Refrigerator box

Our contractor said our house looked like a refrigerator box. I can see where he is coming from. I mentioned that we had considered the container house (here's one someone built in Canada) so this wasn't a far stretch. We placed high operable windows along the bathrooms and kitchen because we are hoping the breeze coming through the glass doors openings along the waterfront will help circulate the hot air through the house and up out of those windows.

Some doll house views

The BHG software I've been playing with offers furnishing options to place in the rooms. You can control the measurement exactly of your furniture and make sure everything fits. I've done a few rooms specifically but we don't have a lot of stuff and if we do we'll donate it. One of the things we want to accomplish overall, is to clean house and live with less. I know the bedrooms seems tight but they do open up to the outdoor space as well. We had a revelation that we never spend anytime in our bedrooms except to sleep and change our clothes. So we devoted more sq footage to the areas where we spend most of our time.

A secure roof

The NY Times, offers some info on how to reduce insurance premiums.

"FLORIDA

Vacation homeowners qualify for discounts if they add hurricane protections to their homes, said Teri Johnston, the president of Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe, a consumer advocacy group based in the Florida Keys.

Hurricane shutters and improvements that help strengthen roofs are on the checklist of “hurricane mitigation additions,” or improvements that can shore up a home and trim insurance costs. By taking those measures, Ms. Johnston said, “you can lower premiums by 45 percent” off the highest rates."

They also provide a website, The Institute for Business and Home Safety www.ibhs.org which offers some guidance as to how you can protect your home from all sorts of natural disasters in general. Since our house will be built to the updated building codes and we'll have impact glass a lot of this is already covered for us. We'll be raised and reinforced although nothing is ever hurricane proof of course.

Important to point out about the roof is that it will slope. It will be 8ft high along the kitchen and bathroom side and it will be 10ft where it ends on the other side at the end of the lanai. This should further help the indoor/outdoor feeling as one large space.

Second Floor Plans

These are the second floor plans. One is more accurate but not as clear and one I did on my BHG design software. The second floor is the living area which is made up of indoor and outdoor space that will connected with sliding glass panel doors. When the doors are pushed back the indoor and outdoor rooms will feel like one big open space. Although the house under AC is only 2000 sq ft, the lanai basically extends those inner rooms out another 12ft. The storage space on the side is the future guest room. We weren't really sure how we wanted to do that space and so we'll save a few bucks in the beginning and finish it once we see how it would best with the rest of the house.

Ground Floor Plan

Since we were forced to raise the house because of flood elevations, the first floor plan is mainly going to be open spaces that will be used for cars and storage. The flood elevation on the ground is 6ft above sea level. 12ft are required so the house really only needed to be raised 6ft. The thought of course is once the house is raised to raise it enough to make the ground level space usable.

To set an example- Crist's mansion pool goes solar

ASSOCIATED PRESS / PHIL COALE

With the news floating around about Crist's FL energy initiative, here's a local story about his attempt to practice the lessons as he is trying to preach them to the state. We know he can afford to do it but can he help the rest of the state afford it?

Mainstreaming solar = cost

"After encouraging 346 research groups last year to seek grants for surmounting hurdles to harnessing solar power, the Energy Department this year ended up awarding $22.7 million over three years to 27 projects — hardly the stuff of an energy revolution, several scientists said." From the NY Times article, the graph above comes from the Energy Information Administration.
Solar Power Wins Enthusiasts but Not Money - NY Times

After Green Trends

I was very excited to attend Green Trends which had about 35 booths within the larger 2500 booth show that was the Southeast Building Conference. Their list of exhibitors was small but still representative. The usual suspects were in attendance: James Hardie Products, Homefront Homes, along with tankless water heaters, spray foams and quite a few solar companies as well. I've known or read about many of the companies except the solar ones. I learned a bit more about the tankless system which we will be using in our house and went around some of the other booths out of curiosity. Since I have most of my materials already selected, some green, some not depending on budget and availability, I came away with more of an overview of the state of the building industry at least as comprised in this show. To have some "green" products in one section and the rest of the mainstream "non-green" products making up the entire rest of the show... all I found myself wanting to do was walk up to all the mainstream booths and ask them if they were ready for the big change that is coming to home building. I equate this whole green building movement as far as material and product marketing to that of the coffee industry when specialty coffee first hit the scene. When it started everyone complained about the cost but as it infiltrated mainstream society, people started to be unable to drink crap coffee. So specialty coffee not only made Starbucks a fortune but has now come full circle to McDonalds. Coffee then got a conscience in fair-trade, organic practices... home buyers, builders etc are not only asking themselves what looks good and what is well made but also, how was it made and what was it made with... it's human nature to want to make your most educated decision. So many more analogies out there so little time.

Green Trends 2007

So we are off to the Florida Green Building Coalition's Green Trends Conference in Orlando this weekend. We are just going to attend the exhibit hall which is free to the public. I did actually join the FGBC. It was only $50 and does offer some great resources. I hope to get some hands on ideas about what's available and what's going on that's really green and that's really greenwash.