Extreme Design/Green Home

[amirm]

Some of you know Gary Reber as the publisher and editor in chief of Widescreen Review Magazine. But you may not know that he has an architectural degree and started a green building publication a couple of years ago. As the kick off project, he built this home which is a Platinum Leed Green building in addition to being designed to be fully accessible ("Universal Design"). And being in Audio/Video, it also goes all out in that department.

Here is a long but informative video on what has gone in this home which is located in Sonoma county, CA. http://vimeo.com/7184194:

[video=vimeo;7184194]http://vimeo.com/7184194[/video]

I am a small investor in the project by the way. The home is now finished and is listed for $1.6M.

What do you all think of such extreme green building? Has demand died down in CA for such homes?

 

[rblnr]

Don't have time for the vid at the moment, but will watch. As part of our renovation a few years ago, we tried to go green as much as possible by using renewable materials (bamboo, recycled flooring, etc.), high efficiency heating/cooling using some ductless split systems among other things, recycled denim insulation, etc. Unfortunately, too much tree cover to go solar, and NJ has, surprisingly, among the best state incentives to do so.

Don't know about demand in CA, but nationally, as a barometer, auto sales have swung back toward SUVs and other heavy vehicles w/declining gas prices. By and large it's a very fickle public.

 

[amirm]

I am glad you chimed in as I hear that on the east coast, the idea of green building/energy efficiency never took off anywhere close to west coast. At least this is what we hear through the builder/architects we work with in NY area.

 

[rblnr]

It was a challenge. Builders in NY/NJ aren't used to things like recycled denim and you get some bitching and moaning about installing it versus the fiberglass they're used to. The denim by Bonded Logic was only made on the west coast at our time of purchase -- shipping costs make it significantly more expensive out here than in the west. Vendors for some of the materials are probably harder to find than out west, so it takes some hunting, though more places like Green Depot (www.greendepot.com) are opening. Etcetera.

Out here, it's easier in states like Vermont which have a more outdoorsy ethos. We drive to the northern tip of Lake Champlain in VT every summer -- each year I see more solar panels, green-type structures, etc. The planet has taken it on the chin for a long time now -- I'm convinced that the change I believe is essential has to be at least as much bottom-up as top-down.

 

[kach22i]

The home is now finished and is listed for $1.6M.

Forced to sell, or was that the big idea all along?

Seems like he did better with magazines than sticking with architecture.

I just applied for a green energy job, some .org just got a two year grant. Work for two years, sounds good to me.

 

[amirm]

I think his original idea was to live in it. But with tough times in publishing, he has decided to sell it instead.

Seems to me a 4,400 square foot home in CA would cost that much to build. No?

 

[kach22i]

Yea, it's expensive out there, I think the cost of land is just half of it.

Finished the video (it is long), his green friendly bank with the construction loan may not have been able to convert it to a mortgage in time.

Troubled Bay Area banks begin to topple - November 13, 2009|By Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-11-13/business/17181401_1_bank-s-failure-fdic-east-west-bank

Three Bay Area banks are operating under FDIC cease-and-desist orders: Innovative Bank of Oakland, New Resource Bank of San Francisco and Tamalpais Bank of San Rafael.