wind, so I thought we'd go a bit off topic and talk football and disc golf.

First off, big congrats to the Saints and Colts for getting into the Super Bowl. Tough to think of all my tortured Norwegian relatives in the Twin Cities area, with Favre throwing that interception at the end of regulation - uff da!

I watched the games up at Mark Razmik's house in Damascus, MD. Mark is one of our site-supervisors, a big sports lover and all around good guy. He just finished his basement bar area, and had half the town over for pulled pork sandwiches and lots of cold drinks. Thanks dude!

On Saturday, I went up to the Druid Hill Charity "Ice Bowl" Disc Golf Tournament up in Baltimore. I was joined by about 60 other disc golfers including Chad Collins (aka Heap Big Injun), who works with our renovation crew here at Bethesda Bungalows. In addition to being quite skilled in all kinds of construction, Chad can throw the living snot out of a disc.

The tourney was in a "triples" format, and I got teamed up with Paul, the Tourney Director, and another regular at Druid, Jon Hawes. It really helped to have guys so familiar with the course on my team. And it helped that I had my new glasses on - its amazing what you can do when you can see.

Anyway we finished just out of the money, due to a couple of missed short putts. I felt I had a darn good round, so Chad and I stuck around for another impromptu competitive round of "Best Disc". Let's just say Chad and I were ON FIRE and finished 8 under par. Oh yeah, disc golf is good.

We ended up raising a bunch of money for the local Food Bank, as did other Ice Bowls across the country. Thanks for putting it together, Paul!

And one last disc golf note, my friends Brian Cooke and Joel Provencher have renamed their company "Disc Outfitters", concentrating on more disc golf related merchandise.  Looking forward to some new schwag boys!

Heres a pic of the gang.

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Bethesda Bungalows is proud to announce that we have contracted to build a home in the Hawkseye development in Lewes, Delaware, bordering Cape Henlopen State Park. This will be our first home in this development, and our first project outside of the DC Metro area.

Christian Gladu has completed the design of the home, see the elevation below.

We've hired Kevin Gallagher to be our site supervisor, and he's just back from a week-long scouting trip of the project. He met with Paul Townsend, a renown local Developer and Realtor, and had in-depth discussions about the building methods that are approved for the development, local tradesmen, special challenges given the location, and lots more.

Given the location right off the Delaware coast, we've also been exploring wind power options.

On a related note, the State of Delaware has recently announced that starting in 2025, all new commercial building will need to be "net zero". It seems like a long way off, but it will be 2025 before you know it.

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Merry Christmas Everyone! Hope you had the chance to spend time with family and friends. I am fortunate to have most of my family right here in the DC area, and my older brother brought his two children down from Montreal for the weekend. We spent Christmas day at my folks house in Olney, and had a great time as usual.

My younger brother, Steve, and his wife Karen live in DC in an older building and they are in the midst of a major kitchen renovation. Their son Benjamin is now two, and like so many kids these days, he suffers from asthma. He had an attack on Christmas Eve that nearly sent him to the hospital. That got me thinking about the "healthy home" features of The Incredibly Green Home and how I wish Steve's family lived there. I truly believe that Ben would be a happier, healthier boy if that were the case.

Just to review, here's a list of the major features of the home that make it a "healthy home".

1. Central Vac with main unit in garage and vented to outdoors.
2. The only carpet is in the home theater. Allergens such as dust mites, pollen and other contaminants cannot get trapped on wood and bamboo floors.
3. Entire home has Certainteed ProRoc mold-resistant drywall
4. Super tight envelope ensures that the vast majority of air coming into home is first filtered by MERV 13 filters.
5. All finishes, sealants and adhesives are VOC compliant.
6. All engineered wood products are made with no-urea added formaldahyde.
7. Ductwork was sealed with mastic during construction. This prevents any unwanted construction debris from contaminating the system.
8. Multiple redundant systems designed to ensure that moisture is kept out of home, minimizing the chance of mold and mildew.
9. All bathrooms have humidstats, again to reduce chance of mold and mildew.
10. Programmable thermostat has humidity monitoring and control. Too much humidity leads to mold, too little leads to dry nasal passages, chapped lips, and gaps in your hardwood floor.
11. All cracks and seams caulked and sealed.  Outlet and switch boxes are caulked.
12. Sealed sump crocks with active radon control systems.
13. All combustion appliances externally vented, eliminating carbon monoxide and other toxins.
14. Garage fan connected to motion sensor, so when the vehicle pulls into the garage, exhaust is removed from home.

Finally, the home passed final inspection for the EPA Indoor AirPLUS certification on Wednesday the 23rd. Halleluliah!

So, with the soaring rates of asthma in this country, it would seem that the public would start demanding these features in their new homes. As usual, Bethesda Bungalows is leading the charge, and everyone else is going to have to catch up. Lets hope the future owner of The Incredibly Green Home values all of the extra attention to detail we have given this home. Going into the Spring '10 market, it will probably be the only home in the area with these features, and we hope that helps to sell it.

Here's to the end of the decade that is the Zeroes - bring on the Tens!

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Just in time for the blizzard that's heading our way, we are putting the roof trusses up on the Greif home at 5120 Fairglen. For this project, we've contracted with CSSI to supply a turnkey framing package using Porter Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS), and engineered trusses. Their crane showed up this morning to set the trusses, and they got the whole thing done in 2 1/2 hours. Productivity!

This is the first time Bethesda Bungalows is using SIPS, and I'm anxious to see how they perform. This will be a LEED-certified home, and we're shooting for a HERS rating of under 40. Coupled with the insulated slab and foundation, and the sprayfoam on the underside of the roof, the envelope should be extremely tight.

Now if we can get the roof sheathing on in the next 5 hours, we won't have to shovel snow off the second floor on Monday.  Go Go Go!

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