Pre-construction

For all of you who are going to do a build or remodel, the first step is finding an architect. I actually found ours through the AIA website http://www.aia.org/architect_finder/ which has a search engine where you can specify certain criteria. I was amazed that in the city the size of San Diego there were only a handful.....well, less than a handful of architects that did residential work that were LEED certified. Because this is a new field, I also found that there weren't a lot of seasoned professionals who had the experience as well as the knowledge of green materials. We were lucky and hired one that worked out well. Which is important because it has been my experience that architects are the experts on green materials and not contractors.....probably because contractors are admittedly slower to change with the times.

I decided that the best way for us to move forward (and quickly) was to educate myself about green materials. And so I did. And I am. This is an on-going process. The best way for me to learn about all the different products out there was to see them up close. I found out that several cities have what I would call "Green Depots" where they are mini-showrooms with sustainable goods from roofing options down to bed linens and everything in between. Staff at these places are always helpful and passionate about what they do. They have samples to take, price information, referrals and lots of advice. Of course, there isn't one in my city...that would be too easy. Thank God for the Internet. I do most of my research via my laptop and have found this site to be one of the best as far as materials go. http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/

I have been to a few showrooms--Living Green in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and Originate in Tucson. If you have one near you I urge you to go and visit. You will be surprised at how much stuff is out there as well as how much you like it!

One of my rants, though, is that because eco products are so new, there is not a lot of information on how well the products do over time. For example, we are going with a recycled paper countertop surface called Paperstone, but will this surface look good in 10 years? No one I have talked to has had it installed for that long...a few years at best. I guess when you want to be a pioneer, you take a certain risk. Well, so be it. Paperstone it is. Check it out! http://www.paperstoneproducts.com/

I'll have more on the materials we have chosen for our project on a later post. I wanted to move into the idea of deconstruction (reversing the order of the building process in order to maintain the integrity of the pieces) versus demolition (get it out by any means necessary). Unfortunately for us, we ended up with more of a demolition route rather than a deconstruction route, but I have learned a lot along the way.

Apparently there are deconstruction companies out there that will recycle or salvage EVERYTHING that you are getting rid of--metals, wood, windows, hardware...everything. My brother just did this in Arizona and I know that the tax savings almost makes the cost of it a near wash. So, look into it.

The best I could do was salvage some items that we were not using and find them new homes. I did this for our old water heater, refrigerator, cabinetry, washer/dryer, stovetop, several windows, fixtures, built in mixer (very retro), stove, and our palm tree. A friend dug that up and it is now sitting very pretty in front of their house. Another great source for donating materials is Habitat for Humanity ReStore. http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore.aspx They are located all around the US. You can also shop there! (Some of them do deconstruction as well.) Craigslist was another valuable asset as I was trying to get rid of items. People will take just about anything and reuse it. Here is another link to look into for the reuse of some of your debris. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/RCP/Construction.asp

Think about reusing some of the things in your existing house in your new design. We are going to reuse flooring, garage doors, cement pieces from the driveway (for pavers), and older windows (we'll put those in the garage). We also decided to try and keep our footprint relatively the same and not create a McMansion that we really didn't need. I didn't even want build a new garage, but I lost that battle with my husband :) And that is part of the process too. Obviously not all of our choices are green. We just aren't ready for that yet.

Some may argue that our green remodel is more of a "sea foam" color--a little light around the edges. My argument back is that we are doing what works for us and we will continue to challenge ourselves. Bottom line to me is that anything you can do to help save the planet is better than nothing. In this phase, you just have to be creative as you are gearing up for the start of construction. All your existing stuff has to go somewhere....let's try to keep it out of our landfill.