We ran into the problem of an appraiser (or two) who did not understand how to appraise green homes (see this link).  There was absolutely no premium added for any green features, regardless of how much money the features would save us or any future homeowner.  I suppose the appraisers are a trailing indicator of what potential homeowners value rather than a leading indicator.  As more new green homes appear, and home sales pick up again maybe we’ll see appraisers start to recognize that homeowners are willing to spend more green on Green.

I’ve posted a couple of times about our now 10-month ordeal with the City pertaining to our attempt to use our harvested rainwater in our washing machine.  I finally (and I emphasize “finally”) got a helpful response back from the City.  Attached is the City’s Position Statement  pertaining to rainwater usage as it applies to my question.  It came from Mark Daniel, the acting Chief Plumbing Inspector. 

My follow-up question to Mr. Daniel was whether the RPZ valve shown above (which we had installed months ago and then had uninstalled at the City’s insistence) qualifies under the new Position Statement.  I’ll let you know what his response is when I get it.

Something near and dear to my heart:  traveling in an eco-friendly manner.  I travel a lot for work, and I often worry about the environmental effects of all of those airline miles.  Here is a set of simple tricks to travel a little more eco-friendly.  All of the suggestions are very doable.

I found a great link to 15 eco-friendly New Years Resolutions.  See it here.

I might add a 16th after watching Julia Louis-Dreyfus on talk about the graduation address she gave at Northwestern University a while back.  She gave three pieces of advice, the last being, “don’t be an ass.”  Not exactly eco-friendly, but still very good advice.

We spent the last two years immersed in this project.  It’s been full of hard work, education, frustration, and fascination.  However, I’m happy to announce that yesterday afternoon we were notified that our home has been awarded the LEED for Homes Platinum Certification!

I want to thank the following folks:

• Robert Diago – my partner and co-homeowner
• Kelly Mitchell – our Architect
• Garry Walling – our Designer
• Sean Garman – our Green Consultant (and primary cheerleader)
• Jim Martinez – our Landscape Professional
• Andrea Fair – our primary contact at our Home Provider, GWS
• Ross Boorhem – our Contractor

And I’d like to thank our friends and co-workers who tolerated hours of me telling them about SEER ratings, HERS ratings, VOCs, U-factors, flow rates, permiability……….

During the Home Tour we received a couple of questions about the knife block in kitchen and the teak stool and shower mat in the master bath.  I couldn’t remember the catalogue I found them in at the time, but did dig up the information.  They both came from a company called Viva Terra.  Enjoy!

Our architect, Kelly Mitchell, and her husband, Sean Garman, have a couple of very exciting things going on these days (that’s the happy couple in the photo).  A couple of months ago Sean received his Architect credentials to match Kelly’s, and then a couple of weeks ago Kelly received her LEED Accredited Professional credentials to match Sean’s. 

The icing on the cake was having Kelly’s design (our home) chosen for the 2009 Dallas AIA Tour of Homes.  And almost simultaneously with the Tour of Homes Kelly and Sean released a newly designed website that showcases their work.  Visit it here.

Congratulations Kelly and Sean!

We are claiming points in the low flow categories of LEED for Homes (WE3).  I’ve posted before about our dual flush/low flow toilets, but we also claimed points for our low flow faucets.  We chose the style that is shown here, however these faucets are rated at, I believe, 1.8ish gallons per minute. 

That’s not low enough to get the “very high efficiency” rating, so we worked with our Kohler rep and found aerators that got us down to 1.5 gpm.  1.5 gpm got us the two points for very high efficiency.

See this article from the Mansfield News Journal about a utility company who, in an effort to reduce energy consumption to comply with an Ohio law, crafted a plan to deliver two compact fluorescent lamps to each customer.  The CFLs cost roughly $3.50 each, but the utility was going to charge the customer $21 for the pair.

While I’m sure lots of folks are supportive of using CFLs, the move didn’t sit well with customers.  But that’s hardly a surprise!

Click here to see a newspaper article about the house.

I have a couple of things to say about the article:

• I’ve expressed my disappointment to the author of the article that the focus of the first half ended up being on the lack of available regulations for the use of rainwater in our washing machine.
• The Dallas Chief Plumbing Inspector has been extremely cooperative and attentive to the discussion, and has informed us that sometime in August or September regulations will be created that will address our situation.
• The lack of interior use of rainwater should not put our Platinum rating at risk.

Having said all that, there are some very good points in the article.  And it otherwise sheds a positive, informative light on our project.  On a side note, the print version has a great photo of the home’s living/kitchen space.