Blog Entries

Building a Green Maryland

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:25:41 +0100

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 [...]

NGBS Emerald Certified!

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:26:28 +0100

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 [...]

Bethesda Bungalows Featured on HGTV

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:08:04 +0100

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 condolen [...]

Green Evolution Tour with the Green Building Institute

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:16:52 +0100

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 [...]

iPad and Control4

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

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 aut [...]

Progress at 4234 Everett Street

info@bethesdabungalows.com — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

This morning, Ryan Shulte and I drove over to check progress on our project at 4234 Everett Street, Kensington. Ryan has taken over most of the LEED documentation duties from me on this project as well as our custom home being built here on Fairglen.

The Everett Street home is moving along nicely. On the interior, the reclaimed oak flooring has been installed and awaits sanding. The cabinetry and doors have been delivered and are getting installed now. Except for the island, all [...]

Article in Washington Life

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

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 [...]

Monday Random Thoughts

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

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-superviso [...]

Hawkseye Development in Lewes DE

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

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 Pa [...]

The Only Healthy Home Available?

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

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, [...]

Our Toys Are Bigger Than Yours

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

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 [...]

Cash for Caulkers

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

On the way in this morning, I was listening to NPR and they had a story on the "Cash for Caulkers" (aka HomeStar) proposal that has been proposed as an economic stimulus by way of improving the energy consumption of homes.

My initial reaction is "Absolutely - bring it on!". We would love if there was a big push toward weatherization. When we go out to look at an older home that the owner is thinking of renovating, we usually marvel at the lack insulation. In fact [...]

Progress on Burning Tree

info@bethesdabungalows.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Just wanted to post an update on our project at 8507 Burning Tree Road. Framing has just been completed and ice and water guard is going on the roof as we speak. The home is designed as a faithful Greene and Greene ultimate bungalow, and should be a real show-stopper. Here's a shot from yesterday.

Incredibly Green Home Featured in Gazette

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

We had a nice write up in the Gazette this week. Click here to read it.

Capillary Break at Footer

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

At Bethesda Bungalows, we are always looking to ensure that our building methods are improving. That's why, at our latest LEED project at 5120 Fairglen Lane, we have incorporated a new idea from the mind of Dr. Joseph Lstiburek, building guru extraordinaire. We've sprayed the footer with a waterproofing liquid (E-Pro EcoBase) which forms a capilllary break that prevents water from wicking up into the foundation walls. This is especially important on a lot like this one, where we e [...]

National Outdoor Center!

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

So I got an email yesterday from Sunny Pitcher of Potomac Paddlesports, outlining details of his proposal for the National Outdoor Center, a for-profit recreation facility catering to the needs of kayakers, bikers, hikers and other users of the C&O Canal and Potomac River. After reading about the project, all I can say is "Wow - that sounds like my kind of place!!" As an avid kayak-fisherman who regularly puts in right below Angler's Inn, I know the destination would be po [...]

The Incredibly Awesome Home Theater

info@bethesdabungalows.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Green is the new Black! Today, home theaters are all the rage, and the one installed in the Incredibly Green Home would make even the newest movie theaters green with envy. This state of the art system has the capability to acurately reproduce any of your favorite Blu-Ray movies in the highest quality thanks to the JVC DLA-HD 350 projector and Stewart Filmscreen Studiotek130 screen. The system also has the ability to turn your home into a concert hall with help from the Canton Ergo sound pa [...]

EcoTimber FSC Flooring

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Even though The Incredibly Green Home is finished, it is sometimes easy to over look the small details of the house. I was reminded by guests touring the house how much of a difference the flooring makes. For this project, we selected EcoTimber brand FSC-certified Brazilian Cherry. Per LEED requirements, all tropical hardwoods must be FSC-certified.

Also known as Jatoba, the floor is open-grained like oak, but is more than twice as hard. This allows the floors to stand up to more wa [...]

Trumpets Blaring

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Cue the marching band, The Incredibly Green Home is finished! And wow, is it stunning. Words do not do it justice.

Stop on by for a FREE tour any day of the week, Monday thru Saturday 11 to 1, and Sundays 1 to 4pm.

The home is being listed by Marc Fleisher of Long and Foster, with help from Jill Schwartz, their Green Ambassador.

Realtime Solar System Output

brad@bethesdabungalows.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:33:26 +0100

Now that the solar system has been activated, we've got a cool way to track it's performance online. I've set up a Public View so that you too can see whats going on.

Go to www.datareadings.com

User Name: public@bethesdabungalows.com

Password: bungalows

Check it out! The first [...]