Open House Guide and Green Building Information

$445,000. 106 Parkwoods Ct, Healdsburg, 3Bdrm, 2 Bth,             Wine Country Group

$549,000. 578 Hillside Dr, Cloverdale, 3Bdrm, 2 Bth,                   Wine Country Group

$515,000. 586 Hillside Dr, Cloverdale, 3Bdrm, 2.5Bth.                 Wine Country Group

$699,500. 898 Limerick Ln, Healdsburg, 2 homes, 3/1 +1/1, Coldwell Banker

$899,000. 1516 Mt Weske, Windsor,
3Bdrm, 2.5Bth, Bradley Real Estate

$699,000. 14707 Grove Street,
Healdsburg, 4Bdrm, 2Bth, Wine Country Group

$820,000. 514 Sunnyvale Dr,
Healdsburg, 4Bdrm, 2Bth, Wine Country Group

$859,000. 1282 Chiquita Rd, Healdsburg, 3Bdrm, 2.5Bth, Century 21 Healdsburg

Green Building Comes In Many Shades of Green

On Thursday, Sept. 15 there was a “Green Building Seminar” at in Healdsburg. Hudson Street is the designer’s showroom for right here in Healdsburg.

Among the guest speakers for the night was David Leff, 30-year president and owner of Leff Construction of Sebastopol.

Pete Gang, architect and owner of Common Sense Design also spoke to the group.

Gang also founded the “Green Building” program at Sonoma State College in Rohnert Park. In fact that is where these two gentlemen partnered many years ago.

The seminar was titled, "Secrets of a Successful Remodel."

“Going green does not mean that you have to go
expensive,” Leff said in starting the session.

His philosophy of green building actually had much less to do with the sustainable materials than with the process of building in the green way itself.

Leff did not even say the words bamboo, LED or compact fluorescent during his thirty minute speech.

Leff instead compared the traditional approach of remodeling against the newer green way.

The Traditional Approach

In the traditional approach, the homeowner meets with an architect and the vision of the finished project is given to the architect. The architect draws up plans based on this vision and passes this to the structural engineer.

He applies the correct standards to the project. For example, if you are going to expand a doorway, he would make sure that the correct materials are used to for that new span.

The plans are then completed and reviewed by the client to
make sure they look right. The project is then sent out to bid to a pool of contractors.

Here is where the wheels come off of the project.  There are now competing bidders to get the job done. Which bid would you go with?

Clearly, the low bid if you have all good contractors bidding the job or maybe the middle bid. In this process, the client
has sat on the sidelines and not been part of this process as much as needed.

The outcome is that many details have not been exposed in the process and those details will be discovered during the
build --and hence cost over runs. This is known in the trades as “scope creep”.

It is a never ending increase of costs during the build process. We have all heard of projects running over budget right?

The Green Approach

Secret #1. Collaboration. Put your team together. Your architect and contractor need to work together from the beginning with you, not only to get a vision, but to figure out what materials to use.

They have to commit to working in unison with you to take your two dimensional idea to a 3-D reality. That means all egos are left at the door.

Secret #2. Design to the budget. In the collaborative approach you design to the budget. You get a preliminary price at the beginning with the materials you want not the materials that were chosen to get you a good price.

Your team will work together to make any changes needed in the field instantly. In the old approach, there was a disconnect so all the changes were done in snail mail with a slow approval process.

Secret #3. This may sound redundant, but it is to choose all of the materials in advance. That means everything.

In the traditional approach ,you can add on as you go and that always drives the price up. In the green approach, you know what you are going to spend and those add ons can be those that are green products.

So you see that because the costs are more tightly controlled you have more money in the budget to allot to those sustainable products and energy
efficient items.

Secret #4. Things will go wrong, so embrace them. You already
know that everything has been done to identify surprises so they will be less painful.

The key to a successful project is to keep a positive attitude as the homeowner. These artisans that are doing the construction are highly trained caring builders that take pride in their work. Encourage that by being a team player from the beginning. You hired pros now let them do their magic.

“In the green approach it is more like you are performing a musical production” says Leff. You write the production out and commit to it.

You have rehearsal after rehearsal with all of the people involved together to work out the bugs. Then when it is time for the production it is bound to run more smoothly.

Author's Note: For those of you who follow my writing, you are aware that I have a theory that not only are we in an economic crisis but that we are in a world of change.

By that I mean that we are leaving the industrial age and going in to the information age. When there is a major shift like this it has to have a shake out.

I equate this change to be much like we are seeing in the building industry: Going green does not necessarily mean going expensive.